Intentions

By providing common standards for data collection and delivery, the project adds value through the creation of opportunities to develop and exchange know-how on how to carry out effective national surveys. In some countries, EUROSTUDENT is the only source of data for monitoring the composition of the student body. The work accomplished in the previous rounds of EUROSTUDENT has already achieved a high level of acceptance, as evidenced for example by the use of the EUROSTUDENT data in the Bologna Process implementation reports.

EUROSTUDENT strives to cover as many countries of the European Higher Education Area as possible. In almost all countries, both researchers and policy-makers are involved. This constellation of researchers and policy-makers continues to assure that the development stage of the project adequately takes into account the methodical and analytical challenges involved in fulfilling the goal of supporting evidence-based policy. Close cooperation with participant countries ensures the comparability and interpretability of the data for the different national contexts.

The findings of the comparative study can only support evidence-based policy on national and European levels if the interests and needs of the users are considered. The project will build on previous experience within EUROSTUDENT to create and utilise reporting structures which are informative, sound, and facilitate policy evaluation as well as discussions on further developments. Efforts are made to ensure that results of the project are not only reflected in publications made by the project consortium, but also analysed and disseminated by other data users at the national and European level in order to create a diversity of output.