Higher education and European regionalism

Higher education has been a key part of nation building in Europe since the early nineteenth century, first as a device to unify previously localised cultures, and later as the main source of skilled personnel for expanding states. However, that era is probably now coming to an end, as the governing structures and sociological role of higher education changes to serving regional and local interests. This change coincides with, and is partly caused by, the growth of regional nationalism in Europe, and many of the new governing contexts for higher education have been influenced by, or even founded on, regional cultural assertion. Is this change only a matter of using higher education to promote regional economic effectiveness? What is the likely political relationship of higher education to these regional governing structures? What is left of the cultural role of higher education?