ERASMUS MUNDUS ACTION 2
LOT 12
N° of grant agreement: 204334-1-2011-1-FR-ERA
MUNDUS-EMA21
Memorandum of Understanding
The University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France, here identified as “main-beneficiary”, coordinating institution of the
Erasmus Mundus Action 2 programme Erasmus Mundus Mobility with Asia–West (EMMA-WEST),
and
the participating institutions in the programme, here identified as “co-beneficiaries”:
European Partner Universities (EPU):
1. Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg,Heidelberg, Germany
2. Università Degli Studi Di Padova, Padova, Italy
3. Universiteit Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
4. Uniwersytet Warszawski, Warsaw, Poland
5. Universidade de Évora, Évora, Portugal
6. "Lucian Blaga" University Sibiu,Sibiu, Romania
Asian Partner Universities (APU):
7. University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
8. Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh
9. BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
10. Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel, Nepal
11. NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan
12. COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
13. Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
14. Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India
15. University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
16. Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines,
for purposes of this agreement collectively identified as “partnership”, individually differentiated as EMMA-EPU and
EMMA-APU, acting by their legal representatives for the purpose of signing this document,
have agreed as follows:
1.
Purpose
The purpose of this memorandum of understanding is to clarify the specific obligations and respective funding of
each party implementing the programme (main-beneficiary and co-beneficiaries), to outline the procedure for the
selection of candidates as well as the foreseen measures to tackle specific programme objectives such as recognition,
quality assurance, prevention of brain drain and sustainability, for the proper performance of EMMA WEST
programme with respect to the rules of the Erasmus Mundus 2009-2013 Programme Guide and the project
description.
2.
Background of this Memorandum of Understanding
The pages of this document have to be understood in the spirit of the Erasmus Mundus 2009-2013 Programme Guide
available
at
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus_mundus/programme/documents/2011/em_programmeguide_1612_en.pdf
which
provide the rules that apply to all Erasmus Mundus partnerships. The spirit of the specific rules of Emma-West are
described in “Part D: project implementation / Award criteria” of the accepted proposal submitted to Education,
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Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), that provides also the table of planned individual
mobility
flows
(IMF).
All
these
http://math.unice.fr/EMMA/intranet/MoU/E151P.htm .
background
documents
are
available
at
3.
Duration
This Memorandum of Understanding shall enter into force for each individual co-beneficiary on the date when the last
of the two parties (main beneficiary and respective co-beneficiary) signs the document. This agreement is binding till
July 14th 2015 i.e. the end of the programme eligibility period.
4.
Objectives of the programme
The main objectives of the EMMA-West programme are:
 to organize mobility flows of 99 grantees from Lot 12 to the EPU, according to percentage and quota
requirements defined for lot 12 and in line with the accepted proposal, organised so as to obtain maximum
effect of mobility abroad on a cost/effectiveness basis
 to organize transfer and spreading of knowledge, skills and ideas by grantees after their return
 to disseminate programme outcomes, including the communication and visibility campaign for the programme
and the whole programme
 to implement quality assurance and assessment procedures
 to manage the programme thoroughly.
These objectives form the basis for establishing the EMMA-WEST partnership.
5.
Obligations of partnership members
The main-beneficiary and the co-beneficiaries are complementary to and equally binding on contractual obligations
emerging from the Erasmus Mundus 2009-2013 Programme Guide.The Programme Coordinator coordinates the
whole programme on behalf of the main-beneficiary and leads a Board of Directors to implement various tasks, while
partners nominate their local coordinator (identified in the grant agreement as contact person) and a Local Organizing
Bureau (LOB) to organize mobility at each institution level and to cooperate with the programme coordinator and
other partners in achieving tasks concerning the whole programme. The programme coordinator must be immediately
notified of possible local coordinator change (contact person).
5.1. Main-beneficiary will be responsible for the following actions:
a) organisation of mobility:
o to initiate and support all steps of mobility organisation that will be performed by partnership: selection,
implementation of mobility, communication of mobility results and visibility campaign
o to develop the EMMA website, including on-line registration, application and selection tools, and intranet part
o to monitor final selection in cooperation with the Board of Directors
o to manage insurance for all grantees
o to monitor the process of students performance by initiating, stating deadlines and timing of the process of
periodical assessment (interim and final) to be carried out by all co beneficiaries, collecting assessment records
and elaborating results in the form of full internal report and concise report to be communicated to wide public
b) quality assurance:
o to monitor overall quality of the programme and implementation of assessment processes
c) promotion and dissemination of programme results:
o to monitor achievement of communication and visibility strategy
o to collect and report on programme success stories (students’ and staff’s development and achievements during
mobility period abroad and their actions and impact after return to alma maters as well as on wider environments
in their countries) for promotional purposes
o to develop and maintain the website, leaflets and other promotional materials
d) general coordination:
o to organize the programme planning, assessment and reporting
o to distribute to each EPU received unit cost for travel costs, scholarships/grants and tuition fees for all their
grantees, and to each co-beneficiaries a lump sum for support of administrative costs.
o To manage and report on all financial aspect of the programme.
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5.2. APU (sending co-beneficiaries) involvement in programme activities:
a) organisation of mobility
o
to carry on open and well-announced recruitment for target groups (TG) 1, 2 and 3, disseminating by this
occasion programme content and objectives
o
to help students submit their applications to registration/application tool where necessary (instruction,
technical support),
o
to carry on collective procedures of pre-selection of best appropriate students candidates to TG1 and TG2,
and TG3 when no associate partner is available , and confirming their checked and assured eligibility, language
ability and reliability of their documents,
o
to participate in the selection process in marking all candidates from their country and in providing
recommendations on personal skills of candidates on the intranet system, grading their project and providing
comments on its suitability with respect to the home university needs and policy,
o
to facilitate recruitment and preparation of candidates to target group 3 in cooperation with associates and
other bodies, as well as initiating any other possible measures to find proper candidates fulfilling formal criteria
of target 3 beneficiaries,
o
to facilitate remote interviews that may be carried out with some candidates with the help/ presence of
sending partner’s representatives on requests from the EPU potential hosts,
o
to plan and agree with Master, Doctorate and Postdoctoral students and Staff prior their departure, activities
to be carried out on their return : transfer of knowledge, intern dissemination of skills,
o
to agree and proceed Learning Agreements of selected students and written institutional agreements
concerning mobility assignments of staff members,
o
to support, if necessary, their application for visas
o
to carry out academic recognition procedures of periods of study, training, research and teaching of their
students and staff after return,
o
to organize feedback sessions from returning students and teachers to next prospective programme
beneficiaries,
b) general involvement
o
to disseminate programme outcomes and contribute to programme planning, assessment and reporting,
according to accepted EMMA WEST proposal.
5.3.EPU (hosting co-beneficiaries) involvement in programme activities:
a) organisation of mobility
o
to mark the chances of success of candidates in required teaching or activity available at the demanded hosting
university, on the basis of information provided by candidate, and on marking and recommendations by APU, and
any other source of information reported on intranet database, including possible phone interview report.
o
to agree with APU tailor-made student Learning, Teaching, Training, or Research Agreements,
o
to provide each grantees with e-tickets for initial arrival at hosting university and final return to home place or
any other support for travel agreed with beneficiary.
o
to organise arrival of students, issuing letters of acceptance and invitations, assistance with obtaining visas,
to inform the coordinator of the programme when the visa is issued and planned travel ticket for insurance
requirements,
o
to enrol and provide adequate mentoring arrangements (appointment of academic tutors/mentors to guide
teachers/students academically, facilitate their integration in the host environment – academic and cultural), to
monitor and assess their training progress (interim and final assessment by use of the form elaborated by the
partnership and provided by the coordinator),
o
to sign with APU trilateral agreements concerning mobility of staff candidates, agreed between interested
APU and EPU and staff concerned,
o
to sign with students and staff individual agreements and send them together with arrival confirmation forms
to programme coordinator,
o
to organise study program and extra-curricular activities in line with student/ teacher Agreement,
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o
o
o
o
o
to monitor the progress of the mobility and grantees performance and to take appropriate actions/
interventions if required, together with the coordinator.
to report to the Coordinator about each occurrence of unexpected course interruption, and to take the
appropriate steps,
to provide assistance to incoming students and staff for housing, visa prolongations and residence permits,
opening bank account etc, coaching and advising on living matters,
to issue transfer of marks/transcript of records, Emma certificates and diplomas, diploma supplements and
other relevant documents confirming the mobility results (handling originals to students at the end of their
mobility and sending copies to programme coordinator),
b) general involvement
to disseminate programme outcomes and contribute to programme planning, assessment and reporting
according to accepted EMMA WEST proposal and contractual obligations.
6. Financial management of the grant.
6.1 Provided the prior receipt of payments from the Executive Agency the main beneficiary will distribute the grant
among the partnership members according to following rules:
o
o
o
- 60% of the lump sum budget of 170 000 Euros will be kept by the main beneficiary for financing:
the cost of two meetings, with management help of organizing partner universities (one in Asia, one in
Europe),
the cost of central management, including set up and management of website and application and management
database, and centralized insurance contract,
an additional budget for Asian countries which had a low percentage of female applications: they will get an
access to additional budget of 1000 Euros from the coordination funds to organize a recruiting day specially
tailored towards promoting the program to female students.
- 40% of the lump sum budget of 170 000 Euros will be send to the co beneficiaries (each co beneficiary will
receive 4000 Euros) for financing any action related to the programme and to the individual mobility flow of students
and staffs, including but not limited to communication and transportation expenses, promotion of EMMA programme,
staff support (for coordination), honoraria for technical work/services rendered for EMMA, relevant travel expenses
(not covered by other funds), support for scholars (seminars, meetings, language lessons), purchase of equipment
and use of facilities (laptop, desktop, printer, dedicated internet access, etc), hours and work for the selection of the
candidates, help to the candidates to prepare their application on line. Documentary evidences should be kept, in order
to report, if required, to Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency when the programme is over, and
detailed use will be provided each year to the Coordinator for the annual report.
- Flat-rate and unit-costs for financing Scholarships, Tuition Fees, and Travel costs will be transferred to
each EPU hosted who will provide the corresponding service to grantees, according to grantees they will welcome.
o EPU must provide to each grantee an e-ticket for initial arrival at hosting university and final return to home
place
o EPU must provide the totality of the subsistence allowance (scholarship/grant) to the visiting student/staff. A
part should be provided upon arrival to cover installation costs and the remaining part must be provided on a
regular basis.
o For mobility of less than 9 months, exchange students from APU will continue paying their registration fees in
their home universities and the host university must apply a fee waiver policy (no registration/tuition fees). In
all other cases (10 months or more), the fee for incoming students is granted by the programme for EUR 3 000
per academic year, and the students must not be charged for any fee by his home university for the same
period.
o If received flat-rate travel cost make it possible, costs related to the visa, visa prolongations and residence
permits for the individuals participating to the mobility may be covered by the grant awarded (included in
travel costs).
-Unit cost for financing insurance will be managed by the main-beneficiary that will provide full insurance
coverage (health, travel, accident) to cover the incoming students and staff participating in the individual mobility
activities.
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6.2 Documentary evidences should be kept (by the main beneficiary as well as by the co-beneficiaries), in order to
report to Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency when the programme is over, and detailed use will be
provided each year to the coordinator for the annual report.
6.3 The original invoices / accounting documents related to the programme activities must be kept (by the main
beneficiary as well as by the co-beneficiaries) for a period of 5 years from the closure date of the Specific Grant
Agreement in case of an ex-post audit. In case the Executive Agency asks for supporting accounting documents, the
co-beneficiaries will have to submit them to the main beneficiary (originals within 15 days, copies/scans within 5
days).
6.4 Payments from the main beneficiary to the co-beneficiaries shall be made according to the size of the instalments
received by the main beneficiary from the Executive Agency. Where not identified as allocated to EPU/ APU the
funds are in disposal of the main beneficiary.
7. Outline of the procedure and criteria for the selection of candidates
7. 1. Procedure of selection
A call for applicants, preceded by information campaign is launched through web publishing and direct dissemination.
The application and selection will be done online.
After registration, candidates will receive passwords and will accede to the application form where they will fill in
personal data, select desired host institutions / study programs, present their relevant motivation statements and upload
supporting documents.
Each candidate will be graded together by a Local Organisation Bureau of a APU of his home country and by the
Local Organisation Bureau of the EPU he/she have selected.
The final selection list will be established by the Board of Directors following the markings and recommendations
provided by home APU and host EPU.
7.2. Criteria applied to selection of candidates:
The selection of candidates is made on academic merit in order to guarantee personal success of grantee and
enrichment of his/her home university and country.
The criteria of academic merit will be weighed together with socio-economic conditions. The partnership commits to
dedicated search for candidates to provide real participation of students in difficult social and political situations.
8. Measures to tackle specific programme objectives such as recognition, quality assurance, prevention of
brain drain and sustainability
8.1 Recognition
The partnership will match the students with courses offered at host universities as best as possible so that after return,
the period spent abroad be recognised as integral part of students study program at home.
8.2 Quality assurance measures
The EPU will organise the quality assessment system according to the European quality assurance standards.
Following these rules, the programme consortium will implement a quality control of programme academic activities
at four levels:
a) quality assessment of teaching, training and research process at local level (at each hosting institution) by means,
structures and methods normally used,
b) monitoring and evaluation of the mobility - based on the feedback from grantees and their academic supervisors,
and from administrators (local coordinators from each partner), e.g. by means of periodical get-togethers.
c) programme overall internal annual evaluation - based on collected questionnaires and reports and other kinds of
feedback (a report will be demanded every 6-months period), which will be the base for quantitative and qualitative
evaluation and a source of suggestions for possible changes,
d) Evaluation after return by home university through questionnaires.
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All the Local Organisation Bureaus involved in the process of selection commit to perform marking in an impartial
and fair way.
8.3 Prevention of brain drain
The partners will strongly encourage students and staff to return after their period abroad, and provide them with
updated skills and credentials of international value, which will rise their career possibilities at home, preventing or at
least reducing the risk of skilled emigration. All grantees will be strongly encouraged to return to their home countries
after completion of mobility period, what will be stated in their individual agreements with hosting universities.
In particular, no job opportunities in host countries will be offered to grantees.
8.4 Sustainability
The partnership members declare their willingness to undertake actions in various partners configurations (bilateral.
multilateral) to enable further cooperation and durable EU-Asia cooperation after the end of the programme
funding, such as:
- bilateral agreements for staff and students exchange,
- joint programs
- using other source of external funding for joint initiatives,
- individual scientific cooperation.
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Modifications and amendments .
Any modifications and amendments to this document must be the subject of a written supplementary agreement.
SIGNATURES
For the beneficiary:
Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis
Name:
Function:
Signature:
Done at Nice
Date: . . . / . . . / . . . .
For the co-beneficiary : <Name of university>
Name:
Function:
Signature
Done at
Date: . . . / . . . / . . . .
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