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Who Is to Pay for Mobile Students?

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European Higher Education at the Crossroads

Abstract

This paper analyses aspects of financing within the Bologna Process, with a focus on the financing of student mobility. It argues that the current system for financing cross-border student mobility, based on the host country, appears to be neither sustainable nor efficient. Against this background, and motivated by a recent decision of the European Court of Justice, the paper explores two alternative solutions. The first one envisages substituting financing by the host country with financing by the country of origin, possibly through vouchers that students may use at home or abroad (provided the quality of education in the host institution has been recognised). The second one combines this substitution with a reimbursement of education costs through interjurisdictional transfers or the change of vouchers into contingent loans.

This paper is part of IAP Project 6/09, financed by the Belgian Federal Services for Scientific Policy, Belspo. Its content expands that of Chevalier and Gérard (2009, 2010). The author is especially grateful to Cédric Chevalier and Jérôme Hubert for their helpful research assistance. He is also indebted to Liviu Matei and Magnus Malnes for comments and suggestions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The table is explained in Sect. 39.2.4 below.

  2. 2.

    According to OECD (2010), there are 16,650 French students in tertiary education in Belgium against 2,768 Belgian students in France; similarly, there are 17,464 German students in Austrian tertiary education against 6,419 Austrians in Germany.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Louvain School of Management and Institut d’Etudes Européennes, Université catholique de Louvain, Chaussée de Binche 151, B-7000, Mons, Belgium

    Marcel Gérard

  2. College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium

    Marcel Gérard

  3. CESifo, Munich, Germany

    Marcel Gérard

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  1. Marcel Gérard
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Correspondence to Marcel Gérard .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Adrian Curaj

  2. Institute of Education, London, United Kingdom

    Peter Scott

  3. , Sociology Department, Bucharest University, Bucharest, Romania

    Lazăr Vlasceanu

  4. European University Association, Brussels, Belgium

    Lesley Wilson

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Gérard, M. (2012). Who Is to Pay for Mobile Students?. In: Curaj, A., Scott, P., Vlasceanu, L., Wilson, L. (eds) European Higher Education at the Crossroads. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3937-6_39

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