BRUSSELS: The European Union recently announced the selection of 319 students from India to pursue Masters courses in Europe for the year 2006-2007 as part of its Erasmus Mundus programme. Launched in 2004, Erasmus Mundus is an EU initiative dedicated to students from third countries who come to study in the EU to pursue Masters courses at various European universities over two years.
The courses range from engineering and sciences to law and the humanities. The program has been extraordinarily successful and over 100 former graduates gathered in Brussels recently for a two day seminar to launch the Erasmus Mundus Alumni Association.
Swaroop Kher from Mahrashtra'sKonkan city of Ratnagiri is currently pursuing his degree in Agriculture the University of Gent in Belgium and hopes to join an international NGO.
For the next academic year he will visit, Italy, Slovakia and Germany.
Kher told INEP that ?if you want to have a degree in agriculture you don'thave much funding. I am specialising in rural development and there aren'tmany programs like mine available in the US.?
Indian students have always shown an affinity toward the US when it comes to higher education owing to the job opportunities offered to them after completion of their studies.
Kher was never inclined to go the US and said he was very happy in Europe. However, he has not been given clear indications about his future work options. His peer Vishal Murani who is a graduate of IIT Delhi is studying Nano technology in Dresden in Germany and will complete his next year in the Netherlands.
Speaking to INEP he said ?I had the option to go to the US but took the road less traveled. This program has basically opened the roads for quality students from India to study in Europe.?
Murani noted that application procedures for Erasmus Mundus were more flexible and easier than requirements by international universities in the US and UK.
Referring to the need for Indian and international talent in Europe, EU Commissioner for education Jan Figel told that ?We intend to propose continuity.
We are in the middle of the program right now. In India we could focus more on education via linking education to external dimensions of our cooperation.
It is a question of mutual interest. Volumes of students from India will be growing In total, the European Commission, the EU'sexecutive, has selected 1,377 students and 231 university teachers to participate in 57 high caliber masters degrees for 2006-2007.?
The candidates will benefit from scholarships worth 52 million Euro. 742 of these students were selected from 92 countries under the general Erasmus Mundus programme including 31 students from India alone.
Other top ranking countries were the USA, China, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and Malaysia.
288 additional Indian students formed the majority of the remaining 636 candidates that were chosen for scholarships under the Asia targeted Erasmus Mundus ?Asian Windows? program, while 12 of the selected 231 scholars are Indian teachers. The rest hail from China, USA, Russia, Canada and Brazil.
Commissioner Figel said, ?Europe'suniversities are now attracting more of the world'sbest graduate students and teachers.?
?When Europe'suniversities benefit, the EU economy benefits too, as does our dialogue with other cultures?.
Erasmus Mundus university teachers spend up to three months in Europe working for one of the masters courses, thus strengthening ties between universities worldwide.
