New mobility drivers impacting universities

Higher education has its own longstanding mobility traditions, dating back to the medieval universities. At that time, most students had to leave home to travel to and enroll at one of the few existing universities. Moving from one university to the other was also seen as a condition for successful study and an academic career.

While elements of this are still preserved in some of the contemporary university cultures, nowadays mobility has become a charged issue – probably even paradigm - in practically all areas of social and economic life.

It has also become a characteristic of modern economies, and one of the trajectories for building a united Europe. The European Union has linked mobility to its wider goal of building smart and sustainable economic growth and fostering employability in an integrated European economy.

Beyond the political, it becomes clear that there are many drivers for various forms of academic mobility. These should be considered by universities as higher education institutions are deeply implicated.

There are also critical voices about mobility that look at environmental, but also negative social impacts. Obviously, mobility if not chosen but forced on an individual (who may not have sufficient higher education opportunities in their own country) can be negative. The MAUNIMO project is about voluntary student and staff academic mobility and focuses on enhancing mobility options for the individual. Yet it should also looks at other types of mobility that may be due to various change forces, including demographics, geographic and historic ties, economic, etc. It considers that not all mobility is desired, and may have negative implications for some societal stakeholders.

One may question how much mobility is needed, and how it should best be done to achieve benefits. These are questions to be answered by individual staff and students, but they also matter for academic teachers, student counsellors, heads of departments, etc...

Mobility means shifting learning, research or other types of working activity from place A to place B, usually for a limited period of time. Obviously if the duration is either very short, or very long or even for good, it becomes difficult to talk about mobility’s benefits. Duration of mobility periods will be one of the important aspects to be discussed in this project, as well as assessing the various beneficiaries of mobility and the quality of the mobility itself.

While modern techniques and new media have led to the emergence of “virtual mobility”, this has not yet led to a significant decline of physical mobility. It has rather become a complementary way of internationalizing teaching and learning and also of providing access to international learning experiences for some types of learners. However, access to physical mobility is probably more important than ever, as it is not only perceived as an important element of personal life, but also a means to develop intercultural competencies relevant to an increasingly globalised workforce.
How far does one have to move in order to be considered as mobile? Another issue to be taken up in MAUNIMO is distance and other more technical parameters that may influence how we measure mobility. While mobility within countries and even within the same institution is of course very important, the project took the decision to solely focus on international mobility, which requires crossing a national border.