Christof Van Mol

Intra-European Student Mobility in International Higher Education Circuits

Intra-European Student Mobility in International Higher Education Circuits focuses on the phenomenon of international student exchanges in Europe. Strongly interdisciplinary in its focus, this book empirically addresses four main research questions: who goes abroad, how students reconstruct their social network abroad, whether intra-European student mobility leads to an increased sense of European identity, and whether participating in a European exchange programme influences future migratory behaviour. The text systematically combines quantitative and qualitative data, and adopts a firm international comparative approach, focusing on the cases of Austria, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom. The empirical data originates from a large-scale online survey, as well as in-depth interviews and focus groups conducted with students in higher education.

Improving web survey efficiency: the impact of an extra reminder and reminder content on web survey response

Abstract With the growing possibilities for conducting web surveys, researchers increasingly use such surveys to recruit student samples for research purposes in a wide array of social science disciplines. Simultaneously, higher education students are recurrently asked to complete course and teacher evaluations online and to participate in small-scale research projects of fellow students, potentially leading to survey fatigue among student populations across the globe. One of the most frequently reported effects of over-surveying is a decrease in overall response rates. This situation has significant impacts on the generalizability and external validity of findings based on web surveys. The collection of reliable data is, nevertheless, crucial for researchers as well as educational practitioners and administrators, and strategies should be developed for achieving acceptable response rates. This paper reports on a methodological experiment (N = 15,651) conducted at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, in which possible strategies to improve survey response are explored. I specifically focus on the impact of an extra reminder as well as specific reminder contents on response rates. The results reveal that extra reminders are effective for increasing response rates, but not for diversifying the sample.

The Reconstruction of a Social Network Abroad. An Analysis of the Interaction Patterns of Erasmus Students

Abstract Most studies of interaction patterns of international students focus on ‘degree mobility’ and flows from ‘non-Western’ towards ‘Western’ countries. Nevertheless, in Europe, the shorter alternative of ‘credit mobility’ is more prevalent. However, empirical evidence on social network formation within this specific group of international students remains limited. Therefore, in this article, we study the formation of interaction patterns of students who study for a delineated period in another European country, based on a research project conducted in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Poland and the UK. The results show that specific interaction patterns can be explained from a flow perspective. Moreover, our study shows that students’ networks abroad are already formed before actual departure. In addition, we provide empirical evidence that institutional as well as group practices encourage or impede interaction between exchange and local students. Two transversal dimensions are especially relevant in the explanation of how groups are formed abroad: language proficiency and shared social spaces.

Falling in love with(in) Europe: European bi-national love relationships, European identification and transnational solidarity

Love is often a key factor in migration decisions. Partner relationships and union formation have also been identified as forming an intrinsic part of intra-European migration. Nevertheless, empirical research into intra-European love migration remains rather scarce. In this paper, we focus on the often neglected but substantial intra-European moves. We analyse the relationship between bi-national couple formation, identification as a European and European transnational solidarity. The analyses are based on the EUMARR survey, investigating bi-national marriages in a unified Europe, comparing European bi-national and uni-national couples. In this paper, we focus on the Netherlands (n = 898) and compare Dutch–Dutch with Dutch–EU couples. Our findings indicate that bi-national couples are more likely to identify as European compared to uni-national couples, but this is not reflected in more solidarity to European countries in times of crisis. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of the European integration process.Love is often a key factor in migration decisions. Partner relationships and union formation have also been identified as forming an intrinsic part of intra-European migration. Nevertheless, empirical research into intra-European love migration remains rather scarce. In this paper, we focus on the often neglected but substantial intra-European moves. We analyse the relationship between bi-national couple formation, identification as a European and European transnational solidarity. The analyses are based on the EUMARR survey, investigating bi-national marriages in a unified Europe, comparing European bi-national and uni-national couples. In this paper, we focus on the Netherlands ( n  = 898) and compare Dutch–Dutch with Dutch–EU couples. Our findings indicate that bi-national couples are more likely to identify as European compared to uni-national couples, but this is not reflected in more solidarity to European countries in times of crisis. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of the European integration process.

The Reconstruction of a Social Network Abroad

One of the main aims of the Erasmus programme, as indicated in the introductory chapter, is to create a shared sense of European identity, based on the idea that increased social interaction of European young adults would lead to such an identity. Despite the importance attributed to social interaction between Europeans, studies that look specifically into how Erasmus students reconstitute their social network abroad are scarce (for a few exceptions, see Ballatore 2010; Dervin 2009; Murphy-Lejeune 2002; Tsoukalas 2008). Interaction between migrant groups and the residents of a host society is nevertheless a recurrent topic in both educational and migration studies. Several benefits would be derived from (positive) intercultural contact, such as increased language proficiency (see for example Espinosa and Massey 1997; Joy Benzie 2010; Yager 1998), professional development (see also Harvey 2008), better emotional wellbeing and socio-cultural adjustment (see also Kashima and Loh 2006; Smith and Khawaja 2011), and in the higher education context, also inter-cultural learning, understanding (see Gu et al. 2010; Harrison and Peacock 2010; Nilsson 2003), and better academic achievement (see also Kashima and Loh 2006; Westwood and Barker 1990).1 Despite the benefits often associated with contact between international and local students, such contact often shows itself to be very limited (see for example Brown 2009; Caudery et al. 2008; Dervin 2009, 2011; Harrison and Peacock 2010; Kimmel and Volet 2012; Tsoukalas 2008; Waters and Brooks 2011).

New directions in studying policies of international student mobility and migration

ABSTRACT Many host-countries have liberalised migration policies to facilitate the transition of international students to the local labour market as they are seen as economic agents who increase global competitiveness and integrate easily. However, how migration and educational policies at the regional and national levels emerge, are negotiated and become implemented, and how they contradict other policies, remains little-known. This special issue aims to address that gap. This introductory paper offers an analytical framework for studying policies of international student mobility that addresses four critical dimensions: discourses, contexts, agents and temporalities before offering some key avenues for future research.

Involving Roma parents: analysing the good practice of a primary school in Ghent

Recently, societal and academic attention toward the topic of Roma integration has been increasing. With this article we aim to make a contribution to the domain of educational research. We explore strategies that schools can adopt to improve the involvement of Roma parents. Using a theory-based stakeholder evaluation, we more specifically analyse how the organizational model of a primary school contributes to the establishment of trust between both parties. The results show that the theoretical principles guiding the daily school practices and interventions are aligned with the needs and specificity of the target audience, but are also broadly supported by the school staff. As such, the organizational structure of the school contributes to the support of the school staff for the global school vision and to the overall success of the approach. Nevertheless, some tension remains between team members working on the ‘care’ aspect and teachers working solely within the classroom.

The Nexus between Student Mobility and Future Migration Aspirations

The transition from an industrial towards a post-industrial society involved a shift in global labour markets, from national economies mainly based on the manufacturing sector towards ‘global knowledge economies’, as I showed in Chapter 2. In this context, human capital is considered vital, and a fierce competition exists between countries and world regions to attract and keep the best and brightest in their labour markets.1 With this background of a ‘global competition for talent’, promoting human movement across borders has been repeatedly underlined by the European Commission. The promotion of intra-European mobility was, for example, an essential part of the Lisbon Strategy ‘to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’ (European Parliament 2000), and is also of key importance in Europe’s new growth strategy, ‘Europe 2020’. Moreover, as I also argued in Chapter 2, higher education plays a fundamental role in European economic growth strategies. In the Prague communique (2001: 1), the European Ministers in charge of Higher Education stated, for example, that the creation of a European Higher Education Area ‘is a condition for enhancing the attractiveness and competitiveness of higher education institutions in Europe’.

Erasmus Students: Frenzied Euro-enthusiasts?

The initial migration process can be divided into several stages: the decision to leave, the departure, the journey, the arrival, and settling in the host-country. Migrants’ arrival and settling processes often go together with adaptation processes, as they may arrive in unfamiliar environments. Several authors have shown how migrants’ adaptation processes can lead to identity changes (see for example Boekestijn 1988; Duany 2003; Salih 2003), which are both the result of being confronted with a different — social, economic, political — setting, as well as due to specific efforts by the state, particularly through immigration policies that aim to integrate migrants in the host society.

Post-industrial Society and European Integration

Since the end of the Second World War, significant changes have taken place in European societies. When framing the context in which the genesis of the Erasmus programme and the subsequent increase in organised intra-Europe an student mobility occurs, two developments can be considered especially relevant, since they significantly affected the social, economic and political functions present in European higher education today, and consequently altered the experience(s) of students in higher education.