Student mobility holds a central place in EU strategic priorities. The Council Recommendation “Europe on the Move” [1] set an ambitious target for 2030: at least 23% of tertiary graduates should gain international learning experience during their studies.
Current figures show there is still a long way to go. According to the Education and Training Monitor 2024[2], only 10.9% of graduates have taken part in learning mobility so far — with 4.2% through degree mobility and 6.7% through credit mobility. So far, only Luxembourg and Cyprus have already met this 2030 goal, underlining the challenge faced by most EU member states.
Figure 1. Number of students in outgoing learning mobility (Source:European Commission, Education and Training Monitor 20242, p. 60)
The question that arises is: who is responsible for enhancing the number of mobile students?
The FOI team conducted a Mentimeter activity during the presentation of the SuMoS project at the FOI International Relations Day 2025 as a preparation for the workshop. The results are shown in the Figure 2.
Figure 2. Results of the mentimeter activity during FOI International Days 2025
Results from the workshop held at FON in Belgrade are similar, as shown in Figure 3:
Figure 3. Results of the mentimeter activity during SuMoS workshop at FON
The Mentimeter studies at the University of Zagreb (FOI) and University of Belgrade (FON) show that the HEI staff surveyed have clearly integrated and subscribe to the European Commission’s objective to increase student mobility participation, and are taking on that responsibility. Students are named as sharing nearly equally the responsibility for increasing participation in student mobility programmes, but, without impetus from Ministries or accrediting bodies, without increased support for mobility projects (budget and support from IRO staff), it seems unrealistic to place this responsibility on the students themselves.
The fact is that the student mobility ecosystem contains a large number of processes, stakeholders and interactions between them, and the cooperation of all involved in increasing the number of students in mobility is necessary.
A large number of processes are typically carried out by the home faculty international relations offices (IRO) and include forging and strengthening partnerships, managing and renewing inter-institutional agreements (IIA), promoting programs, recruiting mobility candidates, sending out nominations, accompanying the student as s/he applies to the host institution, carrying out the grant selection process and calculating individual grants, supporting pre-departure preparations, assisting in learning agreement preparation where needed, brokering between the student and the host faculty IRO during pre-departure preparations and during the mobility itself, supporting the student during the mobility period, and supporting ECTS recognition and post-departure reintegration.
It is therefore not surprising that higher education institutions are recognized as the bearers of the greatest responsibility for increasing the number of students with mobility experience, and the responsibility is shared between all those involved - international relations offices, HEI management, academic advisors and professors. However, cooperation with other stakeholders in the mobility process is also extremely important, including students themselves and their families, the central international relations offices at the university level (where applicable) and policy makers (Ministry of Higher Education, National Agency, Accreditation agencies).
For a more detailed insight into the processes and interactions of stakeholders within the student mobility ecosystem, explore the interactive student mobility ecosystem interactions on the Figure below.
[1] Council of the European Union. (2024). Council Recommendation ‘Europe on the Move’ – learning mobility opportunities for everyone. https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-9804-2024-INIT/en/pdf
[1] European Commission (2024) Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, Education and training monitor 2024 – Comparative report, Publications Office of the European Union, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/815875