ABSTRACT
Policy dynamics in higher education are strongly related to policy dynamics in other knowledge-related domains, such as research and innovation. Ideas about stronger higher education coordination can be traced back to the early days of the European Coal and Steel Community. European policy coordination in higher education is a combination of supra-national, intergovernmental, and through the involvement of European stakeholder organizations, transnational forces. The co-existence of European Union (EU) initiatives and the pan-European Bologna Process results in a complex interaction of multi-level, multi-actor, multi-issue arrangements taking place in several policy arenas, where none of the actors can control the process. The decisions of the European Court of Justice in several cases, such as the Gravier decision in 1985, extended the application of EU's regulation to some aspects of higher education, including recognition of qualifications and non-discriminatory provision of higher education in an EU country to citizens of other EU countries.
