An Evaluation of the Spatial Repercussions of Student Mobility Policy in European Higher Education Area Using Network Analysis

Yıl 2024, Cilt: 9 Sayı: 1, 74 - 121, 30.03.2024

Savaş Zafer Şahin , Betül Bulut Şahin , Emrah Söylemez

https://doi.org/10.30828/real.1392301

Öz

The mobility of international students is a crucial tool for the European Union's goal of creating a unified European Higher Education Area. Despite the initial assumption that all European universities and students can benefit equally from cross-university study experiences, certain European regions have become disproportionately favored over time. This has resulted in specific geographical patterns, challenging the principles of equality and openness in the EU's higher education policy. To better understand these spatial effects and enhance the EU's mobility policy effectiveness, this research analyzes the network properties of Erasmus+, comparing it with traditional degree-seeking activities. Utilizing a modularity measure with data from the EU and UNESCO, the study reveals significant sub-regional variations in the Erasmus+ geographical network, posing challenges for policy implementation and limiting mobility alternatives.

Anahtar Kelimeler

International student mobility, policy implementation, European Higher Education Area (EHEA), Erasmus+, Social Network Analysis

Etik Beyan

Makalemizde herhangi bir insan veya hayvan araştırması kullanılmadığından etik izin alınmamıştır. Kamuya açık veri kaynakları veri seti olarak kullanılmıştır.

Destekleyen Kurum

yok

Kaynakça

• Altbach, P. G. (2004). Globalization and the university myths and realities in an unequal world. Tertiary Education and Management, 10, 3–25. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:TEAM.0000012239.55136.4b
• Altbach, P.G. (2009). Peripheries and centers: research universities in developing countries. Asia Pacific Education Review, 10, 15–27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-009-9000-9
• Altbach, P. G., & de Wit, H. (2017). Trump and the coming revolution in higher education internationalization. International Higher Education, 89, 3–5.
• Balaz, V., Williams, A.M. & Chrančoková, M. (2017). Connectivity as the facilitator of intra‐European student migration, Population, Space and Place, 24, https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2101
• Ball, S. J. (2016). Following policy: Networks, network ethnography, and education policy mobilities. Journal of Education Policy, 31(5), 549-566.
• Barkholt, K. (2005) The Bologna Process and integration theory: Convergence and autonomy, Higher Education in Europe, 30(1).
• Beine, M., Noël, R., & Ragot, L. (2014). Determinants of the international mobility of students. Economics of Education Review, 41, 40-54.
• Bols, A., & Nillson, T., (2004), A Revolution at your university?, Pharmacy Education, 4(2), 103-105.
• Breznik, K. (2017). Institutional network of engineering students in the Erasmus Program, Global Journal of Engineering Education, 19 (1).
• Breznik, K., & Gologranc, G. (2014). Erasmus mobility on the institutional level. In Proceedings for International Conference “Management, Knowledge and Learning”, (pp. 1361-1366).
• Breznik, K., & Ragozini, G. (2015). Exploring the Italian Erasmus agreements by a network analysis perspective. In Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE/ACM international conference on advances in social networks analysis and mining, (pp. 837-838).
• Breznik, K. & Skrbinjek, V. (2020). Erasmus Student Mobility Flows, European Journal of Education, 55, 105-117.
• Brooks, R. (2018). Higher education mobilities: a cross-national European comparison, Geoforum, 93, 87-96.
• Brooks, R. & Waters, J. (2011). Student Mobilities, Migration, and the Internationalization of Higher Education: Springer.
• Buckner, E. (2019). The internationalization of higher education: National interpretations of a global model. Comparative Education Review, 63(3), 315-336.
• Bulut-Sahin, B., & Brooks, R. (2023). Nation-bounded internationalization of higher education: a comparative analysis of two periphery countries, Higher Education Research & Development, 42:5, 1071 1085, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2023.2193723
• Campus France (2020). Major Trends in Student Mobility in Europe. https://www.campusfrance.org/en/major-trends-in-student-mobility-in-europe
• Crăciun, D. & de Gayardon, A. (2021). Internationalization in Isolation: COVID-19 Implications, International Higher Education, 108, https://doi.org/10.36197/IHE.2021.108.04
• Critical Internationalization Studies Network (CISN) (n.d.). https://criticalinternationalization.net/
• Cross, R., Borgatti, S. P., & Parker, A. (2002). Making invisible work visible: Using social network analysis to support strategic collaboration. California Management Review, 44(2), 25-46.
• Derzsi, A., Derzsy, N., Káptalan, E., & Néda, Z. (2011). Topology of the Erasmus student mobility network. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 390(13), 2601-2610.
• de Wit, H. (2024). ‘Everything That Quacks is Internationalization’ - Critical Reflections on the Evolution of Higher Education Internationalization. Journal of Studies in International Education, 28(1), 3-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/10283153231221655
• European Commission (n.d.). About Erasmus+, https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/
• European Commission (2018). The European Higher Education Area in 2018: Bologna Process Implementation Report. https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/sites/default/files/bologna_internet_chapter_7_0.pdf (Accessed on 25 February 2022)
• European Commission (EC) (2020a). The European Higher Education Area in 2020: Bologna Process Implementation Report. https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/sites/default/files/ehea_bologna_2020_chapter05_0.pdf (Accessed on 25 February 2022)
• European Commission (EC) (2020b). Prospective Report on the Future of Transnational Collaboration in European Higher Education, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/098140 (Accessed on 25 February 2022)
• European Higher Education Area (EHEA) (2012). Mobility Strategy 2020 for the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) http://www.ehea.info/media.ehea.info/file/2012_Bucharest/39/2/2012_EHEA_Mobility_Strategy_606392.pdf (Accessed on 25 February 2022)
• Eurostat (2020). Learning mobility statistics. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Learning_mobility_statistics#Key_figures (Accessed on 25 February 2022)
• Gadar, L., Kosztyan, Z.T., Telcs, A. & Abonyi, J. (2020). A Multilayer and Spatial Description of the Erasmus Mobility Network, Nature, 7(41).
• Glass, C. R., & Cruz, N. I. (2023). Moving towards multipolarity: Shifts in the core-periphery structure of international student mobility and world rankings (2000–2019). Higher Education, 85(2), 415-435.
• Glückler, J. (2007). Economic geography and the evolution of networks. Journal of Economic Geography, 7(5), 619-634.
• Hou, C., & Du, D. (2022). The changing patterns of international student mobility: A network perspective. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(1), 248-272.
• Hupe, P. L. (2011). The thesis of incongruent implementation: Revisiting Pressman and Wildavsky. Public Policy and Administration, 26(1), 63-80.
• Jones, E., Leask, B., Brandenburg, U. & De Wit, H. (2021). Global social responsibility and the internationalization of higher education for society, Journal of Studies in International Education, 1-18, https://doi.org/10.1177/10283153211031679
• Kondakci, Y., Bedenlier, S. & Zawachki-Richter, O. (2018). Social network analysis of international student mobility: uncovering the rise of regional hubs, Higher Education, 75, 517-535.
• Macrander, A. (2017). Fractal inequality: A social network analysis of global and regional international student mobility. Research in Comparative and International Education, 12(2), 243-268.
• Marcoux, M. & Lusseau, D. (2013). "Network modularity promotes cooperation", Journal of Theoretical Biology, 324, 103–108.
• Marginson, S. & van der Wende, M. (2007), "Globalisation and Higher Education", OECD Education Working Papers, No. 8, OECD Publishing. doi:10.1787/173831738240
• Marques, M., Zapp, M., & Powell, J.J.W. (2020). Europeanizing universities: Expanding and consolidating networks of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Program, Higher Education Policy, https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-020-00192-z
• Mızıkacı, F. (2005). Prospects for European integration: Turkish higher education. Higher Education in Europe, 30(1), 67-79.
• Newman, D. (2003). On borders and power: a theoretical framework, Journal of Borderlands Studies, 18(1), 13–25.
• Newman, M., E., J., & Girvan, M., (2004). Finding and evaluating community structure in networks, Physical Review E., 69, 026113.
• Nizzolini, S. (2020). Teacher networking, professional development & motivation within EU platforms & Erasmus+ Program: Teacher network dynamics in the knowledge society. In Zahao, J. (Ed.), Collaborative Convergence and Virtual Teamwork for Organizational Transformation, 195-218.
• OECD (2021). Education at a glance 2021: OECD indicators. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/5a49e448-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/5a49e448-en
• OECD (2022). International student mobility (indicator). doi: 10.1787/4bcf6fc3-en (Accessed on 25 February 2022)
• Prague Communiqué (2001). Ministerial Conference. https://www.ehea.info/page-ministerial-conference-prague-2001.
• Pressman, J. L., & Wildavsky, A. (1984). Implementation: How great expectations in Washington are dashed in Oakland; Or, why it's amazing that federal programs work at all, this being a saga of the Economic Development Administration as told by two sympathetic observers who seek to build morals on a foundation (Vol. 708). Univ of California Press.
• Reichardt, J. & Bornholdt, S. (2008). "Market segmentation: the network approach: insights into a giant online market", Understanding Complex Systems, 19–36.
• Rhodes, R. A. (1997). Understanding governance: Policy networks, governance, reflexivity and accountability. Open University.
• Shields, R. (2013). Globalization and international student mobility: A network analysis. Comparative Education Review, 57(4), 609–636. https://doi.org/10.1086/671752
• Stein, S. (2016). Rethinking the ethics of internationalization: Five challenges for higher education, UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 12(2). https://doi.org/10.5070/D4122031205
• Souto-Otero, Manuel, Jeroen Huisman, Maarja Beerkens, Hans De Wit, and Sunčica Vujić (2013). "Barriers to international student mobility: Evidence from the Erasmus program." Educational Researcher 42, 2, 70-77.
• Teichler, U. (1996). Student Mobility in the Framework of ERASMUS: Findings of an Evaluation Study. European Journal of Education, 31(2), 153–179. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1503594
• Teichler, U. (2002). Erasmus in the Socrates programme. Findings of an evaluation study. Bonn, Lemmens.
• Ter Wal, A.L.J., & Boschma, R.A. (2009). Applying social network analysis in economic geography: framing some key analytic issues. Annual Regional Science, 43, 739–756 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-008-0258-3
• UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) (2022, February 25). Glossary. http://glossary.uis.unesco.org/glossary/en/home Van Damme, D. (2001). Quality issues in the internationalisation of higher education. Higher Education, 41, 415–441. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1017598422297
• Van Mol, C. & Ekamper, P. (2016). Destination cities of European exchange students, Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography, 116:1, 85-91, https://doi.org/10.1080/00167223.2015.1136229
• Watson, P. (2009). Regional themes and global means in supra-national higher education policy. Higher Education, 58, 419-438.
• Yin, M., & Yeakey, C. C. (2019). The policy implications of the global flow of tertiary students: a social network analysis. Oxford Review of Education, 45(1), 50-69.