UPF is one of the eleven European universities that, together with nine from South Africa and six associate members, is participating in the Erasmus Mundus AESOP project, with the support of the European Commission.

Focusing on the cultural and natural heritage of South Africa and Europe, the multidisciplinary, collaborative project will enable the mobility of master's and doctoral student and academic staff who will be able to learn new skills, meet people with similar interests and be ambassadors of the heritage of their countries.

At the end of November, a meeting was held at the University of the Western Cape (South Africa) to launch AESOP, coordinated by the Paul Sabatier Toulouse-III (France) and Western Cape (South Africa) universities, to agree to the bases and guidelines for its implementation.

AESOP will promote collaboration between the different applied sectors from the perspective of the following thematic areas: Engineering and Technologies; Geography and Geology; Humanities; Mathematics; Computing; Medicine; Natural sciences; Social sciences; Communication and Information Sciences.

Within the framework of the AESOP consortium the mobility of up to 150 people is planned, 109 belonging to South African institutions (who come to European universities) and 41 from European universities (who will travel to centres in South Africa), with stages of 1 to 18 months and scholarships ranging between 1,000 and 2,500 euros.

UPF will also participate as a partner in another Erasmus Mundus consortium in the field of the Experimental and Health Sciences, the Nova Domus project, co-coordinated by the University of Barcelona and Brown University (USA), made up of six universities from European countries, four Canadian universities, one from North America and five associate members.

A programme to boost higher education in Europe

The overall goal of the European Commission's Erasmus Mundus Programme is to improve the quality of higher education in Europe, to contribute to improving and enhancing students' professional prospects, also helping towards the sustainable development of third countries in the area of higher education.

To achieve these goals, the programme has deployed various types of actions, such as these consortia, which are comprised of higher education institutions from Europe and the rest of the world that act as a basis for structured cooperation, exchange and mobility at all levels of education.