Erasmus Mundus consortium meeting at the University of Tartu

A meeting of the members of the university consortium involved in the Erasmus Mundus International Master project IMCEERES (Central and Eastern European, Russian and Eurasian Studies) was held in late October at the University of Tartu (Estonia). Lobachevsky University was represented at the event by a delegation comprising Irina Leonova, Director of the UNN International Affairs Department, Roman Golubin, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and Sergei Sud’in, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. One of the main issues on the agenda was the discussion of the next meeting of the consortium at Lobachevsky University in 2019, which will be held for the first time in a non-EU country.
The event that is scheduled to take place from June 3 to June 5, 2019, in addition to the traditional meeting of the consortium participants including some of the world's leading universities, will also provide a framework for an International Conference on the topics of the programme involving leading scientists from partner universities.

At the meeting in Tartu, the partners also discussed the achievements of students enrolled in this program and the issues concerning the confirmation of their education and qualifications. In addition, representatives of the partner universities’ management had the opportunity to talk with students and get feedback on their training experience in the IMCEERES programme. It was important for determining the development of the project’s future strategy. Other discussion topics included the effective organization of joint teaching, the summer school for the project participants to be held in May 2019 at the University of Glasgow, some issues of the work on dissertations, students’ training during the second year of study and awarding scholarships to outstanding students of the joint Master programme. In conclusion, the meeting participants took stock of the work done under the programme and considered further steps.

IMCEERES is a unique international Master programme implemented by a consortium headed by the University of Glasgow (this university holds a prestigious 65th place in the QS ranking). The programme is designed to meet the needs of a variety of employees in major public, commercial and voluntary institutional settings who wish to acquire a specialised knowledge of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Eurasia. The International Masters in Central and East European, Russian and Eurasian Studies offers you the unique opportunity to study in three or four international universities, and to emerge with three Masters degrees from three separate institutions. Students spend their first semester at the University of Tartu, followed by a semester at the University of Glasgow. The first semester of year two is spent in one of the consortium's partner universities: Lobachevsky University, Jagiellonian University (Poland), KIMEP University (Kazakhstan), Corvinus University (Budapest, Hungary), National University ‘Kyiv Mohyla Academy’(Ukraine), Ilia State University (Georgia). The IMCEERES programme is implemented with the financial support of the Erasmus Plus programme. Lobachevsky University is the only Russian member of the consortium that has the status of a “full partner” under the Erasmus Mundus programme.