Analyzing international student mobility from a network perspective : master's thesis

Gavrilović, Stefan (author), Vitale, Maria Prosperina (mentor), Restaino, Marialuisa (comentor)

International student mobility is a relevant process in higher education, facilitating student and academic exchanges. The programs like Erasmus and Erasmus+ enable students and staff to engage in international education, fostering cultural exchanges and enhancing the quality of education systems. With the growing importance of international mobility, the methodological perspective of Social Network Analysis (SNA) becomes crucial for analyzing the interactions and relationships among countries and institutions over the world within the definition of mobility networks. This dissertation aims to explore international student mobility through the SNA approach, focusing on the Erasmus+ program. By examining student mobility patterns in the academic year 2023-2024 at the University of Salerno (UNISA), the analysis seeks to uncover the structural dynamics and patterns within the network. The data under investigation includes UNISA mobility agreements and the movement of outgoing and incoming students among European countries and 17 departments of the University of Salerno. Network centrality measures are used to rank the most attractive countries and UNISA departments in terms of incoming students, as well as the countries and departments with a high level of internationalization due to the significant number of outgoing students. Core-periphery models applied to the country network level reveal the presence of core countries and departments that hold strong positions in terms of attractiveness and connections with peripheral units. The dissertation is structured into three chapters. The first chapter provides an overview of international student mobility, identifying the main papers and trends using bibliometric analysis with the Bibliometrix tool. The second chapter conducts a literature review on studies that analyze Erasmus data from a network perspective and provides details on the network data and analysis used to explore mobility data at micro, meso and macro level. The final chapter presents the findings obtained by examining both secondary data on agreements signed by the 17 departments with program countries and the concrete number of incoming and outgoing students’ exchanges during the academic year 2023-2024. These latter are described by applying network centrality measures and core-periphery analysis, detailing the patterns and dynamics of these flows between program countries and the UNISA departments.

• Language: English
• Keywords: international student mobility, Erasmus+ program, bibliometric analysis, social network analysis, student exchange patterns
• Work type: Master's thesis/paper
• Typology: 2.09 - Master's Thesis
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Place of publishing: Ljubljana
• Publisher: S. Gavrilović
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: 1 spletni vir (1 datoteka PDF (57 str.))
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-164382
• UDC: 331.526.8:366(043.2)
• COBISS.SI-ID: 216508675
• Publication date in RUL: 24.10.2024

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Vpogled v mobilnost mednarodnih študentov z analizo omrežij : magistrsko delo
• Keywords: mednarodna mobilnost študentov, program Erasmus+, bibliometrična analiza, analiza socialnih omrežij, vzorci študentskih izmenjav