Inclusive Universities. Evidence from the Erasmus Program

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the participation of students with special needs in the Erasmus program, introduces a new inclusiveness index for universities, and provides insights to improve policies for greater inclusion.

Contribution

It quantifies student with disabilities' participation in Erasmus, maps university networks, and proposes a novel inclusiveness index to guide policy improvements.

Findings

Participation of students with special needs remains very low.

A network of universities involved in inclusive mobility is identified.

A new index measures university inclusiveness for students with disabilities.

Abstract

The Erasmus Program is the main international mobility program in Europe and worldwide. Since its launch in 1987, it has been growing both in terms of participants and budget devoted to its activities. However, despite the possibility to obtain additional funding, the participation of students with special needs to the program remains extremely low. This work quantifies the participation of these students to Erasmus and explores the network of universities involved in their mobility, along the period 2008-2013. In addition, it proposes a novel index to measure the level of inclusiveness of universities welcoming international students with disabilities. Quantifying and analyzing this aspect could be the basis for better designing targeted policies and for widening the participation of students with impairments to international mobility.