The Europeanisation of Research and Higher Educational Policies Some Reflections

This study poses the following question: To what extent do EU policies affect national policies? In concrete, this article studies the europeanisation of policy in the field of Research and Higher Education (R&E). The field of R&E is largely neglected in the literature on European integration and europeanisation. I argue that processes of europeanisation of R&E policy mirror two interrelated processes: Both the emergence of supranational policies at the EU level and national convergence towards these policies. The empirical scope of the study is the relationship between EUs R&E policies and the corresponding policies of Norway. Our empirical observations based on documentary data and existing bodies of literature reveal that the emergence of creeping supranational R&E policies at the EU level has accompanied moderate convergence of Norwegian R&E policies. This moderate level of convergence, I argue, reflects a mix of moderate institutionalised linkages between Norwegian ministries and agencies and EU institutions, moderate adaptational pressures towards Norwegian R&E policies from the EU, and institutional path-dependencies in Norwegian R&E policies.