Page 10 - The-Academic-value-of-mobility-2018

Background

More students should participate in student
exchanges

In a time of globalisation of the economy and labour market, people’s increased
international mobility, and an increased international element in many profes-
sions, internationalisation of higher education is important. HEIs need to provide
students with the right conditions in which to develop the ability to see them-
selves and the programme’s area of knowledge in an international context and to
make international comparisons and reflections. The Swedish Higher Education
Act also states that “in their operations higher education institutions should pro-
mote understanding of other countries and of international circumstances”. Even
if mobility is not the only way of achieving the aim stated in the Higher Education
Act, it is one way of doing so.

According to statistics from the Swedish Higher Education Authority, UKÄ, around
15 per cent of the Swedish students who graduated in 2016/17 spent some of
4
their period of study abroad. This is below the EU’s target for mobility – by 2020,
20 per cent of students graduating in member states should have spent some of
their programme abroad. This is the background to why UHR, after consultation
with the Ministry for Education and Research, started the project to increase out-
ward student mobility.

5
For example, the Erasmus Impact Study indicates that foreign mobility contri-
butes to providing students with better chances of being active on an internation-
ally competitive labour market. The Erasmus students who were part of the study
found their first jobs more quickly and were more likely to live and work abroad
than the students who had not participated in an exchange. The study showed
that mobility also has a positive effect on career opportunities. It also states that
mobility has a positive effect on HEIs’ overarching internationalisation.

The study, Utlandsstudier – vad händer sedan? (Studies abroad – what happens
afterwards?), which investigated the situation for Swedish students, confirms this
picture. The report states that people who have studied abroad as exchange stu-
dents are distinguished by a being established on the labour market to a greater
degree and having a higher income than those who studied their entire pro-
gramme in Sweden and those who studied abroad independently. 6

4 Universitetskanslersämbetet and SCB, Universitet och högskolor Internationell student­
mobilitet i högskolan 2016/17, Statistiska meddelande, UF 20 SM 1703, 2017.
5 Brandenburg, Uwe et al, CHE­consult for the European Commission, Erasmus Impact
study – Effects of mobility on the skills and employability of students and the interna­
tionalisation of higher education institutions, 2014.
6 CSN and SCB, Utlandsstudier – vad händer sedan?, CSN rapport 2017:7, 2017.

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