Student Mobility within the European Union (1994-1996)

Type of project/activity:

statistical survey and comparative analysis

Objectives:

The objectives were to establish a systematic statistical corpus on student mobility within the European Union and as exhaustive as possible a statistical analysis of the different types of student mobility within the EU.

Background:

The mobility of students plays a key role in developing the European dimension in higher education. In the early 1990s European integration gave rise to increased mobility among students supported by EU funded programmes: ERASMUS, LINGUA, COMETT and also TEMPUS directed towards higher education institutions in the Central and Eastern European countries. At the quantitative level there was a lack of information on the different types and quantities of student mobility. Hence a comparative statistical study.

Partners:

The project was undertaken by the EIESP in collaboration with the Comité de Liaison des Conférences des Recteurs and a team of national consultants from all the Member States.

Main activities:

Firstly in 1994-95 data were collected from the then 12 Member States and in 1996 the study was extended to include the three new countries (Austria, Finland and Sweden). Data were collected on in-coming students to each country by a standardised set of categories in order to establish statistics on both stocks and flows, on new entrants, postgraduates, by gender and by country of origin. Data were gathered for both "spontaneous" mobility and for students mobile in the framework of EU programmes ("organised" mobility such as ERASMUS, COMETT) and covered the period from 1989 to 1984 (four academic years).

Name of programme, funder or client:

Directorate General XXII of the European Commission

Expected outcomes, reports/documents: Jean-Pierre Jallade, Jean Gordon and Noëlle Lebeau, Student Mobility within the European Union: a statistical analysis. Volume I: Synthesis report and Volume II: Database, May 1996. (available in English and French)

Both volumes are also disseminated on-line by DG Education and Culture

For more information, please contact

Jean Gordon gordon@eiesp.org