MSU, Parul Universities from Gujarat receive EU grants

Vadodara: M S University (MSU) and Parul University (PU) are the only universities from Gujarat to receive grants from European Commission under Erasmus Plus programme. These grants will help students and teachers get international exposure.

Publicly-funded MSU has been awarded Euros 50,200 (Rs 37 lakh) worth grants through which undergraduate, doctorate students and staff of the university will go to Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV), Spain under the mobility programme.

PU on its part has become state's first private university to receive a grant of Rs 58 lakh to foster cooperation and mobility programme with Wroclaw University of Technology (WrUT), Poland.

The mobility programme is for the period between January 2016 and May 2017," said professor Sharad Bansal, director of International Affairs at MSU.

"A group of 10 students, including 6 bachelors programme students, 3 masters students and 1 doctorate student along with 3 faculties will be going from PU to WrUT, Poland while 2 doctorate students and 4 faculties will be visiting PU from WrUT, Poland in 2016 under the Erasmus+ programme," said Dr Devanshu Patel, PU vice-president.

Erasmus + programme gives opportunities to students and staff to spend a period abroad at a college or a university in a country other than their home country to increase their skills and employability.

The seven-year programme that has a total budget of Euros 14.7 billion provides opportunities to over four million Europeans to study, train, gain work experience and volunteer abroad.

"These grants will help 3 undergraduate students, 2 doctorate students and 2 staff members of our university undergo exchange programme at UPV Spain with Euros 1,100 scholarship support to each.