Stemming the Eurosceptic tide : promoting European studies in UK higher education.

After a temporary surge for European Studies in higher education in the United Kingdom in the 1990s, the subject area has in recent years been affected by a substantial decline. This is the result of a wider domestic climate of Euro-scepticism, which has been largely driven by a sustained campaign against the European Union in large sections of the British tabloid media. The domestic debate on the EU in Britain concentrates mainly on the adverse effects of British membership on national sovereignty and consequently leaves little room for the detailed analysis of institutional and policy development. This has led to the widespread perception that the study of the history of the integration process and of EU institutions and procedures is a marginal subject area, which does no longer necessarily have to be part of the core curriculum in British universities. Instead the attention has shifted towards the wider international relations environment, particularly the United States and Asia. The proposed article considers this development as an opportunity to re-energise interest in European Studies in the UK and proposes to promote it on the basis of the acknowledgement that it needs to be put in the context of the changes in the wider global environment. The curriculum in the area of European Studies should therefore predominantly concentrate on the EU as an increasingly influential actor in the global economy and international relations. This calls for a new emphasis on the analysis of the development of the internal dimension of the EU-27 Single Market and its external impact as one of the most dynamic integrated economic areas in the world. The embedment of European Studies in the wider international relations context offers the best potential to increase the level of interest amongst British students in the study of internal dynamics of the EU, including the languages, cultures, histories and polities of individual member states