Erasmus Mundus: 69 more universities join the programme

Citation

(2005), "Erasmus Mundus: 69 more universities join the programme", Education + Training, Vol. 47 No. 4/5. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2005.00447dab.013

Erasmus Mundus: 69 more universities join the programme

The European Commission has selected a further 17 Erasmus Mundus Master’s courses, involving 69 European universities new to the scheme. The selected Master’s courses will start at the beginning of the 2005-06 academic year and come on top of the 19 that started last autumn.

Erasmus Mundus aims to strengthen European co-operation and international ties in higher education. For the academic year 2005-2006, the number of recipients of Erasmus scholarships will increase to about 900 students and 100 academics. Ján Figel, European commissioner in charge of education, training, culture and multilingualism, said: “European universities continue to come forward in big numbers to participate in the programme, which responds to a real need among higher-education institutions and which contributes to restore Europe to a leading position on the international university scene”.

The second call for proposals under the Erasmus Mundus programme prompted 139 applications for master’s courses. A list of the 17 best courses was produced by a selection board consisting of 12 leading figures from European academia. The countries most prominently represented were the UK (11 universities), Germany (eight), The Netherlands (seven) as well as Sweden and France (six each). The UK universities were Reading, Cranfield (twice), Southampton, Manchester, Swansea, St Andrews, Sheffield, City, London School of Economics and Roehampton Institute.

The first generation of master’s courses is currently hosting the first recipients of Erasmus Mundus scholarships: 140 students and 42 academics. As the number of selected master’s courses grows, thousands of students from across the world will be hosted by the courses every year. They will come to study in Europe for up to two years.

An additional €57.3 million has been earmarked to allow for additional scholarships for students coming from China, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka or Vietnam. Action 3 of the programme, which will enable European students and researchers to go to non-EU countries to enrich their studies, will be launched later this year.

Meanwhile, the number of students and teachers taking part in the normal EU Erasmus programme rose by 9.4 per cent in the 2003-2004 academic year, the European Commission has reported. “More than 150,000 Europeans benefited last year from Erasmus”, said Ján Figel. “Encouraging mobility will remain a priority for the Commission in the coming years, as we expect to reach the target of three million Erasmus students by 2011, with almost 300,000 students a year”.

Erasmus gives students (up to and including doctorate, except for students enrolled in their first year of higher education) the opportunity to study for a period of between three and 12 months at a university in another participating country. Almost all 30 participating countries experienced a growth in outgoing student mobility. Spain (which welcomed 22,000 Erasmus students), France (19,000) and Germany (16,000) remained the most popular destinations for incoming Erasmus students. Those three countries also sent the most students to other universities (around 20,000 each per year). Business studies and languages remained the most popular subject areas.

Erasmus provides support for teachers giving courses – generally short courses – as part of the official curriculum of a partner university in another European country. In 2003-2004 the number of Erasmus teachers was 18,476. Finland and Malta had the highest proportion of Erasmus teachers going abroad. The most popular host countries were Germany (which hosted 2,400 teachers), France (2,200) and Italy (1,900). The main subject areas of teachers involved in the programme were education, teacher training, mathematics and computing.