Analytical and Methodological Framework of Research in European and/or EU Studies Curriculum

Abstract

The aim of this part is to provide a thorough view of the methodological and analytical framework of our study concerning the most important aspects of current developments within the EU Studies curricula. Lately, while speaking about Core Curriculum in European Studies, one can find various names: EU Studies, European Integration Studies or simply, European Studies. So, starting off from previous findings of other research conducted within the field (EpsNet, TEPSA, UACES, Tuning, Enseigner l’Europe), we tried to harmonize the actual debate of Curriculum in European Studies.

The Methodology of our research consisted in collecting information about courses of European Studies from 12 EU Member States: BE, DK, FR, GE, IT, PT, SP, UK, LT, PL, RO, SK at the three level degrees: BA, MA and PhD. Then, we proceeded to identify the domains for each course, by placing them in the 9 fields agreed by the European Commission: EU Political and Administrative Studies, EU Legal Studies, EU Historical Studies, EU Economic Studies, EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies, EU Intercultural Dialogue Studies, EU Communication and Information Studies, EU and Comparative Regionalism Studies, EU Interdisciplinary Studies. Subdomains were established for each domain. We arranged the courses first in compliance with the found categories and then upon the specializations where they are taught. This allowed us to notice that, unlike the previous approaches which regarded European Studies as both a Multidisciplinarity, and also as an Interdisciplinary discipline, we can perceive the European Studies also as a Disciplinary approach, i.e. as a subdomain of either a traditional domain, or of a new one (e.g. Political Studies; Law; History; Economy; Sociology; International Relations; Communication; Regional Studies).

Keywords: Development of European Studies, Core Curriculum in EU Studies, subfields of EU Studies, European universities, Research Methodology