Established by the European Union to improve the quality of education and increase student mobility, the Erasmus Mundus program cooperates between Europe and the rest of the world. There is also the Erasmus program, but it is available only to Europeans. "Erasmus Mundus" also allows you to use student exchange in almost any country, regardless of geographical location.
About the program
Implemented in three main areas:
- Joint doctoral and master's programs that provide scholarship support;
- partnership programs of universities from different countries;
- programs that increase the attractiveness of European education.
Erasmus Mundus annually finances the education of a certain number of students. The cost of education, medical insurance policy,flights and accommodation in the host country can be either partially or fully covered by scholarships and grants.
University professors, graduate students and students (masters and bachelors) participate in this program. University, political and economic cooperation between Russia and the European Union is being strengthened with the help of the Erasmus Mundus subprogramme. Within its framework, Russian candidates of sciences and graduate students who participate in semi-annual internships, as well as in academic and research programs conducted by European universities, receive scholarships. For example, masters can choose to study up to three Erasmus Mundus educational programs.
Partnership
Any university from any country can join this program, as it is aimed at developing all kinds of cooperation. You just need to fill out a special application on the official website. "Erasmus Mundus" is a program designed to unite European universities with universities from other regions, no matter how remote. Countries outside the EU, including Russia, are also eligible to join the program. Students, graduate students and teachers eagerly take the opportunity to exchange knowledge and replenish it at the expense of the European Union and Erasmus Mundus. The program is led by European universities, and institutes, academies, universities officially accredited and registered by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation can join it.
The European Commission allocates some fifteen million euros annually to fund threeconsortium of Russian and European universities. Thus, the European Commission with its funding covers all the costs of organizing and implementing the program. Below will be a fragmentary (for example) list of what will be needed to participate in Erasmus Mundus (2016), since basically the parameters in the program are repeated from year to year and the terms rarely change. Suggested scholarships for selected courses in the 2017-2018 academic year will also be presented.
Amendments are usually made between October and January, but having chosen the desired course, a teacher or student who wants to join the program must begin processing documents without waiting for changes, because this is not an easy process. "Erasmus Mundus" is a student exchange program, it is very popular, so you need to pay special attention to the collection of documents.
Sample project
The Aurora project - Towards Modern and Innovative Higher Education ("Aurora - the path to innovative modern higher education") - was created to support the academic mobility of staff, graduate students, students of universities participating in this project. The consortium includes twenty-two universities in Europe and Russia and eight associated organizations, where the University of Turku (Finland) acts as a coordinator.
Among the European partners of "Erasmus Mundus - 2016" there are the universities of Turku and Bologna, the University in the Czech Republic (named after Masaryk), the Catholic UniversityGroningen and Humboldt in Germany, Latvian and Warsaw Universities, Deusto Universities in Spain and Tartu Universities in Estonia… PhD students, professors, doctoral students from one of the partner universities take part in the project; European and Russian citizens studying or graduating from European or Russian universities that are not project partners.
The Erasmus Mundus Scholarship is awarded to Russian citizens who are in a difficult situation (in refugee status or seeking political asylum in accordance with international and European legislation, to persons unfairly expelled from universities for ethnic, racial, political, religious or gender reasons, which must be proven) and small indigenous peoples.
Competition and grant sizes
The goals of postgraduate students are non-degree internships, degree studies (research), internships take a maximum of three months after a six-month study. The Erasmus Mundus 2016-2017 competition was announced in autumn 2015. For doctoral students, the purpose of the exchange is a research internship, and for teachers and administrative workers - research, teaching, development of courses and educational and methodological works. Such goals contribute to the establishment of closer ties between faculties, departments, partner universities, help the implementation of the ECTS system, the development of managerial personnel, and the recognition of the result of studying at a university abroad.
Grants should cover the following costs:
- transportation: travel to the host university and back once;
- he alth insurance;
- visa cost (does not include residence permit).
Erasmus Mundus Scholarship for graduate students - 1500 euros per month, for doctoral students - 1800, for teachers and administrative workers - 2500. In addition, the project reimburses the tuition fees of the host EU university, which is more than ten months.
First of all
Applicants must meet all the requirements that the project makes of them:
- Carefully read the Study and Research Opportunities that exist at European partner universities.
- Study the websites of these partner universities to choose the right programs for study and take into account the peculiarities of the educational process, opportunities for advanced training, research, and so on.
- Choose from one to three partner universities.
- Proceed to prepare the package of application documents, taking into account the category of participation in the competition.
- Fill out, without using Windows Explorer, an electronic application before December 11, 14:00 Finnish time.
- Scan the application documents and submit them electronically by 18 December 14:00 Finnish time. The originals remain with the participant of the competition, and if a grant is awarded, they must be provided to the host university. All documents must be in English.
- Expect results by April.
Documents and selection criteria
For absolutely all participants of the competition, regardless of the category, you will need:
- copy of identity document (passport);
- CV in Europass format and motivation letter.
This is only the most important thing, but not everything. The rest of the set of documents depends only on the selected category.
What are the criteria for the competition? Academic performance must be in order. The participant's training program should correspond to the subject of the project. To participate, you need a justified reason with an appropriate plan of study, research or teaching and a foreign language at a high level of proficiency. Again, the handicapped, the poor, and ethnic minorities are favored in the competition.
In Minsk
In Minsk on November 1, 2016, an information day was held regarding the program of the European Commission, which is called "Erasmus Plus". The event was organized on the initiative of the Ministry of Education by its information and analytical center and the Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Maxim Tank. The information day was held at this educational institution at 18 Sovetskaya Street. The purpose of this event is more than clear - the need to inform students, graduate students, doctoral students and teachers interested in studying abroad, because it was there that they learned about the specifics of the third call for project proposals of the program "Erasmus Mundus" inBelarus.
Employees of all structural divisions of universities who are interested in the implementation of international programs and projects, as well as persons responsible for international cooperation, took part in the work of this meeting. A lot of interested people were invited and they all filled out their respective pre-applications. It should be noted that such events are not uncommon in Belarus; international experts with great authority are invited here to provide technical assistance and share their unique experience. Applications were selected for participation in the competition and sent to the Executive Agency of the European Commission, which owns the Erasmus Mundus program. There are well-known participants in these projects in Belarus as well. For example, fashion model and TV presenter Leyla Ismailova.
In Kazakhstan
The Erasmus Plus program opens up new opportunities for teachers, students and staff of universities in Kazakhstan, implemented within the boundaries of Key Action 1 (Key Action 1), which clearly increases mobility, which has always been an important component in the higher education system and allowed universities to develop. Moreover, this activity has a positive impact both on the universities of the program countries and on the universities of the partner countries, being an incentive to improve the quality of education, improve the work of student and international university services.
It is also possible to compare educational programs and update them. It does all this for the global student body."Erasmus Mundus". Kazakhstan has joined the educational programs of the European level, and the best internationalization strategies are being developed here every year, which serves as a catalyst in reforming the country's higher education. Educational mobility is important and useful both for students and teachers, and for the administrative staff of universities, it has the most positive impact on the quality of education and forms recognition tools. Twenty-eight EU countries, Iceland, Turkey, Liechtenstein, Macedonia are participating in partnership with the universities of Kazakhstan under the Erasmus Mundus program.
Russia
The consortium under the auspices of the University of Barcelona (Spain) included the following Russian partner universities:
- Siberian Federal University;
- Russian State Hydrometeorological University;
- Lomonosov Moscow State University;
- South Ural State University;
- Lobachevsky State University;
- Yaroslavl State University. Demidov;
- Pskov State Pedagogical University;
- St. Petersburg State University.
The consortium led by the University of Turku (Finland) included the following partners from Russian universities (the list is not complete):
- Emmanuel Kant State University in Russia;
- Higher School of Economics;
- Kazan Federal University;
- Irkutsk State University;
- Russian Stateliberal arts university;
- Petrozavodsk State University;
- Udmurt State University;
- St. Petersburg State University;
- Novgorod State University named after Yaroslav the Wise.
- Ural State University.
Applications
Students and teachers need to apply to the international department of any of the listed universities, and all requirements, selection criteria that apply to applicants are determined by the university where the application is being submitted. Same as the submission deadline. Third-year students who have already received an incomplete higher education can count on receiving a grant or scholarship from the Erasmus Mundus program. The term of study abroad varies depending on the category of exchange - it is at least three, but not more than ten months.
Students receive a scholarship of a thousand euros per month. Bachelors or students studying at a university for more than three years, preparing a thesis or defending a master's degree, study from three to twenty-two months. The scholarship is also 1000 euros. PhD students study for six to thirty-four months. PhD students who are in doctoral studies study for six to ten months, while professors and teaching staff have a travel period of no more than three months.
Afterword
Few EU programmes, if any, have such a large scale of pan-Europeanlevel. "Erasmus Mundus" absorbed ninety percent of the universities in Europe. The program opened in 1987, and since then more than two million students have taken part in it. Over thirty countries are in the program and more intend to join. Exchange and cooperation within the framework of Erasmus Mundus are aimed at spreading the European quality of higher education, all this contributes to understanding between cultures, dialogue between people of different nationalities, races, confessions and so on. This program develops both human resources and the international potential for cooperation between universities in different countries by enhancing the exchange of knowledge.
Going forward, the European Union plans to increase support for gifted students, graduate students, doctoral students and university professors from non-EU countries by providing grants so that they participate in joint programs directly in Europe. The scale of work will be further increased, the volume of financial injections to help students will increase.
This is a great chance for energetic and talented young people who have studied at the university for at least 4 years to continue their education abroad at the best universities in Europe. More than a hundred master's courses are already funded, and a lot of interesting things are also offered for the teaching staff. The most interesting thing is that you can not limit yourself to studying at only one European university, but study at two or three European universities in different countries, then get a full-fledged European diploma, and the amount of the scholarshipable to cover all student needs. Moreover, each European university has a coordinator of this program, who always helps every foreign student in all matters: administrative and personal, even in search of housing, for example, if there is such a need.
