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Background: Travelling away from home can be associated with fewer limits on behavior, particularly for students who participate in exchange programs. Aims: To examine the effects of eight moderators on change in alcohol use and related negative outcomes, drug use and unprotected sexual behavior in European study abroad students before, during, and after their time abroad. Methods: A three wave (before departure, while abroad, and after their return) longitudinal design collecting data on the frequency and volume of alcohol consumed, heavy episodic drinking, alcohol-related outcomes, drug use, and unprotected casual sex. Results: The baseline survey was completed by 1145 students participating in one or two semester exchange programs (67.5% spent up to a semester abroad), of which 906 participated in two or more waves, representing 42 and 33 countries of origin and destination, respectively. Mean age was 22.2 years (SD = 2.28) and 72.7% were female. Students increased the amount of alcohol consumed by 35% (B = 0.32; 95% CI 0.287–0.349) and experienced more alcohol-related consequences (B = 0.15; 95% CI 0.089–0.219) during the study abroad experience, though levels fell below pre-departure levels when they returned home. Factors related to greater alcohol use while abroad include pre-departure expectations about alcohol use during the study abroad experience, psychological adjustment to the host country, academic involvement, and host country living costs. No statistically meaningful change in drug use and unprotected sexual behavior was observed. Conclusions: Studying abroad exposes European students to additional time-limited alcohol-related health risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Erasmus mobility is one of the most important manifestations of internationalization of education in Europe. The aim of the study is to ascertain the participants' motives and the benefits coming from this international exchange of students as well as to diversify the results with regard to gender. The article, in its theoretical part, characterizes the concept of internationalization of education, describes the factors motivating for educational mobility, the benefits and the barriers of participation. The empirical part contains own researches carried out on a group of 125 students from Polish and foreign universities, using the CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) tool. It turns out that the main motivators to participate in student international education mobility is, among women, desire to travel as well as development of language skills. Men are mainly motivated by having fun and good time. Regardless of the research results it can be noticed that, generally, employers are more likely to decide to hire people who participated in and international student exchange, and the risk of long-term unemployment among graduates with international experience is lower by half than among graduates without such international experience. On the other hand, internationalization of education involves risks, including commercial profits, academic colonization and difficulties in providing high-quality education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The object of this paper is to investigate the results of the implementation of the European Lifelong Learning Programs in higher education, with an emphasis on the effect of students' participation on their personal development and professional preparation. The research presented here, which was carried out at a Greek university in conjunction with a quantitative and qualitative approach, highlights the importance of these programs in the students' self-development, their professional orientation and creating in them a sense of "belonging" to Europe. The research took place at the University of Patras and focused on students of that institution that participated in Erasmus between 2000- 2005. The University of Patras is the third largest Greek university, with twenty-two departments, and, as all institutions of tertiary education in Greece, it operates as a public institution. The results presented here were based on the answers given to 144 questionnaires and on 14 interviews with last year students. The questionnaire was filled out by the students after they returned to their home university. The questions addressed issues regarding the profile of the participants, the reasons for which they took part, their linguistic adequacy, the financial coverage they had while studying abroad, as well as the experiences they brought back with them. The research presented here, highlights the importance of these programs in the students' self-development, their professional orientation and creating in them a sense of "belonging" to Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]