This European Union scholarship programme is attracting the world's top-flight master's students. And a number of master's degree programmes at Swedish universities have been selected under the prestigious Erasmus Mundus banner.

This fall, around 20 international master's students will begin their Euroculture programme at Uppsala University. They're not exchange students, many have traveled further a field than Europe and they come equipped with Erasmus Mundus scholarships to ease the financial strain of studying abroad.

The Erasmus Mundus scholarship programme encourages students to follow in the footsteps of the 15th century Dutch scholar, Desiderious Erasmus Rotterdamus. He studied extensively throughout Europe and was considered a distinguished academic of his day.

Mundus, meaning 'world' in Latin, relates to the aim of promoting Europe as a center of learning excellence around the globe and creating a competitive knowledge-based economy.

The Erasmus Mundus programme came into force in 2004 and currently funds 57 selected course programmes, covering a wide range of subjects, on offer at European universities, including Sweden. Not to be confused with its long-running sibling, the Erasmus project for undergraduates in Europe, this is really about making higher education here more accessible to non-European master's students.

Applications are welcome from within the EU, from non-EU European countries or from the rest of the world - known as 'third country' students. And to further ensure an international mix of perspectives, each course is allocated a number of student places from a designated Asian country, known as 'Asian windows'.

Added European value
The master's degree programme in Euroculture at Uppsala University has been running since 1999 but this is its first year in conjunction with the Erasmus Mundus scholarship programme.

"Learning about Europe and its relations with the rest of the world makes the course so exceptionally well suited to the programme," says course director Oskar Pettersson. He knows only too well that giving international master's students the chance to obtain qualifications and experience within EU countries has been problematic in the past.

"We were getting more and more applications from non-EU countries," he says. "And we realised that many students were unable to come because of financial struggles. So our vision of joining the programme was clear."
 
Selection and subsidy
Both competition and tough criteria for courses and students alike ensures high quality education for the cream of international students. In turn they are reimbursed with attractive scholarships if their application is accepted.

"They are as generous as those you'd find in the US," Pettersson says. "They're up there with the Fulbright scholarships and they put the programme on a prestigious level." Indeed, approximately 90% of the programme's five-year budget (2004-08) of €230 million goes into scholarships. Universities also receive funding to invite experts in the field from non-European countries to give guest lectures and seminars.

"The scholarship is more than sufficient; it's very generous and covers everything from housing to the academic materials you need," says Israel Alejandro Arriaga Trejo, who left Mexico City for the north of Sweden 12 months ago.

More information on Erasmus Mundus courses

at Swedish universities can be found here.

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