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Pushing Boundaries: The European Universities Initiative as a Case of Transnational Institution Building

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Abstract

The European Universities Initiative (EUI), created by the European Commission in 2017, is a recent novel phenomenon within the European Union policy toolkit that explicitly targets the development of transnational cooperation in higher education (HE). To date, the EUI counts 44 European university alliances, involving around 340 HE institutions. In this paper, we argue that the EUI can be seen as a case of a transnational institution building process representing a potentially significant structural reform for European higher education. Anchored in new institutionalism, we explore the regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive dimensions of the EUI. Methodologically, this study analyzes the perspectives of European policy actors (n = 4), a set of policy documents (n = 13) and the mission statements of the EUI’s partnerships funded before 2022 (n = 41). The results show that the EUI emerges as the ‘next level of cooperation’ in European HE since it aims to transform European cooperation (regulative dimension), to create and diffuse a new model for European HE following a challenge-based approach (normative dimension), and to work as a way to reinforce and institutionalize European and global scripts for European HE (cultural-cognitive dimension).

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Notes

  1. This term was used by a European Commission’s policymaker during the exploratory interviews with EC policy officers conducted for the elaboration of this paper (see results section).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

    Marcelo Marques

  2. Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training, Zollikofen, Switzerland

    Lukas Graf

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  1. Marcelo Marques
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  2. Lukas Graf
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Correspondence to Marcelo Marques.

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Appendices

Appendix 1 – List of analyzed documents, by year

European Council. 2017. European Council Meeting. Conclusions. EUCO 19/1/17. Brussels: European Council.

Council of the European Union. 2018. Council conclusions on moving towards a vision of a European Education Area. 2018/C 195/04. Official Journal of the European Union.

European Council. European Council Meeting. Conclusions. EUCO 9/18. Brussels: European Council.

Council of the European Union. 2019. Council Resolution on further developing the European Education Area to support future-oriented education and training systems. 2019/C 389/01. Official Journal of the European Union.

European Commission. 2019. Erasmus+. Programme Guide. Brussels: European Commission.

Council of the European Union. 2020. Council conclusions on the New European Research Area. 13567/20. Brussels: Council of the European Union.

European Higher Education Area. 2020. Rome Ministerial Communiqué. 19 November 2020.

European Commission. 2020. European Skills Agenda for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience. Brussels: European Commission.

Council of the European Union. 2021. Council Resolution on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training towards the European Education Area and beyond (2021–2030). Official Journal of the European Union.

Council of the European Union. 2021. Council conclusions on the European Universities Initiative – Bridging higher education, research, innovation and society: Paving the way for a new dimension in European higher education. 8658/21. Brussels: Council of the European Union.

Council of the European Union. 2021. Deepening the European Research Area: Providing researchers with attractive and sustainable careers and working conditions and making brain circulation a reality. 9138/21 Brussels: Council of the European Union.

European Commission. 2022. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on a European strategy for universities. COM(2022) 16. Brussels: European Commission.

European Commission. 2022. Council Recommendation on building bridges for effective European higher education cooperation. COM(2022) 17. Brussels: European Commission.

Appendix 2 – List of the first 41 funded European Universities Initiative partnerships, by year

Table 1 Data sources
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Marques, M., Graf, L. Pushing Boundaries: The European Universities Initiative as a Case of Transnational Institution Building. Minerva 62, 93–112 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-023-09516-w

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