[Spain] Erasmus-Mundus Student Scholarships

MERIT / ERASMUS-MUNDUS 2008/2009 STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP CALL

This is the call for applications to the Erasmus-Mundus student scholarships for MERIT – the European Master of Research on Information and Communication Technologies (see http://www.meritmaster.org ).

MERIT is a European 2-year post-graduate programme taught in English at the following institutions:
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain
- Universität Karlsruhe (UKA), Karlsruhe, Germany
- Politecnico di Torino (PdT), Torino, Italy
- Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Louvain, Belgium
These scholarships are addressed for highly qualified non-European students willing to study the MERIT programme in two of the above institutions beginning September 2008.

The application deadline is 10PM (GMT) January 21st 2008 to do electronic data entry and upload of required documents in the on-line application tool. The documents that support your application must be sent to the admissions office by mail or courier and must be received at the MERIT admissions office by February 11th 2008 (see Calendar below).

This call is subject to the general conditions of the Erasmus Mundus programme. In any disagreement between the contents of these pages and those of the Erasmus Mundus programme, the latter will prevail. Prospective applicants are referred to the following pages: http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/mundus/index_en.html

FRAMEWORK MERIT is a research oriented Master programme within the guidelines of the Bologna process whose scope is Information and Communication Technologies.
The MERIT partners above have specific funding from the EU Erasmus Mundus programme to set up a scholarship scheme for third-country graduate students and scholars from the whole world.

This scholarship scheme addresses highly qualified individuals who come to Europe to follow the MERIT Masters academic program. Students have to take two 1-year terms at two different institutions to complete the 2-year MERIT Master programme.

ELIGIBILITY
Applications are sought from students in their final year of university programs in engineering, sciences, or an equivalent university degree involving at least 3 years of coursework. Applications from persons holding university degrees in these disciplines will also be considered. In any case, applicants should hold a university degree by September 1st 2008.

Applicants should qualify as `third-country nationals`, as defined in the Erasmus Mundus programme, all countries of the world - with the exception of the EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia , Finland, France , Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom), the EEA-EFTA states (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) and the candidate countries for accession to the EU (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Croatia and Turkey)- who are not residents of any of the above countries, and who have not carried out their main activities (studies, work, etc.) for more than a total of 12 months over the last five years in any of the above countries.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Students will be selected on the basis of their CVs, study and academic merits, recommendations, language skills (English), international test results (GRE), etc. Priority will be given to applicants whose background and interest matches closely with those of MERIT.

To check this, prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to see the program description at the section Prospective Students at Merit Master website: http://www.meritmaster.org

In the case that the applicant has taken the GRE general test and, possibly, the GRE subject test in mathematics, scores from these tests should be sent to UPC directly by the organization administering these tests (ETS). To request this you should use the GRE institution code corresponding to UPC (7124). See http://www.gre.org for details.

DURATION, CONDITIONS AND AMOUNT OF THE SCHOLARSHIP
Scholarships will be awarded for two years. In each of these years, the student will receive a total of 16.000 Euro in 10 monthly grants per year, for a grand total of 32,000 Euro. Note that the Erasmus Mundus scholarship also includes a yearly payment of 5,000 Euro for fees, travel expenses, relocation costs, etc.

This payment will be used to cover the MERIT tuition fees for non-European students (5,000 Euro / year). Note also that, if the scholarship is granted, no payments will be made until the grant recipient arrives at the host university. No payment advances will be sent abroad for covering travel and moving expenses.

CALENDAR Online Application System: 26th November 2007
Deadline for online application: 10PM (GMT) January 21st 2008.

Deadline for receiving supporting paper documents at MERIT admissions office: February 11th 2008.

Notification of Scholarships: April-May 2008.

Start of MERIT studies: September 2008.

APPLICATION-SUBMISSION
Application for MERIT-Erasmus Mundus has to be done as follows: Personal data and electronic copies of supporting documents have to be uploaded in the MERIT Erasmus Mundus Online Application Tool (MEAT), http://www.meritmaster.org/meat .

This tool supports most current web-browsing software, and will be used to check the applicant`s eligibility, get his/her contact data, and upload relevant files such as CV, etc. MEAT allows applicants to enter their personal data and the electronic versions of documents to support the application (CVs, copies of academic certificates, recommendation letters, etc.).

Only PDF, JPG and GIF formats will be allowed for upload to MEAT. All original supporting documents in the list INFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED must be received by mail or courier in the MERIT admissions office by February 11th 2008.

INFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED
MEAT will prompt the applicant to enter/upload the following information: Citizenship and country of residence. Periods of stay in Europe during the last 5 years (if any). University degrees (held or currently studying) and universities where those degrees where obtained.
- Gender
- Name
- Email
- Birth date
- Postal address
(Optional) GRE exam codes and GRE exam dates (General and subject test in mathematics).
- Scanned image of your passport showing your picture (GIF/JPG/PDF).
- CV-Resume (GIF/JPG/PDF)
(Optional) Name of a MERIT faculty member who knows you and knows the most relevant items in your CV1 Academic certificates (school certificate/diploma, University transcripts, University degree certificate) relevant to MERIT topics.

Description of the contents of the courses taken to obtain the degree of the previous point. Two recommendation letters following the format of the form available at: http://www.meritmaster.org/meat/MERITRecommendationForm.pdf

Motivation letter, in which the applicant explains in English the reasons to study MERIT and how they relate to his/her career goals. English degrees held / English exams passed. Order of preference of the 4 MERIT institutions for the first year of studies. Order of preference of the 4 MERIT institutions for the second year of studies.

Deadline: January 21st 2008