The Erasmus Learning Journey : Students’ Experiences from a Mobility Period Abroad

The aim of this thesis is to gain knowledge and understanding of students’ learning through a mobility period abroad. Student mobility is a topic that attracts great scholarly attention internationally and has also gained increased attention in Sweden lately, both in terms of policy aims related to student mobility as well as attracting scholarly interest. Whilst there is a vast body of knowledge in relation to student mobility, it has largely focused on identifying and measuring different learning outcomes as regards specific skills and competencies acquired from participation in study abroad programs (Streightwieser & Light, 2018). Less research has focused on what students themselves experience and learn from participation in a mobility period abroad and if and how they personally develop and undergo change from the study abroad experience. This thesis takes the students’ perspective in order to increase knowledge about student learning from a mobility period abroad. The study presents a cross-sectional study that explored students’ motives, experiences and self-reported outcomes of participation in the Erasmus program. The data are based on semi-structured interviews with 45 Erasmus alumni from Stockholm University and the interviews were conducted as reflective conversations. The following research questions were formulated to achieve the aim of the thesis; why do students in higher education seek the study abroad experience? What experiences do students describe in relation to their learning and personal development? What learning processes can be identified in these experiences? The theoretical framework is grounded in theories of adult learning and development, which aims to understand how students learn from their experiences. Jarvis’ concepts of ‘harmony’ and ’disjuncture’ and Mezirow’s concept of ‘perspective transformation’ is used to identify the different learning journeys in relation to different motives, experiences and outcomes. The results show that students learn new knowledge and skills ...