A live Q&A introducing the MAGMa scholarships.
Well uh hello everyone uh and welcome my name is Alan Madden uh and I’m a lecturer in history of art here at the University of Glasgow uh and I along with my colleagues Amy and Ben who you can see on screen um are are delighted to to to welcome everyone to this
Special Q&A session um relating to our new arasmus Mundus joint Masters program managing art and cultural heritage in global markets or magma for short um which is offered jointly by the University of Glasgow uh the University of Lisbon and University Institute of Lisbon arasmus University Rotterdam and
Isa arts and culture Paris now if you’re joining us uh in this session uh then it is very likely that you will have either already uh submitted an application uh for a scholarship for the magma program um or you will have at least expressed uh an interest in
Applying and so hopefully this session will give you the opportunity to ask any questions that you may have um about the nature of the program about its content or delivery uh maybe something to do with the the structure of the program its Mobility periods or other practical ities such as visas travel and
Accommodation I’m sure there’s going to be lots of questions about those um now just to give you a little bit of a of an insight into how this session is going to be structured today um I will um say a couple of words just just kind of introducing the program a little bit
More I’m sure you’re all very familiar with it but I’ll say a few words about the program then I’ll hand over to uh my colleague Amy Bell um to introduce um herself um and to talk a little bit about her role at the University um and specifically her role in relation to the
Magma program and then similarly we’ll hand over to Ben to do the same then we’ll each take in turn um a few kind of sample questions or frequently asked questions so these are questions about the program that we’ve already received um so far in this application round um
And also questions that we know from our experience of of last year’s application round um the applicants might have at this stage in the process so we’ll each then come back and and cover maybe one or two of those um frequently asked questions um and at that point we will
Hand over to you um and we will start um answering um the questions that you will be able to post in the chat so please do I’m sure some of you have started already please do post your questions in the chat um I will say we also have some
Colleagues um backstage you can’t see them but um they will also be endeavoring to answer your questions in the chat box as well so if your question isn’t answered by one of us um on screen hopefully it will be answered by someone in the chat um and I’ll mention this
Again towards the end of the session but if there are any more um specific questions questions relating to your own kind of personal circumstances around applying please feel free to email us um at the the magma email inbox which is magma mme at glasgow.ac.uk
But so um again as I said I think a lot of you who are joining us um in this session will have already done a little bit of research you have already done your homework you may have already submitted an application so you will probably know a little bit already about
The nature of um the the magma program but um in short in terms of of the purpose of the program and its aims magma is designed to examine critically um the the drivers and mechanisms that govern the circulation and management of Art and cultural heritage um and we
Might come on to talk about this a little bit later um as well but again in short bicultural Heritage that includes um both um uh site specific movable tangible or or intangible cultural uh as well and we’ll be looking at this from uh an international uh a historic economic and contemporary perspective
Drawing on multi-disciplinary Consortium expertise ranging from the history of collecting and Art Market studies to cultural heritage economics and management magma aims to better equip the art and cultural heritage professional with all the skills necessary to work in this highly complex volatile and growing field worldwide so
That’s a little bit about the nature of the program I I’ll I’ll come on um again shortly to talk a we bit more about um the program structure and maybe some of the the the things that you might expect to study while on the program but um
First what I’ll do is I’ll hand over first of all to Amy and then to Ben just to introduce themselves and to say a wee bit about their role on the magma program as well okay over to you Amy all right thank you very much Al um hi
Everyone and welcome um my name is Amy Bell I am the International Development manager at the College of Arts and Humanities here at Glasgow um and part of my role um involves providing administrative support to our arasmus mundis joint masters programs um so I’m here today to help with your questions
Um related to the magma Erasmus Mundus scholarships um and the program more generally um and pass over to Ben to give a a quick introduction now thanks Amy um good afternoon everyone or or good morning depending on where you’re reaching us from um thanks for joining us today my name is Ben
Bellshaw um I’m the postgraduate admissions officer overseeing uh magma and the other arasmus Mundus programs that are offered at the University of Glasgow um so my role today is is hopefully to answer some of your questions regarding the appli application process itself um entry requirements uh if you have any
Questions about visas or deposits as well um so yeah looking forward to speaking to a few of you today okay well and thank you very much um Amy um and thank you Ben um now I can see that we have already started to to have questions um come through so we we
Will come to those in a moment but um as I said at the start it might be useful um some of you may have um a lot of of of similar kinds of questions or it may be that you have questions that I’m sure applicants um applying last year will
Have had as well um and so um myself and and Amy and Ben might run through just again a few more of of the kind of the basics the the key things to know at this stage in the application process so something that um we are asked um quite
A lot because this is a this is a very um very special kind of program it’s an arasmus mous program it’s um it’s across two years we’re working with International Partners some students um applicants um will be getting in touch with us to say what can I expect from
The magma program what kind of things might we study what is the structure of the program what is the nature of these Mobility periods as we refer to them so um I’ll say a little bit more um about that up front and then of course I’m happy to answer more specific questions
Later as well but um managing arts and cultural heritage in global markets um is is a partnership between um the University of Glasgow um and our partner um higher education institutions um in Lisbon Paris and in Rotterdam so if you are successful and hopefully everyone joining us today will be
Successful in their applications um and you you join us on the program in September of 2024 then you will be um joining us for 24 months for a two-year program um across at least three but likely four Mobility periods so if you’re unfamiliar with that term Mobility period you might
Just think of it as as as a two-year master’s program across four semesters so semester 1 um will begin in September of 2024 and will launch in Lisbon with our partners um the University of Lisbon and University Institute um of uh Lisbon now while there um you uh will be able
To study um a range of core and optional courses now I should say these optional courses may change year on year as we’re adding new courses into the program or maybe developing and changing some courses but you can certainly expect courses within the fields of Arts management um and Art Market studies uh
As well so that will be semester one in Lisbon in semester two which will begin in January of 2025 you will then make your way to Paris to our partner Isa arts and culture um and there you’ll have uh again a range of core and optional courses under different study
Tracks whether that’s um courses relating to collecting and the Art Market or managing the cultural heritage of the future um after your um period of time in Paris you will then make your way to the third Mobility um I’ll say a little bit more about what you can do in
The summer in a second um but the third Mobility um will then begin in sep member of 2025 um and that will be in Rotterdam with our partner arasmus University um in Rotterdam um and there um again you will study a range of courses um that relate to economics of cultural heritage
And economics of cultural tourism so that’s what you will get on the ground in person from our partner universities um but at the same time you will also receive online learning um from myself um and my colleagues here at the University of Glasgow around um specific core courses designed to again
Prepare you and give you all the skills that you need for the program my own course um uh just to um again advertising already is um cultures of collecting collecting cultures which looks at um histories um of of collecting practices um and there are other courses such as interdisciplinary
Research methods and approaches and Provence and restitution so that gives you a little bit of an inkling a little bit of an insight into the kind of courses um that that you will study here and I should say all of this information can be found on the magma web page as
Well so please do read that in detail um before applying to get a sense of of the overall structure and nature of the course now in between um these Mobility periods in the summer of 2024 in July 2024 specifically you’ll also have the opportunity to take part in seasonal
Schools so we have two seasonal schools which will be running here at the University of Glasgow in summer um and those will be managed um between the university in partnership with our key associate Partners um for the summer schools this year we are in partnership with the uh the hunterian museum and art
Gallery as well as the Smithsonian institution specifically the Smithsonian cultural rescue initiative um and we also have uh another seasonal School a winter school which will run in January of 2025 and that is with our partner the Tata Institute of social sciences in Mumbai so there is is a
Packed program um across the mobility periods across these optional seasonal schools which are non-credit bearing but will but will nevertheless um give you the opportunity to um delve a little more deeply into the kind of issues um that we’re going to be discussing in the classrooms so you’ll have all of these
Things um in in the formal program and informally um while you’re in each of the mobility locations you’ll have the opportunity to go on um a whole range of of visits um and and special trips to um Museums Art Galleries um cultural heritage institutions um in each each
Mobility location so when we were fortunate enough to be at the induction of um this year’s uh program in Lisbon we visited the um Cultural Center in BM um and we also visited the San honos Monastery and the students um who um are are just leaving Lisbon now to make
Their way to Paris have enjoyed um a really wide range of of visits um during um class time and also in their own time as well volunteering their own time just to really soak up and get the best out of of the fact that they are in these um
Fantastic um European cities so I have lots more to say um on on all of these topics and and I’d be really happy to come back and and talk in a little bit more depth about any of these or or anything about the application process
Um but maybe if I can hand over first to to Amy and then again we can we can come to Ben just to talk through maybe some more of this practicalities maybe some of the specifics about that that application process and would you be happy to to talk a little bit about that
Amy absolutely thank you Alan um so as Alan mentioned this is a very special program a very exciting program um magma is co-funded by the European Union through the arasmus English joint Masters program um and this allows us to award several scholarships over the next few
Years um so I imagine a lot of you on this call today are interested in applying for a scholarship for September 24 entry to the program so applications are open um they’ve been open since October and they will close on January 19th so there’s not a lot of
Time left to get your application in um all required documents have to be submitted before the 19th so that includes English language test results if that’s applicable to you um they have to be submitted before the 19th in order to be considered um for the scholarship we expect to receive around
500 to 600 appli um and we’re able to allocate about up to 22 scholarships for this coming year um we’ve had quite a lot of questions come in so far um especially to the the magma inbox and I can quickly cover um a few of them we had a lot of questions
Asking what does the scholarship cover what does the um what is actually covered in the amount that you receive um tuition fee is covered so if you receive the r the scholarship amount um you wouldn’t pay any fees receive full travel insurance coverage um for the duration of the
Two-year program um you would also on top of that receive a monthly stiens um help with things like your rent um accommodation things like that um Visa processing fees travel around the city that you might be studying in um so it’s a it’s a very generous scholarship um and it it’s obviously um
It’s quite a competitive um process each year to to find 22 out of the the hundreds that apply um we have been asked quite a lot about the timeline for um the scholarship selection so we we aim to the deadline is the 19th of January but we aim to um send results
Out by middle to late March um so you will receive a notification if your application has been successful or unsuccessful um by the end of March through the magma email address so keep an eye on your your inbox towards then um we have been asked also um what makes me eligible for the
Scholarship um I would encourage you to look through our website in detail so we have very detailed instructions of what um how to apply what documents are required um and also um a summary of the kind of background of subject areas that are acceptable for the program if you’re
Unsure about anything at all on the website um if anything’s not clear please do contact us via the magma inbox um and we will be more than happy to to answer your questions um to be eligible for a scholarship you basically have to have received an offer to join the
Program be that conditional or unconditional um so anyone who applied before the 19th of January and youve received an unconditional or conditional offer to the program you will automatically be considered um for a scholarship um let me just have a quick look at another question Ben this might
Be a question for you if you if you wouldn’t mind um is this scholarship application process separate to the program application process I do they submit at the same time um do they have SE deadlines um yeah but you wouldn’t mind speaking to that Ben yeah absolutely Um so prior to the 19th of January deadline for um your application will be considered uh for the scholarship program provided that you can submit all the required documents um on the checklist that we require for review um essentially you will um receive an offer to join the program before before you
Learn the outcome of the scholarship uh process so we aim to get offers out to student applicants within about 28 days uh from your point of application so many of you will have received conditional or unconditional offers at this point and again to clarify that is
A an offer to join the program separate from the scholarship process so um that neatly dovetails into a second question that we tend to get a lot which is what happens if if you’ve been accepted onto the program and not awarded a scholarship and and whether you can sell
Fund um if you are holding an offer for the program we’re we’re happy to bring you on as a sell funding student if you wish to attend and you um as an early applicant during the scholarship deadline process will be one of the first people to receive an offer so
Again that offer remains valid if if you wish to fund um either through sourcing other funding or paying for the program uh yourselves um students who do wish to apply for self funding will be re reviewed on a rolling basis um following the scholarship deadline and we’ll
Contact uh those applicants on a case-by Case basis as well that’s great thank you Ben um Alan this might be a question um for you we’ve got a question in the chat um related to um the required documents um for the application what makes a personal statement stand out from the
Others yeah it’s an excellent question it’s the question that I would 100% be asking if I if I were still working on my personal statement um right now so having read um a lot of personal statements last year and having you know being very excited about reading a lot
Of personal statements again this year um I would say the key thing for your personal statement is remember you only have a a certain word limit and now I think this is is 1200 words is is the absolute maximum word count but of course in the application form it will
Give you a note of this so 1 1200 words might seem like a lot to you or it might seem like not very much at all depending on on your your kind of writing style um but I would say it is um it is really important that you are as specific as
Possible so what makes a personal statement stand out to me um isn’t anything in particular about someone’s um you know background or or experience as you know am me on the program we have students that come from you know really broad um diverse um background um uh in
Terms of of wearing the world that they’re coming from and also what their academic um background is and and and what their professional background is so it’s it’s less so about that it’s students who are able to um make a clear statement about their their interest in their passion for art or cultural
Heritage and are able to back that up by by talking about something within their past their academic experience their professional experience something um you know even if it’s a kind of a a more personal um kind of story um that that that that supports that so yeah I would
Say you only have a very short um um uh kind of word count to to work with to try and cover everything that you’re going to want to talk about in your personal statement so being as precise as possible and being as specific um as possible would be would be what makes um
A really good personal statement stand out as far as I’m concerned um but yes but no thank thank you so much for that Amy and um I wonder yes um you’ve you’ve done well to kind of kick us off there should we now just make our way through the the questions
That that folks have been asking in the chat because I see quite a few have come through now um so perhaps we can I can maybe kind of start cherp picking some of these and and and I can pass some over to you guys as well to come in on
Um so let me see here uh Neo has asked the question um my question is that I explained to my application about my research topic which deals more with um an African part of of of art management I just want to know if it is a deal breaker um and I
See there’s actually a second question from new which is about um if I was offered uh admission will I still have to go through an interview for screening so first first part of that first question um absolutely not it is absolutely not a deal breaker um that
That you have maybe in your application materials specifically focused in on or kind of specifically addressed an interest in um Arts management within an African context in fact um that that is very very welcome and and and and if that is what you’re interested in if that is where your passion lies please
Do include information like that for anyone who’s who’s kind of joining us who who is is still working on their application um or who is um who is you know thinking about starting an application even um if you’re concerned about the fact that maybe you’re you’re kind of your experience your background
Your interest in terms of of of art or cultural heritage is to Niche whether it’s you know focusing on on kind of Arts management and within an African context or in South America or or elsewhere in the world please don’t worry about that you know we’re delighted to hear about what
Drives you what motivates you and interests you in the program because I have to say personally um when I’m reading these these applications I get just as excited thinking about what each of the successful applicants can bring to us um you know what what the experience you’re going to bring the
Knowledge that you’re going to bring from wherever in the world that you are from whatever your um academic or professional background is what you bring program um really excites me probably hopefully as much as as you’re excited about what you’re all going to get um from us when when you join the
Program so absolutely not a deal breaker um and the question here about um having to go through an interview um screening I think we we we do have this on on our web page that um it’s possible that that an interview will be a part of the scholarship application process um but
That’s not always um the case um and um am I right then Ben Amy in saying that if a student has received an unconditional offer and they have received notice that they have been lucky and successful and have been awarded a scholarship it’s very unlikely after that point that they will also
Then be asked to come in and do an interview an interview would be done perhaps at a stage where there’s a there’s a conditional offer um and there’s maybe some more information required but but not after that is that correct y it would it would be before um
The scholarships are allocated um it might be an application where we just feel like we want to learn a little bit more about a certain area or something was maybe a little bit unclear and we we might ask um an applicant um to interview um but it’s certainly not a
Standard part of the the application process um and just to add on for from what you said earlier Alan um something to point out is um magma current cohort of magma it’s a very diverse group we’ve got um students who have maybe been in the um been
Working for a number of years since studying um and have a lot of Industry experience we have students who are fresh out of their Bachelors um and are Keen to get right stuck into an international master program so it’s it really varies in terms of your research interests you’ll find that your your
Classmates will um have all different backgrounds all different interests um and somehow that comes together really nicely and makes up a really interesting classroom experience um our current cohort the first intake um makes up 19 different or represents 19 different nationalities um which is amazing um so
It’s you can learn a lot from your peers learn a lot from your your lecturers and um the staff that are working on magma but I think you’ll find it um really nice mix um and a nice mix of experience that um will shape your your magma experience yeah that’s great thank you
Amy um yes um that’s right yeah um kind of student cohort drawn from um 19 different um nationalities makes for um an even more kind of um interesting and and engaging experience for for everyone students and um and staff alike um okay well thank you very much for those
Questions uh no we’ve got a question from Victor and apologies Victor if I maybe slightly misunderstood the question please feel free to kind of post again in the chat to to um correct me if so your question is does the study um on the program include any practicals
Um as as relating to to cultural heritage if yes what kind of practicals should be expected so I’m not sure if you’re meaning if this is more of a kind of a practice-based um program um a kind of you know fine arts program um which
It is not but there is um a lot of experience of of working with professionals who are at the forfront um of of kind of current um issues in in in um and debates around um cultural heritage so one example would be you will get the opportunity um er at um the
Uh seasonal school with the Smithsonian again I mentioned this specifically with the Smithsonian cultural rescue initiative to not just learn the theory but also to engage in some practical exercises as well around what cultural property protection looks like what cultural heritage management looks like in times of Crisis so certainly there is
A good mix of of of kind of theory based um but also some kind of Hands-On and practical experience as part of that um as well um okay so um apologies Amy and Ben if I’m kind of hogging this I hope you don’t mind I if I if I just carry on
Maybe picking out some more questions and we can we can kind of um see how we on with these um we’ve got a question here from uh dong um good day sir m’am I hope you’re having a great day um can you portray a perfect candidate with
Business major um that you want to see in the applicants of magma and can I bring my wife uh with me um yeah so well again the first part of that question um I have to I have to maybe frustrate you slightly by saying no I can’t I can’t
Paint a portrait I’m afraid of of what a perfect candidate would look like because again hopefully um as you’ve heard and from myself and and Amy and Ben there really is no one kind of perfect fit for the magma program we have students that that are drawn from a
Really broad range um of of backgrounds you mention here that you’ve got a business major that’s fantastic we we we absolutely welcome students who’ve got a background and experience um in in terms of of business whether that’s that’s purely academic experience or whether that’s um I know that we have students
On the program currently who have experience of a running rning their own businesses as well in in in kind of the Arts um field um what I would say I guess is that if you can demonstrate why magma is right for you why is magma a good fit for you specifically with your
Business background you presumably will have um a keen interest in some aspect of the Arts um um you know um at the art markets um or or cultural heritage uh management um or kind of Rel ships between business and arts and cultural heritage so just make sure you
Demonstrate that talk a little bit about what your passions are in these areas and if possible give us a little bit of evidence in there as well you know try not to be too General try not to say I’ve always been interested in art and cultural heritage demonstrate that a
Little bit talk maybe about things that you’ve been involved in either on a professional level on an academic level even things like volunteering or regular visits projects that you’ve been involved in at any time of your life um just something that can tell us that as well as your your kind of solid
Business experience and your business background that you have um these other interests that make the magma program specifically a good fit for you um and can you bring your wife um well um yes as well as obviously being um a choice for your wife I would say that yeah
You’re um the University of Glasgow um is very welcoming to International students who want to bring their spouses want to bring their families um I know that there is the um from the Glasgow side the international family Network um which can provide students with information um and access to to to
Support about settling into to life um in Glasgow now um in terms of our partner um universities um in Lisbon Paris and Rotterdam just as you can find an access information about that kind of family support and spouse support at Glasgow um look into that on on on their
Web Pages do do a little bit of research on what local support will be offered there as well but do remember that when you’re on the magma program um for the for the full two years as well as registering at our partner um institutions you will be a registered
Student at the University of Glasgow for that full two years even if you you you might not necessarily um come to Glasgow um uh itself um you you will still be a Glasgow student and you can still access um support from University as well okay so thank you very much for that um
Question next one down here um what is the prospect for further education in PHD programs um well um the course and the program um I should say um launched uh in September of of 2023 so we’re not quite there yet in terms of our students transitioning um from this this kind of
Um joint Masters program into doctoral study um but what I will say is that you will have two years of working very closely with um a a range of um world leading um experts across the different partner institutions in their fields you’ll have an opportunity to develop um a master’s
Dissertation working in partnership with one of those supervisors um at the different partner institutions so you will have two years in which you can think about and develop um PL for um and and proposals for further doctoral study and that’s definitely something that uh myself um and my colleagues here at
Glasgow and my colleagues at the partner institutions would be really Keen to talk to you about from even from the very early stages um of of your studies on the program okay and is there anything that I’ve covered so far um Amy or Ben that
That you would like to kind of come in on or or say anything more on anything that I I’m just looking through the questions at the moment Alan it seems like there’s a few more questions more related to um the application and admissions process and the type of um
Documents that are required um so Ben I wonder if you perhaps could address this this one that’s coming from Brook um I have two application questions one is proof of residency required um as part of the application is there a we number two is there a way to verify that
Confidential recommendations um were received so um yeah the the references perhaps that’s um linked to the the reference inbox that we’ve got at Glasgow yeah absolutely um so with regards to the first question um informally we we don’t require proof of residence as a condition of receiving an
Offer where that would come into play is if you um want to appeal your fee status we assess your fee status based on your nationality as you express it to us um you know your your address uh of permanent residence that you’ve marked down and um of course um to some extent
Where you’ve where you’ve done your education um so that’s the only sense in which in which proof of residency comes into play we can provide a checklist of of documents that we would um accept for um a query about your fee status um at any point if you need that um with
Regards to your your recommendations um the the uh the arasmus references inbox is uh always open to receive uh private references um we’ll accept them provided they are sent in by a uh an Institutional email address there got to be a professional email as opposed to Yahoo Gmail kind of a personal account
Um and we do try to connect those with the applications that they are sent for as quickly as possible um it’s possible if it hasn’t been uh marked down as being received on your checklist it’s either a question of we may have just received it we haven’t had a chance to
Have a look at it or perhaps it was uh formatted incorrectly and we need an amendment made to it in which case we’ll get in touch with you about that as quickly as we can that’s great thank you Ben um another question perhaps for you Ben um
This um oh where is it here we are um I have applied and I’ve gotten it the admission and I am from an English speaking country of course is Nigeria exempt from the English provision um do so could you maybe talk Ben about the um English language requirement and um
Which applicants may be exempt from taking that or providing that English language result yeah absolutely so um there’s not a lot of exemptions on English language but we do accept different types of proof uh to confirm that so uh a person from Nigeria for for example um if
You’ve completed your your degree within the last six and a half years uh prior to the the year that you would begin your study um we can accept um a West African examination Council certificate from your last year of high school um showing a grade in English language of
C6 or higher and we would also need a uh a scratch card to verify and validate your results so um the same applies to Ghana as well we will accept that qualification from Ghan applicants um so in terms of other countries uh the the majority English-speaking status um
There are a handful of countries that we can accept either a full degree earned in a majority english- speaking country as proof of English language there are certain countries that we will accept a passport for a citizen of that country um and generally speaking otherwise well
Why the reason we asked for a language test is because um as I’m sure you can imagine imagine um there are a lot of different English language teaching structures out there and not all of them are made equal unfortunately so the testing provides us with a really
Objective way to assess your ability to uh meet the curriculum requirements of the program and it also helps us fulfill ukvi requirement in terms of Entry to the United Kingdom um so for that reason we don’t have a lot of flexibility often in terms of what we can and can’t accept
For that but those are basically the functions that we’re looking for it to serve is show us that you can meet that particular academic component of of of the program and uh and again meet the immigration requirement excellent thank you Ben that was really helpful um Peter is has asked
Um how long does it take for a conditional offer to change to an unconditional offer um and the conditional offer will change to an unconditional offer once you have provided all of the outstanding required documentation um but then is there a specific deadline that applicant should be aware of or would this be
Communicated via the offer letter individually to the student um so from our end yeah we’re really just looking to make sure that you have all the documents provided as listed in the checklist Amy Amy’s just touched on that um if your offer has not been updated t on conditional offer
Again it’s probable that we have uh a change that needs to be made with with something you’ve submitted or perhaps there’s uh again we may need a different document and substitution of something that you’ve provided so always recommend just to check in through our applicant self-service portal and take a look at
What’s listed on your application um but typically we try to turn those around fairly quickly um in terms of documents being submitted to um to out or open applications or open offers so um it’s my goal typically those are turned around in a couple of weeks um and so
Again if you just continue to monitor your application through this self-service portal you should see updates as they come in great thank you Ben um and we had a question asking how big our cohort is each year um which is hard to tell because we’ve only got one
Cohort so far um but I can tell you that our first cohort um is 30 students um so we have 22 scholarship funded students this year and we aim to as I said um earlier um up to 22 scholarships again for this coming um academic Academic Year um and we can we
Can um accept up to 40 students in total yeah um I saw there was another question that came in specifically um about um this is froma that says my degree was completed in 2019 I have the West African certificate exam with C5 in English um where do I send the details
To because English tests in Nigeria are quite a lot so um Ben would would the student then just include that certification along with their other kind of academic transcripts and things like that as part of their initial application and if they haven’t done so um they would be able to follow up with
With admissions on any outstanding documents like that like that kind of language requirement um yes C yeah sorry Alan um absolutely um so um in the event that you’ve already applied and uh and you didn’t include that certificate with your original package you can log into your uh application
Self-service uh as I mentioned before and upload any documents that are outstanding or anything else that you you feel might be um beneficial to your application um so if you can provide specific to that inquiry if you can provide your official um West African examination cancel certificate and a
Scratch card uh um so that we can verify your results that would be fantastic and we can do that quickly for you great thank you um there’s a question that’s coming from nbano um I have a question related to Visa assistance if I get selected for the scholarship program will I get any
Assistance in Visa process as it’s not easy to get a visa from where I will be applying um so I I can maybe say a little bit about that and Amy you can maybe kind of in um it is the responsibility of um each of our students each of the applicants to um
Research and to to manage the the visa application processes across each of the different um mobilities um and also for any of the optional seasonal skills that you might wish to take part in as well but we do have information on the magma um uh glas University of Glasgow web
Page which um gives um a kind of a a kind of brief overview of what is is needed kind of what’s required or at least what you should be aware of in terms of making um a visa application we also do have staff um I know um in in
Lisbon um and um in Paris and in our other kind of partner institutions that can be something of a point of contact or or who can give kind of general advice on visas but as I’m sure you’ll appreciate because um visas are so specific to individuals where they’re
Coming from where they’re seeking to go to it’s difficult to to offer kind of blanket um advice that is as specific as you will need it to be and that’s why we ask um our students to be aware of the fact that that they will need to kind of
Manage and monitor that process themselves so is is that fair then to say am is there anything else that that um we um yeah I would I would just Echo what you said Alan that it is it is down to the student to keep on top of your
Visa um to make sure that you’re researching what’s required to make sure your timeline’s planned out you’re constantly in the arasmus MS program you’re constantly forward planning for the next semester um and thinking about your next move um but having said that you’re you’re not on your own here we we
The Magma Team are here to support you as best we can but as Alan said we’re we aren’t Visa experts and because you’re rotating around several different countries with several different rules we um the partner institutions are actually better place to um provide you more detailed guidance and advice when
It comes to visas um so if you are successful and you’re joining us in September um your first thought will be Portugal will be Lisbon um and during the summer we will host a um Visa webinar online um where you’ll all get together and we will be joined by
Colleagues from is and the University of lbth and we will talk you through what is required for the visa for your for your first semester um and this will be well in advance um so that you’ve got plenty of time to get the ball rolling with
Your your first Visa but it is the student’s responsibility to keep on top of it and to obviously make the application but we are we are here to support you and if there’s anything you’re unsure about um do contact the the magma inbox and if we don’t know the
Answer we will certainly sign post you to um someone who does yeah that’s great thank you thank you very much Amy and we’ve got an important question here from J um about um I just want to ask Will there be disadvantages for people with disabilities applying for the program will there be support
Amy is that something that you’d be able to speak to in terms of kind of um support for students with disabilities yes certainly so um magma um received funding um for students to support students with individual needs so we have this pot of funding that students can apply for um if they feel
That um they fit the the criteria um and I would really encourage you to look at the website and look through that section um and apply for it or contact us and and we can set up a meeting to talk about it um but it’s there it’s
There to be used um and we we certainly want to make sure that students who um would benefit from that funding are are getting are getting access to it um but please do look at our website um and it’s under the how to apply page um and
There’s a lot more details there um but as I said please get in touch and for that funding we’re we’re more than happy to set up a a onetoone meeting to talk you through it um and to provide a little bit more um information that’s great thank youy um
There’s a couple of questions that I think I can answer instead of passing the bck so there’s a question here and again a quite useful question about um how a candidate profile will be evaluated by the Consortium for a scholarship um and so this is um information that you can
Find um and I’m just going to double check but I believe that this is on um the it’s the magma web page under arasmus Mundus scholarships which gives you all the information around what the scholarship includes how the allowance is paid how to apply and eligibility um and there’s a section
There which is titled 2024 selection criteria and there you can see that Rasmus Mundus scholarship assessment criteria are um as follows um academic Merit relevance and level of academic qualifications um uh makes up 45% um of of the grading um of of scholarship applications um a supporting personal
Statement makes up 30% quality of references is 10% and other relevant experience such as relevant research professional or experiences and interests is 15% so I don’t expect you to um either remember or try and frantically um sh those um percentages down but again this is this is all
Information that you can find um on our web page um under um on the page um regarding scholarships where you can get all the information about scholarships in terms of the nature of them what they cover um and how a scholarship application will be assessed there’s also a useful um section there called
2024 application and selection timeline which um will give um you a clear indication of um when each of the steps um in in your application process um when you can expect those um to to be uh completed um so that was one I saw and also do you receive many students from
Latin America and yes um uh we we have I know um I I’m afraid don’t have the exact numbers um but Latin America is is an area that we um have had um a number of of scholarship applications from um certainly last year um and I’m sure that
There will be a similar number again this year um as well um okay let’s see what else do we have here um oh this is one that Amy Ben you might be able to answer um for eligible scholarship holders is is there a percentage of students being selected
From different countries or does it solely depend on things like the supporting docs and personal statement yes so that that is a good question um obviously the supporting documentation is extremely important but um because we are funded um by the European commission there are certain
Rules that we need to follow in terms of our um distribution of the scholarships each year um so we there is a 10% Ru so we can only allocate 10% of scholarships to a given nationality um over the next four years um so for example if we have
Already allocated two scholarships to a certain country um for this first intake it means we only have eight scholarships for that country left to allocate over the next three intakes um so there are there there is a rule um around where we can give scholarship which country we
Can give scholarships to um but because this is only the the second intake we have obviously only given out 22 scholarships so far so that should not affect um this this next intake um we have scholarships for every country available um great yeah thank you yeah that’s
Really useful um for applicants to know um ahead of time as well and again I think that that information about the spread of scholarships and and and how this relates to um kind of rules that are that are not put in place by others but but which we follow again that
That’s all um information that you can also access and get get some more information about on the scholarships section of of our web page um as well um okay we’ve got a question um thank you for your answer on the size of the cohort um I have another
Question will the host University be providing assistance in finding housing during the Mobility Program now I would say um that that that that that is not the case that we don’t um uh that we don’t kind of source or or kind of find housing for students um specifically but
Just as I mentioned earlier on that we’ve got these kind of um um within the university we have support in place for international students um you know s similar um support could could be sought out at the partner institutions um as well is there anything else that you
Would want to say on on that Amy um in terms of accommodation or yeah um I would just add that um it it is difficult um it is a concern of um students as they rotate through the program um as a stressful part of the program to get your accommodation set up
But we will try and help you um as much as we can to make sure that you are set up with accommodation for every semester um ahead of each semester we will issue students a um welcome pack for the the upcoming um Mobility period and that will include some accommodation
Information and as Alan said we don’t set up the accommodation for you but we will certainly sign post you to um links to certain websites or we will try and connect you with the current cohort and the nice thing about the arasmus munus program is we’ve got students who just
Went through the cycle um so we will be able to hopefully connect the current students with um you the new student um and they can give you tips and advice on how they found accommodation um where’s best to look what’s what’s the best area um what it’s like to live in that
Particular city um so again as I’ve keep saying do contact the magnet inbox if you are concerned about accommodation if you’re having issues and you’re maybe getting close to the semester and you’re a little bit worried definitely get in touch with us and we’ll do our best to
To help you um but through your Mobility periods it will be the host University who will be your best contact they physically in that city um and just to to mention um related to accommodation if you do decide to join the summer school um at Glasgow or if you join
Decide to join the winter School in Mumbai accommodation will be um set up for you that will all be arranged for you before you join um yeah that’s a great Point yeah I’d forgotten about the fact that yes of course for the seasonal schools um accommodation is is part of the the
Package almost yeah so that’s something that will be arranged um by us in advance and and a great Point as well about the fact that beyond the support that students can receive from the University of Glasgow and from the partner institutions the support from the cohort and from previous cohorts um
Is really strong we’ve got the arasmus Mundus um Association it’s kind of alumni and Student Association again there’s a link to that with more information from the main magma web page um at the University of Glasgow um which um is is really useful if you are
A current student on the program you can get a lot of help um and kind of tips and advice from from alumni but there’s also a section there um for potential applicants to the program so you can you can kind of engage with and kind of talk
To um um students who who’ve gone through the experience of an arasmus MERS program who know what it’s like to move um from from City to City you know country to Country um across the two years of study and can give you some really useful practical advice um on on
Things like that on kind of travel and accommodation in in that local area as well um okay I see that we’ve got um five minutes left um and uh yes let’s see if we’ve got do a quick Blitz of of any questions that that are remaining um
We’ve got a couple of questions here um around um I think this question from from dong I think we might have covered this um in terms ofing your spouse um with you I mentioned that Glasgow has this kind of um uh International um student um support and international
Family Network that might be a good first Port of Call um as as as a University of Glasgow student check in on on the level of support that you can receive there um and besides scholarships um um uh for um self funders for example are are there other
Um kind of um sources of of financial support such as tuition fee waivers um so Amy is that something that you would want to mention or or or I guess we can say that that tuition fee waivers um are something that that we can look at and we can consider as well
Yeah it’s certainly something that the Consortium Partners um would consider um but I would also direct you to the University of glasgow’s um scholarship H website um to have a look at other scholarships that are available um if you aren’t successful with the arus Mund scholarship um I would also say that if
If you have applied um and you receive an offer um but you may want to and you didn’t receive the the razes Min scholarship there could be the option to defer your entry to the following year um but you would have to then resubmit your your scholarship application um if
You weren’t successful in the first round um so there is is the opportunity to reapply the following year um but we we do have self-funded students on the program this year um and they have managed to find other sources of external funding so they’re not funded through the the Rasmus Mundus program
But they’ve been able to find their own sources of of of funding um so it’s absolutely possible and I would strongly encourage you to exhaust all avenues if you’re really interested in the program and um unfortunately you you didn’t receive the arus Min scholarship I will
Say that the the 22 scholarships it is a really difficult decision for the the Review Committee to whittle it down to 22 we receive extremely high quality applications and um when we meet in March with the Review Committee which is made up of academics from across all of
The partner universities it is an extremely difficult decision to to come up with the 22 scholarships um so yeah I would encourage you to to to do your research and to look at um alternative funding um options if if you aren’t able to join on a um arasmus
Scholarship yeah yeah I think that that’s that’s kind of good point it’s it’s a really really difficult decision we we debate and deliberate for a very long time in advance of of that scholarship selection meeting and at the meeting itself as well just because the quality of applications that we receive
Is so high so yeah please do a lot of of research please do a lot of homework when you’re submitting your application make sure your application is as specific as possible and that IT addresses all the points and on that note I have noticed we’ve got a couple
Of questions about um uh kind of language and kind of IELTS and and various scores and things like that I think maybe I we’ve got a few different questions on this topic but I think that the best thing might be is to just direct you to um the the application um
Web page how to apply eligibility criteria and just double check everything that you have the scores that you have whether whether it’s it’s IELTS or whether it’s you know another form of kind of language test or certification um against those those kind of criteria that we have detailed on on the website
Um and um if you don’t have all the documentation in place when you when you first make your application it may be that you’ll receive kind of follow-up um kind of you know contact from us asking you to kind of make sure that the all that information is is submitted and and
Is correct but um I think that yeah rather than maybe kind of getting into the details of specific individuals and and their in individual language requirement tests I think it might just be best if you are able to um kind of direct direct that to the website or if
You can’t find what you’re looking for on the website if you have a very specific case please do then that’s that would be one where you would want to get in touch with us directly um at magma glasgow.ac.uk or. ac.uk um and we’ll be able to Feld those questions there in a
We bit more detail um okay Alan would you mind if I add to that very quickly just um I I just want to clarify I is not the only examination we take and I see a lot of these questions circulating around IELTS um we do require you to meet the language
Requirement um and if you do have a subscore that’s too low you know we will need you to do another test but please go and look through the requirements and take a look at all the tests that are available because there may be something that suits your situation better um in
Terms of the delivery um than than IELTS does so please take advantage of that yeah thank you thanks Ben that’s a really good point and I think we’re at 2m now so um I think we’ll we’ll probably have to stop there um I’m very sorry to anyone that we didn’t get a
Chance to answer your your question um again please do contact us with any specific questions that you have at magma um at glasgow.ac.uk thank you so much to everyone for joining us thank you Ben and Amy for joining me um and and and um giving us your questions is
Great to hear from you all I really look forward to reading all of of your application materials and I wish you all the absolute best of luck and with with any luck we’ll we’ll see you uh in September in Lisbon joining us on the next uh round of of magma in 2024 okay
Thank you very much everyone goodbye