EU Ambassador to Manila Guy Ledoux. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
“Study hard and party hard.” European Union’s top diplomat in the Philippines told this on Tuesday afternoon to the 39 Filipino scholars leaving the country to pursue further studies in Europe.
This year, the Philippines will have the highest number of students flying to European countries under the EU’s Erasmus + program in Southeast Asia, according to EU Ambassador to the Philippines Guy Ledoux during a send-off ceremony at its office in Makati.
“As students, you have to make the most of it,” Ledoux said, on Tuesday, noting that the students would have the opportunity to study in three different countries for one to two years.
Erasmus + is the EU’s new Programme for 2014 to 2020 aimed at supporting projects, partnerships, events and mobility in the areas of education, training, youth and sport.
It provides funding opportunities for cooperation in all these areas, both among European countries, and between these European countries and its partner countries throughout the world.
Ledoux said that since 2004, more than 200 students and lecturers have benefitted from the program with the scholarship covering air travel to Europe, tuition and a monthly living allowance of PhP 138,000.
More than 30 Filipinos benefit from other scholarships in EU’s member states every year.
Ledoux said the Erasmus + has been designed to allow students to pursue their studies in more than one country and benefit from the academic expertise and culture of more than one university.
It gives life-changing opportunities for Filipino students to experience living the European culture, learning European languages and being integrated into the European society, he added.
“Filipinos are discovering little by little that Europe is a partner, not just economic and political, but also cultural,” Ledoux said.
The students will be taking courses in various fields including nanotechnology to public health, marine environment, and chemical innovation.
“This is the largest group that we will be sending to Europe. It just shows that more Filipinos are reaching the required qualification and competence to study in Europe,” the ambassador said.