The "internationalization of universities" began in EU countries with a fairly cautious attempts to seek ways compatibility of their national systems of higher education. In 1974, at a meeting of European Ministers of Education adopted a resolution, which defined pan-European policy in the field of education, anchored by subsequent documents. Already in the resolution were rather contradictory approaches to the European strategy for the formation of a common higher education area, which are poorly combined with the actual process of globalization of the education market.

Signed in 1998, the four Ministers of Education, gathered in celebration of the 800th anniversary of the University of Paris, Sorbonne Declaration expressed the need for resolute harmonization of the architecture of higher education in Europe.

Later on, 19 June 1999, representatives of 29 countries signed the Bologna Joint Declaration of Ministers of Education, "European Higher Education Area", which was declared a program of creation until the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the European Higher Education Area and promoting the European higher education system worldwide.

If by 2010, the main aim of the Bologna Process was to put in place a European Higher Education Area, as stated in the Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve Communiqué,  the main priorities for the next decade are:

• Social dimension

• Lifelong learning

• Employability

• Student-centred learning

• Education, research and innovation

• Mobility

• Data collection

• Multidimensional transparency tools

• Funding.

Therefore, the Bologna Follow-up Group set up the following working groups for the 2009-2012 period:

• Social dimension

• Qualifications frameworks

• International openness

• Mobility 

• Recognition

• Reporting on the implementation of the Bologna Process

• Transparency mechanisms,

And the following networks:

• EHEA Information and Promotion Network;

• Network for Experts in Student Support in Europe – NESSIE;

• Network for National Qualifications Frameworks Correspondents.

Now, after the launching of the European Higher Education Area, the Bologna Process moves towards a new phase, a more in-depth one, focusing on a reduction of the implementation discrepancies in the countries forming the EHEA.

The overarching theme of the third Bologna Policy Forum was "Beyond the Bologna Process: Creating and connecting national, regional and global higher education spaces”. The third edition of the Bologna Policy Forum focused on creating and connecting national, regional and global higher education spaces, while deepening the discussions on the following four topics reflecting on future approaches for dialogue in this context:

            • Public responsibility for and of higher education within national and regional context;
            • Global academic mobility: Incentives and barriers, balances and imbalances;
            • Global and regional approaches to quality enhancement of higher education;
            • The contribution of HE reforms to enhancing graduate employability;

Ministerial Conferences 

In order to ensure the implementation of the steps upon which the Ministers have decided, the EHEA makes use of several support structures.

May 14-15, 2015, Yerevan hosted the fourth Bologna Policy Forum, combined with the Ninth Conference of Ministers of the European Higher Education Area countries. EHEA Ministers Conference held every two years and its results in the form of a joint communiqué contains priority directions of further development of the Bologna process in the participating countries. The forum had been taken Yerevan communiqué of the Ministerial Conference and the Fourth Declaration of the Bologna Policy Forum.