2016/02/22 by Lucas Böttcher, N. A. M. Araújo, Jan Nagler +3 · 1 voice · 3 citations
Social Sciences · #Migration and Labor Dynamics #Social Capital and Networks #Social Media and Politics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0149514
openalex publication_date 2016/02/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Studying abroad has become very popular among students. The ERASMUS mobility program is one of the largest international student exchange programs in the world, which has supported already more than three million participants since 1987. We analyzed the mobility pattern within this program in 2011-12 and found a gender gap across countries and subject areas. Namely, for almost all participating countries, female students are over-represented in the ERASMUS program when compared to the entire population of tertiary students. The same tendency is observed across different subject areas. We also found a gender asymmetry in the geographical distribution of hosting institutions, with a bias of male students in Scandinavian countries. However, a detailed analysis reveals that this latter asymmetry is rather driven by subject and consistent with the distribution of gender ratios among subject areas.