Overcoming the Barriers of Mobility: Higher Education in the EU-LAC Regions

In 1999, the European Union and Latin American and the Caribbean (EU-LAC) Heads of States declared Higher Education (HE) a strategic area of interest in the Declaration of Rio de Janeiro. Since then, cooperation in HE has expanded. The Erasmus programme evolved into the Erasmus+ Programme in 2014 widening its focus from the EU to other regions such as LAC. A key component of HE cooperation and Erasmus+ is the facilitation of mobility between the two regions for students, professors, and researchers. This policy brief explores how to further improve mobility in HE within Erasmus+. The goal is to contribute and strengthen EU-LAC bilateral cooperation by providing recommendations for policy makers in both regions on how to further ease mobility for participants in Erasmus+ resulting in a more inclusive and efficient HE cooperation. Through literature reviews and semi-structured interviews with students and stakeholders inside and outside the Erasmus+ Programme from both regions, the policy brief identifies three main areas that hindered mobility: 1) The Institutional Framework, 2) Financial Constraints; and 3) Language Requirements