Learning mobility statistics

Data extracted in September 2024.

Planned article update: September 2025.

Highlights

1.66 million students from abroad (from other EU countries or from non-EU countries) were undertaking tertiary level studies across the EU in 2022.

In 2022, there were 403 500 students from abroad studying in Germany. They accounted for 24% of all tertiary education students from abroad studying in the EU, which could be compared with the next largest share in France (16%).

More than 2 in 5 (43%) of the students from abroad who were undertaking tertiary level studies across the EU in 2022 were from Europe, 25% from Asia and 17% from Africa.

Share of tertiary education students from abroad by continent of origin, 2022
(% of all tertiary education students from abroad)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobs02)

This article presents statistics on the mobility of tertiary education students in the European Union (EU) and forms part of an online publication on Education and training in the EU. It focuses on tertiary education students who are internationally mobile.

Tertiary students are degree mobile in the EU if they completed secondary education somewhere (regardless of whether this was in another EU country or in a non-EU country) other than the EU country where they are studying. They are credit mobile if they spend a short-term study or work-related time abroad while being enrolled in their home country’s tertiary institution. The 1st part of the analysis focuses on tertiary students, the 2nd part on tertiary graduates, followed by an analysis comparing the number of students with the number of graduates. The article concludes with a presentation of data on credit-mobile graduates.

The article provides information on students and graduates analysed by level of education, with a focus on country of origin for degree-mobile students and country of destination for credit-mobile students. As well as the information provided in this article, data are available for degree-mobile students and graduates analysed by field of study.

Students from abroad

Number and share of students from abroad

Table 1: Tertiary education students from abroad by sex and level of education, 2022
(number)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobs02)

There were 1.66 million students from abroad who were undertaking tertiary level studies across the EU in 2022. As is the case for all students, not just those from abroad, the highest shares of these students were studying for either a bachelor’s degree (43.8%) or a master’s degree (44.7%), while 9.1% were studying for doctoral degrees and 2.4% followed short-cycle tertiary courses.

In 2022, a total of 403 500 tertiary education students from abroad (24.3% of the total number of students from abroad in the EU) were studying in Germany. The next largest populations of tertiary education students from abroad were recorded in France (263 500; 15.9% of the EU total) and the Netherlands (163 900, excluding students studying for a doctoral or equivalent education; 9.9% of the EU total).

Figure 1: Share of tertiary education students from abroad within each level of education, 2022
(% of all students)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobs02) and (educ_uoe_enrt01)

Relative to the overall number of tertiary education students in each EU country (in other words, the sum of local students and students from abroad), Luxembourg had the highest proportion of students from abroad in 2022, at 50.5%, followed by Malta (23.8%) and Cyprus (20.2%). There were 12 other EU countries where at least one tenth of all tertiary education students were from abroad. By contrast, students from abroad made up a relatively small proportion of the tertiary education student population in Italy (4.2%), Spain (4.0%), Croatia (3.6%) and Greece (3.1%).

Figure 1 provides a more detailed analysis of the share of students from abroad in each stage of tertiary education in 2022, ranked on the share for all tertiary education. In relation to the total number of students at each level, the share of students from abroad generally increases as a function of the level of education, from relatively low shares for short-cycle tertiary courses to much higher shares for doctoral degrees. For the EU as a whole, the shares in 2022 ranged from 2.7% for short-cycle tertiary courses to 22.7% for doctoral degrees.

In 19 of the EU countries, the highest share of students from abroad was observed for doctoral degrees.
In Latvia, the Netherlands (excluding students studying for a doctoral or equivalent education), Bulgaria, Lithuania and Romania, the highest share of students from abroad was for master’s degrees.
Cyprus, Poland and Greece recorded their highest share of students from abroad for bachelor’s degrees.

Within each education level, some of the smaller EU countries recorded particularly high shares of tertiary students from abroad in 2022.

The highest share of students from abroad studying on short-cycle tertiary courses was recorded in Cyprus, at 26.9%; for comparison, the next highest shares were 15.6% and 12.0% in Portugal and Malta, respectively.
Cyprus also recorded the highest share of students from abroad studying for bachelor’s degrees, at 28.4%, while relatively high shares were also recorded in Luxembourg (25.2%) and Malta (22.1%). In 6 other EU countries, more than 1 in 10 of the students studying for a bachelor’s degree or equivalent were from abroad.
Just over three quarters (76.7%) of master’s students in Luxembourg were from abroad; for comparison, the next highest share was 27.7% in Latvia. Shares of more than 20.0% were observed in 6 other EU countries, while there were 4 EU countries where the share of master’s students from abroad was below 1 in 10.
For doctoral students, Luxembourg again reported the highest share of students from abroad (91.0%), while Malta (75.1%) was the only other EU country where a majority of doctoral students originated from abroad; note, no data are available for the Netherlands. There were a further 12 EU countries that reported shares of doctoral students from abroad of at least 25.0%. In 5 EU countries, the share of doctoral students from abroad was below 1 in 10.

Origin of students from abroad

Figure 2: Share of tertiary education students from abroad by continent of origin, 2022
(% of all tertiary education students from abroad)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobs02)

Figure 2 reflects how factors like language, cultural and historical ties, as well as geographical proximity can influence learning mobility. The establishment of the European Higher Education Area may also be an influencing factor on mobility.

For 17 of the EU countries, a majority of students from abroad in 2022 were from elsewhere in Europe. This share was highest in Slovenia (92.3%), Slovakia (90.2%) and Croatia (90.0%). Students from elsewhere in Europe accounted for less than a third of all tertiary education students from abroad in Italy (32.1%) and Ireland (28.7%), with shares below one fifth in France (17.2%) and Portugal (16.9%).
Students from Asia accounted for between 40.0% and 50.0% of all tertiary students from abroad in Cyprus, Ireland, Latvia, Hungary and Finland.
In France, more than half (52.5%) of tertiary students from abroad in 2021 were from Africa, while this share was more than one third (39.8%) in Portugal.
The share of tertiary students who were from the Caribbean, Central and South America was particularly high in Spain (45.5%) and Portugal (35.9%).
Ireland (16.6%) was the only EU country where more than 3.3% of tertiary education students from abroad originated from North America.
The share of tertiary education students from abroad that originated from Oceania was small in all of the EU countries, peaking at 0.6% in Denmark.

Table 2: Share of tertiary education students from abroad by country of origin for the 3 largest partner countries, 2022
(% of all tertiary education students from abroad)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobs02)

A more detailed analysis for the origin of students from abroad is presented in Table 2. For 13 of the EU countries, the principal country of origin for students from abroad in 2022 was another EU country. These were often neighbouring countries (such as students from Slovakia in Czechia) or countries that may be reached by a relatively short water crossing (for example, students from Finland studying in Estonia). In 4 of the EU countries – Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands (2020 data) and Austria – students from Germany made up the largest share of students from abroad, while German students were the 2nd largest group of students from abroad in 2 other EU countries (Croatia and Luxembourg) and the 3rd largest group in Bulgaria, Greece, Latvia, Malta, Slovakia and Sweden.

Across the whole of the EU, China (including Hong Kong) was the most common country of origin for tertiary students from abroad in 2022, accounting for 6.0% of the total. There were more students from China (than any other foreign country) studying in Germany, Finland and Sweden, while Chinese students accounted for the 2nd or 3rd largest population of foreign students within the tertiary education sectors of 6 other EU countries. The only other non-EU countries that appeared multiple times in the rankings were India and several countries neighbouring the EU – Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia and Ukraine.

Field of study of students from abroad

Table 3: Share of tertiary education students from abroad by field, 2022
(% of all tertiary education students from abroad)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobs04)

Table 3 provides an analysis of students from abroad according to their field of education. Among the fields shown in the table – which is based on the ISCED-F 2013 classification (see the section on Data sources for more information) – across the EU, the most common field for tertiary students from abroad was business, administration and law (22.2% of all students from abroad). This was followed by engineering, manufacturing and construction (16.5%), health and welfare (15.0%), arts and humanities (12.1%), and social sciences, journalism and information (10.6%). By contrast, students from abroad following services, education, or agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary fields of study accounted for a relatively small share of the total number of students from abroad (each less than 3.0%).

Among the EU countries, there was a high degree of variation concerning the share of tertiary students from abroad studying each field of education, reflecting at least to some degree, their specialisations. For example, around a fifth (19.6%) of all students from abroad studying in Italy in 2022 followed a course in the arts or humanities, while 25.8% of the students from abroad studying in Germany followed a course in engineering, manufacturing or construction.

Business, administration and law was the most common field of study for tertiary students from abroad in 15 of the EU countries; for example, this field of education accounted for more than half (53.5%) of all tertiary students from abroad studying in Cyprus. Health or welfare was the most common field of study for students from abroad in 8 of the EU countries; for example, this field of education accounted for close to three fifths (57.0%) of all tertiary students from abroad studying in Bulgaria. Engineering, manufacturing and construction was the most common field in Germany, Greece, Italy and Sweden.

Graduates from abroad

In 2022, there were 263 400 tertiary students from abroad that graduated in the EU (excluding graduates at doctoral or equivalent level in the Netherlands). A majority were graduates from master’s degree courses (56.4%), while more than one third (36.1%) graduated from bachelor’s degree courses, 6.4% from doctoral courses and 1.1% from short-cycle tertiary courses.

Like for students, Eurostat also publishes data on degree graduates from abroad by sex, level of education, country of origin and field of education. Figure 3 presents some of this information and provides an analysis of the share of graduates from abroad within each level of tertiary education, ranked on the share for tertiary education as a whole. Relative to the overall number of tertiary graduates in 2022, Luxembourg had the highest proportion (51.9%) of graduates from abroad, followed by Malta (24.1%). In 12 other EU countries (including the Netherlands for which 2022 data are not available, but the 2021 average was 18.9%), the share of tertiary education graduates who originated from abroad was at least 10.0%. By contrast, students from abroad made up a relatively small proportion (2.0%) of the total number of tertiary graduates in Greece.

In relation to the total number of graduates at each level, the share of graduates from abroad generally increases as a function of the level of education. For the EU, the share ranged in 2022 from 5.6% for graduates of bachelor's degrees to 22.8% for graduates of doctoral degrees. This is a similar pattern to that observed for students from abroad – see Figure 1.

Among EU countries, the highest shares of graduates from abroad in 2022 in most of the levels of tertiary education were observed in Luxembourg, ranging from 25.2% for bachelor’s degrees to 71.9% for master’s degrees and 89.9% for doctoral degrees. For short-cycle tertiary courses, Malta had the highest share, at 33.8%. Relatively high shares of graduates from abroad were also observed in

Luxembourg, Cyprus and Denmark for short-cycle tertiary education, at least 10.0%
Malta, Cyprus, Austria, the Netherlands and Czechia for bachelor’s degrees, at least 10.0%
the Netherlands, Austria, Latvia, Estonia, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Malta and Hungary for master’s degrees, at least 20.0%
Malta and Belgium for doctoral degrees, at least 45.0%.

Figure 3: Share of tertiary education graduates from abroad within each level of education, 2022
(% of all graduates)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobg03)

Credit-mobile graduates

Table 4: Number of credit-mobile tertiary graduates from abroad, 2022
(number)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobc01)

The previous sections of this article have focused on degree-mobile students and graduates – students from abroad enrolled as a regular student with the intention of graduating from the course/study in the country of destination. The last section of this article concerns credit-mobile graduates. Credit mobility is defined as temporary tertiary education and/or study-related traineeship abroad within the framework of enrolment in a tertiary education programme at a home institution (usually) for the purpose of gaining academic credit. The analysis concerns credit-mobile students who were mobile for either a period of study or for a work placement, or both combined.

The number of credit-mobile graduates from the EU in 2022 was approximately 390 000, although this is likely to be an underestimate as coverage isn’t complete. In particular, data for credit-mobile graduates for doctoral or equivalent studies aren’t available for several EU countries, including Germany and the Netherlands. Based on the available data, slightly more than half of all credit-mobile graduates had followed master’s or equivalent studies and most of the rest had followed bachelor's or equivalent studies; relatively small numbers of credit-mobile graduates were recorded for short-cycle tertiary studies or doctoral or equivalent studies.

Among the EU countries, the largest number of credit-mobile graduates in 2022 were from France, at 180 000. The 2nd highest number of credit-mobile graduates, 51 100 (excluding doctoral or equivalent studies) was from Germany, closely followed by Italy (47 800).

The largest numbers of credit-mobile graduates in short-cycle tertiary studies (9 700), bachelor’s or equivalent studies (44 600) and master’s or equivalent studies (124 600) were from France.
Within doctoral or equivalent studies, the largest numbers of credit-mobile graduates were from Italy (7 500) and Spain (3 300).

Table 5: Share of credit-mobile graduates for the 3 largest partner countries, 2022
(% of all credit-mobile graduates)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobc02)

As for degree-mobile students/graduates, credit-mobile graduates within EU countries went to study in a wide range of countries, often because of similar language, cultural and historical ties, as well as geographical proximity. For the EU as a whole (excluding Slovenia), the largest number of credit-mobile graduates in 2022 went to Spain (11.2%) and the United Kingdom (9.9%). The 3rd largest share went to the United States (7.0%). Together, these 3 partners accounted for 28.2% of all credit-mobile graduates from the EU.

An analysis of the destinations of credit-mobile graduates is presented in Table 5. For 21 of the EU countries, the principal destination for credit-mobile graduates in 2022 had been another EU country. Several of these were neighbouring EU countries (such as graduates from Luxembourg who had been in Germany) or countries with the same or similar languages (for example, graduates from Cyprus who had been in Greece). Looking across the top 3 destinations for all EU countries together, Spain and Germany were the most common destinations. Among non-EU countries, the United Kingdom and the United States were the only countries to appear multiple times among the top 3 destinations for graduates from any of the EU countries.

Figure 4: Distribution of type of mobility scheme among credit-mobile graduates (at least 3 months abroad for a study period and/or work placement) at bachelor’s or equivalent level, 2022
(%)
Source: Eurostat (educ_uoe_mobc01)

The final analysis in this article also concerns credit-mobile graduates but focuses on people who had graduated from bachelor’s or equivalent programmes.

Data are presented for 3 types of credit mobility programmes in Figure 4

EU programmes are those financed via programmes such as Erasmus+
other international/national programmes are other bi- or multilateral programmes, for example partnerships between universities
other programmes concern students who organise their mobility which is credited by their home institution.

Note that mobility which isn’t recognised in a student’s home institution and therefore falls outside the student’s programme at their home institution (so-called bridge mobility) is excluded.

Across the EU, around 2 out of 3 (65.6%) credit-mobile graduates from bachelor’s or equivalent programmes had participated in EU programmes in 2022. Other international/national programmes had a share of 9.2%, while other programmes made up the remaining 25.3%.

In 24 of the EU countries, a majority of credit-mobile graduates from bachelor’s or equivalent level studies in 2022 had participated in EU programmes, with this share reaching 100.0% for graduates from Ireland and Cyprus. Aside from Ireland and Cyprus, there were a further 11 EU countries where the share of credit-mobile graduates that had participated in EU programmes was higher than 90.0%. Sweden, France and the Netherlands were the only EU countries where the share of credit-mobile graduates that had participated in EU programmes was below 50.0%.
In Denmark, just over a third (34.6%) of credit-mobile graduates had participated in other international or national programmes; the next highest shares were 25.9% in Sweden and 16.6% in Austria.
There was only 1 EU country – the Netherlands – where the residual category of ‘other programmes’ accounted for the highest share of credit-mobile graduates; a majority (51.5%) of credit-mobile graduates from the Netherlands participated in other programmes.

Source data for tables and graphs

Learning mobility statistics: tables and figures

Data sources

Source

The standards for international statistics on education are set by 3 international organisations: the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) institute for statistics (UIS); the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU.

The source of data used in this article is a joint UNESCO/OECD/Eurostat (UOE) data collection on education statistics and this is the basis for the core components of Eurostat’s database on education statistics; in combination with the joint data collection, Eurostat also collects data on regional enrolments and foreign language learning. More information about the joint data collection is available in an article on the UOE methodology.

Classification

The international standard classification of education (ISCED) is the basis for international education statistics, describing 9 different levels of education.

Data by fields of education are classified according to the ISCED-F 2013 classification. The fields of education are broad domains, branches or areas of content covered by an education programme or qualification. The classification has a 3-level hierarchy based on broad fields (the highest level), narrow fields (the 2nd level) and detailed fields (the 3rd level) of education.

Key concepts

The UOE data collection covers domestic educational activity. In other words, it concerns education provided within a country’s own territory regardless of ownership or sponsorship of the institutions concerned (whether public or private, national or foreign) or of the education delivery mechanism (whether face-to-face or at a distance). In particular, all students studying within a country, including internationally mobile students from abroad, should be included in the statistics of the reporting country. Students who have left the reporting country to study abroad shouldn’t be included by the reporting country even where such students are partially or fully funded by national or subnational authorities. Concerning short exchange programmes (of at least 3 months but shorter than 1 academic year), students who remain enrolled in their home institution and where credits for successful completion of the study abroad are awarded by the home institution should be reported by the country of the home institution in which they are enrolled.

By contrast, educational activities which take place abroad – for example, in institutions run by providers located in the reporting country – should be excluded.

In cases of cross-border distance learning/e-learning, students should be reported by the country of the institution providing the service, not the country of residence of the student. Equally, students who commute across borders should be reported by the country where they are enrolled rather than where they are resident.

The country of origin for learning mobility data should, in principle, refer to the country of prior secondary education. However, countries might use the country of prior residence or citizenship or another concept. Information on the definitions currently used by countries is available under Table 1 for degree-mobile students, Figure 3 for degree-mobile graduates and Table 4 for credit-mobile graduates.

More information on the concepts used for these statistics can be found in the Methodological manual on learning mobility in tertiary education.

Context

Bologna process

Since the introduction of the Bologna process (see the article on Education and training statistics introduced) a major expansion in higher education systems has taken place, accompanied by significant reforms in degree structures and quality assurance systems.

Removing obstacles to student mobility across Europe was 1 of the operational goals of the Bologna process; more broadly this goal was to support the mobility of students, teachers and researchers. It established a European Higher Education Area to facilitate student and staff mobility, to make higher education more inclusive and accessible, and to make higher education in Europe more attractive and competitive worldwide.

The European Higher Education Area has brought about far-reaching changes which make it easier to study and train abroad. Both the 3-tier bachelor-master-doctorate degree structure and advances in quality assurance have facilitated student and staff mobility, while the use of mobility and quality assurance tools (such as the European credit transfer and accumulation system (ECTS) or the European quality assurance register (EQAR)) have facilitated mutual trust, academic recognition and mobility.

Erasmus+

In 2014, the Erasmus programme was superseded by the EU’s programme for education, training, young people and sport, referred to as Erasmus+. The programme currently covers the period 2021 to 2027 and has an overall budget of €26.2 billion (which is nearly double the funding of the 1st funding period (2014–20)).

In the field of higher education, Erasmus+ gives students and academic staff the opportunity to develop their skills and boost their employment prospects. Students can study abroad for up to 12 months (during each cycle of tertiary education). The programme currently covers all EU countries, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye.

More information about higher education initiatives is available in the article on Education and training statistics introduced.

Explore further

Database

Education and training (educ), see

Participation in education and training (educ_part)

Learning mobility (educ_uoe_mob)

Education and training outcomes (educ_outc)

Thematic section

Education and training

Selected datasets

Education and training (t_educ)

Methodology

Metadata

Education and training (ESMS metadata file – educ_uoe_enr_esms)

Manuals and other methodological information

External links

Legislation

Regulation (EC) No 452/2008 of 23 April 2008 concerning the production and development of statistics on education and lifelong learning
- Commission Regulation (EU) No 912/2013 of 23 September 2013 as regards statistics on education and training systems
- Summaries of EU Legislation: statistics on education and lifelong learning