European political narratives in higher education: towards an ever-stronger politicisation?

Since the 2000s, the legitimisation of the European Union (EU) has been increasingly politicised and become a battle of narratives on various policy issues, of which higher education (HE) is a prominent one. Although not a direct EU competence, HE has been subject to a dynamic of ‘creeping integration’, turning universities into arenas, instruments and objects of European public action. Our article examines to what extent and how mainstream EU political narratives have been mobilised in HE by European institutions, stakeholders and civil society. We focus on two overarching narratives: ‘Europe of rights’ and ‘Europe of values’, the latter being divided into two sub-narratives, ‘Market Europe’ and ‘Cultural Europe’. Case studies shed light on the use of these narratives since 2017 in relation to different policy instruments (e.g. ERASMUS, European University Institute, European University Alliances). Our findings suggest a weakening of the ‘Europe of rights’ narrative and an ambivalence in the use of the ‘Europe of values’ narrative, characterised by the mainstreaming of the ‘market Europe’ narrative and a resurgence of the ‘cultural Europe’ narrative. In conclusion, developments in HE confirm the broader politicisation of narratives in European governance, with some specificities related to the symbolic function of universities.