The Higher Education Reform Network (HERN) was conceived as a collaborative partnership to explore, disseminate and advise on the university of tomorrow in relation to societal change and lifelong learning needs in the context of EU enlargement. The project proposal was developed in 1999 by the Eastern European Network of the UK's Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE) and was eventually awarded funding for 3 years from November 2001.

The overall aim of the network was to provide policy developers with a better understanding of the relationship between change and higher education reforms across Europe in the lead up to EU Enlargement. The scientific objective of the network was to address the question: What is the relationship between HE and society in a world of change? in terms of structural changes taking place in European society, the impact of new technologies, changing approaches to governance and developing concepts of citizenship and inclusion.

The partners in the network were from Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Each partner had been invited to join the network on the basis of their interest in the overarching question and because they were active in a variety of other networks, thus creating a 'network of networks'.

As a Thematic Network, HERN sought to draw on the partners' access to knowledge and expertise through their existing networking activities (rather than to conduct original research) in order to take a broad 'European' view of the social and structural changes influencing HE. In particular the network focused on issues relating to the nature of HE's changing relationship with economic activity, especially lifelong learning, graduate employablity and the fostering of equal opportunities and their impact on HE governance and the development of tomorrow’s European citizens.

The methodology was concerned primarily with exploring the Management of Change in HE systems with respect to the domains of Society (underpinning European values); Governance (institutional management and decision making) and Teaching and learning (new developments) in the context of European enlargement.

The network was particularly interested to learn how each of these domains was effected by the role of HE within society and especially how different HE systems improved equality of opportunity and enhanced graduate employability. Each of the domains was also examined with respect to their contribution to the development of the concept of European citizenship within an environment of increasing European integration and particularly how this might affect lifelong learning processes and the uptake of new technology and learning systems.

These issues were addressed through twelve work-packages supported by a series of nine seminars and by electronic communications using email, an interactive web-site and thematic electronic discussion forums.