An investigation of the widening policies on access to and participation in higher education among EHEA

The Bologna process was launched along with the Italy-Bologna Ministerial Conference, held in 1999 with 29 participating countries, and has improved by the ministerial conferences held biennially or triennially so far. The current study aimed at to determine to what extent the priority, stated in the Belgium-Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve Communique adopted by the Ministers, for 'widening the access into and participation in higher education (HE)' has been reflected in the higher education policies of the EHEA countries for the next decade, and what kind of actions and measures were taken accordingly. The findings figured out that only five EHEA countries out of 48 members did not cover the priority for 'widening access into and participation in higher education' in their national higher education policies. These macro-and micro-scale policies and measures were depicted as 'adopting a general nation-wide policy' or adopting a policy to increase access into and participation in HE among under-represented groups.'These macro-scale policies are charging no tuition fees, increasing the number of cities with university and increasing the number of undergraduate and graduate programs and offering them in more flexible structures. The examples of the micro-scale measures are applying different university entrance exams and having additional placement for students with disabilities, and increasing the access opportunities to higher education for immigrant or ethnic groups' students. All in all, even macro-scale progress have been made, higher education is still not easily accessible for disadvantaged students (e.g., disabled students, orphans, low socio-economic status, ethnic origin, immigrants, living in urban areas) despite all the policies and measures taken so far.