Erasmus Mundus students welcomed at Glasgow City Chambers
Published: 20 September 2019
City celebrates the University's Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree successes
The University’s College of Social Sciences celebrated its Erasmus Mundus successes on Thursday, 19 September, with a civic welcome event at Glasgow City Chambers for more than 200 of its incoming students.
The College’s Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree consortia are a major cause of celebration. An Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD), is a prestigious, integrated, international study programme, jointly delivered by an international consortium of higher education institutions. EMJMDs award EU-funded scholarships to the best student candidates applying under annual selection rounds.
Rachel Sandison, Vice Principal for External Relations, said: “The University of Glasgow is in the unique position of having received eight prestigious Erasmus Mundus awards from the European Commission to support student mobility and exchange on two-year International Master degrees jointly delivered by consortia of universities across Europe and beyond.
“The University of Glasgow acts as the co-ordinating institution on seven of these programmes and as a degree-awarding partner on the eighth. The Erasmus Mundus initiative is one of the jewels in the crown of higher education. They programmes respond directly to the multiple mobility and cultural experiences that an increasingly globally-aware student body is seeking and help to increase students’ employment opportunities on graduation.
“The programmes are also in the vanguard of our broader European engagement. The UK higher education sector is lobbying hard to ensure ongoing funding support and protection of these and similar programmes in the event of Brexit.”
Four of these programmes are located in the School of Social and Political Sciences, with another three in the School of Education and one in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, based in the University’s Dumfries campus.
The University’s Erasmus Mundus programmes span a wide range of subject areas and include degree-awarding partners from Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Ukraine, as well as associate partner institutions in many more locations around the world.
• Central and East European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, IntM (CEERES)
• Children’s Literature, Media and Culture, IntM (CLMC)
• South European Studies, IntM (EUROSUD)
• Global Markets, Local Creativities, IntM (GLOCAL)
• Adult Education for Social Change, IntM (IMAESC)
• Security, Intelligence and Strategic Studies, IntM (IMSISS)
Tourism Development and Culture, IntM (TourDC)
Education Policies for Global Development, IntM (GLOBED) is coordinated by Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Since first receiving Erasmus Mundus funding for its Russian, Central and East European Studies (IMRCEES) programme in 2011, the University’s Erasmus Mundus consortia have awarded scholarship funding to 385 students, allowing them to experience a top-quality educational experience in multiple different cities including, Glasgow. The University has welcomed students from over 90 different nationalities through its doors, making these programmes a truly enriching, multicultural experience for both students and staff.
In the 2018 round of funding, the University of Glasgow received four out of the five UK-led awards, and now has more programmes running through the University than most other European countries have in total.
In the 2019 round of funding, the University of Glasgow was successful in both of its re-funding bids for the GLOCAL and IMSISS programmes. These two programmes have won a further 4.37 million Euros each, which will fund a total of 176 full Erasmus Mundus Scholarships, spread over four intakes. This year, the University of Glasgow was the only UK HEI to be awarded EMJMD funding as a co-ordinator.
For the university, the benefits have been multi-layered across many areas, including:
• the development of joint and multiple degrees;
• helping to increase student recruitment, mobility and placements;
• attracting a greater diversity of students and of exceptional quality;
• changing the dynamics of classroom interaction and contributing to the internationalisation of the curriculum;
• consolidating academic networks - leading to an increase in joint research along with higher citation rates.
Collaboration with partners has also helped to raise the UoG’s profile within Europe and with non-EU funding bodies as well as enabling professional development through staff mobility and joint/multiple degree design.
Bailie Glenn Elder, who welcomed the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree students on behalf of the Lord Provost, telling them: “I’m confident you’ll have a great experience here in Glasgow - a city famed for its friendliness and sense of fun, as well as for being an unrivalled place of learning.
He added: “My gratitude also to the University of Glasgow for its commitment to the Erasmus Mundus Programme – a truly progressive, collaborative and world-class learning model.”
First published: 20 September 2019