2 years ago, the University of Belize joined the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship program.  The Erasmus scholarship program is financed by the European Union through its International Institution for Geo-information science and earth observation.  The EU divides its scholarships program in groups, and Belize, being apart of the African, Caribbean and Pacific group since 2008 has secured 9 scholarship this year for its faulty, staff and students through signing on as a partner institution.  6 of the 9 scholarships are for a master’s degree at universities in France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Sweden for up to 2 years.  The other 3 are for a one month staff exchange.  UB is hosting the European Commission and representatives of 15 Erasmus Mundus member Universities from the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries.  The 3 day visit opened this morning with a press conference mostly to update on the EU funded projects in Belize as well as update on the scholarship program.  Silvaana Udz, UB’s PR officer, says that an important aspect of UB’s relationship with other ACP countries is developing the necessary infrastructure to ensure that networking takes place through a process called EDUlink. There are other events in which the stakeholders will participate, including a number of cultural and tourism visits to Belizean sites.