Evaluating universal student mobility: contrasting policy discourse and student narratives in Luxembourg

ABSTRACT

For decades, Luxembourg did without a national university. Before and after the University of Luxembourg’s founding (UL) (2003), tertiary education and the status of being a Luxembourgish student have been closely linked to international student mobility (ISM). This long-standing tradition was maintained in the new university via compulsory ISM: to bolster elite European networks and internationalization. Focusing on ISM from Luxembourg, based on analysis of policy documents regarding the UL’s foundation and state allowances for students, we show that policymakers strongly favored ISM. We confront this policy agenda with the perspectives and self-identifications of both credit and degree mobile Luxembourgish students. In narrative interviews, students did not always view compulsory ISM as positively as did policymakers. For students, the quality of a stay abroad is far more important: a perspective lacking in the state’s quantity-driven agenda. In the country with the highest ISM rates globally, constraints continue to hinder equity in ISM.

KEYWORDS:

• international student mobility
• higher education
• policy
• students' perspectives
• Luxembourg

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The official policy documents (in French) and interviews (in German) were translated into English by the authors.

2. We refer to the document numbers as annotated in Table 1.

3. Due to some private circumstances, e.g. chronic illness, students can be granted an exemption from this obligation.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Horizon 2020 [649263].

Notes on contributors

Emilia Kmiotek-Meier

Emilia Kmiotek-Meier has been a Post-doctoral researcher at the University of Cologne since May 2019, where she coordinates the project ‘Successful at the labour market’ focussing higher education graduates’ competencies. She obtained her PhD from the University of Luxembourg in 2019. Her thesis focused on credit and degree student mobility from Luxembourg. Her research interests lie at the intersection of higher education, transition studies, and life course research; she combines qualitative and quantitative methods. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1838-4781

Justin J.W. Powell

Justin J.W. Powell is Professor of Sociology of Education, Institute of Education & Society, University of Luxembourg. His comparative institutional analyses of education and science systems explore persistence and change in special and inclusive education, in vocational training and higher education, and in educational research and science policy. His award-winning books include the co-edited The Century of Science: The Global Triumph of the Research University (Emerald, 2017/2019). https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6567-6189