Spain Offers EU-Funded Scholarships to Moroccan Students for Masters Programs

"The young generations as agents of change". This is the name of this Project, which has a budget of 2.6 million euros, financed 95% by the European Union (EU), while it benefits from the participation of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for the material organization of the trip and the guarantee of return.

This first phase of the project takes into account about a hundred students. According to Coral Martínez, Director of the Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education (SEPIE), they will pursue Master’s studies in fields considered "strategic" for their country, such as renewable energies, information technologies, agri-food or tourism.

They must all present, as a business project, their report which will be evaluated by independent agents. The ten best projects will receive an additional funding of 10,000 euros each, while for the rest, there will be other placement assistance with the support of the IOM.

A first presentation was organized at the residence of the Spanish Ambassador, where the philosophy of this project was explained to scholarship beneficiary students before their imminent trip. Essentially, it is a matter of "circular migration" and "legal mobility" that counters all situations of illegal emigration.

It was especially explained to the students that the issue of return is very important to demonstrate the success of the initiative, given that, in most cases, professional athletes and even strawberry workers have taken advantage of obtaining a visa in Spain to stay there illegally.

Claudia Wiedey, EU Ambassador to Rabat, stressed that a project like this "is much more than a scholarship", as it is intended to "experiment with new, more creative and innovative tools, in order to forge links between the university, the labor market and the migration phenomenon".