The politics of constructing (a competitive) Europe (an) through internationalising higher education: strategy, structures, subjects

'Europe's' approach to internationalising higher education is a multi-facetted set of political strategies that, over time, has become more complex as an array of European-level actors, and most importantly the European Commission, respond to pressures in the regional and global economies. In this article I explore this complexity, suggesting that Europe's inter/nationalising of higher education is a long standing set of projects: culturally - to contribute to the construction of Europe as a distinctive entity; economically - to construct a competitive Europe; and, politically - to locate greater power at the supranational scale that would enable European-level actors more control over regional and global affairs.