Inbound mobility rate: To measure the mobility of students across countries for academic reasons.

Inbound mobility rate: Enrolment in tertiary institutions by country of origin.

Inbound mobility rate: By sex and ISCED level.

Inbound mobility rate: Number of students from abroad studying in a given country, expressed as a percentage of total tertiary enrolment in that country.

Internationally mobile students: Internationally mobile students are individuals who have physically crossed an international border between two countries with the objective to participate in educational activities in the country of destination, where the country of destination of a given student is different from their country of origin.

The country of origin of a tertiary student is the country in which they gained their upper secondary qualifications. This can also be referred to as the country of prior education. Where countries are unable to operationalise this definition, it is recommended that they use the country of usual or permanent residence to determine the country of origin. Where this too is not possible and no other suitable measure exists, the country of citizenship may be used – but only as a last resort.

Any transfer between different education systems which does not involve the physical crossing of an international border is not considered as international student mobility. In particular, the following are not forms of international student mobility:

- distance learning programmes provided by institutions based in another country to students based in their country or origin;

- programmes offered by foreign-based institutions in the country of origin leading to foreign degrees.

Internationally mobile students may be attributed to either the country of destination, as inbound internationally mobile students, or to the country of origin as outbound mobile students.

Inbound mobility rate: Number of internationally mobile students enrolled in all levels of tertiary education (ISCED 5 to ISCED 8) in a given country, in a given academic year, expressed as percentage of the total tertiary enrolment in the same academic year.

Inbound mobility rate: Inbound mobility rate should be based on enrolment at all levels of tertiary education and types of institutions, covering ISCED levels 5 to 8 in all public and private institutions.

The UIS sets standards, develops questionnaires and quality control protocols for country data reporting, and maintains the global database on the structure of education and enrolment data in tertiary education by students’ country of origin and sex.

Interpretations

Inbound mobility rate: A high percentage of inbound mobility rate indicates a high degree of participation of students from abroad, and a strong capacity of the host country’s education system to attract international mobile students.

Limitations

Inbound mobility rate: A number of considerations may affect the accuracy of the indicator. For example, inbound mobility rate may not properly capture mobile students enrolled in foreign university campuses operating in the reporting country. Furthermore, the criteria used to define mobile students may vary from one country to another, which may affect the cross-country comparability of this indicator.