ABSTRACT
In Europe, cooperation and movement of academics have a long history. In the Middle Ages, students were encouraged to undergo a peregrinatio academica across the continent. 2 Erasmus himself came from Rotterdam to receive a degree at the University of Turin. At the same time, the title of “doctor bullato” conferred the right to teach everywhere, that is, throughout the entire “respublica Christiana” (licentia ubique docendi). 3 Nonetheless, this history is not one of constant progress towards a free movement of students and researchers, as it follows broader political and societal evolutions. During the 18th and the 19th century, it started to slow down as education became an essential component of nation building. 4 Academic curricula lost their transnational essence to become mainly national.
