Towards European Citizenship through Higher Education?

Summary The purpose of this study, the first part of a recently concluded project, is to describe and analyse the perceptions that European university students have of European citizenship and to offer some insight into the term. Before describing our findings, we offer a brief review of the concept of citizenship, attempting to define it in the European context and showing how it can be attained, while demonstrating that, contrary to what one might expect, the concept is by no means easy to grasp, as young people do not have a clear idea of what Europe means or what Europe wants. Our results have implications for our understanding of European integration.