2010 – 2012

The project explores how internationalisation affects modern, post-elite higher education systems in Europe, and in particular how it affects the relationships between differentiation, social equity, and performance of graduates in the world of work.

The main aims of the project are threefold:

• to analyse policy impact and policy implementation of contemporary European-level and global developments in relation to convergence and diversity in higher education;
• to examine the effects of these contemporary European-level and global developments on forms of differentiation, on the notion of social equity and on inter phase between higher education and the contemporary world of work in national higher education systems;
• to develop an understanding of the social and economic consequences of expanded and differentiated higher education systems both in the case of the Slovenian higher education system and more widely in the region of SEE.

Originally, the project has been developed within a consortium of researchers from EU countries as a part of a Collaborative Research Proposal for the European Science Foundation EUROCORES Programme. The proposal was assessed positively and recommended for funding. However, due to financial constraints the critical mass of participating countries was not reached and the project is now implemented on national bases only (funded by the Slovenian Research Agency ARRS, 2010 – 2012), and is accordingly adjusted.

Research team: Pavel Zgaga (principal investigator), Manja Klemenčič, Janja Komljenovič, Klemen Miklavič, Igor Repac, Janez Vogrinc.

Project products:

The Globalisation Challenge for European Higher Education (P.Lang, 2013)

Higher Education in the Western Balkans (CEPS, 2013)