The Bologna Processes 1.0 and 2.0 and their Globalization: Implications for Universities

Abstract

This article analyzes the transformation of European universities considering the implementation of the Bologna Process (PB 1.0) and its antecedents, including the Magna Charta Universitatum and the Sorbonne Declaration, and its continuation through Bologna Process 2.0, particularly through the Horizon 2020 program. We also investigate the diffusion of this process and model in a movement known as the “Globalization of the Bologna Process”. These initiatives are reactions of European leaders who want to restore Europe’s hegemony in the leadership and attraction that its universities had, as well as a loss of command in economic, political and cultural terms, particularly in relation to innovation in science and technology. The methodology involved a document analysis, in an effort to consider the entire historic process, from the perspective that the comprehension of the facts, events, episodes and phenomenon can only be attained in their constitutive process. The analysis indicated that the different phases of the Bologna Process represent different and complementary movements of a single process. Initiatives are evident at universities that are aimed at integration, homogenization and differentiation on a regional level, but which have gradually been globalizing. The radicalization of the Bologna Process has signified the subsumption of universities to the designations of the market, questioning the concept of universitas, while clearly causing harm, particularly for education.