Market Integration in European Higher Education

Reflecting About Drivers and Barriers

In recent decades there has been a trend towards greater integration in European higher education. This has been driven by several policy initiatives, but also by an increasing influence of marketization forces. The latter have been moulding European higher education, affecting its identity and changing the political expectations regarding its societal roles. In this text we reflect about these developments by focusing in the emergence of a more integrated higher education area increasingly. In particular, we reflect about several major drivers and barriers towards greater integration in the European higher education area, underlining that this is a complex process whose direction should not be taken for granted.