Architectural studies in the European Higher Education Area: Criteria for student degree mobility

The European Higher Education Area was implemented as a result of the Bologna Process and set the mobility of students and staff as its main goal, suggesting tools to facilitate it. The European Union has supported the suggested measures, as mobility can be a way to support a common European identity and a strategic way to improve the quality of higher education institutes. Architectural studies, due to their special character as both an art and a science discipline, are chosen as the education area most suited for mapping degree mobility and highlighting the characteristics that differentiate each school in terms of attraction to international students. How do architectural students select the school to continue their studies? On what criteria is that based? There were more than 351 schools of architecture in the European Higher Education Area with 49 participating countries at the time the research was conducted. Do international students choose them at the same degree? What makes a difference between them, causing some of them to become famous schools of excellence while others are barely visible in the international competition? To answer the above questions, a research based on two questionnaires was conducted during the academic year 2018-2019. The aim of both questionnaires was to map the state of the art in architectural studies and determine the criteria students value the most to make their choices at master studies. The process of combining the data collected from both questionnaires showed that the study programmes and the city or country of the school are the main reasons for master’s students to choose a specific school and for schools to stand out. This is followed by the criteria: offered studies’ quality, institution’s reputation, teaching language, the host city’s economy, giving students the possibility to work during and/or after studies, the offer of third cycle. The paper concludes suggesting changes schools could implement if they wish to get a better position in the competitive market of attracting international students.