program erasmus mundus mundus urbano	This page summarizes the essential spirit and the institutional context for the MUNDUS URBANO advanced masters program, which is jointly offered by four European Universities: Darmstadt University of Technology (Technische Universität Darmstadt - TUD) in Darmstadt, Tor Vergata University in Rome, the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya in Barcelona (UIC) and Université Pierre Mendes France in Grenoble (UPMF).   The MUNDUS URBANO Masters program began with its first intake in 2007 and has been an Erasmus Mundus associated program since 2008.
erasmus mundus
	The Erasmus Mundus program is a cooperation and mobility program in the field of higher education which promotes the European Union as a center of excellence in learning around the world. It aims to enhance the quality of European higher education and to promote intercultural understanding through cooperation with third countries. It supports European top-quality Masters Degree programs and enhances the visibility and attractiveness of European higher education in third countries. It also provides EU-funded scholarships for third country nationals participating in these Masters Degree programs, as well as scholarships for EU-nationals studying at partner universities throughout the world.
mundus urbano
	The Interdisciplinary MUNDUS URBANO program addresses the rapid urbanization process in countries of the South and looks at possibilities to prevent or alleviate the problems invariably associated with it. Conventional wisdom of town planning has proven of little use to deal with the situation: the highly complex phenomenon calls for innovative and complex responses that incorporate physical, managerial, economic and social elements simultaneously. Adequate professional methodologies develop in the field and cannot be learned only from textbooks. Therefore, this program is geared to develop and transmit up-to-date knowledge about current theories and practices of urban development planning especially in countries of the South and in the East. As a large proportion of investments in this field involve foreign aid and finance, a second focus is placed on international cooperation where unsatisfied need for well-prepared experts exists. The 2-year Erasmus Mundus Master Course MUNDUS URBANO in International Cooperation and Urban Development is fully taught in English and is innovative in its trans-disciplinary set-up. The focus lies in developing knowledge around continually emerging global phenomenon rather than using only conventional academic frameworks. Tuition over the two-years is undertaken in two of the four consortium partner Universities in Germany, Italy, Spain and/or France. The first year of the program is spent at the TU Darmstadt in Germany with the second year comprising a mobility choice to one of the partner universities, according to the students’ specialization choice: Development Economics (Tor Vergata), Sustainable Emergency Architecture (UIC) or Social challenges and approaches to Urban Development (UPMF). Most of the MUNDUS URBANO lecturers are internationally distinguished scholars and practitioners in the topic of their respective course modules, which guarantees a quality level that could not be attained by a course only relying on any one university's home faculty. The multi-national composition of both students and academic staff fosters the building of a worldwide professional network - an indispensable asset in this particular professional setting.