ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to disclose and critically discuss the multifaceted origins of the French President Emmanuel Macron’s European Universities Initiative (EUI) launched in 2017. It argues that the initiative can be grasped in a threefold way, namely, as (i) a recombination of the “Bologna process,” focused on quality and convergence of structures in higher education, and the “Lisbon Strategy,” centred on research excellence and global competitiveness; (ii) a decade-old ambition to create - if not “a European university” - a set of leading comprehensive European Universities capable of competing on a global level with their counterparts from the US ivy league and the likes; and (iii) an extension of the need for further modernisation of the European university landscape, taking into account the need both to engage broadly with a multiplicity of stakeholder groups and to address pending complex societal problems and challenges, such as climate change. In terms of the system of governance put forth by the EUI, the chapter concludes that it can be best conceived of as an “evolutionary and experimental network of university networks” with significant potential for transforming the landscape of European Universities.
