Opportunity, Presence and Entrepreneurship: Why the EU Acts Externally on Higher Education*

In recent times, the European Union’s external engagement has expanded in originally internal policy areas. This process is particularly intriguing areas where EU possesses only supplementary competences. Examining case of higher education policy, this contribution sets out to understand and explain such To end, it employs an explanatory framework that argues action emerges when a structural window ‘opportunity’ domestic ‘presence’ opens, which exploited by ‘policy entrepreneurs’. The compares two pillars – Tempus Erasmus Mundus programmes relation emergence other initiatives. Offering explanation why engages externally education, concludes discussing broader generalizability its findings.