Statistics Explained

Learning mobility statistics


Data extracted in September 2023.

Planned article update: September 2024.

Highlights

1.52 million students from abroad were undertaking tertiary level studies across the EU in 2021.

In 2021, there were 376 400 students from abroad studying in Germany. They accounted for 25 % of all tertiary education students from abroad studying in the EU. The next largest shares were 17 % in France and 9 % in the Netherlands.

More than two-fifths (44 %) of the students from abroad who were undertaking tertiary level studies across the EU in 2021 were from Europe, 25 % from Asia and 17 % from Africa.

Stacked vertical bar chart showing share of tertiary education students from abroad by continent of origin as percentage of all tertiary students from abroad in the EU, individual EU Member States, EFTA countries, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Türkiye for the year 2021. Totalling 100 percent, each country column contains seven stacks representing Europe, Africa, Northern America, Caribbean, central and South America, Asia, Oceania and unspecified.
Share of tertiary education students from abroad by continent of origin, 2021
(% of all tertiary education students from abroad)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobs02)

This article presents statistics on the mobility of tertiary education students in the European Union (EU) and forms part of an online publication on education and training in the EU. It focuses on tertiary education students who are internationally mobile.

Tertiary students are degree mobile if they completed secondary education somewhere (regardless of whether this was in another EU Member State or in a non-member country) other than the EU Member State where they are studying. They are credit mobile if they spend a short-term study or work-related time abroad while being enrolled in their home country's tertiary institution. The first part of the analysis focuses on tertiary students, the second part on tertiary graduates, followed by an analysis comparing the number of students with the number of graduates. The article concludes with a presentation of data on credit mobile graduates.

The article provides information on students and graduates analysed by level of education, with a focus on country of origin for degree mobile students and country of destination for credit mobile students. As well as the information provided in this article, data are available for degree mobile students and graduates analysed by field of study.


Full article

Students from abroad

Number and share of students from abroad

Table showing number of tertiary education students from abroad by sex and level of education in the EU, individual EU Member States, EFTA countries, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Türkiye for the year 2021. The total, men and women in short-cycle tertiary, bachelor’s or equivalent, master’s or equivalent and doctoral or equivalent.
Table 1: Tertiary education students from abroad by sex and level of education, 2021
(number)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobs02)

There were 1.52 million students from abroad who were undertaking tertiary level studies across the EU in 2021. As is the case for all students, not just those from abroad, the highest shares of these students were studying for either a bachelor's degree (43.6 %) or a master's degree (44.0 %), while 10.2 % were studying for doctoral degrees and 2.2 % followed short-cycle tertiary courses.

In 2021, a total of 376 400 tertiary education students from abroad (24.8 % of the total number of students from abroad in the EU) were studying in Germany. The next largest populations of tertiary education students from abroad were recorded in France (252 900; 16.6 % of the EU total) and the Netherlands (135 500; 8.9 % of the EU total).

Scatter chart showing percentage share of tertiary education students from abroad within each level of education in the EU, individual EU Member States, EFTA countries, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Türkiye. Each country has four scatter plots representing short-cycle tertiary, bachelor’s or equivalent, master’s or equivalent and doctoral or equivalent for the year 2021.
Figure 1: Share of tertiary education students from abroad within each level of education, 2021
(% of all students)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobs02) and (educ_uoe_enrt01)

Relative to the overall number of tertiary education students in each EU Member State (in other words, the sum of local students and students from abroad), Luxembourg had the highest proportion of students from abroad in 2021, at 49.3 %, followed by Cyprus (21.8 %). There were 11 other Member States where at least one-tenth of all tertiary education students were from abroad. By contrast, students from abroad made up a relatively small proportion of the tertiary education student population in Spain (3.6 %), Italy (3.4 %), Greece (2.8 %) and Croatia (2.7 %).

Figure 1 provides a more detailed analysis of the share of students from abroad in each stage of tertiary education in 2021, ranked on the share for the whole of tertiary education. In relation to the total number of students at each level, the share of students from abroad generally increases as a function of the level of education, from relatively low shares for short-cycle tertiary courses to much higher shares for doctoral degrees. For the EU as a whole, the shares in 2021 ranged from 2.4 % for short-cycle tertiary courses to 23.0 % for doctoral degrees.

  • In 20 of the EU Member States, the highest share of students from abroad was observed for doctoral degrees.
  • In Latvia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovakia and Romania, the highest share of students from abroad was for master's degrees.
  • Greece recorded its highest share of students from abroad for bachelor's degrees.
  • Cyprus recorded its highest share of students from abroad for short-cycle tertiary courses.

Within each education level, some of the smaller EU Member States recorded particularly high shares of tertiary students from abroad in 2021.

  • The highest share of students from abroad studying for short-cycle tertiary courses was recorded in Cyprus, at 43.1 %; for comparison, the next highest shares were 13.3 % and 12.3 % in Portugal and Malta, respectively.
  • More than one-quarter of all students studying for bachelor's degrees in Cyprus (28.8 %) were from abroad, as were nearly one-quarter in Luxembourg (24.1 %). In six other Member States, more than 1 in 10 students at the bachelor level were from abroad.
  • Just over three-quarters (76.1 %) of master's students in Luxembourg were from abroad; for comparison, the next highest share was 27.2 % in Latvia. Shares from one-fifth to one-quarter were observed in four other EU Member States, while there were five Member States where the share of master's students from abroad was below 1 in 10.
  • For doctoral students, Luxembourg again reported the highest share of students from abroad (90.6 %), followed by Malta (75.6 %) and, at some distance, the Netherlands (48.3 %). A further 11 Member States reported shares of doctoral students from abroad of at least 25.0 %. In seven Member States, the share of doctoral students from abroad was below 1 in 10.

Origin of students from abroad

Stacked vertical bar chart showing share of tertiary education students from abroad by continent of origin as percentage of all tertiary students from abroad in the EU, individual EU Member States, EFTA countries, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Türkiye for the year 2021. Totalling 100 percent, each country column contains seven stacks representing Europe, Africa, Northern America, Caribbean, central and South America, Asia, Oceania and unspecified.
Figure 2: Share of tertiary education students from abroad by continent of origin, 2021
(% of all tertiary education students from abroad)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobs02)

Figure 2 reflects how factors like language, cultural and historical ties, as well as geographical proximity can influence learning mobility. The establishment of the European higher education area may also be an influencing factor on mobility.

  • For 15 of the EU Member States for which data are available (incomplete data for the Netherlands), a majority of students from abroad in 2021 were from elsewhere in Europe. This share was highest in Slovenia (93.1 %), Croatia (90.1 %) and Slovakia (89.8 %). The proportion of tertiary students from elsewhere in Europe was just below one-third in Finland, just above one-quarter in Ireland, and below one-fifth in France (16.6 %) and Portugal (16.0 %).
  • In Latvia, just over half (50.7 %) of all tertiary students from abroad came from Asia, while more than 40.0 % came from Asia in Cyprus, Ireland and Hungary.
  • In France, more than half (53.0 %) of tertiary students from abroad in 2021 were from Africa, while this share was more than one-third (36.7 %) in Portugal.
  • The share of tertiary students who were from the Caribbean, Central and South America was particularly high in Spain (43.2 %) and Portugal (40.4 %).
  • Ireland (17.1 %) was the only Member State where more than 3.3 % of tertiary education students from abroad originated from Northern America.
  • The share of tertiary education students from abroad that originated from Oceania was small in all of the Member States, peaking at 0.8 % in Malta.
Table showing percentage share of tertiary education students from abroad by country of origin for the three largest partner countries in the EU, individual EU Member States, EFTA countries, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Türkiye for the year 2021.
Table 2: Share of tertiary education students from abroad by country of origin for the three largest partner countries, 2021
(% of all tertiary education students from abroad)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobs02)

A more detailed analysis for the origin of students from abroad is presented in Table 2. For 13 of the EU Member States, the principal country of origin for students from abroad in 2021 was another Member State. These were often neighbouring countries (such as students from Slovakia in Czechia) or countries that may be reached by a relatively short water crossing (for example, students from Finland studying in Estonia). In four of the EU Member States – Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands (2020 data) and Austria – students from Germany made up the largest share of students from abroad, while German students were the second largest group of students from abroad in two other Member States (Croatia and Luxembourg) and the third largest group in Bulgaria, Greece, Latvia and Sweden.

Across the whole of the EU, China (including Hong Kong) was the most common country of origin for tertiary students from abroad in 2021, accounting for 5.8 % of the total. There were more students from China (than any other foreign country) studying in Germany, Ireland, Italy and Sweden, while Chinese students accounted for the second or third largest population of foreign students within the tertiary education sectors of four other EU Member States. The only other non-member countries that appeared multiple times in the rankings were India and several countries neighbouring the EU – Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

Field of study of students from abroad

Table showing percentage share of tertiary education students from abroad by field in the EU, individual EU Member States, EFTA countries, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Türkiye for the year 2021.
Table 3: Share of tertiary education students from abroad by field, 2021
(% of all tertiary education students from abroad)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobs04)

Table 3 provides an analysis of students from abroad according to their field of education. Among the fields shown in the table — which is based on the ISCED-F 2013 classification (see the section on Data sources for more information) — the most common field for tertiary students from abroad in the EU was business, administration and law (21.7 % of all students from abroad). This was followed by engineering, manufacturing and construction (17.7 %), health and welfare (13.1 %), arts and humanities (12.1 %), and social sciences, journalism and information (11.2 %). By contrast, students from abroad following services, education, or agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary fields of study accounted for a relatively small share of the total number of students from abroad (each less than 3.0 %).

Among the EU Member States, there was a high degree of variation concerning the share of tertiary students from abroad studying each field of education, reflecting at least to some degree, their specialisations. For example, just over one-fifth (21.4 %) of all students from abroad studying in Italy in 2021 followed a course in the arts or humanities, while 28.7 % of the students from abroad studying in Germany followed a course in engineering, manufacturing or construction.

Business, administration and law was the most common field of study for tertiary students from abroad in 15 of the EU Member States; for example, this field of education accounted for almost three-fifths (59.6 %) of all tertiary students from abroad studying in Cyprus. Health or welfare was the most common field of study for students from abroad in eight of the Member States; for example, this field of education accounted for close to three-fifths (58.0 %) of all tertiary students from abroad studying in Bulgaria. Engineering, manufacturing and construction was the most common field in Germany, Greece and Sweden, while arts or humanities was the most common in Italy.

Graduates from abroad

There were 255 400 tertiary students from abroad that graduated in the EU (excluding graduates at doctoral or equivalent level in the Netherlands) during 2021. A majority were graduates from master's degree courses (54.9 %), while more than one-third (37.2 %) graduated from bachelor's degree courses, 6.2 % from doctoral courses and 1.7 % from short-cycle tertiary courses.

Like for students, Eurostat also publishes data on degree graduates from abroad by sex, level of education, country of origin and field of education. Figure 3 presents some of this information and provides an analysis of the share of graduates from abroad within each level of tertiary education, ranked on the share for tertiary education as a whole. Relative to the overall number of tertiary graduates in 2021, Luxembourg had the highest proportion (54.3 %) of graduates from abroad, followed by the Netherlands (18.9 %). In nine other EU Member States the share of tertiary education graduates who originated from abroad was at least 10.0 %. By contrast, students from abroad made up a relatively small proportion (1.9 %) of the total number of tertiary graduates in Greece.

In relation to the total number of graduates at each level, the share of graduates from abroad generally increases as a function of the level of education. For the EU, the share ranged in 2021 from 1.6 % for graduates of short-cycle tertiary courses to 23.1 % for graduates of doctoral degrees. This is a similar pattern to that observed for students from abroad – see Figure 1.

Among the EU Member States, the highest shares of graduates from abroad in 2021 in each of the levels of tertiary education were observed in Luxembourg, ranging from 23.0 % for bachelor's degree courses to 88.1 % for doctoral degrees. Relatively high shares of graduates from abroad were also observed in:

  • Malta, Cyprus and Denmark for short-cycle tertiary education, at least 10.0 %;
  • Cyprus, Austria, the Netherlands and Czechia for bachelor's degrees, at least 10.0 %;
  • the Netherlands, Estonia, Austria, Latvia, Sweden and Denmark, at least 20.0 %;
  • Malta and Belgium for doctoral degrees, at least 45.0 %.
Scatter chart showing percentage share of tertiary education graduates from abroad within each level of education in the EU, individual EU Member States, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Türkiye. Each country has four scatter plots representing short-cycle tertiary, bachelor’s or equivalent, master’s or equivalent and doctoral or equivalent for the year 2021.
Figure 3: Share of tertiary education graduates from abroad within each level of education, 2021
(% of all graduates)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobg03)

Credit mobile graduates

Table showing number of credit mobile tertiary graduates from abroad by level of education in the EU, individual EU Member States, Norway, Switzerland, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye for the year 2021.
Table 4: Number of credit mobile tertiary graduates from abroad, 2021
(number)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobc01)

The previous sections of this article have focused on degree mobile students and graduates – students from abroad enrolled as a regular student with the intention of graduating from the course/study in the country of destination. The last section of this article concerns credit mobile graduates. Credit mobility is defined as temporary tertiary education and/or study-related traineeship abroad within the framework of enrolment in a tertiary education programme at a home institution (usually) for the purpose of gaining academic credit. The analysis concerns credit mobile students who were mobile for either a period of study or for a work placement, or both combined.

The number of credit mobile graduates from the EU in 2021 was approximately 390 000, although this is likely to be an underestimate as coverage is not complete. In particular, data for credit mobile graduates for doctoral or equivalent studies are not available for several EU Member States, including Germany. Based on the available data, approximately half of credit mobile graduates had followed master's or equivalent studies and most of the rest had followed bachelor's or equivalent studies; relatively small numbers of credit mobile graduates were recorded for short-cycle tertiary studies or doctoral or equivalent studies.

Among the EU Member States, the largest number of credit mobile graduates in 2021 were from France, at 176 100. The second highest number of credit mobile graduates, 68 700 (excluding doctoral or equivalent studies) was from Germany.

  • The largest numbers of credit mobile graduates in short-cycle tertiary studies (10 200), bachelor's or equivalent studies (44 600) and master's or equivalent studies (120 400) were from France.
  • Within doctoral or equivalent studies, the largest numbers of credit mobile graduates were from Italy (5 800) and Spain (3 100).
Table showing percentage share of all credit mobile graduates for the three largest partner countries in the EU, individual EU Member States, Norway, Switzerland, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye for the year 2021.
Table 5: Share of credit mobile graduates for the three largest partner countries, 2021
(% of all credit mobile graduates)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobc02)

As for degree mobile students/graduates, credit mobile graduates within EU Member States went to many different countries, because of similar language, cultural and historical ties, as well as geographical proximity. For the EU as a whole (excluding Ireland and Slovenia), the largest number of credit mobile graduates in 2021 went to the United Kingdom (10.7 %) and Spain (9.4 %). The third largest share went to the United States (7.5 %). Together, these three partners accounted for 27.6 % of all credit mobile graduates from the EU.

An analysis of the destinations of credit mobile graduates is presented in Table 5. For 20 of the EU Member States, the principal destination for credit mobile graduates in 2021 had been another Member State. Several of these were neighbouring Member States (such as graduates from Luxembourg who had been in Germany) or countries with the same or similar languages (for example, graduates from Cyprus who had been in Greece). Looking across the top three destinations for all Member States together, Spain and Germany were the most common destinations. Among non-member countries, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia were the only countries to appear among the top three destinations for graduates from any of the Member States.

Scatter chart showing percentage distribution of type of mobility scheme among credit mobile graduates (at least three months abroad for a study period and/or work placement) at bachelor's or equivalent level in the EU, individual EU Member States, Norway, Switzerland, North Macedonia and Serbia. Each country has three scatter plots representing EU programmes, other international or national programmes and other programmes for the year 2021.
Figure 4: Distribution of type of mobility scheme among credit mobile graduates (at least three months abroad for a study period and/or work placement) at bachelor's or equivalent level, 2021
(%)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobc01)

The final analysis in this article also concerns credit mobile graduates but focuses on people who had graduated from bachelor's or equivalent programmes.

Data are presented for three types of credit mobility programmes in Figure 4:

  • EU programmes are those financed via programmes such as Erasmus+;
  • other international/national programmes are other bi- or multilateral programmes, for example partnerships between universities;
  • other programmes concern students who organise their mobility which is credited by their home institution.

Note that mobility which is not recognised in a student's home institution and therefore falls outside the student's programme at their home institution (so-called bridge mobility) is excluded.

Around three-fifths of EU credit mobile graduates from bachelor's or equivalent programmes in 2021 had participated in EU programmes (60.9 %). Other international/national programmes had a share of 9.7 %, while other programmes made up the remaining 29.5 %.

  • In 22 of the 26 EU Member States for which data are available (no data for Ireland), a majority of credit mobile graduates from bachelor's or equivalent level studies in 2021 had participated in EU programmes, with this share reaching 100.0 % for graduates from Cyprus. Aside from Cyprus, there were a further 10 Member States where the share of credit mobile graduates that had participated in EU programmes was higher than 90.0 %.
  • Denmark and Sweden were the only Member States where around four-fifths of credit mobile graduates participated in other international or national programmes (42.6 % and 38.2 %, respectively); the next highest share was one-fifth (21.1 %) for graduates from Austria.
  • There was only one Member State – the Netherlands – where the residual category of 'other programmes' accounted for the highest share of credit mobile graduates; a majority of credit mobile graduates from the Netherlands participated in other programmes (56.9 %).

Source data for tables and graphs

Excel.jpg Learning mobility statistics: tables and figures

Data sources

Source

The standards for international statistics on education are set by three international organisations:

The source of data used in this article is a joint UNESCO/OECD/Eurostat (UOE) data collection on education statistics and this is the basis for the core components of Eurostat's database on education statistics; in combination with the joint data collection Eurostat also collects data on regional enrolments and foreign language learning.

More information about the joint data collection is available in an article on the UOE methodology.

Classification

The international standard classification of education (ISCED) is the basis for international education statistics, describing nine different levels of education.

Data by fields of education are classified according to the ISCED-F 2013 classification. The fields of education are broad domains, branches or areas of content covered by an education programme or qualification. The classification has a three-level hierarchy based on broad fields (the highest level), narrow fields (the second level) and detailed fields (the third level) of education.

Key concepts

The UOE data collection covers domestic educational activity. In other words, it concerns education provided within a country's own territory regardless of ownership or sponsorship of the institutions concerned (whether public or private, national or foreign) or of the education delivery mechanism (whether face-to-face or at a distance). In particular, all students studying within a country, including internationally mobile students from abroad, should be included in the statistics of the reporting country. Students who have left the reporting country to study abroad should not be included by the reporting country even where such students are partially or fully funded by national or subnational authorities. Concerning short exchange programmes (of at least 3 months but shorter than one academic year), students who remain enrolled in their home institution and where credits for successful completion of the study abroad are awarded by the home institution should be reported by the country of the home institution in which they are enrolled.

By contrast, educational activities which take place abroad – for example, in institutions run by providers located in the reporting country – should be excluded.

In cases of cross-border distance learning/e-learning, students should be reported by the country of the institution providing the service, not the country of residence of the student. Equally, students who commute across borders should be reported by the country where they are enrolled rather than where they are resident.

The country of origin for learning mobility data should, in principle, refer to the country of prior secondary education. However, countries might use the country of prior residence or citizenship or another concept. Information on the definitions currently used by countries is available under Table 1 for degree mobile students, Figure 3 for degree mobile graduates and Table 4 for credit mobile graduates.

More information on the concepts used for these statistics can be found in the Methodological manual on learning mobility in tertiary education.

Context

Bologna process

Since the introduction of the Bologna process (see the article on Education and training statistics introduced) a major expansion in higher education systems has taken place, accompanied by significant reforms in degree structures and quality assurance systems.

One of the operational goals of the Bologna process was to remove obstacles to student mobility across Europe, and more broadly support the mobility of students, teachers and researchers. It established a European Higher Education Area to facilitate student and staff mobility, to make higher education more inclusive and accessible, and to make higher education in Europe more attractive and competitive worldwide.

The European Higher Education Area has brought about far-reaching changes which make it easier to study and train abroad. Both the three tier bachelor-master-doctorate degree structure and advances in quality assurance have facilitated student and staff mobility, while the use of mobility and quality assurance tools (such as the European credit transfer and accumulation system (ECTS) or the European quality assurance register (EQAR)) have facilitated mutual trust, academic recognition and mobility.

Erasmus+

In 2014, the Erasmus programme was superseded by the EU's programme for education, training, youth and sport, referred to as 'Erasmus+'. The programme currently covers the period 2021–2027 and has an overall budget of €26.2 billion. This is nearly double the funding compared with its predecessor programme (2014–2020).

In the field of higher education, Erasmus+ gives students and academic staff the opportunity to develop their skills and boost their employment prospects. Students can study abroad for up to 12 months (during each cycle of tertiary education). The programme currently covers all EU Member States, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye.

More information about higher education initiatives is available in the article on Education and training statistics introduced.

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