Includes bibliographical references.

Front Matter -- Copyright page -- Foreword / Rosalind M. O. Pritchard -- Figures and Tables -- Notes on Contributors -- An Introduction to the Study of Higher Education Policy Reforms / Jef C. Verhoeven , Liudvika Leišytė , Kurt De Wit and Bruno Broucker -- Higher Education System Reform in Flanders (Belgium) / Kurt De Wit , Jef C. Verhoeven and Bruno Broucker -- Higher Education System Reform in Germany / Sude Peksen and Nadine Zeeman -- The Higher Education System in the Netherlands / Christine Teelken -- Higher Education Reforms in Finland / Jani Ursin -- Higher Education System Reform in Denmark in the Bologna Era / Palle Rasmussen -- The Bologna Process / Tommaso Agasisti and Martina Dal Molin -- Reforms in the Spanish Higher Education System Since Democracy and Future Challenges / Eva M. de la Torre and Carmen Perez-Esparrells -- Reconfiguring Portuguese Higher Education / Amélia Veiga and António Magalhães -- “Part of the Furniture” / Andrew G. Gibson and Ellen Hazelkorn -- Intensification of Neo-liberal Reform of Higher Education in England or ‘Change’ as ‘More of the Same’? / Lisa Lucas -- Higher Education Reforms in Lithuania / Liudvika Leišytė , Anna-Lena Rose and Rimantas Želvys -- The Bologna Reform in Hungary / Gergely Kováts -- Understanding Higher Education System Reform / Bruno Broucker , Liudvika Leišytė , Kurt De Wit and Jef C. Verhoeven.

The Bologna Declaration started the development of the European Higher Education Area. The ensuing Bologna Process has run for already 20 years now. In the meantime many higher education systems in Europe have been reformed – some more drastically than others; some quicker than others; some with more resistance than others. In the process of reform the initial (six) goals have sometimes been forgotten or sometimes been taken a step further. The context too has shifted: while the European Union in itself has expanded, the voice for exit has also been heard more frequently. Higher Education System Reform: An international comparison after Twenty Years of Bologna critically describes and analyses 12 Higher Education Systems from the perspective of four major questions: What is currently the situation with regard to the six original goals of Bologna? What was the adopted path of reform? Which were the triggering (economic, social, political) factors for the reform in each specific country? What was the rationale/discourse used during the reform? The book comparatively analyses the different systems, their paths of reforms and trajectories, and the similarities and the differences between them. At the same time it critically assesses the current situation on higher education in Europe, and hints towards a future policy agenda. Contributors are: Tommaso Agasisti, Bruno Broucker, Martina Dal Molin, Kurt De Wit, Andrew Gibson, Ellen Hazelkorn, Gergely Kovats, Liudvika Leišytė, Lisa Lucas, António Magalhães, Sude Peksen, Rosalind Pritchard, Palle Rasmussen, Anna-Lena Rose, Christine Teelken, Eva M. de la Torre, Carmen Perez-Esparrells, Jani Ursin, Amélia Veiga, Jef C. Verhoeven, Nadine Zeeman, and Rimantas Želvys.