Erasmus student mobility flows

Abstract

This article identifies student mobility flows using Erasmus data from 2007–2008 to 2013–2014. We used the software programmes “R” for statistical analysis and “Pajek” for analysis of networks. Findings provide an overview of student mobility from three perspectives. We find the most balanced relative outbound and inbound mobility in Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Poland. Moreover, Spain and Italy exchange the most students between each other. Overall, the core centres for student mobility are Spain, France, Germany and Italy. Smaller countries, such as Luxemburg, Malta and Liechtenstein, have large numbers of mobile students considering the size of the country's student population. The network analysis revealed three groups of countries: (1) good receivers and senders (Spain, Italy, and Germany), (2) good receivers only (Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Portugal) and (3) good senders only (Belgium and the Czech Republic).