PUP CommRes alumnus, recipient of Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree
Francisco B. Bautista, Jr, a graduate of Bachelor of Arts in Communication Research batch 2010 receives Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD), an annual award funded by the European Union.
Last April 2020, Mr. Bautista received an e-mail confirming the good news that he is one of the recipients of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree scholarship. After receiving his student visa, he shared on his personal Facebook account the encouraging news regarding the once in a lifetime grant. Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD) is an integrated study program that is cooperatively delivered by several tertiary education institutions.
The scholarship total value of €49,000 is donated to the International Master in Adult Education for Social Change (IMAESC) Consortium by the European Commission. The contribution to participation costs €9,000 per annum for the two-year programme and the amount is directly received and handled by the University of Glasgow to contribute to the grantee’s tuition fee. Alongside this, the Consortium will also handle and pay the insurance to the extent of the program. The concluding nature of the scholarship scopes travel and installation costs given that the scholarship holder resides in a Partner Country whose location is sited less than 4,000 kilometers from the EMJMD Coordinating University.
Contextualizing the scholarship to Mr. Bautista’s admission, he was accepted for a two-year master’s in adult education for social change where his concentration would focus on critical issues, policy, and curriculum. The program consortium involved four European universities: the University of Glasgow, University of Malta, Tallinn University, and the Open University of Cyprus.
He also expressed that being an Erasmus Mundus scholar will give him the opportunity for mobility periods and placements in several countries in Europe. In an interview with UNDERSCORE, he expounded the benefits of the program, “Mobility periods would mean I would transfer every semester from one university to another. I also have a chance to do internships and other forms of placement during the summer.”
When asked towards his initials thoughts and reactions after receiving the news, he said that this scholarship is something that he prepared and prayed for a long time, that despite the internalized doubts about his abilities due to receiving a rejection letter in another program, the scholarship became a deep motivation from which is foreseen as an opportunity to attain higher education, to dream for himself, and to serve as an inspiration to other people, especially to the youth.
Despite receiving the EMJMD scholarship grant, when asked what is next in the line for his career, he explicitly said, “I am torn between doing a Ph.D. or heading to law school. But let’s see.”
To conclude the interview with UNDERSCORE, he shared some inspirational and remarkable words that addressed the youth in the context of receiving a scholarship. The highlight of his advice focused on the need to maintain good grades in college if you aspire to study abroad and to keep in touch with your college professors because they are the ones who can vouch for your academic abilities when you need to get a recommendation. As an achiever and a dreamer, he stretched the virtue that one must pursue the industry that aligns with his or her passion.
Mr. Bautista left UNDERSCORE with a word to live by stating, “More than building your CV (curriculum vitae), it (referring to the recommendation to join cause–oriented organizations) can also help widen your perspective about why you need an academic scholarship in the first place.
