The article analyzes the last two decades of higher education reforms in Slovenia. During the "period of transition," they were led by national as well as international initiatives. At an early stage, the national initiatives were mainly based on criticisms of the last reform made by the former regime, although the generation of new ideas and proposals was closely associated with international trends and good practices. Later, "Europeanization" came to dominate policy development, but national "struggles in the field of higher education" (Bourdieu, 1988) led to a substantial reinterpretation of the Bologna agenda. The dichotomy of productive adaptation and implementation of common European policies at a national level and the "provincializing" of higher education seems to remain a central issue when addressing the current problems. (Contains 3 notes.)