European Studies Jean Monnet Centres of Excellence
A large number of universities and colleges offer a programme called “European studies”, most of them based in the European Union. Courses deal with subjects around European integration, European politics, legal and economic aspects, and sociology. It is therefore often a very general multidisciplinary field of study.
Some universities seem to specialise on different areas of European studies, and offer Master degrees in “European Law”, “European Politics” or “European Economics”, others focus more on coursework in study fields of humanities or social sciences, EU history, literature or European language studies.
Those interested in following a Master in European studies should look for clearly labelled institutes named “Jean Monnet Centres of Excellence”. Those centres partially financed by the European Commission are situated all around Europe, and in many other continents as well. Focusing on European integrations studies, they pool resources and have a designated Jean Monnet Chairs that assume academic responsibility. This does not have to be a single University, but can also be organised in cooperation with several institutes in the same region.
Jean Monnet Centres of Excellence for European Studies receive co-financing of the European Community’s budget, which in most cases is also beneficial to students as tuition fees are lower (in theory!).
A few European Study centres have gained a special role and can maybe be described as the “founding institutions of European Studies”:
- College of Europe
Founded in 1949 as a training institute on European integration and enlargement, a large number of students graduated in last 60 years. A one year programme allows students to specialise in European Law, European Economics, or European Administration. When studying at the College of Europe Campus in Brugge or Natolin be aware, that the degree is not necessarily recognised as a university degree.
- European University Institute
The European University Institute (EUI) is located nearby Florence, Italy, since its foundation in 1975. Principally it is a post-graduate research institute, which is probably best described as the think tank of the European Institutions. The official EU library is also hosted on it’s campus. The Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies is an inter-disciplinary research programme and encourages work on contemporary challenges of European integration.
- European Institute of Public Administration
Established in 1981 by EU Member States in Maastricht, the Netherlands, the institute benefits from it’s geographical situation close to Brussels. The European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) primarily provides vocational training for civil servants, national and European officials. The institute also develops an disseminates knowledge on EU polices and procedures and conducts applied research.
If interested, you find more information here.
