This book focuses on the university, as a "discourse" and as a practice, as an institution and as an organization. It captures the gradual formation of a European educational policy and a coherent discourse about the university and the intricate system of governance of higher education that has been gradually shaped since World War II.

The first part of the book analyzes the changing role of the state as a subject, no longer sovereign, but integrated into regional groupings, and the implications of this evolution on policy for higher education. It interprets the European policy developed through the "twin" Processes of Bologna and Lisbon as a response to the pressures of globalization and neoliberalism.

The second part of the book examines the influences of European policy on Greek policy, the formation of the institutional framework of higher education, and the policy for quality assurance.