Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses The programme will support approximately 100 courses of outstanding academic quality across the full range of academic subjects. The courses must be offered by consortia of a minimum of 3 European universities and must be organised as integrated courses in the sense that students will study at a minimum of two different universities during the course period. The courses should lead to a joint degree, but since there still are a number of formal and legal obstacles to overcome, double or multiple diplomas may be offered in an initial period. The courses are usually based on the experiences gained under the regular Erasmus programme and may be seen as the end product of the support provided to the Joint Masters Degrees. The universities taking part in the consortia must in addition provide practical assistance to facilitate student mobility (involving travel, accommodation, language training and social networks) and must offer mutual recognition of courses and credits through the European Credit Transfer System. Erasmus Mundus scholarships The programme will allocate between 10 and 30 scholarships to each consortium for students from countries outside Europe, to allow highly qualified graduate students from all over the world to benefit from the masters’ courses. The scholarships are quite generous (€ 21.000/year) and it is expected that this will encourage competition and attract the best students. The scholarship regulations further aim at diversity in the student population, by setting limits for each course of maximum 25% of the students from the same country and maximum 10% from the same institution. Each consortium may also apply for between 3 and 5 positions for visiting scholars from countries outside Europe. These will be short-term (3 months) arrangements for non-European scholars who will be involved in research within the substantive field of the masters’ course and who will enrich the course by participating in research activities, supervision of research students or other forms of training during their period of stay with a European host institution. Partnerships Action 3 of the Erasmus Mundus programme is intended to promote partnerships between the European consortia and various academic institutions outside Europe. Each European consortium may enter into partnership agreements with up to three non-European institutions. The main thrust of this action will involve increasing the mobility of European staff and students by allowing them to take part in the academic activities of the partner institution. The programme will provide travel grants for up to five European students and up to three instructors per consortium, to visit partner institutions in non-European countries. Expenses incurred by the host institution will be partly offset by a modest partnership grant (€5.000 per institution) from the programme. Promotion The 4th action under the Erasmus Mundus programme involves a range of activities that promote a global interest in the Erasmus Mundus programme and in the European Higher Education Area. In addition to supporting activities that improve the profile and visibility of European higher education (through e.g. seminars, conferences, publications) this action also will also work on improving accessibility of non-
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