Using the case of Denmark, this paper explores how the impact of transnational collaboration in education increasingly clashes with a revitalization of national solutions, and how this development of a ‘double challenge’ seems to enable nation states to regain power in the governance of higher education (Brøgger, 2021). Since 1999, the Bologna Process and the establishment of a European higher education area have set the agenda for reforms of higher education systems. During this period, the Bologna Process and EU-policy processes have converged, recently amplified with the EU initiative ‘Towards a European Education Area by 2025’ that expands the Bologna Process’s harmonization of education to the remaining levels in the education system. In this way, transnational actors have sought to integrate European nations through new education standards (Brøgger, 2019; Lawn & Grek, 2012; Robertson, 2009). Meanwhile, this implementation of transnational standards in higher education is currently challenged by a simultaneous rise of national oppositions manifesting as two interlinked resistances: 1) a resistance to transnationalization that encompasses a support of austerity measures aiming to protect the economy of the nation state. With the accession of a Liberal government in Denmark in 2015, higher education internationalization policies were decelerated in favor of a national primacy (MHES, 2018; 2016). This reflects a shift from the configuration of a Western knowledge economy and European Union as the economies in focus to the focus of protecting the economy of the nation state. Through this shift, the purpose of education has changed (Madsen, 2021) as the idea of a standardized European higher education area and the movement of people across intra-European borders becomes challenged. 2) democratic reservations regarding European policymaking targeting the lack of parliamentary transparency in educational policymaking. The Open Method of Coordination works as a productive method for advancing consensus in education policy in the EU and the Bologna Process (Brøgger, 2019; Gornitzka, 2005). However, being inclusive, this method for bringing together a plethora of agents also brings about a democratic deficit. The power of the European Parliament seems unsettled in these consensus-advancing processes, resulting in a growing distance between citizens and the European institutions. Collectively, this vortex of ‘double challenge’ issues contributes to a Europe and a European Union characterized by still-volatile structures (Cini & Borragán, 2016).

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