M.A. European Youth Studies: European Development Project

Consortium and resources

The consortium came together in early 2006. Before an EU LLP Erasmus Curriculum Development project grant was awarded in mid-2009 (coordinating partner: Innsbruck), its members contributed their time and expertise on a voluntary basis. Resources for consortium meetings, development work and for administrative support was provided by small scale patchwork funding from partners universities, from the Partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europpe in the field of Youth and from the Youth Unit of the Luxembourg Ministry of Family and Integration; the Danube University of Krems provided a net storage system for the sharing of digital documents (this was transferred to Innsbruck in mid 2009). The Austrian Ministries of Science and Research (BMWF) and the Ministry of Health, Family and Youth (BMGFJ) donated significant funds for 2008-09 to cover meetings and part-time administrative assistance.

The LLP-MA-EYS grant will now cover 75% of the project's costs through to the planned launch of the MA EYS in autumn 2011; consortium partner universities are contractually expected to contribute 25% of the project's costs during this period; associate partner universities participate on a self-funding basis. However, if fully budgeted in real terms, course development and initial launch of a Master's degree amounts to at least 500k€ - much more than the maximum possible Erasmus budget. Therefore, the inevitable shortfall will perforce be made up at least in part via additional contributions in kind from partner universities, most particularly in the form of staff and time, at different levels according to their specific roles and tasks. The project consortium will equally be actively searching for further funding sources to cover activities that cannot be funded via the LLP-MA-EYS grant, and it must also look to the prospects for securing grants and bursaries for MA EYS students from 2011, in order that participation in the course is not constrained by unnecessary financial hurdles.