The lack of funding has been regarded as one of the biggest obstacles to student mobility. Many discussions have been conducted on the ways to remove financial obstacles to mobility, in particular for the mobility of socio-economically disadvantaged students. At the same time, a basket of funding instruments is offered by the European Union, national governments and individual higher education institutions, all aiming to support different kinds of student mobility (e.g. credit or degree mobility, incoming or outgoing mobility). These instruments range from the world-renowned ERAMUS grants for short-term mobility, to national scholarships for degree or credit mobility, and to the newly-introduced European student loan guarantee scheme targeting support for European mobile Master’s students. A less visible form of financial support - portable state grants and loans - plays an important role in financing mobile students as well, particularly students from lower social backgrounds.

On 10 April, ACA’s 42nd European Policy Seminar will discuss the roles, priorities and contributions of all the above funding instruments that are available for European students to study in another country within Europe or outside. Updates of new mobility funding instruments and some of the much desired empirical data on the quantitative contribution of different funding instruments will be brought to you by speakers who are centrally involved in the provision of mobility funds or in research on mobility funding issues. Participants of the seminar may expect both intellectual exchanges with the speakers as well as practical examples of specific funding initiatives from them.