The Mobility Promise

Abstract

This chapter moves away from discussing the results of empirical research and towards the more rarefied plane of European discourse and policy on student mobility. Accompanying this shift is consideration of the management of institutional mobility practice, largely concerned with the various platforms introduced in Chapter 2 under the heading of ‘short-term mobility’, with particular emphasis on the role played by the EC in funding and maintaining these programmes. The basic aim is to look at what is available for students in respect to institutionalized mobility and what being mobile via such platforms signifies in terms of the activation of broader European policy aims relating to citizenship and employability. It will be argued that not only is institutional mobility seen as part of a geo-political project of ‘producing’ better Europeans in terms of their employability profiles but also that such individuals are expected to be carriers of a European discourse characterized by vaguely progressive values. This discussion precedes the final concluding chapter, which will aim to identify some key areas in which policy and practice might be improved and institutional provision made more inclusive, using ideas emerging from the accumulated evidence from Portugal, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland summarized in the earlier parts of this book.