Inclusive universities: evidence from the Erasmus program

The Erasmus Program is the main international mobility program in Europe and worldwide. Since its launch in 1987, it has been growing both in terms of participants and budget devoted to its activities. However, despite the possibility to obtain additional funding, the participation of students with special needs in the program remains extremely low. This work quantifies the participation of these students to Erasmus and explores the network of universities involved in their mobility, along the period 2008–2013. In addition, it proposes a novel index to measure the level of inclusiveness of universities welcoming international students with disabilities. Quantifying and analyzing this aspect could be the basis for better designing targeted policies and for widening the participation of students with impairments to international mobility.

[1]  Vesna Skrbinjek,et al.  Erasmus student mobility flows , 2020 .

[2]  Vassiliki Papatsiba,et al.  Political and Individual Rationales of Student Mobility: a case‐study of ERASMUS and a French regional scheme for studies abroad , 2005 .

[3]  Jon Kleinberg,et al.  Authoritative sources in a hyperlinked environment , 1999, SODA '98.

[4]  S. Heirweg,et al.  Study Abroad Programmes for All? Barriers to Participation in International Mobility Programmes Perceived by Students with Disabilities , 2020, International Journal of Disability, Development and Education.

[5]  Ulrich Teichler,et al.  Mobility During the Course of Study and After Graduation , 2001 .

[6]  S. Pijl,et al.  Peer Acceptance and Friendships of Students with Disabilities in General Education: The Role of Child, Peer, and Classroom Variables , 2012 .

[7]  C. Engel.  The impact of Erasmus mobility on the professional career: Empirical results of international studies on temporary student and teaching staff mobility , 2010 .

[8]  A. Daly,et al.  Employing Social Network Analysis to Examine the Social Participation of Students Identified as Having Special Educational Needs and Disabilities , 2019, International Journal of Disability, Development and Education.

[9]  D. Helbing,et al.  Gender Gap in the ERASMUS Mobility Program , 2016, PloS one.

[10]  Karina Oborune.  Becoming more European after ERASMUS? The Impact of the ERASMUS Programme on Political and Cultural Identity , 2013 .

[11]  J. Keogh,et al.  Exchange programmes and student mobility: meeting student's expectations or an expensive holiday? , 2009, Nurse education today.

[12]  R. Shields.  Globalization and International Student Mobility: A Network Analysis , 2013, Comparative Education Review.

[13]  Verena Behrnd,et al.  Intercultural competence and training outcomes of students with experiences abroad , 2012 .

[14]  The Impact of Short-Term Study Abroad on the Identity Development of College Students with Learning Disabilities and/or AD/HD. , 2005 .

[15]  Anastasia Kitsantas,et al.  Studying Abroad: The Role of College Students' Goals on the Development of Cross-Cultural Skills and Global Understanding , 2004 .

[16]  Philip Gendall,et al.  An Investigation of Factors Associated With Student Participation in Study Abroad , 2010 .

[17]  P. Bryła.  The Impact of International Student Mobility on Subsequent Employment and Professional Career: A Large-Scale Survey among Polish Former Erasmus Students , 2015 .

[18]  Adam G. Dunn,et al.  Understanding large temporal networks and spatial networks: exploration, pattern searching, visualization and network evolution , 2015 .

[19]  Stanley Wasserman,et al.  Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications , 1994, Structural analysis in the social sciences.

[20]  C. Johnstone,et al.  Accommodations, Accessibility, and Culture: Increasing Access to Study Abroad for Students With Disabilities , 2020, Journal of Studies in International Education.

[21]  N. Toit.  Designing a Model for Facilitating the Inclusion of Higher Education International Students with Disabilities in South Africa , 2018 .

[22]  P. Mathews,et al.  College Students with Disabilities and Study Abroad: Implications for International Education Staff. , 1999 .

[23]  M. P. Vitale,et al.  Analysing International Student Mobility Flows in Higher Education: A Comparative Study on European Countries , 2020 .

[24]  T. Farmer,et al.  Social Networks and Peer-Assessed Problem Behavior in Elementary Classrooms , 1999 .

[25]  M. Parey,et al.  Downloading Wisdom from Online Crowds , 2007, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[26]  Giancarlo Ragozini,et al.  Exploring the Italian erasmus agreements by a network analysis perspective , 2015, 2015 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM).

[27]  B. d’Hombres,et al.  International mobility of students in Italy and the UK: does it pay off and for whom? , 2021, Higher Education.

[28]  Freidholm Maiworm.  ERASMUS: Continuity and Change in the 1990s , 2001 .

[29]  Luca De Benedictis,et al.  Gender bias in the Erasmus network of universities , 2020, Applied Network Science.

[30]  Noemi Derzsy,et al.  Topology of the Erasmus student mobility network , 2011 .

[31]  Crolyn S. Langley,et al.  Interacting sojourners: A study of students studying abroad , 2005 .

[32]  John Bound,et al.  Measurement error in survey data , 2001 .

[33]  A. Daly,et al.  Friendship and support networks among students with disabilities in middle school , 2020 .

[34]  Larry A. Braskamp,et al.  Assessing Progress in Global Learning and Development of Students with Education Abroad Experiences. , 2009 .

[35]  Vladimir Batagelj,et al.  Understanding Large Temporal Networks and Spatial Networks: Exploration, Pattern Searching, Visualization and Network Evolution , 2014 .

[36]  James J. Heckman,et al.  Handbook of Econometrics , 1985 .