The EU as an ideational actor has a significant impact on non-European countries. This paper examines the growth of European ideas circulating throughout the field of Latin American Higher Education (HE), as part of the Bologna Process, which has manifested itself in a set of procedures, methods and tools that have contributed to the transformation of Chilean and Mexican HE. This phenomenon requires a rigorous analysis of European ideational factors present within Normative Power Europe (NPE), not only through a cluster of ideas, norms, principles and values but also through analysing language. The paper examines such claims, focusing on Chile and Mexico, and argues that the impact of European influences upon received countries is mediated by domestic circumstances. This paper, therefore, makes a contribution to both existing understanding of the European Union’s influence over Latin America and Latin American HE, and also seeks to advance upon existing debates around the notion of Normative Power Europe in particular, by illustrating how the NPE literature would benefit from a deeper consideration of the use of language. European influence on the development of domestic policies in Latin American Higher Education (HE) constitutes a narrative that presents historical roots mainly determined by the condition of former European colonies. These influences have been observed from the creation of HE institutions. Latin Americans imitated Spanish and Portuguese models for building their universities. Furthermore, European presence in Latin American ‘classrooms’ has been noticeable through concrete aspects such as internal structuration of university government, the design of curricula and the organisation of teaching-learning processes. This phenomenon has been studied as part of sporadic variables that share degrees of guidance with another influence: the strong manifestation of the US in the Latin American continent. This present paper proposes a different narrative: the scenario of Latin America in the Higher Education area, especially in Chile and Mexico, appears to be significantly affected by some European influences, noticeable by examining the implementation of two ‘European tools’: the Bologna Process and the Tuning Project. The empirical cases of European influences, Chilean and Mexican HE, are shown in detail in order to understand the most significant impacts on their public and university policies.
