The Erasmus Mundus Europe-Asia (EMEA) scholarship for 2012 covers travel, health insurance, accommodation and the student will also get 1,000 euros a month for food and other expenses.
Giving details abut the scholarships offered by a consortium of European Union universities at an introductory seminar organised at the University of Karachi (KU) campus, KU Pro Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Shahana Urooj Kazmi said that EMEA is a fully-funded scholarship programme designed to fund mobility for students of undergraduate, master, doctoral and post doctoral level as well as for university staff in academic or administrative position to study and carry out research in European Union’s participating universities in Italy, Poland, UK, Ireland, Greece, France, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Speaking at the seminar, which was attended by more than 300 students, teachers and administrative staff members, she said that the project will be used as a platform to strengthen academic and cultural cooperation and emphasis will also be placed on capacity-building in cutting edge areas of science, education and technology, specifically the ability of the universities to handle international mobility and large international cooperation projects, promoting linkages in active research and teaching groups.
Explaining the distribution of scholarships, Dr Kazmi said that maximum number is for target group 1 for students/staff enrolled at KU and some for target group 2 and 3 for which students enrolled in other higher educational institutions and those belonging to deprived, disaster-affected, marginalised areas are also eligible to apply.
She further said that under the newly approved project for the 2012, the maximum duration of funding available for undergraduate students and for post doctoral fellows is nine months and for PhD under Target group 1, it is 34 months. However, it is only nine months for PhD students in target group 2.
Funding for administrative and academic staff training is available for one month only.
Giving further details, Dr Kazmi said that various fields of study offered by different European Universities will be uploaded in September 2011 and applications will be invited from October 15 to December 1, 2011.
Assessment and validation of documents will start from January 15, 2012, the consortium meeting for final selection will be held in mid-February 2012, the selected scholars will be informed in April 2012 and they will have to join the selected universities by September 20, 2012. Mobility of Asian scholars under the EMEA will end in July 2015.
EMEA Pakistan Assistant Project Coordinator Mariya Khan gave a brief introduction of the programme and said that under the supervision of KU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr
Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, the KU was selected as a member of consortium of universities under the EMEA.
She said the consortium is coordinated by Dr Kazmi, who attended the EMEA steering committee meeting held in February 2010 and Peking University Beijing, China during May 2011 to finalise the details of scholarship programme.
Former KU student adviser Prof Dr Tanveer Khalid, who was also present on the occasion, congratulated the selected students and paid rich tributes to the efforts of the vice chancellor and the EMEA coordinator for their dedicated efforts to create opportunities that can be availed by students to improve their skills and acquire knowledge for a better future and to face a challenging job market.
During the last session of the seminar, seven KU students, who had been awarded EU scholarships in 2010 batch – Waqas Uddin Khan, Jalal Uddin, Adil Ahmed, Waqas Ahmed, Jahanzeb Shibli, Faryal and Sayeda Afshan – were invited on stage for sharing their views and experiences with the upcoming applicants for 2012 scholarships. This was followed by a very actively participated questions and answer session on the sequential steps to apply for scholarship and to fulfil the academic requirements of the university selected by the scholar.
A number of participants raised questions about credit transfer facility, procuring of visa, accommodation, language courses and scholarship duration for undergraduate, MS and PhD level students.
The scholars, who will soon be leaving to join the selected European university, cautioned the new applicants to carefully follow the instructions given on the website before submitting their applications and uploading their documents including genuine transcripts and degrees along with the acceptance letter from host European university.
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