Global reform initiatives: From compulsory to higher education

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is the analysis of the two most influential global policy initiatives in education reform - the OECD?s comparative study of students? educational achievements after compulsory education - PISA, and the Bologna process or the creation of a single European Higher Education Area. Although they relate to different levels of the education system, they have been initiated with the same aim of making education more effective in the context of the so-called knowledge societies. Apart from having appeared in about the same timeframe (the first cycle of the PISA survey was conducted in 2000 and the Bologna Declaration was adopted in 1999), both policy initiatives consider education in the context of the imperatives of economic rationality, competitiveness, and freedom to choose individual participants according to personal preferences. Undoubtedly, the OECD and the Bologna Process have altered the purpose and structure of education systems around the world in a relatively short time in accordance with the dominant neoliberal values and the perception of a man as homo economicus. The results of the initiated reforms are linked to the ?economization? of education policy and the ?pedagogisation? of economic policy, given the increased importance of the role of skills and the human capital agenda. Their key pedagogical implications can be described as reducing education to developing human capital and instrumentalizing education for non-pedagogical purposes.