Abstract:

An analysis of the impact of student mobility under the Erasmus+ program in a regional private university in Porto, Portugal, is presented.

Student mobility has become more visible in the university context thanks to the 21st century Erasmus+ Program. Student exchange programs have existed since the first European Universities and medieval times, and it was not acceptable for a scholar to reach to a high position without having gone through another center of foreign knowledge.

In the same way, high cultural learning demanded staying for a few months in a foreign cultural center considered suitable for each historical period. Nowadays, as per various statistics, students who have had an exchange experience have doubled their employability possibilities.

In this context, universities are predominantly the centers of student mobility in Europe. Among the European Union countries, Erasmus+ student mobility programs are considered vehicles of the consolidation of democratic, social, and human values enshrined in the institutional treaties. The available variety of European Union documentation promotes the same Erasmus spirit.

Universidade Portucalense Infante D. Henrique, based in Porto, Portugal, was early associated with this aim and is an example of the growing affluence to this project of mobility and democracy that the European Union continues to develop.

After a doctrinal framework, and after using the European Union's documentation by document analysis methodology, in a case study, we intend to present the path of this private university in the implementation of the Erasmus+ program. As a regional private university, it prepared its operation for mobility policies from 1987 onwards and has had records of them since 1995. The case study analysis will refer to the last seven-year framework of Erasmus+, which ended recently. Between 2014 and 2020, evaluation results are shown - both by the institution and its students - based on the data and mobility numbers collected and considered surveys carried out by the institution.

Portucalense University is believed to be a successful case in the implementation of this program, with demand and adherence increasing in the frame of reference, even considering the strong impact of the pandemic crisis in 2019 and 2020, with this university being a small-scale scenario compared to other larger national and European universities.

Keywords:

Erasmus, Student Exchange, European Union.