This 15-month project – STiME – will be delivered by the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) in collaboration with the Deutsches Studentenwerk (DSW). Its major output will be a study on national grant and loan systems for students, covering 31 European countries (EU-27 and EFTA-4). The two main objectives of the study are:

• to explore if and under which exact conditions "state grants and loans" are portable, i.e. provide funding for study abroad (in Europe or beyond).
• to provide statistical data and information on the outbound mobility of students funded under these schemes, and identify the share of mobility funded by these schemes of total outgoing mobility, thus assessing the impact of the schemes in terms of their "relative quantitative importance".

The study will cover both temporary and degree mobility and the partners will collect the necessary data mainly by means of surveys and data requests (of ministries of education, state grant and loan authorities, the EU Commission, the UNESCO Institute of Statistics). An Advisory Board will support the project team. 

Findings of this study will be published in ACA’s well-known publication series, the ACA Papers on International Cooperation in Education and distributed to core target groups such as state grant and loan authorities and policy-makers at both the EU and national level. A webinar will also be held to disseminate key findings and solicit feedback from relevant stakeholders. Moreover, a policy seminar will be organised by ACA to mainstream the findings and sustain the impact of the project beyond the project period. 

In the public perception, study abroad is almost entirely funded by the Erasmus Programme (as well as some smaller national schemes).  However, there are indications that - in some countries, at any rate – the number of students studying abroad with the support of a public grant or loan far exceeds Erasmus numbers. With this project, we will assess, for the first time ever, the exact contribution of state grants and loans to outgoing mobility in the 31 countries covered by the study. And, we envisage that the study will subsequently impact policy discussions and public debates on the financing of student mobility.  
 
For further details about the advancement of the study, please contact Queenie Lam at ACA (queenie.lam(at)aca-secretariat.be).

In the framework of STiME, a dissemination webinar was held on 17 December 2013. To watch the video recording, please click here.