The Erasmus Mundus Programme by the European Commission (see website)

The Erasmus Mundus programme is a co-operation and mobility programme in the field of higher education organised by the European Commission. It aims to enhance quality in European higher education and to promote intercultural understanding through co-operation with third countries.

The programme is intended to strengthen European co-operation and international links in higher education by supporting high-quality European Masters Courses, by enabling students and visiting scholars from around the world to engage in postgraduate study at European universities, as well as by encouraging the outgoing mobility of European students and scholars towards third countries.

The Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses constitute the central component around which Erasmus Mundus is built. They are high-quality integrated courses at master's level offered by a consortium of at least three universities in at least three different European countries. The courses must be "integrated" to be selected under Erasmus Mundus, which means that they must foresee a study period in at least two of the three universities and that it must lead to the award of a recognised double, multiple or joint diploma. In order to give the Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses selected a strong external projection, an Erasmus Mundus scholarships scheme for third-country graduate students and scholars from the whole world is linked to them. This scholarship scheme addresses highly qualified individuals who come to Europe to follow the Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses or to work for them.

Erasmus Mundus Scholarship

Per academic year Erasmus Mundus scholarships are available for FUSION-EP students from third countries are available. Nationals coming from all countries other than the 25 EU Member States (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, the UK, Sweden, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia), the EEA-EFTA states (Island, Liechtenstein and Norway) and the candidate countries for accession to the EU (presently Croatia and Turkey), who are not residents of any of the above countries, and who have not carried out their main activities (studies, work, etc.) for more than a total of 12 months over the last five years in any of the above countries are considered "third-country nationals".

For academic year 2007-2008, the FUSION-EP Erasmus Mundus consortium can select a total of 26 students, including the 13 students under the "Asian window", to be granted a scholarship .Without prejudice to the respect of high academic standards, in order to ensure a geographical balance across third-country students, Erasmus Mundus Masters consortia shall respect the following basic criteria when selecting third-country students:

• no more than 4 of the selected third-country students should come from the same country.
• no more than 2 of the selected third-country students should come from the same institution (3 where a Partnership under Action 3 has been established).

The Erasmus Mundus scholarship consist of twenty monthly instalments of 1600 euro and a yearly fee of 5000 euro to cover expenses, like subscription fees, insurances and travel.

Although EU students cannot apply for Erasmus Mundus scholarships, the Master offers them a unique opportunity to study in an international environment, at different EU institutes and to attend courses of specialist non-EU scholars. And EU students can also apply for grants to do part of their study or research in connected institutes outside the EU.