Faculteit

Economie en
Bedrijfswetenschappen

Research Proposal
The benefits of the Erasmus mobility programme
on students job opportunities
Version number 2
Simon GEVCEN (438137)
Master of Science in International Business Economics and Management
Academic Year 2013 2014
Supervisor: Pr. Oliver HOLZ

Research Context

Erasmus is one of the main realizations of the European Union for the past few decades.
Designed by the European Commission, it is the EuRopean Action Schema for the Mobility of
University Students and it has this key idea of allowing students and teachers from all around
Europe to study and teach abroad, either in another Member State or in Island, Liechtenstein,
Norway, Switzerland, or Turkey (European Commission, 2013).
Since the launch of Erasmus in 1987 (Anefor, 2012), around three million students have had the
opportunity to be welcomed in a foreign university. As this number has been continuously
increasing each year (European Commission, 2008-2009), it seems that this exchange programme
tends to become a significant part of European students life and study programme (Ballatore,
2010). My personal experience as an Erasmus student from Facults universitaires Saint-Louis to
Galatasaray niversitesi in Istanbul, Turkey can witness that fact. However, this rising number of
students benefiting from this schema isnt enough to understand its success story.
Indeed, when the project was proposed in 1986, the European Commission was in a delicate
position as some Member States were hostile to it because they already had exchange programmes
at their national level, whereas others promoted it (European Commission, 2013). Specifically,
those reluctant Member States were reticent to increase the European budget but an agreement
has been settled and the programme was launched for the academic year 1987/1988 with 3 244
students from 11 countries.
Since the literature on this topic isnt really developed yet, mainly because Erasmus remains a
quiet new phenomenon, my research will be exploratory. Even though Erasmus exists for more
than 25 years, only a few authors have been researching on Erasmus. One of them is Magali
Ballatore from Universit Aix-Marseille I who compared the unequal uses of the exchange
programme between England, France and Italy (Ballatore, 2007). Another one is Melissa Hrtel
from Institut europen de lUniversit de Genve who dealt in her research with the construction of
the European cultural space via the Erasmus programme (Hrtel, 2007). Specifically, Erasmus
heightens the awareness of a hypothetical European identity as European cultures have a lot in
common (Vaniscotte, 2003).
However, these researches havent been look at why the Erasmus programme is such popular
and why students are unanimous about an experience that would be about overcoming
boundaries of mind (Anefore, 2012) by offering to this person an authentic plus for the
curriculum vitae. Nevertheless, are job opportunities associated to this unique experience?

Faculteit
Economie en
Bedrijfswetenschappen

Research Proposal
Personally, when I was studying Political sciences at Facults universitaires Saint-Louis during my
bachelor, Ive been selected to experience this exchange programme. At that time, I knew that it
would have been an opportunity for the future as for the day I would enter the labour market, but
this is exactly the point. Why kind of benefits could be linked to it? The core of this thesis deals
with whether this programme could really be a plus or what benefits can be taken from such an
experience. The personal knowledges that I acquired from that experience are going to be the real
basis for the step-by-step development of this thesis.
Indeed, the aim of my study seeks the enlargement of the knowledge on Erasmus in this particular
extent which is the consequences of the Erasmus programme in terms of personalization of the
students moves. The grey area is in the process behind the travel of these students that could
either lead to a personalization or to socialization. To make this point clear, universities tend to
become sites with a more human scale (Ballatore, 2007) but, at the same time, the European
policy is to allow people to move across Europe, leading to new study contexts with potential
effects on job opportunities. Why does it lead to new contexts and effects? One example could the
internationalization of students which potentially creates an elite estranged with the non-going
students (Papatsiba, 2003).

Research Question and Objectives

My research deals with the outcomes of the Erasmus programme, especially the derived
benefits that involved students can raise as a plus when confronted to others when they finish their
programme and enter the labour market. The research question wants therefore to know What are
the benefits of the Erasmus mobility programme on students job opportunities?. A similar
research, leaded at worldwide level, concluded that studying abroad has a positive effect on
students mobility in the labour market, focusing on international jobs level (Opper et al., 1990).
Hence, in order to answer this research question, the core of the thesis will be structured by a
certain number of objectives, which are goals giving the direction of thesis.
Firstly, as 33 countries are part of the Erasmus programme, it would be impossible to take
all these countries into account. Since all of them cant be studied, the feasibility of the research
requires then to select a smaller number of countries. The criterion for the selection would then
focus on one Western (Belgium, Brussels) and one Eastern (Turkey, Istanbul) European countries.
Why such a comparison? The idea is to compare the difference that would appear in the job
opportunities and the value given to the programme on both sides of the continent, so that cultural
differences could be highlighted to some extent.
Once selected, a certain number of universities from these countries would be chosen. The
selection method for these universities isnt determined yet, but one method could be the
following. Find the most recent universities classification in these countries, and choose the most
reputed and the least reputed host universities. Then, inside these universities, students will have
to be found in order to interview them and collect data to analyse.
Secondly, interviewing students in order to have their viewpoints on the benefits of
Erasmus for their career isnt enough. Since the creation of Erasmus in 1987, a plenty of
organizations appeared to promote, help and give advices to Erasmus students. The Erasmus
Student Network is the most famous one and, actually, the ESN mentions that its mission is to
provide opportunities for cultural understanding and self-development (ESN International, 2013).

Faculteit
Economie en
Bedrijfswetenschappen

Research Proposal
Interviews with people linked to this organization could help to answer our research question, in
the sense that they participate to the mobility of European students. They could give ideas of
reasons why the Erasmus creates new opportunities for students, either in the country where
theyve been living for a few months or in their country of origin where they come back with new
acknowledgments and experiences.
Thirdly, as there are the students and organizations sides in my thesis, there is also the
labour side. Indeed, another objective would be the analysis of requirements when employers are
to engage newly graduated young people. To be specific, if some employers are confronted to two
people with the same bachelor but one of them has an Erasmus exchange in his curriculum vitae,
would the employer select the one who benefited from the Erasmus and, if yes, for what reason(s)?

Methodology

Since the goal of a research is to understand something (Teirlinck, 2013), this study
consists on a qualitative research which is an interpretivist model that allows the existence of
multiple subjective perspectives (Teirlinck, 2013). To be specific, the goal of this research is
exploratory because only a few researches, mentioned in the research context, have been done on
the Erasmus exchange programme. As little is known and as the acknowledgments still have to be
improved, an in-depth exploration matches best to these circumstances.
This exploration deals with a research question that is feasible because, on the one hand, there will
be sufficient time to conduct the study (from January 2014 to January 2015) and because, on the
other hand, there will be enough resources with the interviews, surveys and other data collected
from the few previous studies in the literature. However, the research cant determine if the
respondents targeted will all be reachable when necessary, and if theyll cooperate correctly and
reliably. We take this difficulty into account but we assume, for the moment, that it isnt a barrier.
Moreover, a good qualitative research has to be linked with personal own interest (Teirlinck, 2013).
In that case, my interest in this research is to develop and widen the knowledges on Erasmus on
the basis of what I experienced by myself for six months at Galatasaray niversitesi in Istanbul,
Turkey. This explains why this research is going to have an inductive approach that goes from
particular to general in order to generate theory from the research (Teirlinck, 2013). To make
these points clear, the way theory will be generated depends on the objectives.
Firstly, one point is the population that targets the students who benefited from the
Erasmus programme in any of the 33 participating countries. Another point is the sample which
focuses (1) on students who have been hosted in Istanbul, Turkey and on those who have been
hosted in Brussels, Belgium and (2) on the students from the population who are currently doing
their study-abroad programme. Hence, the sample intends theoretically a quiet smaller number of
students than the whole population but how to find and contact these students practically? As the
list of universities in these two cities isnt something difficult to get holds of, all those participating
to the programme necessarily have Erasmus departments and these are going to be the mean to
find students.
In this study, around 50 students are expected to be part of interviews, with an equal division for
each city: 25 in Brussels and 25 in Istanbul. The Erasmus department of universities in Brussels
are normally going to be reached without difficulties: face-to-face, by phone and by emails.

Faculteit
Economie en
Bedrijfswetenschappen

Research Proposal
However, in order to come into contact with those in Istanbul, emails are going to be the main tool.
An identical questionnaire is going to be submitted to all the students with a first broad question
like Why did you apply for an exchange programme? and then sub-questions like What do you
expect to learn in terms of acknowledgments or capabilities, from experience? or How do you
think you will highlight your experience for a job application?.
Secondly, as the first objective deals with the student side, the second objective concerns
the organization one. It has been said that the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) is one of the main
organization working to help Erasmus students in their sojourn. On the one hand, as it has offices
in Brussels, meetings with people in charge of ESN Brussels can be made for interviews. On the
other hand, I already know people inside ESN Istanbul since Ive been part of it during my stay in
this city. Face-to-face interviews will be made in Brussels and interview-administered in Istanbul,
in order to acquire personal witnesses from them as those working in that kind of association have
often been Erasmus students themselves, with questions like How do you think the Erasmus
students acquire experiences from their sojourn that they could raise as must when back in their
home country?.
Thirdly, as the study seeks the impact of the Erasmus programme, it necessarily needs
information provided by employers regarding the job opportunities. An ideal number of 50
employers is expected to be found in order to collect data, using the following method. Jobs can be
categorized in many types: IT, Marketing, Finance and Insurance, Media, Science, Law, Education,
Administration, Engineering, Manufacturing, Health, Tourism, Arts, Public (Stepstone, 2013).
Employers of firms in each of these categories can be found via various network of job recruitment,
for Brussels and for Istanbul as well. Contacts by emails will be sent and appointments will be
made. Again, an identical questionnaire is to be submitted to all the recruiters with questions like
Put aside the specific acknowledgments required for a specific job, what do you expect from
candidates in terms of social, cultural and personal experiences?
Additionally, the data collected are going to be anonymous, unless authorization is given by
the concerned individuals for disclosure. However, the validity and the reliability of the data have
to be checked but, as this research is going to have answers from students in Brussels and in
Istanbul and from employers and organizations from both cities, any other researcher can rely on
these data because interviews and surveys are adequate instruments for a qualitative research
which seeks to discover the benefits of the Erasmus programme on students job opportunities.
Once the data are collected, these informations will have to be analysed and interpreted. For the
interviews by email, the answers are already transcribed. However, for the face-to-face interviews,
the respondent will be asked whether the answers can recorded or not and notes are going to be
taken at the same time based on a clear organized sheet with all the reported questions. Once all
the answers are transcribed, theyll be organized and analyzed via NVivo 10 which is a programme
devoted for qualitative and mixed methods research. It lets the researcher collecting, organizing
and analyzing content especially from interviews.

Faculteit
Economie en
Bedrijfswetenschappen

Research Proposal
4

Planning

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Economie en
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Research Proposal
5

References

Literature materials
Ballatore, M. (2010) Erasmus et la mobilit des jeunes europens: entre mythes et ralits,
Paris, France: Presses Universitaires de France
Ballatore, M. (2007) Lexprience de mobilit des tudiants Erasmus: les usages ingalitaires dun
programme d change . Une comparaison entre lAngleterre, la France et lItalie,
Paris, France: Universit Aix-Marseille I & Universit degli studi di Torino
Gourmelen, N. (2008) LEurope bloque : Erasmus face la bureaucratie universitaire franaise.
Paris, France: Sciences Po Rennes
Hrtel, M. (2007) Erasmus ou la construction dun
Genve, Suisse: Institut europen de lUniversit de Genve

espace

culturel

europen.

Opper, S., Teichler, U., Carlson, J., (1990) Impacts of study abroad programmes on students and
graduates, London, United Kingdom: Jessica Kinglsey Publishers
Papatsiba, V. (2003) Des tudiants
Berne, Switzerland: Peter Lang

europens.

Erasmus

Teirlinck,
P.
(2013)
Business
Research
Methods:
Brussels, Belgium: Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel

et

laventure

Qualitative

de

laltrit,

research

(slides),

Vaniscotte, F., A., West A. (2003) La mobilit tudiante en Europe, mythe ou ralit? Comparaison
entre la France et le Royaume-Uni, Paris, France: LHarmattan

Internet materials
Anefore
(2012)
The
Erasmus
Experience.
Retrieved
12
November
2013
from
http://www.anefore.lu/sites/default/files/file/Docs%20en%20annexe/The%20E
rasmus_Experience.pdf
Erasmus Student Network
http://www.esn.org

International

(2013)

Retrieved

16

November

2013

from

European Union. European Commission, Directorate-General for Education and Culture. Lifelong
Learning Higher Education and International Affairs. Higher education Erasmus. (20082009) The Erasmus programme: A Statistical overview. Retrieved 12 November 2013 from
http://ec.europa.eu/education/erasmus/doc/stat/report0809.pdf

Faculteit
Economie en
Bedrijfswetenschappen

Research Proposal
European Union. European Commission. (2013) Education & Training, Lifelong Learning
Programme. Retrieved 12 November 2013 from http://ec.europa.eu/education/
lifelong-learning-programme/erasmus_en.htm
European Union. European Commission. (2013) Histoire du programme Erasmus. Retrieved 13
November 2013 from http://ec.europa.eu/education/erasmus/history_fr.htm
Statistics for All (2013) Retrieved 14 November 2013 from http://www.statisticsforall.eu
Stepstone (2013) Retrieved 14 January 2014 from http://www.stepstone.be