Gender Gap in the ERASMUS Mobility Program

PLoS One. 2016 Feb 22;11(2):e0149514. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149514. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Studying abroad has become very popular among students. The ERASMUS mobility program is one of the largest international student exchange programs in the world, which has supported already more than three million participants since 1987. We analyzed the mobility pattern within this program in 2011-12 and found a gender gap across countries and subject areas. Namely, for almost all participating countries, female students are over-represented in the ERASMUS program when compared to the entire population of tertiary students. The same tendency is observed across different subject areas. We also found a gender asymmetry in the geographical distribution of hosting institutions, with a bias of male students in Scandinavian countries. However, a detailed analysis reveals that this latter asymmetry is rather driven by subject and consistent with the distribution of gender ratios among subject areas.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Databases, Factual*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • International Educational Exchange*
  • Male

Grants and funding

The authors acknowledge financial support from the ETH Risk Center, the Brazilian Institute INCT-SC (Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Sistemas Complexos), ERC Advanced grants numbers FP7-319968 and FP7-3242247 of the European Research Council, and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under contract no. IF/00255/2013 and UID/FIS/00618/2013.