Erasmus Mundus Master in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis

Deadline:15 December, 2012 and 20 January, 2013
Open to: Candidates holding a bachelor degree or a recognized equivalent academic degree
Scholarship: A monthly allowance of € 1,000 per month + tuition fees EUR/year for Non-EU students and a  monthly allowance of € 500 per month + tuition fees EUR for EU students

Description

The EU 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.

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.

Eligibility

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.

Scholarship

Student scholarships
Erasmus Mundus scholarships for non-European students (Category A)
The Erasmus Mundus programme awards a limited number of individual scholarships to non-European applicants to the EU 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.  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.  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.

Application

The application for programme admission and Erasmus Mundus scholarships for the 2012/13 academic year is open from September 15th, 2012 to December 15, 2012 for non-European applicants and to January 20, 2013 from European applicants. Applicants should keep in mind the closing date, because it is also the deadline by which the applications has to be sent (post-marked) to the main AFEPA office.

Below you can find the documents that you need in order to apply for the AFEPA programme.

1. a certified copy of your passport or identification card
2. the officially certified copies of the following academic certificates received by you:
3. school-leaving certificate giving the right of entry to higher education in the candidate’s home country (with individual grades)
4. all university end-of-year exam certificates with individual grades
5. University diploma or degree certificate indicating the final grade(s) and ranking if available
6. 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 the university which conferred the degree.  Original certificates will not be needed until registration with the AFEPA partner universities. At that time partner universities have to receive original diplomas or degree certificate and original academic transcripts that are being sent directly from the university, from which an applicant graduated.
7. language certificates as evidence of English proficiency (TOEFL or IELTS; if you would like to submit another English test, please check with us first if we can accept that test). Candidates from English speaking countries must provide an official letter from their university from which they graduated attesting that English is the media of instruction.  Please note that we have to receive an applicant’s language certificate directly from the testing institutions in the case of the TOEFL test. So applicants should contact the TOEFL test center and have them send a copy to the AFEPA coordinating institution, the Catholic University of Louvain (Applicants have to mention to the testing institution the specific code for the Catholic University of Louvain, which is 8823. If an applicant choses to take the IELTS test, we can accept a certified copy of your test results.  The IELTS test result copy should clearly indicate the “test report form number”, which will then enable us to contact the testing institution and verify the results).
8. language certificates as evidence of French (e.g., DELF) and Spanish (e.g., DELE) knowledge if you plan to study at UCL and UPC, respectively, and if French and Spanish are neither your mother tongue nor the language of your past study
9. a recent photo attached to the paper version of your application form (if you have an electronic version of a photo you can also attach it to the application form on the website before printing)
10. proofs of work, training or research experience, if related to the AFEPA domain.
11. the two reference forms in the AFEPA preformatted version (the online application form can be found here (the pattern application form can be downloaded here), the reference form can be downloaded here).

The reference form:  Two academic referees of your choice have to fill out a reference form in English, sign it, and save it under the file name ‘RF_CandidateLastName_RefereeLastName.doc’ or ‘RF_CandidateLastName_RefereeLastName.pdf’. They then have to send it as a scanned version to master-afepa@uclouvain.be, send it by regular mail to the address provided below, or hand it back to you in a sealed envelope for inclusion in your application package.
For more information for application go here.
Please send your complete application package to the address below:

Contacts
AFEPA European Master Programme
Economie rurale
Faculté d’ingénierie biologiqu, agronomique et environnementale
Place de la Croix du Sud, 2 bte L7.05.15
Université catholique de Louvain
B-1348  Louvain-la-Neuve  Belgium

 The Official Website