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Last updated on Tuesday 20 Dec 2022 at 10:25pm
We at the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) believe it is important to gather more evidence from across Europe of what works and where we need to focus our efforts in order to create recommendations for universities to increase their outward mobility opportunities for all students.
From UUKi research, we know that students from less advantaged backgrounds and from underrepresented groups that go abroad tend to get better degree results, have lower unemployment rates, are more likely to start their career in graduate-level jobs and have a higher starting salary than their non-mobile peers. However, while they stand to gain from this experience, these students are underrepresented in mobility, with only 7% of Erasmus students coming from a disadvantaged or underrepresented group.
In response to this, ESN have launched the 'Social Inclusion and Engagement in Mobility' project. The project is a collaborative cross-European partnership between ESN, UUKi and the European University Foundation, YES Forum, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE), University of Vigo (ES), Masaryk University (CZ), University of Latvia (LV) and ESN Spain (ES) and ESN France (FR).
The project has two overarching objectives:
1. Widening participation of underrepresented groups of the Erasmus+ programme in order to make the programme more inclusive.
2. Increase the interaction between international students and local communities with fewer opportunities in order to increase integration and intercultural exchange.
The project will start with two research components in spring 2020, one focussing on quantitative data analysis, and the other on institutional case studies through site visits, and focus groups and interviews with students from underrepresented groups. This will be followed up with recommendations which will be piloted during test phases in the partner universities. Short-term mobility for students from underrepresented groups will be organised to create workshop modules around mobility, internationalisation, intercultural learning and diversity.
The research will be followed by widespread implementation, involving partner universities, local ESN sections and other local youth organisations, working with the project findings and recommendations to instigate interaction between local youth of underrepresented groups and international students with mobility experiences. In order to measure the impact of these activities, a social impact measurement tool will be developed to draw conclusions and recommendations that can be disseminated across the European higher education and youth sectors.
This project is an important step towards making international mobility opportunities more inclusive, enabling students from all backgrounds to study, work or volunteer abroad. In a period of dramatic political and social change, an inclusive mobility approach has never been more important. Mobility helps develop a generation of Europeans that transcend traditional cultural beliefs, embrace cultural differences and endorse mutual intercultural understanding, shaping a united society that offers space to everyone.
Wim Gabriels is Project Coordinator at the Erasmus Student Network (ESN).
Update: the Social Inclusion and Engagement in Mobility project has now been published and is available on the SIEM website.
Our monthly updates are a great way for you to stay up to date with our work, events, and higher education news.