Start of the New Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Programme “PlantHealth in Sustainable Cropping Systems”
The new European Master Degree programme in “Plant Health in Sustainable Cropping Systems” has officially started with a kick-off meeting in Valencia in October 2016. 21 students from 13 different countries, as well as the coordinators from the partner Universities attended the meeting.
The “PlantHealth” Master Programme is funded by the European commission and is jointly organised by the Universities of Göttingen (Germany), Valencia (Spain), Montpellier (France), AgrocampusOuest and ParisAgroTech (France) and Padua (Italy). It is a two-year programme conducted at five universities that have significant expertise and teaching experience in research-based and applied crop protection. “PlantHealth” is based on the Master Programme “Crop Protection” which was launched in Göttingen in 2010. The programme has gained worldwide reputation in providing students with the capability to link basic and applied research in order to foster effective and sustainable tools and strategies in global crop protection.
Within “PlantHealth” the students may select the university of Valencia or Göttingen for their first year of study. Here, a common basis is offered with courses in integrated pest management, epidemiology, plant pathology, ecology, statistics, sustainable agriculture, etc.. This one year stay serves as a starting point for the subsequent specialization in three kinds of agriculture: Courses on Mediterranean, tropical or temperate crops are offered in the second year at the partner universities. The “PlantHealth” study programme cooperates with federal research institutions, legal authorities and the agrochemical industry at different levels (internships, lectures and practical courses).
This year, eight students selected the University of Göttingen for their first year of study and have already participated in the introductory programme organised by Prof. Dr. Andreas von Tiedemann and Dr. Susanne Weigand. These classes took place in the first week of October 2016. PlantHealth students coming from places as diverse as Brazil, Ethiopia, Greece, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and the Philippines study together with students of the Master Programme in Crop Protection, for which 14 students arrived from China, Korea, Germany, Iran, Montenegro, Greece, Pakistan and Ukraine.
More information can be found here.