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Thursday March 28, 2024

Erasmus+ programme offers many higher education opportunities

By Jamila Achakzai
December 11, 2016

Islamabad

Erasmus+, the higher education programme of the European Union, is open for applications. The programme funds the projects of cooperation between Pakistani and European universities and offers scholarships to their students and staff members to study in Europe.

The deadlines for students to apply full degree master’s degree programmes are in December and January.

For universities to participate in credit mobility and capacity building in higher education, the deadlines are in February. The Erasmus+ programme offers many opportunities for universities. Although the scholarship part of the programme is well-known in Pakistan, the new parts focusing on inter-university cooperation and capacity building need further introduction.

“The capacity building projects could be very beneficial for universities in Pakistan. This can include curriculum development and modernisation, upgrading facilities and equipment, or improving university governance. In 2016, only one capacity building application, among 107 selected for Asian countries, involved Pakistan. We need to create more awareness about the opportunities the Erasmus+ offers for Pakistani universities,” said Anne Kofoed, a member of the European Union delegation, during a seminar here.

The seminar was part of a series of workshops being organised by the European Union in Pakistan in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission. The workshops are meant to raise awareness of the opportunities offered by the programme for Pakistani universities in order to invite more and more applications.

Ms. Kofoed said the EU’s Erasmus+ programme is one of the largest and most diverse higher education programs being offered worldwide, as it included extensive variety of opportunities at both the individual and institutional level.

She said in addition to the institutional capacity building, Erasmus+ also offered short-term scholarships for students (3-12 months) and staff (two months) under credit mobility action, under which the universities together with European universities could apply for funding for student and staff exchange.

The EU representative said in 2016, roughly 3,000 scholarships were funded for Asian students but only 57 of those came from Pakistan. “This is remarkably less than could be expected, given the country’s size,” she said. 

Speaking at the seminar, Dr. Mahmood Butt, consultant at the HEC, thanked the EU for the financial aid opportunities provided to students and higher education institutions through Erasmus+ programme of the EU. He said he was hopeful that more Pakistani scholars would avail themselves of the opportunities being provided through the EU.

“Through the Erasmus+ programme, higher education institutions can benefit from strategic improvement of the professional skills of their staff, organisational capacity building, and creating transnational cooperative partnerships with organisations from other countries in order to produce innovative outputs or exchange best practices,” he said.