Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

Mobility in higher education and the internation-
alisation of degree studies and teaching
Formulated in 2016, Austria’s higher education mobil-
ity strategy focuses on promoting high-quality trans-
national mobility for students, teachers and higher 
education staff in general. Following the first few 
years of successful implementation, 2019 was given 
over to further developing this strategy. Its focus 
was also expanded to include the internationalisa-
tion of degree studies and teaching, of which mobil-
ity forms an integral part. 
The Federal Ministry of Education, Science and 
Research (BMBWF) launched a broad-based partici-
patory process. In collaboration with the higher edu-
cation institutions and all relevant stakeholders, this 
produced recommendations and measures in the fol-
lowing areas:
• internationalising the curriculum, including ad-
dressing the topic of “Joint Programmes” sepa-
rately;
• promoting mobility for teachers;
• promoting mobility for higher education staff in 
general;
• non-traditional and innovative forms of mobility;
• promoting mobility for under-represented groups 
of students;
• quality assurance for mobility measures. 

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1. Current Trends
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The higher education mobility strategy is geared to-
wards enabling anyone involved in higher education 
to gain international and intercultural expertise with 
a high level of quality. It places particular emphasis 
on issues including the mobility of students from un-
der-represented groups and complementing tradi-
tional, physical mobility with non-traditional and in-
novative forms.
In terms of its implementation – by the higher ed-
ucation institutions themselves as well as the com-
petent ministerial departments and other stakehold-
ers – the strategy plan must be understood as a 
framework that enables and encourages the acquisi-
tion of international and intercultural expertise for 
anyone involved in higher education in a quality-as-
sured way, without ignoring the different profiles and 
needs of the institutions, fields and specialist areas 
(i.e. the specific context in each case).