EU scholarships for the Turkish Cypriot community

The EU Scholarship Programme 2008/2009 received very good interest from the Turkish Cypriot community and managed to attract many applications. Having evaluated carefully all the applications, the European Commission decided to support 122 Turkish Cypriot undergraduate students, young graduates and teachers to spend up to one academic year in a university or equivalent institution of higher education in another Member State of the EU.
The grantees will commence their programmes starting as of September 2008 and will spend up to one year in another Member State of the European Union. In order to wish them “Ä°yi Ã…?anslar” in this academic and life experience the European Commission is organising a reception at the EU Programme Support Office on 29 August 2008, Friday at 18:00 with the participation of students, graduates, teachers and the representatives of the Member States.
Mr. Mehmet Ali Talat has been invited to deliver a speech in the honour of the awardees of the EU Scholarship Programme.
The aim of this Scholarship programme is to give Turkish Cypriot students and teachers additional educational opportunities that will increase their knowledge in their own technical field while giving them the experience of studying and living in another EU Member State. The main objective is to bring the Turkish Cypriots closer to the EU and the EU closer to the Turkish Cypriot community.
The students and teachers may study an undergraduate programme or a postgraduate programme or engage in research in any of the other 26 Member States of the European Union. This year they will study and live in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, Estonia and Hungary. Grantees will come back to Cyprus after completing their studies and contribute to the social and economic development of the Turkish Cypriot community.
The grants are financed from the European Union Aid Programme for the Turkish Cypriot community. The EU Scholarship programme will run for three consecutive academic years, i.e. 2007/2008, 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 and its total value amounts to € 5 million. The call for interest for the 2009/2010 academic year will be announced in October 2008 and published on the official Europeaid website as well as the Programme website www.benavrupadaokumakistiyorum.org.