European Higher Education Policy and the Formation of Entrepreneurial Students as Future European Citizens

Abstract

In this article, the author argues that European education policies and rhetoric are imbued with orthodoxy of agency and models of empowered, entrepreneurial actors, striving to surpass the limits of national boundaries. Free circulation of citizens has progressively underpinned a new construction of 'the European', who is entrepreneurial, flexible and mobile. Ideals and practices of mobility have been premised on two competing agendas: one that focuses on economic imperatives, and the other that relates to a tradition of forming the citizenry. European Union higher education policy via student mobility programmes has been an effective vehicle for conveying images and models of the European citizen, untied from national bounds and with a thirst for new ventures and learning opportunities apt to convert into skills and capital. Arguably these policies, as rationalities with governing ends, aim to form identities and subjectivities. Although it can be argued that new facets of agency are made available to those who are willing to embrace entrepreneurial models, the question is whether and how these 'talk back' to a society and a polity in search of common good.

Constructing a national higher education brand for the UK: positional competition and promised capitals

“…The self-reliance of the individual is an important assumption of neo-liberal discourses (Fairclough 2001, 187). Peters (2001) and Papatsiba (2009) note that responsibilizing the individual for investing in one's own education, equipping oneself with personal skills and developing enterprise is part of the intensified moral regulation promoted via neoliberal welfare and educational policies, especially those relating to international education and student mobility. There is an expectation of ambition from students -(a) British education is best able to serve my ambition to be the best' (BCECS 1999).…”

Why Educational Exchange Programmes Miss Their Mark: Cross‐Border Mobility, Education and European Identity*

“…To be sure, Erasmus serves several aims, such as strengthening participants' human capital and integrating the European labour market (Papatsiba, 2009). Moreover, the promotion of a European identity is not as important a policy goal of Erasmus as it used to be.…”

The role of the Bologna Process in defining Europe

“…The author claims that 'citizenship is a concept inherent to the idea of the university and the role of higher education' (p.177). The connection between the development of citizen's and student's identities is also implied by Papatsiba (2009) who claims that flexible and mobile citizens are formed through education mobility programs. Moreover, the construction of a European citizen through Bologna happens in opposition to the construction of 'the other'someone who is excluded and in relation to whom the European citizen should be competitive (Fejes, 2008).…”

“…One example of this is the EU versus geographical Europe dissonance. ‘Europe’ is very often used to denote the EU (Novoa and Lawn, 2002; Papatsiba, 2009). This is the case even though geographically Europe extends further to the east from the EU border, encompassing some non-EU countries such as Moldova, Ukraine, a small western part of Russia (Walters, 2009).…”

“…It is a paradox that, more often than not, the definition of what ‘Europe’ is remains underdeveloped in the literature that discusses European matters (e.g., Novoa and Lawn, 2002; Papatsiba, 2009). It is unclear whether, for instance, Europe is the European Union (EU), or a geographical Europe as part of the continent of Eurasia, or the territory of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).…”