English-medium instruction in European higher education: Measurement validity and the state of play in 2023/2024

Journal article, 2025

Notwithstanding the wide consensus that English-medium instruction (EMI) in European higher education has grown explosively since the turn of the century (Wächter, B., and Maiworm, F. 2014. English-taught programmes in European higher education: The state of play in 2014. Bonn: Lemmens), there has been little research which addresses issues related to operationalizing EMI, nor has a pan-European update on EMI figures been given since 2013. This study fills these gaps by (1) applying a measurement validity process (Adcock and Collier 2001) to operationalizing and measuring EMI and (2) applying the resultant framework to up-to-date figures on the state-of-play of EMI in European higher education in the academic year 2023/2024. A total of 24,043 ETPs were identified in 2023/24, compared to 8,089 in 2013, showing approximately three-fold growth over the decade. Geographically, our modern data shows that EMI is practiced more widely in 2023/2024, no longer as concentrated in Northern Europe. EMI is mostly practiced at the master’s level; and the most popular disciplines are ‘business and management’, ‘engineering and technology’ and ‘computer science and IT’. We discuss the theoretical and methodological implications for future research operationalizing and measuring EMI growth