NEW DELHI: Around 400 Indian students have been awarded EU-funded scholarships in 2018, an increase of 15 per cent over last year that demonstrates the excellence of desi pupils in the worldwide competition process. At least 73 of them are flying to Europe this semester for the Erasmus Mundus joint master's programme, a statement from the EU said.

India is the largest beneficiary of Erasmus financing for higher education outside Europe since the opening of the programme 30 years ago. Till now, 5,700 scholarships have been awarded to Indian nationals.

Tomasz Kozlowski, the EU ambassador to India, who met some of these students on last Wednesday, said, "Since Erasmus has been made available to countries outside EU 30 years ago, Indian students have consistently been among the top beneficiaries of this scholarship . Since 2014, close to 330 Indian higher education institutes have become a part of the programme and there is interest to further expand education collaborations.”

The Erasmus programme not only gives scholarships to Indian students but also supports Indian universities in a variety of programmes. Eleven new Indian universities are now participating in international consortia-delivering integrated courses with joint or multiple degrees to students from all over the world under the Erasmus Mundus programme. This education venture contributes to the internationalisation of higher education in India and attract international students to the country. University of Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), IIT-Madras, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Manipal Academy of Higher Education are among partners of the latest joint master's programme, which now involves a total of 35 Indian universities.

Under the capacity-building programme for higher education, €6.8 million (Rs 55 crore) have been committed for 2018 for Indian universities, with 10 new projects involving 47 Indian universities. While most of these projects used to be coordinated from Europe, three of the last batch are being coordinated by Indian partners: Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIT) in Orissa, Chitkara University in Punjab, and World University of Design (WUD) in Haryana, which means Indian universities are taking a leadership role in such international cooperations.

Twelve professors from eminent Indian universities have received funding to promote excellence in teaching and research in the field of EU studies under the Jean Monnet activities for teaching European studies. This year, Manipal Academy for Higher Education will launch a Centre of Excellence in European studies, the first of its kind in India, which will focus on "India-EU Interdisciplinary Studies: Culture, Literature, Education and Society".

More Centres of Excellence in European studies are likely to be created in the next years. Furthermore, Chitkara University joins the club of Jean Monnet recipients in India with a module on 'Decoding the European Union ', and JNU, which has held various Jean Monnet chairs and modules in the recent past, will add a Jean Monnet network.

