By IANS
New Delhi : More than 500 Indian students and scholars have secured admission to a number of European universities under the Erasmus Mundus (EM) scholarship funded by the European Union (EU).
Students from different parts of the country will go to universities in 27 EU member countries to pursue their respective masters level courses.
“This scholarship is a gesture of our growing relation with India. For the last 15 years our relation with India has improved a lot and we want these bright students to study in our universities and learn more,” Alexander Spachis, acting head of the delegation of European Commission in India said in a farewell function for these students here.
The European Commission allocated a sum of 33 million euro in 2005 for the India Window, within the EM programme. For the academic year 2005-06, 133 scholarships were approved. In 2006-07, this number rose to 288 and in 2007-08, 403 students were granted scholarship.
In addition to this, 81 Indian students and 27 scholars received scholarships under the general EM programme in 2007-08.
The 80 Erasmus Mundus consortia selected a total of 1,825 students and 273 scholars from all over the world.
All selected students have been awarded a scholarship of 21,000 euro per academic year (the maximum scholarship for two years is 42,000 pound), for attending one of the 80 masters courses selected under action 1 of the programme.
“I think the scholarship will help me in pursuing higher studies. I am going to pursue a master course in strategic project management,” said Mayank Gupta, a student from Delhi.
All students who have been awarded a scholarship are automatically and free of charge covered by an insurance scheme against risks related to health, accidents, death, permanent invalidity and civil responsibility.
The cover takes effect two months prior to the start of the Erasmus Mundus masters course in which the student is enrolled and is valid until three months after the end of the course.