The higher education policy of the European union: - with or against the menber states?

This chapter will describe and try to understand the development of the higher education policy of the European Union from the perspective of national sovereignty versus Europeanisation. The focus will be on polities and programmes that specifically regard the educational function of higher education institutions (student Inobility, language proficiency, international co-operation) or only partly bear upon this educational function (higher education — industry co-operation, R&D programmes ...). This chapter comprises three parts, each corresponding to a particular phase in the development of EU higher education policy, and each providing an overview of the EU education programmes of the period under attention. The first phase began with the first meeting of the Ministers of Education of the EGcountries in 1971. After subsequent meetings, a framework agreement was reached on an Action Programme in the field of education (1976). Established and executed in what has been termed the `dark ages' of European integration (Keohane and Hoffman, 1991), the programme was scarcely more than a symbolic starting point for higher education co-operation in Europe. The second phase in the EU higher education policy (1983-1992) was in itiated by both legal (lawsuits before the European Court of Justice) and political developments (the Solemn Declaration on European Union, the Single European Act). These pointed to a (gradual and contested) shift in interpretation vis-à-vis the authority of the European Community in the field of education, making possible incentive-driven action programmes at community-level (COMETT, ERASMUS). The Treaty on European Union (1992), also known as Treaty of Maastricht, marks the beginning of the third period. The acquis communautaire in the field of (higher) education, i.e. the whole of acquired rights and obligations, was formally confirmed, leading to a rationalisation, reorganisation, and elaboration of the community action programmes. At the same time, however, the authority of the EU in relationship with the member states was limited and strictly defined.status: publishe