Abstract:

Academic mobility within technically structured degrees poses specific challenges that go beyond participation rates and require careful examination of students’ academic decisions. This study analyses the academic decisions of Industrial Engineering students from the University of Almería during their Erasmus+ mobility periods from the 2020–21 to the 2024–25 academic years. In this context, Industrial Engineering comprises the Bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering, Industrial Electronics and Automation Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Industrial Chemical Engineering. By examining the subjects selected abroad, the research aims to identify whether students prioritise fulfilling compulsory degree requirements, pursuing optional coursework, or engaging in Bachelor Thesis-related activities. A quantitative approach was adopted, based on a dataset comprising 6,933 ECTS credits corresponding to the subjects taken during mobility. For each subject, its ECTS value, the associated academic year within the home curriculum (1st to 4th year), and its academic character were recorded. Subjects were classified as compulsory, optional, Bachelor Thesisrelated, or hybrid, the latter referring to courses that may be considered compulsory or optional depending on the specific degree or specialisation. This level of detail is particularly relevant in Industrial Engineering, where curriculum alignment during international mobility is often complex due to the technical and sequential structure of the programmes. The results reveal a strong dominance of compulsory subjects throughout the study period, representing 80.4% of total ECTS, while hybrid subjects account for 19.1%. Purely optional subjects are almost negligible (0.3%), and Bachelor Thesis-related activities are marginal (0.17%), appearing only residually in one academic year. In terms of curricular progression, most ECTS correspond to 2nd, 3rd and 4th-year courses, with the second year alone accounting for over one third of the total credits, indicating that students strategically use mobility to complete core and structurally central components of their degree rather than introductory courses. Temporal analysis shows fluctuations in total ECTS accumulated during mobility, with a peak in 2022–23 and a decline in 2023–24, while maintaining a consistent predominance of compulsory coursework. This suggests that Erasmus+ participation in Industrial Engineering is primarily used as a mechanism for curricular continuity rather than curricular diversification. The insights provided are highly relevant for international offices and academic coordinators, who should offer tailored guidance focused on facilitating the recognition of compulsory courses abroad. For curriculum developers, the findings point to the need for designing mobility-friendly curricular structures, potentially incorporating mobility-specific elective pathways that maintain academic coherence while enhancing students’ international learning opportunities.

Keywords:

Industrial Engineering, Higher Education, Academic Curriculum, Erasmus, ECTS, international mobility.