Erasmus Mundus master programmes’ challenges and successes discussed at coordinators’ meeting

Programmes Higher education Global Cooperation Erasmus+ Erasmus+ for higher education Internationalisation Education development

Finnish representatives of Erasmus Mundus action gathered to Finnish National Agency for Education on Monday 20 February 2023. They discussed the implementation of Erasmus Mundus in Finland, networked and shared experiences and good practices with each other at the meeting.

Representatives of Erasmus Mundus programmes at the meeting at EDUFI.

Erasmus Mundus masters’ programmes have had a significant role in development of joint programmes on European and national level already for almost 20 years. This brings the programme actors to fascinating and at the same time challenging questions during their implementation. Peer support and networking is essential when identifying solutions to different challenges in the implementation of joint programmes.

Due to the pandemic there has been a long gap since this kind of coordinators’ meeting was organized and the need for the discussion was shown through the great interest to join the event: 22 of 24 Erasmus Mundus programmes currently active in Finland were represented at the event. Participants included long-term programmes that have been active since the beginning of the action, such as Master of Science in European Forestry at the University of Eastern Finland and very recently funded Erasmus Mundus Design Measures project, such as COMAI-project represented by the Haaga-Helia UAS planning to establish a new Master programme.

During the meeting Tea Vellamo from Tampere University reflected on the influence the European Union has had via the Erasmus Mundus action to higher education policy and legislation on national level. The group discussions during the meeting covered various elements of joint programme implementation, such as grants and tuition fees, mobility paths and curriculum structures.

Finnish higher education institutions actively involved in Erasmus Mundus joint programmes

The overall Finnish participation in the Erasmus Mundus action was jointly discussed based on statistics. Finnish institutions are active participants in European comparison and the new programme period seems to follow the same trajectory. Recent trends and changes in policy have led to the increasing interest from Finnish universities of applied sciences towards the action.

The interest towards Erasmus Mundus actions seems to continue high in Finland and the future of the action bright. During the discussions it was shared, that several applications were submitted from Finland to the recently closed application round. There will definitely be similar meetings also in the future to support the national level implementation and to build the essential links between the actors.