Higher education reforms in the Western Balkans – The discursive meaning of the university and its autonomy

The contemporary social and political arrangement of the ‘knowledge based economy’ is changing the perception of higher education in Europe. This working paper presents a summary of the results of a discourse analysis of 38 international policy documents at the European level, especially focusing on the role of the university and its autonomy. Based on the analysis, two main discourses are suggested: a) “the university as an instrument of the knowledge-based economy”; and b) “the traditional roles of the university”. The main part of this working paper presents the initial findings of research into higher education reforms in the countries of the Western Balkans, namely to show to what extent the international discourses are present in the mentioned region. As the research is far from finished and the results have not yet been verified and tested, proper conclusions cannot be drawn. Nevertheless, this paper presents the trends based on the initial research results