Higher Education Student Mobility and the Interpretation of European Union Educational Policies in France

Abstract

The formulation of EU policies is sustained by the concept of a European Dimension in Education. Considering this concept as an extension of the main principles on which EU construction is based, mobility is an important issue. Higher education student mobility is taken in this chapter as an indicator of change in both the world and European context and of the dynamism of EU construction and the implementation of EU educational policies. The EU has implemented several initiatives that promote student mobility. One of the most important initiatives is the SOCRATES/ERASMUS programme, which contains an action specifically focused on higher education. The programme supports and encourages exchanges of students and teachers, the launching of joint study programmes or intensive courses, pan-European thematic networks, and other measures aiming at the development of a European dimension in higher education. In order to gain insight into the importance of student mobility promoted by this programme data referring to the number of students studying in France in the framework of the ERASMUS programme, from 1987 to 2001, are examined. At the same time data concerning the number of foreign students in higher education in France over a longer period (1949 to 2001) is organised and compared with the total number of students in the education system in an attempt to establish a chronological pattern of student flows. This comparison is made to enable us to understand the dynamics and expansion of higher education student mobility with, and without, the implementation of the ERASMUS programme in France. In section 2 the main questions behind the topic of this chapter are debated generally; in section 3, an overview of higher education in France is attempted (origins and establishment of the education system and the European dimension in French higher