Teaching Political Science

European universities face today a number of challenges. A new European Higher Education Area is emerging, as governments are restructuring national education systems to meet the guidelines set by the Bologna Declaration. Economics of higher education has also changed, as governments have already from the late 1980s demanded more cost efficiency from institutions of higher learning. This has led, among other things, to an increased number of students, at the same time when there are fewer job opportunies within the academia. It is in this context that Section on “Teaching Political Science” is organized. Three key questions are: What are the challenges for political science teaching today? How can we, as political scientists, effectively influence on conditions of teaching (and research) in universities? Could (and should) we develop standards and core curricula for political science teaching across Europe? The section consists of six panels which focus on teaching political science from three different perpectives. The first perspective is a stocktaking of the present state of European political science (panel 1). The second perspective consists of new developments in European higher education (panels 2, 3 and 4). The third perspective is a focus on different topics of teaching. There are two important topics which in many ways influence the whole curriculum of political science: gender and European integration (panels 5 and 6).