ABSTRACT
Much has been achieved by the Bologna Process since its inception in 1999, but the context in which higher education operates across Europe and the world has also changed fundamentally. This chapter focuses on the origins of the Process, its growth and development in the European Union and beyond, and some social, political, economic, demographic, and academic forces that continue to shape its progress as a major reform movement for domestic education in Europe as well as a model for global education reform. The reform initiative known as the Bologna Process was conceived to revolutionize higher education in Europe. Institutions of higher learning were founded much earlier in locations such as East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and within the Islamic culture in places like Persia, Cairo, and Baghdad. Student mobility, both inbound to and outbound from countries, has been a phenomenon of the 21st century. The one of the force related to the scope of global academic change is marketization.
