Evaluating the Erasmus experience: evidence from students of the University of Bergamo

Over the past 25 years, in most of the Italian and European universities, there has been an increasing emphasis in all activities related to internationalization. These activities have gradually increased in terms of number of students and teachers involved; they have become more complex and now cover many aspects of higher education. In recent years, even the University of Bergamo has aligned, making internationalization one of the main guidelines for its future development. Following this line of interest, we have conducted an on-line survey addressed to students with credit mobility experiences. We prepared a questionnaire structured according to the following three main sections: i) Why spend a period abroad; ii) During the period abroad; iii) Coming back to Bergamo. We asked the students of our university to answer on the important choice factors to decide to study abroad and to decide the host country / university. They were required to compare the experience abroad to previous experience in their home university in terms of teaching and assessment methods, and average exams score. Finally, the respondents were asked to evaluate the impact of studying abroad on communication skills, ability to work in team and so on, and to judge the fulfillment of their expectations. The aim of this contribution is to analyze how students evaluate the experience abroad, with particular attention to language difficulties encountered, the comparison between the teaching and assessment methods of the two universities (home and host). We also focus our attention on the answers related to the coming back: the realignment with the course of study, the change in relationship skills, language skills and work in team. The questionnaire was sent to 1300 students of our university with credit mobility experiences (for an Erasmus and/or Exchange extra EU Program) in the last 6 academic years (from 2008/09 to 2013/14). After more than one reminder, the response rate is about 50%. The analysis of the survey’s results shows that most of the respondent students were satisfied by the experience abroad. In particular, it seems that the Erasmus and/or Exchange experience has been important not only to improve the characteristics related to the student's curriculum, but also to develop interpersonal and intercultural competences and, in general term, to grow as an individual.