The first webinar of the EUA series "Toward Tirana 2024, the Bologna Process and developments in the EHEA" provided an introduction to mobility through the lens of the Bologna Process with insights into the historical and evolving role mobility has played. This event takes place on 12 December 2023, from 14.00 to 15.00 CET.

Over the history of the Bologna Process, student mobility has been both a goal, through an agreed benchmark, as well as a means for facilitating the internationalisation and partnerships within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Having been widely discussed during the first decade of the Bologna Process, the evolving concept of student mobility has not been addressed in depth during the last 2-3 cycles of the Bologna Follow-up Group (BFUG). However, current societal developments in areas such as migration, the housing market and technological advancement point to a need to reconceptualise student mobility, its support services, as well as to reevaluate traditional mobility benchmark.

The webinar included a discussion on why the mobility benchmark (see EUA’s recent publication ‘Going beyond the 20% student mobility benchmark’), once a pioneering idea, may need a quantitative update in today's educational landscape considering, for example, the contrast between mobility statistics at bachelor's degree level and those at master’s and doctoral degree levels.
During the event, diverse forms of mobility, from physical exchanges to virtual and hybrid modes, and short-term to full degree mobilities, were explored by addressing the current debate surrounding virtual mobility, as we consider whether this truly represents a mobile experience

Speakers

• Howard Davies, Senior Adviser, Higher Education Policy, EUA
• Tanguy Guibert, Vice President, European Students’ Union (ESU)
• Piet van Hove, Director, International Relations Office, University of Antwerp; President, European Association for International Education (EAIE)
• Maija Innola, Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland; Member of the BFUG; Member, Steering Committee for Educational Policy and Practice (CDPPE), Council of Europe