The international mobility of students has considerably gained ground as a major policy in Europe over the last decades. As a result of the heightened political importance attached to international mobility, and the manifold practical attempts to increase it, there is an enhanced need for comprehensive, up-to-date, and reliable information on the phenomenon: statistical data on mobility are needed to measure progress - or otherwise - towards the various mobility goals and thus to inform the political actors of the impact of the programmes and other measures launched. however, data measuring real mobility (as opposd to foreign nationality) is not always available and is rarely sufficiently differentiated.
This publication has therefore a double objective. First, it investigates which data on international mobility are being compiled and made available and which are not, both at the international, the natinal and the programme level. Second, this study presents in one volume the student mobility data identified, and - based on an analysis of these data - it tries to depict a picture of the main trends in international student mobility into and out of 32 European countries. Next to analysing and prsenting the availability and quality of data on intrnational student mobility, this report also makes recommendations for the improvement of student mobility statistics both at national and international level.