ESNSurvey 2013 is titled "Creating Ideas, Opportunities and Identity". The focus of this year´s edition is to investigate the employability of mobile and non-mobile students and show  the beneficial effects of going abroad. With the survey we hope to provide further evidence and insight. The survey also explores the impact of student mobility on entrepreneurship and European citizenship and gives insight into students´ satisfaction with ESN and other student organisations.

 

 

 

Key findings

Satisfaction with the experience abroad

  • On a scale from 1 to 5 (5 indicating highest satisfaction), students rate satisfaction with their stay abroad 4.3 and their satisfaction with studies abroad 3.9.

Employability

  • Mobile students are more probable to live outside their home region than non-mobile students.
  • Mobile students are more capable of searching for jobs in languages other than their mother tongue or English.
  • Mobile students have a more specific idea about their career’s development. Also, they see themselves in comparatively higher positions than students without mobility experience.
  • Students with exchange experience appreciate working in an international environment, the possibility to travel and ability to work independently more than those without.

Networks

  • There are visible differences in the use of social networks between mobile and non-mobile students. VoIP-services such as Skype remain a symbol of exchange students.
  • Students who have been (or are planning to go) abroad are more engaged in social activities, open to meet new people and having a bigger circle of friends than those who are not planning to do so.

Entrepreneurship

  • More than 50% of the young Europeans surveyed could imagine setting up their own business.
  • 2% of respondents have introduced a product encountered during their stay abroad on their home countries’ markets and 22% are thinking of doing so.
  • However, despite having come across such a product or idea, one third of respondents do not plan to turn it into a business opportunity. Their biggest obstacle: lack of starting capital.

European Identity and Citizenship

  • Mobile and future mobile students feel more cosmopolitan and European compared to non-mobile students.
  • Mobile and future mobile students are better informed about the EU and more interested in international and European politics than non-mobile students.

Student organizations and their help to students

  • The percentage of students’ awareness concerning the existence of ESN increased compared to last year.

Authors

ISBN: 9789082987737

Authors: Julia Fellinger (ed.), Jesús Escrivá Muñoz, Eleni Kalantzi, Karina Oborune, Jurgita Stasiukaityte, Emanuel Alfranseder, Milena Dolezelova andEwa Krzaklewska.

Note: ESNSurvey 2012 was renamed to 2013 according to the year of publication of the booklets and not to the publication of the questionnaire.

The Project

The ESNSurvey is the biggest regular European research project planned and carried out entirely by students for students. It is conducted annually and surveys students at higher education institutions. ESN shares the results with the main stakeholders in higher education and mobility programmes.

ESNSurvey aims at:

  • Exploring current issues connected to academic and non-academic mobility and education.
  • Gettting a better insight into student issues in order to represent their real needs.