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FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions
1. How to apply for EPOG+
You can only apply electronically via the EPOG+ online application form. The same form shall be used to apply for the course and the Erasmus Mundus scholarships. See the admission page.
2. Erasmus Mundus Scholarships
All applicants who are eligible for the EPOG+ Master’s course are also eligible for a scholarship, except if they have already obtained an Erasmus Mundus Action 1 scholarship (students who have already received an Action 2 scholarship are eligible as long as they do not receive both scholarships simultaneously). These are attributed on the basis of merit and excellence only. The number of scholarships is limited (around 20 for each Master’s cohort).
Whether you are eligible for Programme country or Partner Country depends on your nationality, and your place of residence.
- Generally speaking, “Programme country” scholarships target students who are nationals or residents since at least 12 months in the European Union, while “Partner country” scholarships target students from all other countries and who have not been resident in Europe more than 12 months during the last five years.
- More in details,
- you are eligible for a “Programme country” scholarship
- if your are a national of a country which isone of the European Union’s members states, Iceland, Norway, Liechstenstein, Switzerland, Turkey or the Former Yougoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) (see official list);
- or if you have a “Partner Country” nationality who is resident or has carried out your main activity (studies, training or work) for more than a total of 12 months over the last five years in a Programme Country . The five-year reference period for this “12-month rule” is calculated backwards as from the submission deadline of applying for the Erasmus Mundus scholarship. In such case, you will be considered as a Programme-country student.
- you are eligible for a “Partner country” scholarship if you are a national from all the other countries and if you have not been resident or carried out your main activity (studies, training or work) for more than a total of 12 months over the last five years in a Programme country. The five-year reference period for this “12-month rule” is calculated backwards as from the submission deadline of applying for the Erasmus Mundus scholarship.
- See the Scholarship page for financial details.
- you are eligible for a “Programme country” scholarship
You can only be eligible for both categories if you have two or more nationalities. You can apply only for one category of scholarship at a time (“Programme country” or “Partner country”), so that you must choose a category. Note that a minimum of 75% of the scholarships are Partner-country scholarships.
Nothing special to do. If you are not concerned by the “12-month rule” explained above, you are eligibile for a “Partner-country” scholarship. You can thus benefit whether from a scholarship specifically dedicated to students with your nationality or from the general quota of “Partner-country” scholarships. We will consider you for both.
3. Academic requirements
It is not necessary to hold a degree in economics. However, the EPOG+ Master’s course is an economics course. It is thus crucial to have a minimum background in economics (macroeconomics, microeconomics, statistics, international economics…). An applicant with a degree in “International Relations”, “Law”, “Sociology”, “Political sciences” or any other academic fields will be considered on a case-by-case basis. He/she can be considered eligible provided that he/she has enough credits in economics and statistics with good grades as stated in the admission requirements of the 2‑year programme and that of the 1‑year programme. Secondary school education in economics is not sufficient to follow the course.
If your Bachelor’s degree is not in economics, you must have obtained at least 24 ECTS in economics and 6 ECTS (see below for explanation of ECTS) in statistics (or econometrics) during your previous studies to be eligible to the 2‑year programme. Specfic requirements may be asked depending on the chosen Major or Minor (see here), as well as a stronger background and higher degree level for the 1‑year programme (see here). You should also explain in detail your motivations for this course in your statement of purpose and justify the relevance of your application to an Economics Master’s course.
Therefore, applicants with other degrees in humanities (political science, law, international relations…) or business administration will be considered, provided they fulfill the above-mentioned criteria.
If there is no established system of conversion of credits into ECTS in your country of studies, please detail in the comments section and in your statement of purpose the extent of your background in economics. You can add a document explaining the credits and grading system of your country of studies in the “Optional Attachments” section of the online application form.
The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is a student-centred system based on the student workload required to achieve the objectives of a programme of study. Its aim is to facilitate the recognition of study periods undertaken by mobile students through the transfer of credits. The ECTS is based on the principle that 60 credits are equivalent to the workload of full-time student during one academic year (30 ECTS per semester).
If you come from outside of the European Union, please inform us on how to convert your course credits into ECTS and how to convert/read your academic grades. For this purpose, use the “Optional Attachments” section of the online application form. This information should mainly rely on official arguments and texts. However, if such official documents are not available, consider that a full year (studying full time) at university corresponds more or less to 60 ECTS. If a full year in your institutions to 40 local credits, for instance, a reasonable conversion is 1 local credit equal 1.5 ECTS. If a full year corresponds to 120 local credits, the reasonable conversion would be 1 local credit equal 0.5 ECTS… In some country, a full-time year of study is composed of 15 modules each year (4 ECTS each on average). In other countries, the modules can be only 6 with a lot of homework (each module corresponding to 10 ECTS…). You should thus make your own assumptions and explain them.
For specific country information, you can refer to the ENIC-NARIC website.
The EPOG+ course is a Master’s course. Therefore, we expect applicants to have already obtained their Bachelor’s/undergraduate degree or to be expecting it during the academic year before the programme starts: In order to be eligible for the EPOG+ programme, you need to graduate by August 31 (of the year in which the programme starts) at the latest.
For the “academic transcripts” section of the online application form, you should put the grades that are available to you at the moment of application (including the grades obtained during the current academic year if you are still a student). The last grades can be updated until the end of the application period.
In brief, you should provide the grades for the current (or last) academic year and the grades for the academic year just before. E.g. your are a student during the academic year 2016–2017, you should provide the grades available for the academic year 2015–2016 and the grades available for the academic year 2016–2017.
If you already have (or if you are completing) a Master’s degree, you are still eligible for the EPOG+ programme. In that case, you should provide us with the grades of the last two years of studies (including that of the current year, if you are still studying).
4. English language skills
The EPOG+ programme will be taught in English (except some optional courses). It is therefore crucial to be able to understand classes, read documents, express yourself clearly and write essays in English. This is why we require non-native speakers to provide proof of their language ability (see the admission page for details on minimum requirements in English).
If you are currently a student, your English-language test should be relatively recent (3 years at the most). However, if you are not a student anymore and can prove you have been working in English recently, we will accept an older English-language test.
Yes.
An exception can be made for students whose undergraduate degree was/is taught in English, provided that they can prove that all courses or the very large majority of courses were taught in English. The justification must be clearly presented and substantiated in a document that may be uploaded instead of the proof of English proficiency (e.g. a certificate or official letter of your higher education institution, with seal and signature of one of its high authorities). Note that if you are not able to provide convincing proofs, you must provide an English test certificate (among those required on the admission page).
One year spent in an English-speaking institution or country is not enough to prove your level, unless you can prove that your level is particularly good. If you are in this situation, you are advised to sit for an English language test.
There is no code for EPOG+. You should wait until you receive results of your test, scan the results and add them as an attachment to your application.
In this case, you should (i) indicate which test you will take and what grade you are expecting and (ii) attach (optional attachments) the evidences you may already have to help us to assess your English level. Once you get your results, you should send them to application@epog.eu with “TEST RESULTS” in the subject line before June 10. Please note that we will not accept any test results after this date and that we will cancel your selection if the results do not meet the minimum requirements.
5. Passport and identity documents
You are required to upload a scanned copy of your passport with your application form. However, if you do not have a passport at the time of application, you can upload a national identity document instead.
If you are selected for the course, you will need a passport for travel purposes: you are advised to start with the administrative procedure as soon as possible.
6. Application details
No. Applications have to be submitted online (directly on the website).
No. You should attach scanned copies of your documents to the online application (attachments section). Hard copies will only be requested if you are pre-selected for the course.
If you do not have a certified translation of your degree at the time of application, you can upload an uncertified translation along with the original degree. However, if you are pre-selected for the course, you will need to provide a certified translation by June 10.
There is no specific format or questionnaire. We recommend the referees however, not to exceed one page (500 words). The letters do not need to be addressed to any specific institution.
As soon as you will fill the form concerning your referees, they referees will receive an email with a link, giving them the opportunity to upload the letter directly (if so, you will see on the platform that it has been uploaded). If a referee has not uploaded it himself/herself, you still have the possibility to upload it yourself.
In case of non-selection and if you have grounds to believe that your application file, although complete, was not processed through the selection procedure, you may engage an appeal procedure by filling the form which you can download here. This form should be sent no later than one week after notification of the decision to appeal@epog.eu.
Please note that the appeal cannot concern the decision itself, but only an alleged error made in the process that has resulted in the contested decision.
If you live at your parents, in addition to your own sworn statement, you can provide a sworn statement signed by one of your parents attesting that you are living at their home, together with one of the documents listed in the admission page (under the name of the parent who have signed the attestation).
If you are not able to find one of the listed documents on time, you can send the most relevant document you have or, otherwise, the only sworn statement.
If the proof of residence you provide is not in English (or any language from the EPOG+ full partners), we advise you to add an explanation in English stating: (i) what is this document (residence certificate or electricity bill or…), (ii) the name of the institution which has issued the document, (iii) the date of issuance of the document, (iv) the name and address of the person to whom the documents belongs/has been sent (and the relation with you if the document is not yours).
If you do not live in your home country, we advise you to give (i) the address (home or host country) you consider as your permanent address (the address where we could send you documents by postal mail) and, if different, also (ii) the address where you are staying at the date of the submission deadine. Note that the address you give has no implication per se for the selection process. What is important for us, if you have a nationality from a “Partner-country”, is to know whether you have been resident or have carried out your main activity (studies, training or work) in a “Programme Country” for more than a total of 12 months over the past five with respect to the submission deadline. This must be clearly stated in your sworn statement.
At submission stage, the sworn statement is mandatory. The document proving your residence can be missing. This won’t have any impact at the selection stage. If the proof of residence is missing, the admission will be conditional to the provision of the relevant documents, no later than June 10.
In anycase, note that, if you are accepted in the programme, we may ask you additional details or documents in order to fulfill the requirements of the programme.
7. Technical problems
Please check your SPAMs before contacting us.
Try to click on the top-left logos, or log out and log in once again.
8. Privacy, personal data
Candidates/Applicants must be informed that if they are selected (proposed for a scholarship/fellowship, put on the reserve list or enrolled on a self-paying basis) their data may be used for the purposes of evaluating the programme, efficiently manage the projects, and producing statistics and research. Data could be made available to the EACEA, the European Commission, the European External Action Service staff, as well as to other stakeholders of the Erasmus+ programme, such as Erasmus+ National Agencies, National Erasmus+ Offices and the Erasmus Mundus Student and Alumni Association.
Details about EACEA policy: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/library/scholarships-catalogue_en
9. Contact for support
Please refer to this FAQ and the other sections of the website before writing to us.
Contact us at application@epog.eu.
Contact us at application@epog.eu.
Please do not send us emails with attached documents since they will not be considered. Attach all relevant documents to your online application only.
We will not respond to individual emails sent before the opening of the call for applications.
For specific information on scholarships, see the corresponding EPOG+ scholarships webpage or the EACEA FAQ page.