Lack of Grand Ideas for Higher Education in the Europe of Knowledge?

The Modernisation Agenda from 2006 marked a significant step in the level of ambition for ideas on how European higher education was supposed to look like, but was received with political resistance. The following 2011 Modernisation Agenda consequently represented a major step back in the level of ambition. These grand ideas are also increasingly difficult to identify in other joint coordination initiatives, such as the Bologna Process. Indicators, benchmarking and scoreboards receive increasing focus, marking a more standardised, technocratic and bureaucratized approach to joint policymaking. These indicators are increasingly decoupled from the original agendas, and their link to existing ideas on Europe of Knowledge appears to be weak. Our article explores how the use of indicators can take precedent over grand ideas and their effect on the development of Europe of Knowledge. The article combines empirical data from multiple research projects, including interviews, document analysis and secondary sources.