7 students are standing in a line with a flag from their country in their hands

In 2022, 363 900 graduates in the EU studied abroad during their degree for at least 3 months (so-called credit mobile graduates enrolled in tertiary education ISCED levels 5-8). As there were 4.1 million graduates in the EU that year, this means that 8.9% had participated in a mobility programme abroad. 

Among EU countries, the largest number of graduates with credit mobility stays, 179 997 or 49.5% of the total, came from France. With 51 100 or a 14.0% share of the total, Germany had the second highest number, while Italy ranked third with 47 815 credit mobile graduates, a share of 13.1%.  

The main destination for EU graduates who studied abroad was Spain, accounting for 11.1% of all credit mobile graduates, followed by non-EU countries: the United Kingdom (9.7%) and the United States (7.2%). 

Graduate credit mobility by country of enrolment and destination, % of all credit mobile graduates, 2022. Infographic. See link to full dataset below.

Source datasets: educ_uoe_mobc01 and educ_uoe_mobc02 

Some EU countries attracted large shares of students from specific EU countries. Greece had for example by far the highest share of students from Cyprus 54.3%, while Italy received 51.1% of credit mobile graduates from Malta, and Germany hosted 27.1% of students from Luxembourg. 

Regarding the top 3 destinations for each EU country, Spain and Germany were the most common destinations. Among non-EU countries, the United Kingdom and the United States were the only countries to appear among the top 3 destinations for credit mobile graduates from any of the EU countries. 

This article marks the International Student’s Day celebrated annually on 17 November.

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Methodological notes 

  • Tertiary education levels 5-8, International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED): 
    • ISCED 5: Short-cycle tertiary education 
    • ISCED 6: Bachelor’s or equivalent level 
    • ISCED 7: Master’s or equivalent level 
    • ISCED 8: Doctoral or equivalent level 
  • 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.  
  • In contrast to credit mobile, tertiary graduates may also be degree mobile if they completed secondary education somewhere other than the EU country where they were studying, regardless of whether it was in another EU country or in a non-EU country. This news item refers to credit mobile graduates only. Tertiary graduates may be degree mobile and credit mobile at the same time.  
  • Data for credit mobile graduates for doctoral or equivalent studies (ISCED 8) are not available for some EU countries: Germany, Estonia, Greece and the Netherlands. 
  • ‘Top 3 worldwide destinations of EU credit mobile graduates’ refers to ISCED levels 5-7 only (ISCED 8 excluded). 
  • Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Greece and the Netherlands: excluding doctoral or equivalent studies. 
  • Czechia: undercoverage for short-cycle tertiary. 
  • Germany: data available for a limited number of partner countries. Based on data rounded to the nearest 100. 
  • Estonia: undercoverage. 
  • Italy: excluding short-cycle tertiary. 
  • Netherlands: data from 2021. 
  • Poland and Slovakia: for short-cycle tertiary, data were negligible for graduates and students from abroad. 

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