Gender Gap in the ERASMUS Mobility Program

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 11; no. 2; p. e0149514
• Main Authors: Böttcher, Lucas, Araújo, Nuno A. M., Nagler, Jan, Mendes, José F. F., Helbing, Dirk, Herrmann, Hans J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 22.02.2016; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Airports; Asymmetry; Biology and Life Sciences; Comparative analysis; Computational physics; Databases, Factual; Datasets; Engineering and Technology; Female; Female-male relations; Foreign students; Gender aspects; Gender differences; Geographical distribution; Higher education; Human migration; Humans; Institutions; International Educational Exchange; Labor market; Male; Mobility; Participation; People and Places; Population; Skewed distributions; Social aspects; Social Sciences; Students; Study abroad; Brazil; Switzerland; Portugal
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149514

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.