Dividing Lines in European Higher Education Qualifications Framework

In this paper I look into the role of the Council of Europe and of the European Commission in supporting the implementation of the project of designing national higher education qualifications frameworks according to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) reference model. In doing so, I show how the unfolding of this project has been marked by the European Union member states’ decision to adopt a different reference model, the European Qualifications Framework. The European Qualifications Framework, though conceptually very similar to the overarching EHEA qualifications framework, is distinctive in its mobilisation of higher education as a sector that participates in a borderless and integrated lifelong learning system. I also argue that comparing the involvement of the Council of Europe and of the European Commission in this project offers a unique window to observe existing geopolitical divides and disparate region-building strategies at work in the process of making the EHEA. Although the constitution of the EHEA is a pan-European process, these divides and parallel strategies contribute to an uneven reconfiguration of higher education provision within this space.