Opportunities to study abroad and gain international training and research are made possible through programmes such as EUROSA.
Representatives from the University of Antwerp in Belgium were in attendance to brief both DUT staff and students on what is on offer for Master’s, doctoral and post-doctoral researchers at a workshop recently held at DUT.
EUROSA is an Erasmus Mundus Action 2 Higher education co-operation and mobility grant which started in 2010 and is funded by the European Commission. The mobility grant allows for DUT staff and students to study or spend a research period at one of the European partner universities. It includes a monthly stipend, travel return ticket, tuition and health and travel insurance.
Giving more insight into the scholarships were DUT’s Dr Lavern Samuels, Annelien De Winter who is project co-ordinator along with her colleagues Zinzile Nkalitshana and Katharina Verstraelen.
“It is more of a human development project where students and staff gain international experience, learn about other cultures, meet new people and return to South Africa and plough back the knowledge gained from studying abroad at any of the partner European universities,” said De Winter, adding that if anyone applied for the one semester exchange programme at one of the European universities, the requirement is a Bachelor (undergraduate) degree. “What needs to be understood is that the main registration and degree is at the South African home university and only coursework or research can be done for a period of five months at any of the European destination universities. Also, a research plan must be submitted for the Master’s exchange programme,” she added.
Dr Lavern Samuels, DUT Director of the International Education and Partnerships, said, “Besides all the other funded scholarship opportunities that you hear about, there are three very big projects we have at DUT and they are the Erasmus Mundus projects. DUT is one of only two universities from the entire country that are in all three consortia which are EUROSA, AESOP and INSPIRE. EUROSA is partnered by the University of Antwerp and DUT has an existing partnership with them. Also within this partnership is our local partnership with the CPUT International Office which is also able to assist those that are applying for such scholarships through EUROSA. In addition, we also have staff visits and post doctoral period programmes, these are some categories which you can apply for,” he said.
The closing date for the online applications is 13 March 2016. For more information, go to www.eurosa.be
– Waheeda Peters
Pictured: Katharina Verstraelen and project co-ordinator, Annelien De Winter, speak about the scholarship programmes that are available to DUT staff and students.
