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The Bologna Process (BP), which created the European Higher Education Area, has had a profound impact on educational systems in Europe and beyond, as far as Cameroon. Through thematic analysis of interviews and text documents, this article examines the adoption of BP ideas in Cameroon with a focus on the transfer and local reception to the adoption. This article shows that the adoption in Cameroon is found to continue a process that began with the adoption of the BP at the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) by the CEMAC heads of state, leading to its subsequent imposition on universities in Cameroon. The present findings show that, although imposed on the universities, the adoption of the BP found some support in Cameroon because of its potential to resolve the country’s higher education challenges. However, because of Cameroon’s dual French and Anglo-Saxon education system, some interviewees expressed scepticism about the adopted approaches, primarily because they appeared French driven. The article highlights some of the complexities and tensions associated with introducing a borrowed model to a dual system of education such as that in Cameroon.

Although initially a European reform, the Bologna Process has had a spill-over effect in other parts of the world. This paper, based on the public lectio of my doctoral dissertation, used policy borrowing as a theoretical framework to examine the adoption and adaptation of Bologna reforms in Cameroon, a country with a complex colonial and post-colonial history. My dissertation sought answers to three research questions focusing on the reasons for the adoption in Cameroon, the introduction, dissemination and local response to the adoption in Cameroon and the implementation of some of the lines of action in Cameroon and what they reveal about the use of borrowed policies at the local level. These questions were addressed in four original articles, using data from text documents and interviews and analysed mainly through thematic analysis. The findings, based on the four articles, drew attention to both internal and external reasons for adoption, and how and why what was adopted was locally adapted to suit the local context. The findings contributed to the research and international debate on the transformations exerted by the Bologna Process outside the European higher education area referred to as the external dimension of the Bologna Process.

This article argues that localizing access – a general ethical principle – is a workable strategy that can be used in approaching participants in qualitative research across disciplines and in coping with respective institutional practices in order to collect meaningful data. This article is based on the autobiographical, lived experiences of the authors during the period of their data collection in Cameroon in 2013 and 2015, by the second and first author, respectively. Therefore, generalization across a broader context is somewhat restricted, and a closer analysis of specific cultural and situational realities is needed. The article addresses two main objectives, that is, to identify factors that inhibit and factors that facilitate access to individuals and institutions. To this end, the article employs self-reflexivity and provides valuable explanations on the workability of applying skills of negotiating access in a local cultural context.