Benefits of internationalisation
Living and working in our multicultural society and solving global problems requires a generation that can cooperate and communicate across national and cultural boundaries (Allinson & Gabriels, 2021). Students can gain these skills by going abroad during their studies or participate in a digital international collaboration project. Much is known about the positive impact a study abroad experience has on students' personal and professional development. On a personal level, students develop flexibility and self-reliance through credit mobility (Nuffic, 2023). They have an outward perspective and being more open to travel and other cultures. On a professional level they feel better equipped for an international career (De Korte et al., 2020). In addition, students with experience abroad cooperate and communicate better with (international) colleagues and are more able to compare their situation with other countries (Lodewick et al., 2024). The benefits of going abroad are also emphasised by educational institutions (VH & VSNU, 2018), the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the European Union. For example, the EU set the goal that by 2025, 25% of European higher education graduates should have a mobility experience (European Commission, 2023).

There is increasing attention for digital forms of internationalisation from educational institutions and scholars of internationalisation. The considerable debate about terminology making generalisation difficult, but this study looks at digital international collaboration projects, such as COIL and Virtual Exchange. These projects can be complementary to mobility and can be designed specifically to help students develop intercultural competencies while still being in their country of residence (O’Dowd, 2021). In addition, these projects are often integrated into the curriculum linking international competencies with curriculum content (Hackett et al., 2024).

Challenges in internationalisation
Despite the benefits of a study abroad experience, there are also challenges associated with credit mobility. For instance, not all students participate in international mobility to the same extent. It appears that students with a lower socio-economic status (Netz et al., 2016; Kommers, 2020), first generation students (Kommers, 2020; Resch et al., 2021, Hauschildt et al., 2021), students with disabilities, and ethnic minority students (De Wit, 2018; Go International, 2016; Carette et al., 2019) are less likely to participate in mobility. Although digital international cooperation projects (such as COIL/VE) are considered as more inclusive than credit mobility, research on the inclusiveness of digital international cooperation projects is lacking (Beelen et al., 2021).

This research
As prior research has mostly focused on either credit mobility or digital forms of internationalisation, there is still a lack of research comparing the prevalence and outcomes (for instance, in terms of learning and labour market) of these two forms of internationalisation. Furthermore, as most prior research on credit mobility has been conducted in the scope of Erasmus+ which is an exchange program mostly within Europe, little is known about credit mobility outside of Europe.

This research focuses on two cohorts of Dutch higher-education graduates (2020-21 and 2021-22). It zooms in on students who have participated in an international experience during their studies. This experience can be broken down into two forms:

1. Credit mobility. Whereby the student goes abroad for an exchange or an internship. This mobility lasts at least 3 months or is equivalent to 15 ECTS.
2. Digital international collaboration. A program in which students participate in a digital collaboration project with peers from a school or university abroad. For example, COIL/VE

For each form, we look at the characteristics, the motivation to participate, the personal characteristics of the students who do and do not participate, the inclusiveness, the learning outcomes gained and the labour market position.

Annual survey Statistics Netherlands The research ‘Borderless learning’ is based on the annual Learning Mobility Survey, distributed by Statistics Netherlands (in Dutch: Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek). Each year, Statistics Netherlands contacts newly graduated higher education students and sends out a survey about any international experiences they may have had during their studies. Our research is based on the data from two Learning Mobility surveys (2022 and 2023) concerning students' international experiences and their background characteristics. We also make use of linked registry data (also via Statistics Netherlands). Sample The original dataset includes 15,146 respondents in total. The dataset also includes international degree students studying in the Netherlands and Dutch students pursuing a full degree abroad; these groups were excluded from this study as they are beyond the scope of this study. Also excluded, due to their limited sample sizes, are associate degree graduates, graduates with more than 6 international experiences and those who have been abroad for more than 19 months. This results in a total of 12,719 respondents who graduated from Dutch higher education in the academic years 2020-21 and 2021-22. Analyses and sample weighting This report makes use of two methods: descriptive analyses and (logistic) regression models. Descriptive analyses with sample weights enable us to estimate, among others, the share of students with an international experience in the Netherlands and whether this experience is in the form of credit mobility or digital international collaboration. We incorporated the survey weights from Statistics Netherlands in the various analyses using the ‘srvyr’ package (Freedman Ellis & Schneider, 2024). These weights (based on type of education, age, gender, type of household, province, and employment status) help to improve the accuracy with which the sample reflects the general population.

1 in 5 students have an international experience during their study 22.1% of all graduates have an international experience. From the graduates with an international experience, almost half (47.8%) participated in credit mobility, and 43.7% have participated in digital international collaboration. Participation in digital international cooperations increased in 2021-22, probably due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Various reasons for an international experience Personal and social development are reasons why students participate in an international experience. For credit mobility, benefits for the resume are also important. Many students stated that participation in digital international cooperation project was a requirement of their study programme. Different learning outcomes depending on form of internationalisation Intercultural competencies are most often mentioned as learning outcomes. Personal development (independence and self-confidence) is mainly developed through credit mobility. In digital international cooperation projects, improved language skills and interest in different perspectives are the most frequently mentioned learning outcomes. A digital international cooperation project is more inclusive than credit mobility The models show fewer significant factors and smaller effects for taking part in a digital international cooperation project versus credit mobility. For example, the likelihood of taking part in a digital international cooperation project does not depend on the educational background of the parents, in contrast to credit mobility. In addition, fields of study have a greater impact on credit mobility than on digital international cooperation projects. Half of credit mobility graduates found their international experience valuable for finding their current job 50% of the credit mobility graduates found their international experience helpful in finding their current job. However, the regression analysis does not show strong evidence that an international experience per se directly helped them to find a job. This suggests that the importance of internationalisation in the labour market varies depending on the labour market sector or outcome.

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