Erasmus Mundus: India Biggest Beneficiary of European Scholarship Programme

According to the European Union (EU), India is the biggest beneficiary of Erasmus scholarship for higher education. Member states of European Union offer these scholarships. It has been 30 years since the European Union launched the scholarship scheme. According to an observation made by EU, India topped in terms of the number of beneficiaries between 2004 and 2017. Around 5,300 Indian students benefitted from this scholarship scheme in the last 13 years. Many Indian students prefer Europe for higher education as it is one of the excellent destinations for international students. European institutes are well known for high-quality education and varied range of courses.

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Erasmus scholarship scheme was launched in the year 1987, and only 3,200 students benefited from this scheme during its first year. Now, around 3,00,000 students from various countries are being benefitted from this scholarship scheme and many of them are able to complete their higher students in various disciplines. On the other hand, the percentage of women beneficiaries of the scholarship scheme has been increased from 33% (2008-12) to 43% (2017). The application process for the next selection round will commence in October 2017 and will continue until January 2018.

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According to a study, around 90% of Indian recipients of Erasmus scholarship scheme have returned. If we look at the stream wise statistics, engineering has been the largest area of study with 25% of students opting for it every year. Around 13% students prefer natural sciences followed by management, economics and business with 10%.

After the United States, Europe has emerged as one of the favourite destinations for Indian students to pursue higher education.