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Policy Goals of European Integration and Competitiveness in Academic Collaborations: An Examination of Joint Master's and Erasmus Mundus Programmes

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Abstract

This study examines policy goals pertaining to joint Master's in Europe as presented in Bologna-related and Erasmus Mundus (EM) policy texts. The profile of joint programmes has risen in the aftermath of the Bologna Process (BP), together with the launch of the EU EM. Despite a European policy tradition of cooperation in higher education (HE), degree developments were usually left outside the scope of policy declarations and did not have an explicit ‘agenda status’. If so, what makes these degree developments ‘worthy’ of political attention in recent years? The paper shows that joint Master's developments have been represented as appropriate action for furthering integration and convergence, as well as for improving competitiveness. It examines the ways in which joint Master's developments have been framed within and by these policy goals. It finally questions drivers of competitiveness and considers their deeper implications for the aims of and practice in HE.

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Notes

  1. This piece partly draws on research supported by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (EIF) at the University of Oxford. The ‘European Universities: Rationales of Tradition and Change’ (EURoTaC) was a comparative study of HEIs's collaborative initiatives in study programmes at Master's level against the background of the Bologna Process and other harmonisation trends in Europe. The project comprised extensive fieldwork in nine higher education institutions, in England, France, Norway and Spain and within a broad range of disciplines.

  2. Findings from two surveys conducted on behalf of EAU (Crosier et al., 2007) and DAAD (Maiworm, 2006) indicate the lack of comprehensive and reliable data concerning the exact number of joint degrees in Europe. On the basis of the survey including more than 900 European HEIs, Crosier et al. (2007, 30) report that ‘although a large number of programmes may have been developed, there may be few examples in many institutions, and they may still represent a very small number in comparison to the overall programme offer’. This justifies the qualification of ‘atypical’ used in this study. However, joint programmes have had a dramatic growth in recent years and are expected to increase even more. According to Knight (2008, 10), ‘virtually all regions of the world have institutions seeking out opportunities or responding to requests for international collaborative programmes’. HEIs in Europe declare their intention for setting up new or more cross-national collaborative forms of study (Crosier et al., 2007; Kuder and Obst, 2009) against the background of policy calls for their amplification (e.g., Prague Communiqué, 2001; EUA, 2004; Bucharest Communiqué, 2012).

  3. Figures from the EU EM website show a success rate of 16% for Master's courses applications in 2010 (there were 131 Master's funded in 2012), and 8% for student scholarships in 2009.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to Ian Bache, David Hyatt, Gareth Parry, Mark Pulsford, Pat Sikes, Hans de Wit and Nigel Wright for their insightful and constructive comments on earlier versions of this paper. I would also like to acknowledge the support of an EU Marie Curie fellowship on the topic of European Universities in the Area of Knowledge: Networks and Collaboration in Teaching and Research (EUKnow - FP7-People-2007-2-2 ERG).

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Papatsiba, V. Policy Goals of European Integration and Competitiveness in Academic Collaborations: An Examination of Joint Master's and Erasmus Mundus Programmes. High Educ Policy 27, 43–64 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.2013.13

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