The determinants of international student mobility flows: an empirical study on the Erasmus programme

Abstract

The Erasmus Programme for higher education students is supposed to play an important socio-economic role within Europe. Erasmus student mobility flows have reached a relevant level of two million since 1987, boosted in recent years by the enlargement of the programme to eastern countries. Thereafter, it seems that flows have staggered. In this context, the article analyses the determinants of Erasmus student mobility establishing relevant hypotheses, which arise from the migration theory and gravity models. A panel data set of bilateral flows for all the participating countries has been used in order to test the factors influencing these student flows. Country size, cost of living, distance, educational background, university quality, the host country language and climate are all found to be significant determinants. Results also reveal that there are other determinants, like a country's characteristics and time effects, which can affect mobility flows. Based on these findings, some general recommendations are put forward to enhance these flows.

The Bologna Process's Model of Mobility in Europe: The Relationship of its Spatial and Social Dimensions

“…Serving a quarter of a million students each year, this is the European 'success story' (Rivza & Teichler, 2007, p. 464) with regard to short-term student mobility. Its underlying ideas and rationales (Papatsiba, 2006), conditions (Rodríquez González et al, 2011) and professional outcomes (Bracht et al, 2006) have been investigated. Further, analyses of the socio-economic status of mobile citizens in general and mobile students in particular find that mobility is highly correlated with social background variables (see Pineda et al, 2008;Souto-Otero, 2008;Mau & Büttner, 2010;Brooks & Waters, 2011;Finger, 2011;Lörz & Krawietz, 2011).…”

The Challenge to Foster Foreign Students’ Experiences for Sustainable Higher Educational Institutions

“…For instance, Rodríguez González et al [43] focused on country size, the cost of living, distance, the educational background, university quality, the host country language, and climate. These factors are found to be significant for mobility decisions.…”

Higher Education in the Nordic Countries

“…Evaluation performed by INCHER in 2006 examined the professional value of ERASMUS mobility, and the results indicated that the mobility programmes had provided students with increased professional skills and a higher likelihood with working abroad also later in their professional careers (Bracht et al, 2006). Other research has indicated that while Erasmus provides funding for study abroad periods, financial constraints still play a role in decisions, as well as family educational background, country size, distance, university quality, language, country size and climate (Rodríguez González, Bustillo Mesanza, & Mariel, 2011).…”