2013

• Europeanising National Research Policies. The case of Serbia

  EIHER-WBC Working Paper Series, 2013/1

  Norbert Šabić & Jelena Branković

  Abstract

  The paper analyses recent developments in Serbian research policy through the prism of policy convergence. The research question raised by the authors is concerned with the problem of policy change and adaptation in the European context. On the one hand, it explores what is being transferred from the European policy area to the domestic one, and secondly it looks at the nature of convergence between these policies. The study utilises policy convergence literature in addressing the outcome of the policy transfer. It concludes that Serbia’s research system is undergoing a powerful policy harmonisation within the broader framework of European integration. Convergence is documented in several aspects between European and Serbian research policies.

  Keywords: Europeanisation, research, policy convergence, Serbia

• The EU 2020 Higher Education Attainment Target: a critical assessment with a focus on the case of Macedonia

  EIHER-WBC Working Paper Series, 2013/2

  Martin Galevski

  Abstract

  This paper critically examines key European Union (EU) higher education policy orientations, with particular reference to the economic role being attached to the EU 2020 higher education attainment target. The essay explores the wider climate of thinking associated with the concept of knowledge as a form of productive capital, beyond the Union’s borders. EU policy proposal are assessed and discussed in relation and alongside with a EU candidate country – Macedonia. In the first section, the paper offers a brief overview of recent European Union higher education policy developments, with discussion on the continuities and difference between the Education and Training (E&T) 2010 Programme and the follow-up E&T 2020 Programme. These reorientations are analysed in relation to the challenges of the Lisbon Strategy and the EU 2020 Strategy. The second section provides a critical analysis of ambiguities in concepts relating to the EU 2020 attainment target, both on EU level and in the particular case of Macedonia.

  Keywords: European Union, EU 2020 Strategy, higher education, Macedonia