Should I Stay or Should I Go? An Analysis of the Determinants of Intra-European Student Mobility

In recent years, organised student mobility within the European space has increasingly caught the interest of scholarly researchers. As the focus of most research projects has been on the outcome of mobility programmes, studies into the determinants of credit student mobility remain rather focused on individual decision-making. However, in order to gain a more profound understanding of how students' motivations to participate in international mobility programmes are shaped, we have to go a step further. Therefore, in this paper, we present a study into the determinants of intra-European student mobility, conducted in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Poland, and UK, taking into account students' personal background and motivations. The results are based on an online survey (n = 5654) and in-depth interviews and focus groups with non-mobile as well as ex-mobile students (n = 71). The results show that mobility decisions are socially and biographically embedded. Moreover, we provide evidence that the decision to spend a study period abroad cannot be fully understood without taking into consideration the macroeconomic context