International Initiatives that Facilitate Global Mobility in Higher Education

TLDR: In this paper, the authors identify a number of international initiatives that have contributed to, reflect, or facilitate global higher education mobility, including European Union initiatives, the Bologna Process which led to the creation of the European Higher Education Area, and higher education initiatives of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.

Abstract: This article identifies a number of international initiatives that have contributed to, reflect, or facilitate global higher education mobility. The article begins by presenting statistics about global higher education mobility. The sections that follow address a number of “hard law” and “soft law” international initiatives that promote such mobility. The initiatives discussed in the article include, inter alia, European Union initiatives, the Bologna Process which led to the creation of the European Higher Education Area, and higher education initiatives of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The paper concludes with some observations about these developments. The goals of the article are twofold: 1) to give the reader a sense of the breadth, depth, and influence of international initiatives regarding higher education; and 2) to motivate the reader to learn more about these initiatives.