The Bologna Process: perspectives and implications for the Russian university

This article draws on the discourses of educational policy in Europe to focus on the implications of the Bologna Process for higher education in Russia. The Bologna Process, as a multi-dimensional discourse involving a variety of social actors, reflects some of the complexities and contradictions of globalisation, in many local cases evoking responses and leading to outcomes which were neither planned nor predicted by the official educational policy planners. The role of international organisations in the reform of Russian higher education is considered and the barriers, limitations and possible consequences of Bologna for the Russian situation are explored.