Erasmus Mundus Scholarships in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis (AFEPA) 2011-2012

The European Master in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis aims at providing a high quality education in designing and assessing public policies targeted to the agricultural and food sector as well as the rural environment. This European Master responds to the increasing need to better understand and anticipate the various and often complex socio-economic and environmental effects of these policies either in a functioning market economy as in the European Union or in economies in a development or transition phase. The European Master offers a two-year academic curriculum with integrated and advanced theoretical, methodological and empirical courses in economics and quantitative methods as well as in agricultural, food and environmental sciences, agricultural and trade policy, environmental and natural resource policy, rural development policy and agribusiness management and market analysis. To connect theory and methodology to practice, a problem solving project is developed and presented as a master thesis at the end of the two-year curriculum.
The European Master is jointly organised by five leading European educational and research institutions:
the Corvinius University of Budapest (CUB) in Hungary,
the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Sweden,
the Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn (UBonn) in Germany,
the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) in Belgium and
the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Spain.
These five partner universities are recognised worldwide for the quality of their educational programme and scientific achievements in agricultural, environmental and economic sciences. The required 120 ECTS credit points are structured into three blocks: a minimum of two semesters of studies (55 ECTS) at a first partner university, as well as two semesters of studies (60 ECTS) at a second partner university, and two joint summer schools (5 ECTS) at partner universities. The language of instruction and examination is English for most of the courses in three partner universities while it is either French at UCL or Spanish at UPC for most of the courses. The Master degree is awarded as a double degree from the two home and host universities.
This European Master is accessible to candidates holding a bachelor degree or a recognized equivalent academic degree with a minimum of 180 ECTS or 3 years university study from an accredited institution, with sufficient undergraduate training in economics and agricultural or environmental sciences, with an excellent scholastic average, and with fluency in English but also French or Spanish if attending either UCL or UPC respectively.
Recipients of this European Master are qualified to understand the fundamentals of public policies oriented to the agricultural and food sector, rural areas and natural resources, develop and use quantitative methods to perform rigorous socio-economic and environmental assessment of these public policies, and provide sound and relevant policy recommendations for a more sustainable development of this sector and rural areas. They are qualified to take responsibilities in international, national and regional agencies, non-governmental organisations, consultancy firms, professional organisations and private companies.
Main area: Social sciences (including economics), cultural sciences
Second area: Agricultural and forestry sciences
Third area: Geography, earth and environmental studies
At the end of the course, graduated students will be awarded a double degree.
Applications for admission to the AFEPA programme and for Erasmus Mundus schlolarships for the 2010-11 academic year are now closed. European and non-European students can apply again for admission and Erasmus Mundus (EM) scholarships for the 2011-12 academic year from September 1, 2010 to January 10, 2011. For students that do not want to apply for a EM scholarship, the deadlines are March 31, 2011 for non-European applicants and June 30, 2011 for European applicants.
Fees, scholarships and insurance
Tuiton fees
The AFEPA consortium charges European students and non-European students a flat and common tuition fee of 3,000 Euro and 6,000 Euro per year respectively to cover the costs of selection, registration, university tuition, summer schools, course exams, thesis examination, local language support, library access, insurances, and administrative expenditures for the four-semester period. This flat rate is the same whatever the itinerary of the Master student. It does not include travel and accommodation costs and all other costs related to application documents, visas and residence permits.
Admitted European and non-European students pay an advance payment of 200 Euro in deduction to the tuition fee to secure their enrolment in the European Master in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis as soon as they have received the official email of admission from the AFEPA Management Board. For students that are not recipients of an Erasmus Mundus scholarship, enrolment in the AFEPA European Master is only official after the payment of the balance of the annual tuition fee during the first two weeks of the first semester of the academic programme. Tuition fees are centrally paid to a unique bank account open for the coordinating institution.
Student scholarships
* Erasmus Mundus scholarships for non-European students (Category A)
The Erasmus Mundus programme of the European Union awards a limited number of individual scholarships to non-European applicants to the European Master in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis. When non-European candidates apply for admission to the AFEPA European Master, they can also apply for this scholarship programme using the same application form by the same deadline. If non-European candidates applying for this scholarship programme are admitted to the AFEPA European Master but are not offered an Erasmus Mundus scholarship, then admitted candidates cover the tuition fees and all other expenses with funding from an alternative scholarship programme or private sources.
For a non-European applicant, the scholarship amounts to:
a total contribution to travel, installation and any other type of costs € 8,000
a contribution to cover the tuiton fees of the European Master € 3,000 per semester
a monthly allowance € 1,000 per month
Following the 2009-13 Erasmus Mundus programme guide, without prejudice to high academic standards, no more than two of the applicants selected for an Erasmus Mundus scholarship should have the same nationality to ensure geographical diversity scholarship holders.
* Erasmus Mundus scholarships for European students (Category B)
The Erasmus Mundus programme of the European Union awards a limited number of individual sholarships to European applicants to the European Master in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis. When European candidates apply for admission to the AFEPA European Master, they can also apply for this scholarship programme using the same application form by the same deadline. If European candidates applying for this scholarship programme are admitted to the AFEPA European Master but are not offered an Erasmus Mundus scholarship, then admitted candidates cover the tuition fees and all other expenses with funding from an alternative scholarship programme or private sources.
For a European applicant, the scholarship amounts to:
a contribution to the tuiton fees of the European Master € 1,500 per semester
a monthly allowance € 500 per month
There is no contribution to travel, installation and any other type of costs.
Following the 2009-13 Erasmus Mundus programme guide, without prejudice to high academic standards, no more than two of the applicants selected for an Erasmus Mundus scholarship should have the same nationality to ensure geographical diversity scholarship holders.
Note that Erasmus Mundus considers as European students:
students who are nationals from the 27 EU Member States (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, UK, Sweden, Bulgaria, Malta, Poland, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania);
students who are nationals from one of the EEA-EFTA states (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway);
students who have resided or carried out their main activities (studies, work, etc.) for more than 12 months over the past five years (preceding the start of the academic year) in any of the above countries
Erasmus Mundus considers all other students as non-European students.
Insurances
Students who hold an Erasmus Mundus scholarship or have paid their tuition fees benefit from an health insurance coverage for the entire two-year period of the AFEPA Master programme.
The coverage concerns:
Accidental death
Permanent invalidity due to an accident
Costs of treatments following an accident / sickness
Costs of urgent dental care
Assistance to persons
Civil liability
For specifics on the coverage go to
www.marsh.be/emis2
The tuition fees cover such insurance scheme.
On-line application and downloadable forms
The candidates fill out their on-line application form, lock their application form once their form is completely filled and ready to be submitted, and print their pdf application form. Pay attention that once the application form is locked, the candidates can not return to their application form for subsequent modifications. Adapt your navigator to the English language to fill in the on-line application form.
To apply, click here to fill out the application form
The two academic referees fill out the downloadable reference form in English, sign it, save it under the file name ‘RF_CandidateLastName_RefereeLastName.doc’ or ‘RF_CandidateLastName_RefereeLastName.pdf’ and send it to master-afepa@uclouvain.be
Reference form in the AFEPA preformatted version
The candidates sign the pdf application form and post it with the following requested documents:
their two reference forms in the AFEPA preformatted version from their university from which they received their Bachelor or, eventually, Master degree
a certified copy of their passport or identification card
the officially certified copies of their following academic certificates:
school-leaving certificate giving the right of entry to higher education in the candidate’s home country (with individual grades)
all university end-of-year exam certificates (with individual grades)
University diploma or degree certificate indicating the final grade(s) and ranking if available
NB: All certificates must be accompanied by an explanation of the grading system in English. Copies of certificates must be officially certified and submitted preferably on DIN A4 or A5 paper. Copies of documents may be certified as true copies of the originals with a stamp and signature by one of the following authorities: Embassy, Consulate, or the university which conferred the degree. Original certificates will not be needed until registration at the universities.
language certificates as evidence of English proficiency (TOEFL, IELTS, First certificate of English or equivalent, or letter from the university stating that the language of instruction is English)
language certificates as evidence of French (e.g., DELF) and Spanish (e.g., DELE) knowledge for candidates who choose to study at UCL and UPC, respectively, when French and Spanish are neither their mother tongue nor the language of their past study
a recent photo attached to the paper version of their application form
proofs of work, training or research experience, if related to the AFEPA domain.
To be accepted, the application form and the reference forms have to be written in English in the AFEPA preformatted version. Any incomplete application file will be rejected. Any official document in language different from English, French or Spanish has to be accompanied by a translated version in one of these three languages certified by an official authority.
The candidates send the signed paper version of their application form with all required documents before the specific deadline to the postal address of the consortium office located at the coordinating institution:
AFEPA European Master Programme
Unité d’économie rurale
Université catholique de Louvain
Place de la Croix du Sud, 2/15
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve Belgium
Source:
http://ping.fm/Xa1Xd