EDUCATION : ERASMUS MUNDUS TO BE ENHANCED IN THE EU'S NEIGHBOURHOOD.

• Position: Brief article

Students from the Middle East, as well as the EU's more immediate neighbours, are to be targeted by a new scholarship scheme encouraging them to come study in the EU, the European Commission announced on 11 December.

A call for proposals under the new scheme, dubbed the Erasmus Mundus Cooperation Window, has already been launched(1). Scholarships to third country nationals wishing to study in the EU are usually provided through the regular Erasmus Mundus programme. However, while this is focused on graduate students working towards a Masters degree, the new initiative is broader since it also includes undergraduates, as well as doctoral and post-doctoral students.

Another major difference is that, whereas the general Erasmus Mundus scheme is open to students from all over the world, the Cooperation Window results from a request from the Commission's DG for External Relations, and as such targets a specific list of countries. These include many of the EU's neighbours(2) as...