Major trends in student mobility in Europe

Student mobility is a pivotal characteristic in the history of the European continent, which the Covid-19 epidemic has lastingly disrupted. Local and short-term mobility is experiencing a strong revival of interest, especially as it is facilitated within the EU. Through the study of the major trends in student mobility in Europe, Campus France provides an analytical tool to support higher education institutions that are led to redirect their international strategy by focusing their efforts on this region, its institutions and its students.

Europe: leading destination for international students

Unesco figures show that Europe is the leading host zone for mobile students with more than 2.4 million students in 2018, ahead of North America. About 75% of these students come from the European Union. As a mobility hub, Europe is also the second largest sending zone for mobile students, after Asia, with 1.3 million students leaving to study in another country.

Four countries, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and France, host more than half of the student mobility in Europe. It should be noted that countries such as Turkey (+130%) and Poland (+96%) are experiencing very strong growth in the number of mobile students hosted between 2013 and 2018.

Europe attracts students from all continents. China is the leading country of origin of international students in mobility in Europe (10% of all students) and India (3rd) has seen the volume of its students double in Europe. However, one out of every two international students in Europe is a European student.

Within Europe, Russia is the leading host country for this student mobility, particularly for students from the former USSR. Turkey (+153%) and Poland (+94%) stand out once again for the strong growth in the number of European students hosted between 2013 and 2018.

As far as the Erasmus + programme is concerned, 325,000 students will have completed a mobility within this framework in 2017-2018. Spain continues to lead the ranking of study destinations, ahead of Germany, the United Kingdom and France, which continues to be the leading country of origin of Erasmus+ students.

Most of students mobilities carried out in Europe, whether for a degree or an exchange, takes place in countries that are geographically and culturally close to each other.

France: an attractiveness to improve in Europe

Even though it welcomes more and more European students, France is only the ninth most popular destination country for European students on degree mobility and the fourth most attractive country for Erasmus + students.

Over 90,000 European students study in France in 19-20, 75% of whom are from the European Union. France is particularly attractive to students from Southern Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal). The number of students from the neighbouring countries to the north and east of Europe (Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany, the United Kingdom) tends to stall or even decrease slightly.

In 19-20, European students mostly came to France to study at university (70%).  A significant increase in the number of these students in BTS/CPGE type courses (+98%), business schools (+77%) and art and architecture schools (+49%) is to be noted.

At the university level, there are specific characteristics for European students in the distribution by field of study. They are more numerous in disciplines such as literature and languages, humanities and social sciences, law and political science. On the other hand, they are less present in scientific training in Economics and Economic and Social Administration. 

In total, European students represent 19% of international students in degree mobility in France, compared to 35% in the UK, 46% in Germany and 81% in Russia. France's attractiveness is more oriented towards other regions of the world such as Africa and the Middle East.

There is still a lot of work to be done to promote French programmes and institutions to European students in a world that has been severely affected by the Covid-19 epidemic. The involvement of French institutions in European universities, the dynamism of Franco-foreign campuses in Eastern Europe and the steady growth of Erasmus+ mobility should help to reaffirm France's place among the main European university countries.

Read the note Major trends in student mobility in Europe

Produced by Campus France's Study Department, this note is the second volume of the “Regional Dynamics” collection (Dynamiques regionales). These publications describe the state of higher education and the international mobility of students in a geographical area.