Europe: Master Scholarships on Economics and Management of Network Industries

A number ofscholarships, funded by the European Commission, are available forhighly qualified third-country graduate students and scholars - tostudents to follow the EMIN (Economics and Management of NetworkIndustries) Erasmus Mundus Masters Course, to scholars to carry outteaching and research assignments and scholarly work in theinstitutions participating in the Course.

Network industries andinfrastructures are being liberalised and re-regulated across theworld, thus creating a need for industries and public institutions tohire skilled professionals who are capable to understand theseprocesses and to participate actively in its management and regulation.

The Erasmus Mundus Masters Course on Regulation and Economics ofNetwork Industries has the objective of training highly qualifiedprofessionals, able to manage and regulate efficiently networkindustries and infrastructures.

The program is supported by the European Commission Erasmus Mundusprogramme, mainly through the funding of scholarships for third-countrystudents and scholars.

COMMON ADMISSION CRITERIA

Previous studies:
Students must have obtained a BSc diploma (or equivalent) ofsubstantial quality and level corresponding to 3 years studies atUniversity, equivalent to 180 ECTS. They must have studied Engineering,Economics or Management (for studying at Delft, these studies must bein a technological field or the natural sciences).

Students who have already obtained the first year of a European masterin Engineering, Economics or Management, or a diploma in engineering orfrom a business school will be accepted directly in the second year ofthe Erasmus Mundus Master Course. But they will have to prove that theyalready obtained 60 ECTS.

The selection of these students will depend on the excellence of theirstudies. To verify this, the consortium will ask for the list ofqualifications for each student for the previous year, requiring aGrade Point Average (GPA) for the BSc study of at least 75% of thescale maximum and a Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Testscore of at least 450 verbal, 550 analytical, and 650 quantitative.Letters of recommendation will be required. In individual cases, aselection committee will decide whether there are exceptionalcircumstances that justify deviation from one or more of the selectioncriteria listed above. Exceptional circumstances may result inconditional admission; in that case final admission and enrolment willonly take place after the condition(s) have been fulfilled.

Linguistic competencies:
Students have to follow courses in English (Delft, Comillas and ParisXI), French (Paris XI) and Spanish (Comillas). Therefore, a high levelof English is required, plus at least a basic knowledge of Frenchand/or Spanish.

For students whose mother tongue is other than English and whodid not follow all secondary and tertiary education in English, anInternational TOEFL score (English test) of at least 550 (paper-basedtest) or 213 (computer-based test) or IELTS (academic version) overallBand score of at least 6.0 is required.

For Spanish and French, basic understanding may be acknowledged in two ways:

presenting an official proof of language skill: DiplÃƒÂ´me d'Etudes en Langue FranÃƒÂ§aise, Diploma de EspaÃƒÂ±ol como Lengua Extranjera
or passing the DIALANG European test(free of charge). The DIALANG results must be certified by a professorfrom the last University of the candidate, who verifies the applicants'identity and the score of the test. Our consortium will only acceptstudents who have at least a B2 level.

In individual cases, a selection committee will decide whether thereare exceptional circumstances that justify deviation from one or moreof the selection criteria listed above. Exceptional circumstances mayresult in conditional admission; in that case final admission andenrollment will only take place after the condition(s) have beenfulfilled.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE:

Applicants have to send the following documents by email (to emin@upcomillas.es).

The application form completed (download it here). Please make sure you attach all certified photocopies of diplomas or transcripts required
A pdf file describing previous studies, motivations andprofessional project (10 pages, single-spaced). The report has to bewritten in English. Relate your motivation to your background,education, research experience, career planning and your personalvision. Please provide also details on your choice of Universities forstudying the EMIN and on your thesis outline or project.
A curriculum vitae in the Europass format (you may download templates and instructions or create it online here)
At least two letters of recommendation from the University oforigin (please include telephone numbers of the professors). Thereference form is included in the application form.

The application deadlines for the 2006-07 course are:

January 15th 2006 if you wish to apply for an Erasmus Mundus scholarship (only for third-country students)
April 15th 2006 if you do not apply for an Erasmus Mundus scholarship

A joint admission committee will evaluate the candidates. It will becomposed of a member of each university and three professionals fromnetwork industries. A first selection of students may be called for aconversation by video-conference to verify their motivations and thecoherence of their project. After this conversation, the admissioncommittee will select a final list of students.

ELIGIBLE BENEFICIARIES:

Third-country graduate students: Third-country graduate student means anational of a third country other than the 25 EU Member States, thecountries of the European Economic Area / European Free TradeAssociation (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) and the candidatecountries for accession to the EU (Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, andTurkey); who has already obtained a first higher education degree; whois not a resident of any of the Member States or the participatingcountries; who has not carried out his or her main activity (studies,work, etc.) for more than a total of 12 months over the last five yearsin any of the Member States or the participating countries; and who hasbeen accepted to register or is registered in the EMIN Erasmus MundusMasters Course.

Third country scholars: Third-country scholar means a nationalof a third country other than the 25 EU Member States, the countries ofthe European Economic Area / European Free Trade Association (Iceland,Liechtenstein, Norway) and the candidate countries for accession to theEU (Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and Turkey); who is not a resident ofany of the Member States or the participating countries; who has notcarried out his or her main activity (studies, work, etc.) for morethan a total of 12 months over the last five years in any of the MemberStates or the participating countries; and who has outstanding academicand/or professional experience.

When selecting students and scholars for scholarships, ourMasters Program will pay due respect to the principle of genderequality. Furthermore, we should have a pro-active attitude towardspotential grantees with special needs. Without prejudice to the respectof high academic standards, in order to ensure a geographical balanceacross third-country students / scholars, the EMIN Masters Course willrespect the following basic criteria when selecting third-countrystudents / scholars:

no more than 25% of the selected third-country students should comefrom the same country. Each selected third-country scholar should comefrom a different country (but they can come from the same countries asstudents);
no more than 10% of the selected third-country students should come from the same institution

NUMBER OF SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE (INDICATIVE)

Students
12 grants for third-country students for academic year 2006/07

In addition, 12 grants may be available for Asian students viaadditional funds from the European Commission for 2006/07. The countrydistribution for this students will be (again, on an indicative basis):

6 Indian nationals;
1 Chinese nationals;
3nationals from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma/Myanmar,Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, NorthKorea, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka or Vietnam;
1 Malaysian national;
1 Thai national.

Scholars