The network of international student mobility: Enlargement and consolidation of the European transnational education space?

In this paper, we investigate the impact of membership in the Bologna Process on patterns and driving forces of cross-national student mobility. Student exchange flows are analyzed for Bologna Process member states and non-Bologna OECD members over a ten-year period (from 2000 to 2010). We apply a social network approach focusing on outbound diploma-mobility. Based on social network analyses, we first visualize the exchange patterns between sampled countries. In doing so, we analyze the student exchange linkages to first gain descriptive insights into the development of the network. Second, we use exponential random graph models (ERGM) to test which factors determine transnational student mobility. The results of our network analyses reveal that cross-national student exchange networks are stable over time. At the core of these networks are the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany; they attract the highest shares of students from the remaining countries in our sample. Moreover, the results of the ERGM demonstrate that homophily between countries determines student exchange patterns. The most relevant ties exist between bordering countries. Moreover, membership in the Bologna Process impacts mobility patterns, but surprisingly, it has a mitigating effect.