Prof.Miguel Ángel José Prieto (UniOvi)

1) Where will you travel first when the COVID pandemic is over?

I am really looking forward to the first days of September. Although I am aware the pandemic will not be over by then, I wish everything will be fine enough to let us celebrate our Annual Meeting in Besançon. That’s definitely the first place I’d like to be able to travel to Besançon in September. It would be a clear sign that this nightmare is about to finish and that EU4M can develop its full activity.

2) What do you like most about EU4M?

I really think that EU4M (and all the Erasmus Mundus Masters in general) is much more than an academic experience. It is of course very important that students grab all the knowledge transferred by the five academic institutions, but there’s so much more around that. Integrating students in the European culture, sharing experiences with people from cultures completely different to yours and developing friendships that will eventually turn into powerful international networks are only three of the side aspects of EU4M that I tend to appreciate more than academic knowledge itself. That’s the real power of Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees. It’s a shame I was born 30 years too early! And it is also very important for the academic staff. Thanks to EU4M I have been able to meet great people from HSKA, ENSMM, NU and ISPU. This opens the possibility to international cooperation in several ways: International Ph.D., application to EU-funded projects, etc.

3) Where do you like to celebrate the EU4M graduation ceremony and why?

Whenever I come to HSKA or ENSMM. They make you feel at home and it is sometimes overwhelming to realize the huge amount of work they have done for that to be so. I am always very grateful to them when it is their turn to organize the EU4M Annual Meeting and Graduation Ceremony.

These events have been traditionally organized in one of the three EU4M countries inside the EU. However, the proposal to have them organized by Nile University has lately been raised. For the moment it is only a prethought, but it would be lovely to gather three EU4M Editions in Egypt.

4) What do you think the EU4M community is still missing?

Wow! That’s a hard one…

Although the first EU4M intake joined us in 2008 (quite a few years back), there are quite a few bureaucratic problems that we have not been able to solve yet: visa issues, recognition of degrees in different countries, joint accreditation of the degree in all the partner countries, … These topics and some others are recurrently mentioned every time all the EMJMD Coordinators gather in Brussels to talk about Erasmus Mundus Projects. Seemingly, the EU integration must still be achieved within the EU itself. As far as students is concerned, what I miss most is the possibility to keep in touch with them once they have graduated. When students obtain their EU4M Diploma they begin a new life and they might tend to lose all contact with the teachers and colleagues they have been sharing experiences with during the last two years. Hopefully, the EU4M Club will succeed in making it easier for them to keep in touch. In fact, I think you are doing a great job in that direction and I must encourage you to go on like that.