In its second year, the EU’s Erasmus Mundus programme is reaching a rapidly expanding number of participating universities, courses, students and academics from the EU and all over the world, showing that the ‘trademark Europe’ in higher education is the mark of excellence.  Some 190 European universities in 21 countries are now involved in a total of 57 master’s courses and the number of students and academics receiving Erasmus Mundus scholarships is constantly rising. Each year thousands of third country students and academics will be coming to study in Europe for up to two years on the courses.

Further, Action 3 of the programme has now also been launched. This sets up partnerships with universities outside the EU to facilitate the outward mobility of European students and scholars to enrich their studies. Nine such Erasmus Mundus partnerships have been awarded. These partnerships are starting now and will enable 570 European students and 120 scholars to study and do research at a non-EU partner university.