Student Mobility in Europe: Recent Trends and Implications of Data Collection

Abstract

This article explores the recent trends in international student mobility in Europe. It is based on the findings of a recently completed study of the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA), entitled Mapping mobility in European higher education , and covers student mobility into, out of and between 32 European countries referred to as the Europe 32 region (EU-27, EFTA-4 and Turkey). The data used are predominantly taken from the so-called UOE collection of UNESCO, OECD and EUROSTAT. The reference year mostly used is that of 2006/2007, the latest one for which a complete set of clean and comparable data was available from UOE at the time of writing. The paper first looks at foreign degree students in the Europe 32 region. It then presents and analyses data on the study of nationals of Europe 32 countries outside of their country of nationality (study abroad) as well as the few data available on genuine mobility into the countries of the Europe 32 region. In a third step, the article carries out a comparative analysis of the study of foreign nationals and of study abroad students. In a final section, it presents the current (limited) knowledge on inwards and outwards credit (temporary) mobility with regard to the Europe 32 zone, as well as the implications of mobility trends and data collection procedures for the Bologna Process discussions on student mobility.