Applications for the 5th edition of EMQAL, 2012-2014, are now open.

The application procedure is similar to previous years, although you will find some small differences in the application website. Please follow the instructions carefully.

Deadline for Erasmus Mundus applications is December 31, 2011. EMQAL applications received after this deadline will not be eligible for Erasmus Mundus grants.

Selected candidates for Erasmus Mundus category A and category B grants will be contacted by email by March 2012. If you are not contacted by email you may be in the Reserve List. The lists will be posted on this website on March/April 2012.

Non-scholarship holders may apply for the 2011-2013 edition of EMQAL until October 1, 2011.

Applications received after this deadline will be considered for the following edition of EMQAL, 2012-2014.

The list of selected candidates for category A and for Category B Erasmus Mundus studentships has been approved by the European Commission.

All candidates in the main lists have been contacted, requesting a confirmation of acceptance of the studentship.

Candidates who fail to reply before April 30 may be replaced by the next candidate on the reserve list.

The results of the selection for Erasmus Mundus Category B candidates for the 3rd edition of EMQAL, starting in October 2010, is available on this webpage (please click here). From a total of 18 applications, 4 did not fulfill the minimum requirements to be selected for EMQAL. The remaining 14 were ranked by order of merit: the first eight were selected for an Erasmus Mundus studentship (main list), and the others are part of the reserve list.

Candidates from the main list are requested to confirm their availability to take the studentship.

This selection is still subject to the approval by the European Commission. A final confirmation will be published on this website by the end of July.

The deadline for applications for Erasmus Mundus category B candidates has been postponed to May 7, 2010.

Any candidates who wish to apply for an Erasmus Mundus studentship and who do not fit into the requirements for Erasmus Mundus Category A (*) must submit their applications before this deadline.

Candidates who do not wish to apply for a studentship and will pay the costs of their studies from other funds do not need to comply with this deadline, and may apply until June 30, 2010.

* Erasmus Mundus category A = candidates who are citizens of a Third Country (**) and were not residents nor have carried out their main activity (studies, work, etc.) for more than a total of 12 months over the last five years in an EU country.

** In accordance with Article 2 of the Erasmus Mundus 2009-2013 Programme Decision (No 1298/2008/EC), "third country means a country that is not a European Country". More concretely, any country that is not a Member state of the European Union or the EEA-EFTA states (Iceland, Norway, Liechenstein).

Due to an unexpected issue in our web server, the EMQAL online application software has been unavailable during the past week. We are working to solve this problem, and the software should be running again within this week.

If you have already started submitting your application, this suspension will not affect your data. You can continue filling the form when the software is fully functioning again.

Due to this suspension, the deadline for Erasmus Mundus category B applications will be postponed to April 30, 2010.

We apologize for any inconvenience this suspension may have caused to EMQAL candidates.

The list of selected candidates for category A Erasmus Mundus studentships has been approved by the European Commission.

We have contacted today by email the candidates in the main list, requesting a confirmation of acceptance of the studentship.

Candidates who fail to reply within a maximum of two weeks may be replaced by the next candidate on the reserve list.

Answering a high number of messages we have received about this subject:

In case one or more candidates from the main list of selected candidates declines his/her studentship, this studentship will be transferred to the next higher ranked candidate in the reserve list, providing geographical and gender balance are kept, i.e., that there are not more than two EM category A candidates from the same country, and there is a minimum of 5 female selected candidates.

We have received several emails from non-selected candidates who inquire about their selection procedure.
The selection procedure in EMQAL is very clear: only excellent candidates are accepted to the master, and their excellency is measured at five levels:

A - academic excellence;
B - language proficiency;
C - motivation;
D - suitability;
E - references.

Only candidates who score 3.5 (in a scale of 0-5) or higher in all the evaluation criteria are accepted to EMQAL. If a candidate scores lower than 3.5 in one of these criteria, he/she will not be selected, regardless of how high his/her remaining scores are.

Many candidates have been excluded based on their references. Some referees have had difficulties filling the online form. These referees have been sent a separate pdf form, and asked to fill it and return it be email. The Selection committee noted the following problems:
- the referees’ emails contacts were wrongly introduced in the applicant’s form, and because of this it was impossible to contact the referees;
- some referees returned a scanned copy of the pdf form, or sent their own recommendation letters. These cannot be treated automatically, and thus could not be considered.

We recall that, due to the high number of candidates, it was impossible to do a personalized verification of all documents received, and procedural details as these were determinant for the selection and rejection of applications.

We hope that candidates that were rejected for these reasons, but who received high scores in the remaining criteria, are not discouraged and will submit a new, complete application next year.

We have been informed by the EACEA that some Erasmus Mundus candidates have received an email stating that they have been selected, and are required to pay a certain amount of money to continue the selection procedure. Such emails are hoaxes! The Erasmus Mundus Master in Quality in Analytical Laboratories is now contacting the selected candidates, and WILL NOT REQUEST ANY PAYMENT WHATSOEVER from the candidates to process the application.

The results of the selection for Erasmus Mundus Category A candidates for the 3rd edition of EMQAL, starting in October 2010, is available on this webpage (please click here).

The applications for Category A Erasmus Mundus studentships have closed in December 15.
Applications for Category B Erasmus Mundus studentships are still open, until April 15.

We have received 320 applications, which the Selection Committee is analyzing. Preliminary results will be published in the beginning of February.