211 VOLKER JAHR AND ULRICH TEICHLER U. Teichler (ed.), Careers of University Graduates, 211–224 © 2007 Springer. 211 VOLKER JAHR AND ULRICH TEICHLER GRADUATES’ INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE AND MOBILITY 1. INTRODUCTION International mobility has been a frequent phenomenon amongst unskilled and skilled labour in the past. It was less frequent amongst highly-skilled professionals. As far as student and professional mobility was concerned, it was predominantly vertical or, more specifically, upward, i.e. from the poorer to the richer countries, or from places with a lower quality of learning and work to more demanding places. In the 1980s and 1990s, horizontal educational and professional mobility became more widespread between countries with similar qualities of education systems and with a similar level of economic development (Blumenthal et al. 1996; Teichler 1999). In the late 1990s, the percentage of foreign persons amongst the highly qualified was about 4 per cent and available statistics allow us to estimate that about 3 per cent of highly qualified persons with EU citizenship or from other Western European countries were employed abroad (Jahr and Teichler 2001). This could still be considered as small, but, the opinion spread amongst students that study and a career abroad could be a possible and regular option and possibly an attractive one. For many years, the European policy was viewed as one of the strongest factors in stimulating horizontal educational and professional mobility. Enriched learning through temporary study abroad, the freedom of working in any country of the European Union, and the promotion of the idea of a European citizenship were at the heart of European policies. In fact, the ERASMUS programme is generally considered as one of the most successful European activities in all sectors (European Commission 1994; Teichler 1996). In recent years, the public debate in industrial societies has paid more attention to the “globalisation” phenomenon, i.e. trends towards a single world economy and society whereby nations, governments and boundaries lose importance. This seems to create pressure for convergence of national structures, world-wide competition, world-wide information gathering, co-operation with all parts of the world, as well as greater professional mobility, either through work with foreign employers, by being sent abroad by home companies or through work in global companies where these definitions and delineations gradually lose their relevance (Van der Wende 2001). In the CHEERS study on higher education and graduate employment in 12 countries, attention was paid to international mobility prior to study, during the study period and upon employment. In addition, changes of citizenship were addressed, and different types of international experiences were taken into consideration. The CHEERS study is certainly the most comprehensive study ever undertaken on the links between pre-study mobility, mobility during the course of study and professional mobility.