The question of what Europe is remains under-elaborated in the literature on European matters, which points to the necessity to explore a definition of Europe. This paper shows that it is not possible to resolve the problem around the meaning of Europe without considering its higher education developments. The Bologna Process is a recent European intergovernmental higher education project aiming to form the European Higher Education Area by making degrees compatible in its signatory countries. Additionally, some other countries beyond this Area also tend to take up the Bologna Process to converge their higher education structures. It is argued in this paper that the Bologna Process is essential in approaching the definition of Europe because this project expands European borders and promotes the idea of a common European identity within them. These changes are supplemented by building up tensions in the development of territory-identity compatibility in the growing Europe. Impossibility to solve these problems makes Europe dynamic in the Bologna Process, and points to the depth of the meaning the borders, delineated by the Bologna Process, convey. The paper is developed with the help of a relevant critical literature review and the analysis of the international Bologna Process documents since 1998.

The Bologna Process is an intergovernmental initiative aimed to make higher education degrees compatible in Europe. Previous research into the implementation of the Bologna objectives (or action lines) views the influence of the context as a challenge. This articles suggests a different approach for analysing the implementation of the Bologna action lines. By applying the policy layering perspective, this article suggests positioning change in Bologna, and the influence of the context and its established policy conventions as two interconnected potentially productive powers that converge in one policy process. This article invites to view the context not only as a restraining problem but also as a co-moulder of Bologna implementation. To achieve this aim, the article relies on the findings from a case study of one of the Bologna action lines in Ukrainea system of study credits in Ukraine.

This article explores the integration of the European Union (EU) as an institution after the 2015–2016 migrant crisis. Qualitative data from elite interviews in Brussels and policy analysis, in the framework of a bigger project about the impact of the migrant crisis on European integration, highlight EU learning about new integration modes as a key theme following the crisis. The article focuses on this theme and argues that EU integration has been happening through intensive learning after the migrant crisis, whereby the EU has been exploring a combination of certain integration modes: shaping the relationships with candidate countries by restraining from enlargement; shaping the relationships with (prospectively) exiting Member States by considering fuzziness at the borders; and exploring differentiation among the existing Member States, possibly through promoting a two-tier EU, instead of universal deepening. A key contribution lies in applying the notion ‘learning’ to understanding EU integration modes specifically after the migrant crisis.

This article belongs to a limited body of scholarship concerning inclusion in the Bologna Process. The Bologna Process aims to create the European Higher Education Area with comparable higher education structures within the European Higher Education Area member states. Unlike previous research that focuses on the implementation of one of the Bologna Process inclusion-related action lines (i.e. lifelong learning, student-centred education and social dimension), this article adopts a broader lens, and investigates the evolution of the meaning of ‘inclusion’ in the key international Bologna Process policy documents. This article argues that there is still a lack of clarity around the meaning of ‘inclusion’ in the Bologna Process, and the list of underprivileged groups that the Bologna Process aims to include in higher education, is absent. This article calls for an urgent review of this problem in the Bologna Process at the European Higher Education Area ministerial conference scheduled for 2020 which will set the agenda for post-2020 work in the European Higher Education Area.

Global digitalization processes of educational environment, which are currently taking place, require to develop new techniques for teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language. This research presents the results of experimental implementation of storytelling technique into the process of language education of foreign non-philological specialities students in Ukrainian higher education institutions. Due to the specific pedagogical conditions of teaching foreign students, the authors developed and tested an algorithm of using the modified storytelling technique, adapted to the pedagogical realities in Ukrainian language and educational environment. There are three stages of the developed experimental model, implemented during online Ukrainian practical classes to foreign non-philological specialities students with different levels of language proficiency, from Beginner to Intermediate, in different Ukrainian higher education institutions. The methodological experiment, observational and diagnostic methods, quantitative and qualitative comparative methods as well as descriptive methods showed that the modified storytelling technique was effective for developing monological speaking skills. Besides, the previous authors’ hypothesis was also confirmed by the use of teaching aids, described in the article, such as: converged texts, created with due account for the specific requirements to structural and semantic content as well as presentation format, focused on features of modern students with clip thinking and on general educational processes; system of iterative questions; and digital teaching aids. The results of the research showed that the modified storytelling technique, firstly developed within the theory of teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language, should not be used not as the main method for teaching foreign non-philological students of higher education.