Evaluating universal student mobility: Contrasting policy discourse and student narratives in Luxembourg

For decades, Luxembourg did without its own national university. Before and after the Luxembourg’s founding (UL) (2003), tertiary education and the status of being a Luxembourgish student have been closely linked to international student mobility (ISM). This long-standing tradition was maintained in the new university via compulsory ISM—to bolster the national elite’s European networks and internationalization. Focusing on ISM from Luxembourg—based on analysis of policy documents regarding the UL’s foundation and state allowances for students—we show that policymakers strongly favored ISM. We confront this policy agenda with the perspectives and self-identification of both credit and degree mobile Luxembourgish students. In narrative interviews, students did not always view compulsory ISM as positively as did policymakers. For students, the quality of a stay abroad is much more important—a perspective lacking in the state’s quantity-driven agenda. In the country with the highest ISM rates globally, constraints remain to achieve equity in ISM.