The report focuses on three types of scholarly sources: (a) more general studies on European integration and Europeanization of public policy, predominantly belonging to comparative politics, policy analysis and international relations, (b) studies on European integration and Europeanization in higher education and (c) studies mapping higher education policy developments since the end of 90s and early 2010s until present day in the countries under study.

The report, among other things, demonstrates that the Western Balkan countries are primarily similar in terms of the embeddedness of higher education policy development in European processes, such as the Bologna Process and EU’s Lisbon Agenda. Further similarities, though to a lesser extent, include some commonalities with respect to Communist heritage, with a clear distinction between Albania and the countries that were part of the former Yugoslavia. In addition, the countries are also somewhat different with respect to the size of their higher education systems (number of students and institutions), participation rate (expressed as Gross Enrolment Eatio) as well as investment into higher education and research capacity.

Source: The Knowledge Base for Higher Education and Research in the Western Balkans (HERDATA)