A Mobility Scoreboard report shows where European countries stand with regards to promoting learning mobility and removing obstacles to it in higher education.
Eurydice published a background report with new data for the Mobility Scoreboard’s higher education area. The European Commission (EC)’s Mobility Scoreboard was launched in 2016 and covers both Higher Education and initial Vocational Education and Training (I-VET) (i.e. VET that is usually carried out at upper secondary level before students begin working life). It is a tool to monitor countries’ structural reforms in view of creating a positive environment to support ‘learning mobility’ (i.e. transnational mobility undertaken for a period of time, consciously organised for educational purposes or to acquire new competences or knowledge).
Three years after the first, this is now the second report for Higher Education. It covers the 28 EU Member States, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia and Turkey as well as Switzerland (Switzerland did not contribute to the 2016 edition). The report provides updated background information for six composite indicators:
- information and guidance;
- foreign language preparation;
- portability of grants and loans;
- support for disadvantaged learners;
- recognition of learning outcomes; and
- automatic recognition of qualifications.
Overall, Switzerland could do better to create a supportive environment for learning mobility in Higher Education. Switzerland figures only in the second lowest category (of five) for both ‘supporting disadvantaged learners’ and ‘recognition of qualifications’. These deficits explain why Switzerland is not among the top and well performers in Europe. France, the Flemish Community of Belgium and Finland perform best, and the German-speaking Community of Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Austria, Poland, Liechtenstein and Norway all perform well overall. Nevertheless, Switzerland is in the top category with respect to the ‘portability of public grants and loans’ and in the second for ‘foreign language preparation’ and ‘recognition of learning outcomes through ECTS’.
In comparison with the first background report covering 2015/16, most progress has been made for the indicator of ‘automatic recognition of qualifications’, where the education systems of the following countries have improved: Turkey; Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (due to the Baltic multilateral agreement); and the United Kingdom. Progress has been made also for the indicators on disadvantaged learning and recognition of learning outcomes, even though the slight changes in the definition of these indicators do not allow for a direct comparison between the two editions of the Mobility Scoreboard.
The Mobility Scoreboard is anchored in the EU’s 2011 ‘Youth on the move’ policy that recommended the EU Member States to take action in promoting the learning mobility of young people.