Higher Education and Student Mobility in Scandinavian Discourse

Purpose: Today, with the demand of a knowledge-based society to adapt its workforce to modern, flexible and innovative production, the mobility of students has become an integral part of the European education system. The article offers a comparative analysis of the historical background, evaluation of the present situation, principles, and new political initiatives on accessibility in the tertiary education systems of countries in the North European region. The Nordic context is the most important for the development of student mobility and accessibility to tertiary education because these countries have gained unique experience in this sphere, creating democratic, free, and equal systems of tertiary education that exist as a component of lifelong learning. Materials and Methods: Multiple sources in European and Scandinavian educational environments at various time points from 1990 to 2022 have been used in the data collection for this study. By means of a case study approach that includes qualitative methods of analytical induction and generalization, a "contextualized comparison" has been carried out to identify characteristic features of students' mobility in institutions of higher learning in the Nordic region and to explore the process in chronological order. Results: Students' mobility in Europe and worldwide requires a substantial adjustment at the legislative, structural, and contextual levels. Based on a comparative analysis of the policy features in historical retrospective, the author has substantiated postmodern initiatives that influence the construction of an efficient high education model accessible for all.