Business Services Industry

Ambassador Bruton: American Students Wanted

Business Wire, May 23, 2008

WASHINGTON -- As the 2008 NAFSA conference on international education opens, Ambassador John Bruton, Head of the European Commission Delegation to the United States, issued the following statement encouraging American students to study in Europe through the Erasmus Mundus program.

"We have excellent universities throughout Europe, but we are missing American students.

Numerous studies confirm the benefits of studying abroad before entering our global knowledge-based economy, and the European Union's Erasmus Mundus program offers American students, as well as students from other non-EU countries, a wonderful opportunity to study in the EU through access to 80 European graduate degree programs.

Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses are top-quality graduate programs, each offered by a consortium of at least three universities located in three or more European countries. Students study at two of the consortium universities and obtain a recognized double or joint degree upon graduation. Additionally, students selected for Erasmus Mundus scholarships also receive [euro]21,000 in funding per academic year, for a period of up to two years.

Promoting academic mobility between the U.S. and the EU, and ensuring that European and American students exchange knowledge, experience and ideas, are vital components in keeping the transatlantic relationship strong and Erasmus Mundus has an important role to play. With 22 current partnerships between American institutions and Erasmus Mundus programs, and in fields ranging from nuclear fusion to organizational psychology, the United States is better connected to the Erasmus Mundus network than any other non-EU country.

However, since 2004, just 85 scholarships have been awarded to U.S. students out of a total of 2,532 available to non-EU students worldwide. An additional 122 scholarships (out of 597 worldwide) have been awarded to U.S. academics to teach or carry out research in Europe in the framework of Erasmus Mundus programs.

So why are more American students not seizing this opportunity to develop their intercultural competence, foreign language skills and interdisciplinary thinking? Perhaps it is because American students have traditionally had so many options to study abroad that Erasmus Mundus isn't yet as well known as we would like, or as it should be. We must change this.

We will be making an effort to promote Erasmus Mundus more robustly in the universities and 23 new Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses will launch this fall, bringing the total to 108. The European Union Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, Jan Figel', will make this a cornerstone of his visit to Washington during the 2008 NAFSA conference.

I strongly encourage American students to investigate the opportunities offer by the Erasmus Mundus program and to take the first step in becoming a vital part of the most important international relationship in the world, the transatlantic alliance."

Background:

Launched in 2004, Erasmus Mundus was inspired by the EU's highly successful Erasmus Program, which supports cooperation and mobility between European higher education institutions. The program provides EU-funded scholarships for non-EU nationals participating in Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses, as well as scholarships for EU nationals studying at partner universities throughout the world.

In July 2007, the European Commission adopted a proposal to launch the next generation of Erasmus Mundus, which will run from 2009 to 2013. The Erasmus Mundus of the future aims to become the model for cooperation with non-EU higher education institutions, and expands the program to cover joint doctoral degrees, increased financial support to EU students, and collaborative partnerships with specific regions in the world. More than [euro]950 million will be available for European and non-EU universities during the five-year period, with half of it earmarked for developing countries.

To help raise awareness of Erasmus Mundus and other academic mobility programs supported by the EU, Commissioner Jan Figel' will attend the 2008 NAFSA Annual Conference in Washington, DC. On May 27, he will participate in a roundtable titled "International Student and Scholar Mobility: Programs, Trends, Challenges, and Impact." The discussion will include academic mobility, the Bologna process, Erasmus Mundus and the Atlantis Program. More information is available online at http://www.nafsa.org/annual_conference/ac08schedule/ac08sessions/.>