ABSTRACT
Since the fall of communism in 1989, Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) have experienced a radical change in their economic model, given their transition from planned to market economy (Delteil and Kirov, Chapter 10; Makó and Illéssy, Chapter 5). The accession to the European Union (EU) has become a priority. During this process, hardly any social sphere was left unaffected, including higher education (HE). The EU instrument for the development of a coherent and comprehensive strategy in education was defined as an Open Method of Coordination, which should draw on tools organized as “mutual learning processes” (Council of the EU, 2002). Introduced in the Lisbon strategy, this soft law way of policy was used by the EU to press CEECs to converge with EU objectives. However, although the principle of subsidiarity prevented the EU’s direct involvement in HE policy of different countries,2 the real processes of transformation of HE systems in CEECs have been developed, not only based on learning, dissemination and harmonization, but also through imposition3 (Dale, 1999; Tomusk, 2004; Boyadjieva, 2007).
