The joint degree-programme ‘European Master in Law and Economics’ (EMLE), of which the Erasmus University Rotterdam is the Erasmus Mundus coordinating institution, has been recognized as ‘excellent’ by the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organisation (NVAO). This is the highest evaluation higher education programmes in the Netherlands en Flanders can receive. According to the NVAO, EMLE is a 'well-established programme” with “well-known, excellent scholars'.
The EMLE (LL.M.) programme is organized by nine partner universities, including the Erasmus University Rotterdam (the Erasmus Mundus coordinating institution) and among others the University of Hamburg, the University of Bologna, the University of Haifa (Israel) and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research in Mumbai (India). EMLE offers the unique opportunity for interdisciplinary study in the economic analysis of law at two or even three universities. The programme prepares students for a professional career, for example in public organizations, international law firms or consultancy firms.
Excellent
After an intensive assessment procedure by an international panel of experts within the ‘JOQAR pilot project’ of the European Consortium for Accreditation in higher education (ECA) on July 16 2013, the NVAO assessed EMLE as ‘excellent’, based on an outstanding evaluation by the ECA-panel. The NVAO lauds EMLE’s approach to include all stakeholders, both in continuing its development and in evaluating its learning outcomes. “Students in this joint programme study a coherent curriculum taught by excellent staff,” said the NVAO. According to the assessment scale used by the ECA panel, ‘excellent’ implies that the programme 'can be regarded as an international example'.
Together with the Master in Health Sciences of the Netherlands Institute for Health Sciences (NIHES), an alliance of Dutch universities and institutes including Erasmus University Rotterdam, EMLE is so far the only course of Erasmus University Rotterdam with the final score ‘excellent’. Throughout 2012 the NVAO only accredited five courses in higher education in the Netherlands and Flanders as excellent.
Striving for improvement
The Master in Law programme EMLE was recognized by the European Commission as an Erasmus Mundus Masters Course in 2004. Erasmus Mundus is a programme of the European Commission. The aim is amongst other things to promote the quality of European higher education around the world. In July 2009, EMLE has been selected by the Commission as an Erasmus Mundus programme for the second time.
EMLE’s Erasmus Mundus Assistant Coordinator Wicher Schreuders explains the success of the programme: “We constantly strive for improvement; we are open to all comments from colleagues, students, alumni and staff members. Instead of hearing how great the programme EMLE is, I rather hear what is not good about it yet.”