COM(91) 349 final and the Peripheries of European Higher Education Voldemar Tomusk Open Society Institute – Budapest For a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes a place to live. Theodor Adorno, Minima Moralia 1. REDEMPTIVE IRONY OF STRATEGIES AND PROCESSES It is unfortunate to a degree that as soon as we begin discussing our human condition in the third millennium since mankind was offered its salvation, and the state of our institutions that structure and guide our existence as social beings in order not to act as beasts or mere social animals, we cannot avoid the word ‘ironic’. For the people of intellectual calling who cannot but try to make sense of what is happening around, in and with us beyond digestion in the broad sense of the term, that is beyond the consuming the resources of the earth, ironic is the word without which nothing can be said any longer. ‘Deliver Us from Irony’ is the title of a recent paper by a young historian discussing the last great post-modern historian Hayden White in his approach of employing epistemological irony against moral irony (Paul 2004). The degree to which our existence has become ironic is truly tragic, though it could be worse. Human existence has become ironic so much that one can but weep. However, there are other ways to explain the situation.
Since 1999 European higher education has been engaged in the most radical reform seen during its 900 years of history. Out of the widely diverse national higher education systems and sub-systems a common European Higher Education Area is being created. This process, driven by the great ideas of establishing federal Europe, is full of tensions and conflicts often ignored in the official discourse. Expanding the project well beyond the borders of the European Union created the difficulty that relatively prosperous and high quality universities in the Western part find themselves side-by-side with much poorer universities of sometimes questionable quality in other parts of the continent. This has led to the rise of many controversial issues, as some of the sponsors of the Process, particularly the European Commission, see international competitiveness of European universities as its most significant goal. The Process is being perceived as following the logic of re-design of European knowledge products for the purposes of the world markets and certain elements of the production process. University communities - academic staff and students - however, sometimes feel that such an approach may not only carry the threat of compromising their vital interests but also call for the revision of the principles of academic autonomy as understood in Europe since the early 19th century.
This volume brings together a group of higher education researchers across Europe and looks into the implementation of the Bologna Process in the countries often attributed a peripheral status. Although it is also obvious that if the Process has a center, it stands external to higher education systems and universities it concerns. One can possibly find it either in Brussels or across the Atlantic in the United States, internationally perceived as the main competitor to European higher education. In addition to cultural and political issues the European higher education project faces in various countries, the volume pays particular attention to the role of students as well as the changing position of the intellectuals under its impact.
'This is an important book on a central topic at an important time. It is learned in the best sense, eminently readable and that across many different levels. It is also caustic, deeply ironic and passionate and because passionate, unswervingly provocative.'
Professor Guy Neave, Professor of Comparative Higher Education Policy Studies at CHEPS, Universiteit Twente, Netherlands and Director of Research at the International Association of Universities, Paris, France.
