EU presents over 200 masters scholarships to ASEAN students

EU Ambassador to ASEAN Igor Driesmans (Source: Gulf Today)

Jakarta (VNA) – The European Union (EU) has awarded a record number of full scholarships to 205 students from ASEAN member countries to undertake Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree (EMJMD) starting the academic year of 2020.

With these scholarships, the students will be able to pursue their Master’s Degree for up to two years in at least two universities located in two different European countries.

Notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the Erasmus awardees will depart for Europe to commence their studies in this fall semester. In some exceptional cases, courses will be postponed to next year.

Igor Driesmans, EU Ambassador to ASEAN, voiced his delight to see the interest from ASEAN students to study in Europe despite the global pandemic.

The Erasmus+ programme provides a great opportunity to the scholarship awardees to develop academically and professionally at top-quality European universities, he affirmed.

From 2014 to 2020, the EU has awarded EMJMD scholarships to more than 900 students and lecturers in ASEAN. The highest number of Erasmus Mundus awardees comes from the Philippines, and followed by Indonesia and Vietnam.

In addition to this scheme, the Erasmus+ programme also offers a variety of instruments to support higher education institutions through the Capacity Building in Higher Education (CBHE) scheme, the promotion of European Studies through Jean Monnet scheme and short-term exchanges of students and scholars through the International Credit Mobility (ICM) scheme.

Driesmans added that the Erasmus+ programme reconfirms the strong EU commitment to support student and scholar mobility and strengthening the quality of higher education institution in ASEAN even more important in times of COVID-19.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprises 10 members, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam./.