Fewer UK students opt to study in Europe

Citation

(2005), "Fewer UK students opt to study in Europe", Education + Training, Vol. 47 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2005.00447aab.004

Fewer UK students opt to study in Europe

The number of UK students going to Europe as part of their course is falling as student numbers on languages degree courses decline, according to a report on UK student mobility. Although more UK students are going abroad as part of their study, increasingly they are choosing English-speaking destinations, according to International Student Mobility. The responses of 80 higher-education institutions to the survey indicated that just over half of all non-Erasmus mobility of UK students is to North America. Some 60 per cent of students who undertook work or study abroad went to the principal Anglophone countries (USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) in 2002-03. The region with the largest increase (73 per cent) in UK students between 2000-01 and 2002-03 was Asia.

The number of UK students travelling to other European countries under the Erasmus programme fell from 9,628 in 2000-01 to 7,957 in 2002-03 – a reduction of almost 12 per cent. Nevertheless, Erasmus remains the largest single mobility scheme, with about twice as many UK Erasmus students as there are UK students travelling to all of the non-Erasmus countries. Students reported that financial considerations were the most important deterrent to going abroad, and that lack of linguistic ability was next in importance. There was, however, a generally held belief among students and higher-education staff that mobility was of great benefit to students in their studies and future careers.

The report – funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), among others – aims to help the higher-education funding councils, the DfES, higher education institutions and other organisations with an interest in student mobility to understand the range and types of student mobility available to UK students and the current trends in mobility. The research was undertaken by the Sussex Centre for Migration Research, at Sussex University, and the Centre for Applied Population Research, at the University of Dundee.