The students will study in Europe for one or two years to obtain a European masters' degree from one of the 35 Erasmus Mundus masters courses.
Of the 803 students, 455 were selected in the framework of the general Erasmus Mundus programme. come from 84 different countries, with Brazil (35), Russia (31), Ukraine (23), USA (20), China (18), Mexico (18), and Nigeria (18) ranking in the first places. The 353 students selected under the Asian windows come mainly from India (133), China (67), Pakistan (31), Thailand (28), and Malaysia (23). Nearly EUR 30 million (of which EUR 17 million under the general programme and EUR 13 million under the Asian windows) will be used to fund the 803 Erasmus Mundus students. More than EUR 1.5 million (of which EUR 270 000 for the China Window) have been set aside to fund the scholars.
The student grant will vary between EUR 21.000 and EUR 42.000, depending on the duration of the courses. Scholars' grants will be on average EUR 13.000 for a period of 3 months. The first generation of Masters welcomed 140 students and 42 academics in autumn 2004. Additional resources (EUR 57.3 million) were then reserved for granting supplementary grants to students from certain Asian countries. Erasmus Mundus: European universities to welcome almost 1000 third-countries graduates and academics to study and teach in the EU in 2005-2006.