How Not to Defend Your Tradition of Higher Education

The paper focuses on the perception and implementation of the Bologna Process in Croatia. The author makes a distinction between the harmonization of higher education in Europe (the Bologna Process) and the attempt to introduce the Bologna Process in this country (‘Bologna’). Kurelić discusses the growing concern that ‘Bologna’ does not have much in common with the original harmonization and explains why ‘Bologna’ is a distortion of the original idea. It is often said that the Bologna Process represents a paradigm change in European higher education, the change from a number of national, continental traditions of higher education to a sort of Anglo-American model. This is the reason why Kurelić uses the concepts of “paradigm change” and “tradition” to explain why the Bologna Process has been misrepresented in Croatia. He argues that ‘Bologna’ is an example of a failed reform and an example of unwilling Europeanization