The film L'Auberge Espagnole
(The Spanish Apartment), which sealed Barcelona's status as an
Erasmus icon, was not far off from reality.
Spain is not only one of the most popular destinations for
Erasmus students, it is also the country with the highest number
of university students who decide to go abroad, in absolute
terms at least, according to the preliminary results of the IRiE
research project, conducted under the aegis of the ESPON
programme specialising in the analysis of regional policies.
Spain is top along with the other three big EU States, France,
Germany and Italy and, in part, Great Britain, which, even
before Brexit, was an anomaly with regards to Erasmus, with few
British students taking part in the programme but lots of
Europeans going to the UK to study.
Part of the IRiE study looked at the incoming and outgoing flows
of Erasmus students in the academic years of 2009-2010 and
2013-2014.
In this period of time, the most visible changes in the flows
took place in countries that were in the middle or at the bottom
of the table.
In just four years the number of students that went from
Croatia, Turkey, Malta and Cyprus to have an Erasmus stay abroad
increased by over 50%.
The researchers explained that this is a sign of the "growing
integration of these more peripheral areas within the Erasmus
network".
Peripheral areas are also increasingly in vogue among the
students, with the popularity of the Balkan countries, central
and Eastern Europe, and Cyprus and Turkey rising. Here the
number of students received has risen by over 50%, with students
coming from Spain, France, Germany and Italy in particular.
If the same numbers are analysed in relation to the population,
the picture changes radically.
Luxembourg, the Baltic countries, Finland and Iceland leap to
the top of the table of the States of origin of Erasmus
students.
At the opposite end of the table is the United Kingdom, along
with Turkey, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria, despite the
significant increases registered by these latter countries in
the period analysed.
In the same way, we find the Nordic countries among the most
popular destinations, while Malta and Portugal stand out in
southern Europe.
Turkey and the countries of central and Eastern Europe drop
down, in part because they are new to the Erasmus programme, and
in part because their languages are less well known abroad, with
Greece and Bulgaria even using different alphabets.
By cross-analysing the incoming and outgoing flows, the
researchers observed that some countries 'specialise' in
welcoming foreign students: in other words the number of
students who come to study from abroad is much higher that the
number who pack their bags. This is the case with the Nordic
countries, which are among the most popular for the quality of
their higher education, and with the two English-speaking
countries, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
In other states, such as Greece, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Turkey and
Romania, it is the opposite.
This trend is also seen in Italy, France and Germany, which
could indicate a greater propensity to study abroad or be a sign
of a gradual 'brain drain'.
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