Erasmus Mundus Master in “Global Studies – A European Perspective” (EMGS)

Since its establishment in 2005, the EMGS Consortium – at the time including the founding members: Leipzig University, the University of Vienna, and the University of Wrocław as well as the London School of Economics and Political Science – has received funding from the European Commission through the Erasmus Mundus programme. Erasmus Mundus includes attractive scholarships that benefit non-European as well as European EMGS students alike. Additionally, the participating universities have continued to offer substantial fee waivers to excellent candidates. Roskilde University and Ghent University joined the EMGS Consortium in 2010 and 2015, respectively. Starting with the 2023 intake, the London School of Economics and Political Science is not part of the consortium anymore. Instead, a Double Master in Global Studies and Economic History was launched in 2023 by the Global and European Studies Institute (GESI) of the Leipzig University and the Department of Economic History of the London School of Economics and Political Science. 

The EMGS partners with several non-European universities: – Dalhousie University (Canada), Macquarie University (Australia), the University of California, Santa Barbara (USA), Stellenbosch University (South Africa), Fudan University (China), and Jawaharlal Nehru University (India). These partnerships provide our students with exceptional opportunities to study transregional connectedness and global concerns for one term at any of these places of renowned research and teaching to study transregional connectedness and global concerns. In 2012, the EMGS programme launched together with Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) a bilateral master’s programme with an emphasis on peace and security in Africa within the Global Studies perspective (see for further information also the IPSS website of the programme). Since 2018, the universities of Otago (New Zealand) and of Yaoundé I (Cameroon) joined the many strong partnerships fostered by the EMGS.

Erasmus Mundus: A Joint Programme

The two-year programme combines innovation, interdisciplinarity, and academic excellence with transnational and transregional academic mobility. Students take courses at two participating European universities for one academic year each, and may choose to spend the third term at a non-European partner university instead of the European destination.

The EMGS Consortium partner universities offer a unique combination of different specializations in research and teaching on the past, present, and future of the global. Central to the EMGS programme’s understanding of global studies is the promotion of a historicizing and comparative analysis as well as a critical, post-colonial perspective. The EMGS approach is further  complemented by the partner universities and their different foci and expertise while being successfully combined through not only individual student mobility but also a number of joint events.

The Erasmus Mundus Master in Global Studies was amongst the first joint master’s programmes receiving support through the European Commission’s Erasmus Mundus funding scheme, fostering student mobility and academic excellence across and beyond Europe. After its creation in 2005, the work of the EMGS Consortium has been recognized by the European Commission for its success and innovation, receiving further funding in the subsequent application rounds in 2010, 2015, and 2019.

For the intakes 2023 and all subsequent ones the EMGS Consortium has applied for further Erasmus Mundus scholarships. The EU may take a decision on the application in summer 2023 only.

The founding members of the EMGS Consortium were Leipzig University (Germany), acting as the coordinating university, along with the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK), the University of Vienna (Austria), and the University of Wrocław (Poland). The consortium was enlarged in 2010 and 2015 to include Roskilde University (Denmark) and Ghent University (Belgium), respectively.

The EMGS Consortium established partnerships with four well-known non-European partner universities in 2006, at which European EMGS students can spend one term: Dalhousie University (Canada), Macquarie University (Australia), the University of California, Santa Barbara (USA), and Stellenbosch University (South Africa). The non-European partnership expanded in 2010 to include Fudan University (China) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (India), extending both the geographical coverage and academic scope of the programme.

The high quality of the programme is continuously ensured through a regular evaluation process by its students, alumni, and the teaching and administrative personnel as well as by external review. The programme went through an accreditation process in 2012 and 2020, now following a European approach.

A Master of Arts in Global Studies

Graduates of the Erasmus Mundus Master in Global Studies receive a joint degree: Master of Arts in Global Studies.

All graduates receive a Joint Transcript of Records and a Joint Diploma Supplement, in accordance with the model developed by the European Commission, the Council of Europe, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – European Centre for Higher Education (CEPES). As the coordinating university, Leipzig University prepares and issues these documents. The Joint Transcript of Records contains information on all courses studied at all partner universities and records the grades and credits obtained. Credits from study mobility tracks at the non-European partner universities are fully integrated.

The Joint Diploma Supplement contains information on the holder of the degree, the length and level of the degree, the placement within the national qualifications framework, the access requirements, the study programme and obtained results, the student’s learning outcomes, the description of the grading system, as well as additional information on mobility tracks and other matters. Furthermore, it contains descriptions of the national higher education systems of the partner universities, which are provided by the national higher education agencies. These documents describe the joint character of the study programme and the degree as well as the affiliation to the Erasmus Mundus programme.

ECTS

The Erasmus Mundus Master in Global Studies is a two-year programme divided into four phases (two winter terms, two summer terms). The programme has a modular structure according to the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). The curriculum comprises modules amounting to 120 ECTS credits, which is equivalent to a study workload of 900 hours per term (or 1,800 hours per year). For more information about ECTS, see: http://ec.europa.eu/education/tools/ects_en.htm

Grading

Grades for the individual modules are given according to the national higher education grading systems at the respective partner university. The EMGS Consortium (including all non-European partner universities) has agreed upon a common grade conversion table to guarantee a fair and common recognition of grades and credits. The overall grade for the master’s programme is calculated by the Leipzig-based programme coordinator in collaboration with the study coordinators at the respective European partner universities. The overall grade corresponds to the German grading system and represents the arithmetic mean of the grades of the module examinations and the master’s thesis weighted by credit points. Studies undertaken at the EMGS Consortium universities, as well as the conversion of the respective grades, are carried out within the integrated study programme according to the principle of equivalence, the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) and the Joint Degree Agreement (JDA) of the EMGS Consortium. Grade scales and detailed descriptions of the corresponding national grading systems are explained in the Joint Diploma Supplement.