RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

416 RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
petences necessary for personal fulfillment, active citizenship, social cohesion and employability
adopted by the European Council (2006) are: communication in foreign languages; cultural
awareness and expression; learning to learn; sense of initiative and entrepreneurship;
mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology; digital competence;
social and civic competences, etc. The European Commission has consolidated exchange
programs such as Erasmus to develop this type of competences and support change in higher
education. For higher education institutions, mobility programs can bring prestige, they can
represent a sign of quality or an indicator of internationalization (Green, 2012).
The EU investment in mobility programs started on the premise that intercultural exchanges
would be beneficial for future EU citizens and professionals especially in the context of an
increasingly internationalized world (Stronkhorst, 2005). An important goal of the Bologna
system is to increase academic mobility through the common degree structure and the European
credit transfer system to facilitate the recognition of foreign studies and thus to encourage
intercultural experiences (Wiers-Jenssen, 2012). Higher education institutions aim to
enhance the quality of the educational system through mobility programs, to support academic
cooperation and knowledge exchange, to develop relations based on mutual understanding,
and to enhance language and cultural skills (Chetro-Szivos, 2010).
Mobility among advanced economic countries is referred to as horizontal mobility, while
exchanges from a less economically developed country to a more advanced one, as vertical
mobility. There can be different outcomes according to the type of mobility (Teichler, 2012).
For example, in the case of former Erasmus students from Central and Eastern European countries,
mobility is a more exclusive experience that ensures higher professional rewards. However,
career benefits (in terms of employability, wages or international jobs) are stronger on
a horizontal level than on a vertical one (Teichler & Janson, 2007; Bracht et al., 2006).
As scholars show, student mobility leads to wealth, economic growth and higher quality
of human resources, and it aims to help youths take advantage of the opportunities afforded
by an economic and political Europe in order to have a better future (Papatsiba, 2009). Also,
most adult learners are goal oriented, having specific aims for their education, including
improving job prospects and developing skills (Cross, 1981), this being a reason for applying
for mobility programs. Erasmus students are mostly motivated by opportunities for personal
development, the experience of different cultures, language-skill development and labor
market returns (Ahn, 2014; Udrea, 2014; Bracht et al., 2006), all being important factors in
achieving career success. The Erasmus program is considered the largest mobility student
exchange scheme in Europe, enabling approximately 200,000 students to study abroad each
year. Since 1987, the starting year of the program, almost 3 million students took part in academic
exchanges, but the number of students being mobile still doesn’t get closer to reaching
the established target of 10% European students being involved in exchange academic
experiences (Souto-Otero et al., 2013).
Studying abroad usually makes a strong and long-lasting impact on people’s lives, enhancing
cross-cultural proficiency, openness, engagement in global affairs, which leads students
to work in higher status employment sectors mostly internationally related, and decreases the
unemployment after graduation (Parey & Waldinger, 2011, Paige, Fry, Stallman, Josic, & Jon,
2009, Norris & Gillespie, 2009, Bracht et al., 2006). Participants in learning abroad programs
usually report a high level of benefit in relation to the early stages of their career, helping
them develop employability skills (such as interpersonal and communication skills, teamwork,