Two Erasmus Mundus Master Courses in The Faculty of Sciences

The selection of Erasmus Mundus Master Courses for 2013 has been made public. Out of 177 applications, only 30 projects have received the prestigious label. And among them, two projects involving the Faculty of Sciences: the “4-Cities” Euromaster in Urban Studies, coordinated by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and managed at ULB by Prof. Mathieu Van Criekingen, and the “Tropimundo” Master Course in Tropical Biodiversity and Ecosystems, coordinated by Prof. Farid Dahdouh-Guebas of ULB. In both cases, the EMMCs were built on existing curricula.

The “4-Cities” Euromaster

The “4-Cities” Euromaster is an interdisciplinary programme elaborated under the aegis of UNICA, the network of universities located in European capitals. The partner institutions worked out course packages approaching the problems of large cities from different points of view mixing geography, sociology, economy, demography, culture and political science, as a way to break up scientific barriers and open national perspectives on urban planning. Students begin their first year in Brussels (ULB and VUB), then go to Vienna (Universität Wien). The second year is shared between Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) and Madrid (Universidad Autónoma and Universidad Complutense), before a presentation of the final Master thesis in Brussels. The programme is entirely taught in English.

The “Tropimundo” project

The “Tropimundo” project is based on the current Master in Biology of Organisms and Ecology – focus Tropical Biodiversity and Vegetated Environments. Students attend a common core of courses during the first term of MA1. The second term allows them to get some field experience through a 3- to 4-month stay in Africa mixing courses and a training period. The MA2 is dedicated to options and the master thesis, and can take place partly or totally in Paris. In the Erasmus Mundus version, the VUB was integrated in the Brussels part of the programme, the French partnership (Université Pierre et Marie Curie et Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle) has been widened to Italy (Universitá degli Studi di Firenze), and two destinations were added to the original “tropical” partner, the University of Dschang in Cameroon: Universidad Científica del Perú, and University of Queensland in Australia.

Thanks to the Erasmus Mundus label, , students admitted to “4-Cities” and “Tropimundo” in 2013-2014 will be able to apply for grants. No doubt this will attract more European and non-European candidates to these already successful programmes. It is worth mentioning that in the “Tropimundo” project, ULB will be in charge of managing financial and human exchanges inside the network.

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