53 Nepali students receive Erasmus Plus scholarship for Masters studies

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, July 16: Altogether 53 students have received scholarships for the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD) programme from Nepal this year. 

As per the Delegation of the European Union to Nepal, 27 female students and 26 males have been awarded full scholarships to pursue their Master's degree in various European universities from 2023 to 2025. The students are pursuing diverse fields like Cyber Security, Global Forestry, Environment Technology and Engineering, Urban Studies, Media, Arts and Culture, Women and Gender Studies, Documentary Film Making, and Plant Breeding.

However, 30 of the 53 scholarship receivers are from the Bagmati Province only. Something Nona Deprez, ambassador of the European Union to Nepal, also noted during the students' pre-departure orientation on Friday. "There is a glaring need to spread the word far and wide across Nepal about this unique opportunity that is open to all," she said, as per a press release issued by the Delegation on the occasion.

At the orientation, the Delegation held with the Erasmus Mundus Association Nepal at its office at Lazimpat, Kathmandu, Ambassador Deprez also shared that the Erasmus scholarship allowed for degree mobility and recognition of joint or multiple diplomas in the European Union and beyond. She also congratulated the students and informed that Nepal was among the top 20 recipients of the Erasmus Plus scholarship globally.

More than 800 Nepalese students have benefitted from the Erasmus Plus Scholarship Programme. And among these 800, a significant number return to Nepal, informed Niranjan Khadka, country representative of Erasmus Mundus Association Nepal. 

To get people from beyond the capital and the Bagmati Province to apply for the scholarship, Khadka said that the Association had been holding information sessions for prospective applicants in different cities of Nepal. 

According to its press release, the Erasmus Plus programme makes the European Union the largest donor in education in the world.  The programme's budget for the 2021-2027 period is €26.2 billion. This is an increase from €14.7 billion allocated for the previous seven-year period of 2014-2020. 

Erasmus Plus scholarships also provide opportunities for Europeans to undertake short-term studies and teaching in various universities across Nepal.

Representatives of the European Union member state embassies based in Kathmandu, Nepal, and New Delhi, India, also participated in Friday's orientation and answered questions raised by the students, who will soon be travelling to some of their countries. Those present were Liisa Uschanov-Eskelinen, chargés d' affaires at the Embassy of Finland in Kathmandu; Filip Dufek, third secretary at the Embassy of the Czech Republic, New Delhi; Žymantas Mozūraitis, deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Lithuania, New Delhi; Gisela Kristoferitsch, deputy Head of Mission at the Austrian Embassy, New Delhi and Ivan Vassallo, deputy Head of Mission at the High Commission of Malta in New Delhi.