European Master in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis – Erasmus Mundus AFEPA

Duration: 2 years

Course description:
The European Master in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis aims at providing a high quality education in designing and assessing public policies targeted to the agricultural and food sector as well as the rural environment.  This European Master responds to the increasing need to better understand and anticipate the various and often complex socio-economic and environmental effects of these policies either in a functioning market economy as in the European Union or in economies in a development or transition phase.  The European Master offers a two-year academic curriculum with integrated and advanced theoretical, methodological and empirical courses in economics and quantitative methods as well as in agricultural, food and environmental sciences, agricultural and trade policy, environmental and natural resource policy, rural development policy and agribusiness management and market analysis.  To connect theory and methodology to practice, a problem solving project is developed and presented as a master thesis at the end of the two-year curriculum.


The European Master is jointly organised by five leading European educational and research institutions:  the Corvinius University of Budapest (CUB) in Hungary, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Sweden, the Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn (UBonn) in Germany, the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) in Belgium and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Spain.  These five partner universities are recognised worldwide for the quality of their educational programme and scientific achievements in agricultural, environmental and economic sciences.  The required 120 ECTS credit points are structured into three blocks:  a minimum of two semesters of studies (55 ECTS) at a first partner university, as well as two semesters of studies (60 ECTS) at a second partner university, and two joint summer schools (5 ECTS) at partner universities.  The language of instruction and examination is English for most of the courses in three partner universities while it is either French at UCL or Spanish at UPC for most of the courses.  The Master degree is awarded as a double degree from the two home and host universities.
This European Master is accessible to candidates holding a bachelor degree or a recognized equivalent academic degree with a minimum of 180 ECTS or 3 years university study from an accredited institution, with sufficient undergraduate training in economics and agricultural or environmental sciences, with an excellent scholastic average, and with fluency in English but also French or Spanish if attending either UCL or UPC respectively.

Recipients of this European Master are qualified to understand the fundamentals of public policies oriented to the agricultural and food sector, rural areas and natural resources, develop and use quantitative methods to perform rigorous socio-economic and environmental assessment of these public policies, and provide sound and relevant policy recommendations for a more sustainable development of this sector and rural areas.  They are qualified to take responsibilities in international, national and regional agencies, non-governmental organisations, consultancy firms, professional organisations and private companies.

Website: http://www.uclouvain.be/afepa

Main area: Social sciences (including economics), cultural sciences
Second area: Agricultural and forestry sciences
Third area: Geography, earth and environmental studies
At the end of the course, graduated students will be awarded a double degree.
Tuition fees:  3000 €/per year for EU students
6000 €/per year for Third country students

	Institution	Contact person
Coordinator:	CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF LOUVAIN, Belgium	Prof. Bruno Henry de Frahan
Partners:	CORVINUS UNIVERSITY OF BUDAPEST, Hungary	Prof. Csaba Forgacs
	SWEDISH UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, Sweden	Ms. Kristina H. Jansson
	UNIVERSITY OF BONN, Germany	Prof. Thomas Heckelei
	TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF CATALONIA, Spain	Prof. José M. Gil

Information on Applications
For the 2012/13 academic year: The online application tool for both non-European and European students will be activated again from September 15, 2011 until January 10, 2012.  Applications received during this period (all applications must have been postmarked on January 10, 2012 at the latest) will be considered for general admission into the programme AND for an Erasmus Mundus scholarship. The deadline for students that wish to apply for admission into the programme but NOT for an Erasmus Scholarship are March 31, 2012 for Non-European applicants and April 30, 2012 for European applicants.

Contact:
Bruno HENRY DE FRAHAN
Place de la Croix du Sud 2/15
1348 LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE – Belgium
bruno.henrydefrahan@uclouvain.be