Erasmus Mundus is a cooperation and mobility programme in the field of higher education that aims to enhance the quality of European higher education and to promote dialogue and understanding between people and cultures through cooperation with Third-Countries. In addition, it contributes to the development of human resources and the international cooperation capacity of Higher education institutions in Third Countries by increasing mobility between the European Union and these countries.

The Erasmus Mundus programme provides support to:

• higher education institutions that wish to implement joint programmes at postgraduate level (Action 1) or to set-up inter-institutional cooperation partnerships between universities from Europe and targeted Third-Countries (Action 2);
• individual students, researchers and university staff who wish to spend a study / research / teaching period in the context of one of the above mentioned joint programmes or cooperation partnerships (Action 1 and Action 2);
• any organisation active in the field of higher education that wishes to develop projects aimed at enhancing the attractiveness, profile, visibility and image of European higher education worldwide (Action 3).

Objectives

Erasmus Mundus 2009-2013 is a cooperation and mobility programme in the field of higher education for:

• the enhancement of quality in European higher education;
• the promotion of the European Union as a centre of excellence in learning around the world;
• the promotion of intercultural understanding through coopera­tion with Third Countries as well as for the development of Third Countries in the field of higher education.

Erasmus Mundus 2009-2013 (Decision N° 1298/2008/EC) continues and extends the scope of the activities already launched during the first phase (2004-2008)of the programme. It now includes the Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window scheme, which was launched in 2006 as a complement to the original programme. In addition, the Programme integrates cooperation activities with Industrialised Countries.