Cooperative exchange and competitive commodification: policies of academic mobility in MERCOSUR and the European Union

Abstract

Originally, processes of internationalization for higher education wereclosely tied to academic and scientific cooperation between universities, although to a large degree theglobalization boom and the sector’scommodificationprocesses transformed this exchange into competitiveness and competition. Both the Bologna process and a good part of the European Union’s actions conceived for other continents are framed within the strategy for the internal services market of the European Council of Lisbon in 2000, seeking a more competitive Europe where the main interest was geared towardsbroadeningtheir university “supply” for students in those countries. In this work we analyze the repercussions of the shift inparadigms of academic mobility policies in MERCOSUR and the EU, based on documentary sources and existing literature on the subject.