Idea of a University and its Autonomy in the European Higher Education Area

The contemporary economic arrangement of ‘knowledge based economy’ is changing the perception of higher education in Europe. The article presents the results of the critical discourse analysis of 38 international policy documents at the European level and 6 interviews with representatives of European policy makers. It especially focuses on the role of a university and its autonomy. Based on the analysis, the article suggests that two main discourses are present: a) “university as an instrument of knowledge based economy”, and b) “traditional roles of university”. The findings show that the roles of universities as serving knowledge based economy became predominant. In addition, university autonomy became an instrumentalised managerial concept