The Impact of Covid-19 in the European Higher Education Area: Retrenchment or Expansion?

The Covid-19 has now become a global pandemic posing not only enormous challenges for the medical and scientific community, but also bringing with it severe economic and social consequences. As European scholars are strongly mobilized to guide and support these challenges, there is one aspect that is still lacking consideration. Amid public fears and uncertainties concerning the correct measures to implement to control the virus, the Covid-19 pandemic has come to a shock for the sector of higher education, putting in lockdown students and requiring a speedy online conversion of classroom teaching. Though the impact of Covid-19 in the university sector is largely unknown, significant tensions might come to the fore, with different dynamics at play in terms of funding allocations, student and staff mobility and knowledge exchanges among European universities. This paper examines the existing governance configurations of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in order to understand which factors might shape policy cooperation. Building on this analysis, the paper will look at the potential challenges ahead, particularly in respect of the current Covid-19 crisis, in order to understand whether this will entail a retrenchment or expansion of the EHEA. Specifically, the paper will explore whether the trajectory of the EHEA will be conducive to bring more private higher education and less government influence over its governance framework or rather it will act as a catalyst for a further institutional deepening of the EHEA.