EMA Joins Welcoming Ceremony of New EMJMs

September marked the beginning of three Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters (EMJM) in Glasgow, Barcelona, and Lisbon, and the Erasmus Mundus Students and Alumni Association (EMA) was there to mark the occasion.

Ms Raquel Galeano, Talent Management Unit’s Director (TMU), welcomed the first intake of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters in Education in Museums and Heritage (EDUMAH) on Monday, September 11, at the University of Glasgow. EDUMAH’s innovative programme aims to equip the next generation of museum and heritage professionals with the ability to engage with the various contexts (cultural, economic, political) that they will encounter and which are needed for the 21st Century. The programme includes placements, language learning and a minimum of three mobility periods in Europe.

The degree-awarding partners are the University of Glasgow, the University of Tartu, the University of Malta, and Radboud University. The University College Cork, National University of Ireland, Galway and Trinity College Dublin are Key Associate Partners, and the European Museum Academy and Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico will deliver non-credit summer schools.

The induction event also included students of other Erasmus Mundus programmes at the University of Glasgow, which currently is either the lead or partner university in ten Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters. Ms. Galeano delivered a brief and engaging presentation about EMA, highlighting EMA members' and volunteers' projects and initiatives like Sustainability Leadership, Mountains for Minds, and Mindful Mundus.

Several students present had already participated in EMA-led activities in their home countries, where they joined Pre-Departure Orientation sessions. They also joined EMA’s Global Welcome Event hosted in August, and a few are taking part in Mindful Mundus, an engagement which illustrates EMA’s work and support of students even before they arrive at their first mobility.

On Wednesday, September 13, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra's (UPF), Barcelona, launched the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Artificial Intelligence (EMAI). EMA President Dr Md Ashiqur Rahman was there to present the Erasmus Mundus Students and Alumni Association to the 2023-25 cohort.

As the UPF unveiled the pioneering EMAI program, funded by the European Union's Erasmus+ program, Dr Rahman seized the opportunity to emphasize the importance of international cooperation and mobility in the realm of education. He highlighted the vital role played by EMA in fostering academic excellence, mobility, and collaboration among students and alumni across the Erasmus Mundus community. He emphasized EMA's commitment to supporting initiatives like EMAI, which promises to equip students with fundamental theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of AI.

This innovative master's program is promoted by a European consortium comprising prestigious universities, including Sapienza of Rome (Italy), Radboud (Netherlands), and Ljubljana (Slovenia). EMA's participation in the welcoming ceremony served as a testament to the organization's dedication to advancing educational opportunities in cutting-edge fields like artificial intelligence.

The Erasmus Mundus Joint Master programme, Managing Art & Cultural Heritage in Global Markets (MAGMa), invited EMA to talk to the first batch of students online on Thursday, September 21. The talk was part of their Induction Week Activities as the programme began at the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE), Portugal.

EMA was represented by Ms. Raquel Galeano, TMU Director, and Ms Alexis Amachree, Programme Representative for SARENA, who took students on a journey of activities and personal experiences as active EMA members and volunteers. Students asked important questions and drew from the experiences of Ms. Galeano and Ms. Amachree, who provided vital information on one of the cohort’s upcoming mobility, Paris.

MAGMa focuses on providing students with fundamental business skills in economics, marketing, law and art and cultural heritage management. Students will develop a global network, which is key to protecting and presenting the world’s cultural heritage, locally, nationally and internationally, in a sustainable and sensitive way relevant to contemporary society. The study tracks will see learners attending the University Institute of Lisbon and the School of Arts and Humanities of the Universidade de Lisboa (FLUL), the IESA Arts and Culture Paris, a summer programme at the University of Glasgow to later go to the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

As students prepare to embark on their academic journeys, EMA remains steadfast in its mission to support and empower the global Erasmus Mundus community, ensuring that opportunities for knowledge exchange and personal growth continue to flourish. And we look forward to future collaborations with existing and future Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters!