Bologna Process And European Identity Construction

Europe is experiencing a process of higher education integration unprecedented in history. The ERASMUS program initiated since1987has supported nearly2million students’mobility across European countries. And the number of mobile students is still increasing. In1999, Ministers of29countries signed the Bologna Declaration and promised to build up a European Higher Education Area(EHEA) by2010. In2003, the Berlin Communique reaffirms "the mobility of students, faculty and administrators is the foundation of EHEA"(Bi Jiaju,2004). Although the Bologna Process started from ten years was not the notion of EU, most notions and actions of the Bologna Process overlapped with the EU’s notions and actions. What’s more, EU has been fully involved into the initiation and operation of the Bologna Process and has provided a lot of financial support to the development of the Process. To a great extent, Bologna Process represents EU’s mentality and direction in higher education reform. Therefore, the research in the Bologna Process will contribute a lot to the research in EU’s education reform process.The purpose of building European identity is to reduce the "democracy and legitimacy deficit" between EU and it’s member states and society (Walkenhorst,2009). The integration in HE education is considered an indispensible factor and condition for the construction of the European identity and European citizenship. EU has been promoting the HE integration and student mobility as a strategic plan to construct and strengthen the European identity. It is worthy to study whether the implementation of the strategic plan has met the strategic goals. The basic hypothesis of the EU policy and strategy designers is: student mobility within Europe will strengthen the European identity and thereby deepen the integration of Europe. The aim of this article is to test the hypothesis by analyzing the initiation, implementation and impacts of the Bologna Process. By testing the relevance of the two variables, it aims to find some policy implications.The analysis will mainly be based on the constructivism theory, with transactionalism(communication and incrementalism)and neo-functionalism as complimentary theories. It will focus on the student mobility perspective to test the impacts of the Bologna Process on European identity.The analysis will be focused on two aspects. One is to study the construction of European identity by EU from historical perspective, aiming to make clear the development and construction route of European identity. The other is to study the history of educational cooperation among European countries, history of EU higher education integration, and the development history of educational cooperation systems and institutions, with special focus on the establishment and development of student mobility system. The article will pay special attention to the relevance between student mobility and European identity. It will make analysis through two aspects:the implementation of the policies and the impacts of the implementation of the policies. Besides the statistical analysis, case studies will also be carried out to test the relevance of the two variables.The following conclusions have been reached from the analysis of Bologna Process and EU HE integration:First, the EU integration shows the tendency of from economic and political integration to social integration:i.e. from the Coal and Steel Community in1950s to European Community in1960s, and then to Single Europe Market in1980s and to the Common Security and Foreign Policy in1990s and the current European citizenship construction. The foundation for the political integration is the legitimacy for of EU. The deepening of the political integration requires that the nation states transfer more sovereignty. This requires the people’s agreement on the transfer and acceptance of European identity. Second, the Bologna Process is a process of active construction of European identity. EU tries to establish an integrated HE system through multi-dimensional policies, declarations, treaties, etc. The aim is to increase the "European dimension" and construct the "shared knowledge" about Europe and thereby promote the European identity of the public. Third, Bologna Process has promoted the understanding of Europe by the people of European countries and, to some extent, it has strengthened the European identity by the people. However, the progress of people’s identity caused by the process is not significant according to the analysis based on the data of Eurobarometer. Plural identity including the national and European identity is being accepted by the majority of the public. But most people who accept plural identity take national identity first and European identity second. Fourth, considering the limitedness of Bologna internal mobility in promoting the European identity, EU needs to strengthen the exchange with the external world to reinforce its identity.Identity formation is long evolution process with various factors playing different role. Moreover, the identity being intentionally constructed by EU is to be tested by history and time. The establishment of European identity needs dimensional analysis from economy, history, culture, nationality, etc. Education is just one of the perspectives. More exact conclusion needs to be made through further research.