Regime Complexity and Interplay: The European Higher Education Area and the Trade Regime

The HE complex consists of multiple overlapping regimes and other formal and informal institutions located in social, cultural and economic spaces which interact (Asderaki 2019). The regime complexity literature (Raustiala and Victor 2004; Orsini et al. 2013; Alter and Raustiala 2018) and the analysis on the regime interplay (Oberthür and Stokke eds. 2011; 2012; Oberthür 2016) are significant to the shaping of an innovative research agenda of global governance in HE. Based on the above, this study explores the interplay between the EHEA and the trade regime. Apart from the General Agreement on Trade in Services (Verger 2009), the paper will focus on recent developments which encompass the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) being negotiated by WTO members including the EU, the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) entering into force in September 2017, the TTIP and the EU-Japan agreement and the reactions of students (ESU) and universities (EUA).