Student Mobility

Why we do what we do. The program Student Mobility was launched in 2016 as part of the International Student Identity Card (ISIC) in the Netherlands. Due to the legacy of ISIC, close connections have been established with many International Offices at Higher Educational institutions (HEIs). At the time, ISIC focused on outgoing Dutch students, but the growth rate of incoming international students (approximately 10% a year) altered the tasks and responsibilities of HEIs.

To understand how the educational system and its students were dealing with this exponential increase, we joined the steering group “Red-carpet” and the network “Mobstacles”, both initiatives belonging to Nuffic, the Dutch organization for internationalization in education.

Attending events and discussions opened our eyes to the obstacles and challenges that both international students and HEIs face at the hands of increasing student mobility. The first hurdle we wanted to tackle was access to public transport: Together with Nuffic's “Study in Holland”, we launched the ISIC Mobility Card, a discounted OV product for international students who are not eligible for the “Studentenreisrecht” product.

As the Mobility Project proved to be an essential and popular product among international students, we decided, in 2021, to establish Student Mobility as its own independent organization that will focus on developing public-private services and products for international incoming students.