The European Erasmus Mundus programme of excellence is funding the EMMIR degree programme – the European Master’s in Migration and Intercultural Relations – for a further five years. The university coordinates this international project, in which nine partners from three continents are involved.
The European Master’s in Migration and Intercultural Relations programme (EMMIR) has been bringing students from all over the world to Oldenburg for 15 years. No less than 278 young people from 89 countries have already completed the programme and 71 more are due to graduate shortly. The prestigious European Erasmus Mundus programme has now announced it will provide funding totalling around 4.6 million euros for a further five-year period for the course, which is coordinated by the University of Oldenburg.
The EMMIR Master’s programme provides students with an interdisciplinary education covering theories, concepts and methods related to migration and enables them to gain extensive practical experience in the field. The University of Oldenburg runs the programme in collaboration with five European, three African and two Indian partner institutions.
“We are grateful and proud to be able to continue offering the degree programme in collaboration with our international partners,” said Prof. Dr Katharina Al-Shamery, Vice President for International Affairs at the University of Oldenburg. “EMMIR students are highly successful on the global labour market once they graduate. Almost a fifth of the graduates to date have gone on to work in renowned international organisations such as the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, Médecins Sans Frontières or the International Red Cross, where they contribute their diverse perspectives and thus help to tackle the socio-political challenges associated with migration.”
Theoretically grounded and practice-oriented
The evaluation of the project concluded that its revamped concept convincingly links the topics of migration, climate change, digitalisation and democracy with the demand for expertise from different continents. “Our aim with EMMIR is to foster international and interdisciplinary exchange of theoretical as well as practical perspectives on the topic of migration, at a time when our democratic principles and academic freedom are increasingly exposed to rising nationalism, disinformation, militarisation and attacks,” said cultural studies scholar Prof. Dr Martin Butler, who leads the project.
The emphasis in the next few years will be on addressing new political challenges such as climate-induced displacement and the impact of AI on migration processes and practices. “We will also intentionally bring the opportunities and sustainable solutions into focus,” said Dr Lydia Potts, long-standing EMMIR coordinator, adding that another key aspect is a diversity-sensitive approach to multilingualism in the context of migration, with a view to raising awareness of the many different paths to knowledge acquisition and intercultural exchange in the spirit of epistemic justice. The degree programme will also place greater emphasis on the role of AI in migration research.
Student mobility is a key feature of the EMMIR programme: students in each cohort spend the first semester together in Oldenburg and the second semester together at the University of Stavanger in Norway. This is followed by a project phase during which each student selects a module at one of the ten partner institutions. The programme concludes with a Master’s thesis, which students complete during the fourth semester in a partner country of their choice.
Conferences in Prague, Accra, Johannesburg and Kolkata
Up to 1,100 applicants from all corners of the globe apply for a place on the EMMIR degree programme each year. The project coordinators and partner institutions select around 34 students in a complex and carefully coordinated procedure.
In addition to the regular programme, for the new funding period the organisers have planned conferences on topics such as populism in Prague (Czech Republic), climate change in Accra (Ghana), migration and health in Johannesburg (South Africa), and research methods in Kolkata (India). Just over half of the funding will go towards financing 70 full scholarships, each with a duration of 24 months. The remaining funds will be used to run the programme at its different locations. 120,000 euros have been earmarked for students with special needs.
Since the programme’s launch, EMMIR graduates have been awarded a Joint Master’s degree by all the partner institutions. This makes it one of the world’s leading transnational Master’s programmes in which a double, multiple or joint degree (Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters, EMJM) is conferred. These study programmes are aimed at outstanding students from all over the world.
In addition to the nine participating partner institutions, the programme works with 44 associate partners in 17 countries, including universities and research centres that contribute teaching, research guidance and supervision in areas that are underrepresented within the consortium. The EMMIR network also comprises 28 partners from the working world, including government organisations, international organisations and NGOs.
