The NOHA MASTER:

The Joint European Master's Programme in International Humanitarian Action is an inter-university, multidisciplinary postgraduate programme that provides high quality academic education and professional competencies for personnel working or intending to work in the area of humanitarian action.

This European Inter-University Master's Degree was created in 1993 as result of concerted efforts on the part of the Network on Humanitarian Assistance (NOHA) Universities, working in close collaboration with two Directorates-General of the European Commission: DG for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) and DG for Education and Culture. The initiative was a response to a growing need for higher educational qualifications specifically suited to addressing complex humanitarian emergencies.

The NOHA Master has been awarded the status of an Erasmus Mundus Programme by the European Commission. The latter is a co-operation and mobility programme in the field of higher education that promotes the European Union as a centre of excellence in learning around the world. It provides EU-funded scholarships for a limited number of outstanding third-country nationals participating in Erasmus Mundus Master's Courses.

In addition, NOHA was awarded by the European Commission Erasmus Mundus Partnerships Programme in order to establish and develop a framework for cooperation and student and scholar mobility between the NOHA institutions and the following partner universities: Monash University (Australia), Universidad Javeriana (Colombia), Bangalore-University (India), Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia), Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth (Lebanon), University of the Western Cape (South Africa), and Columbia University (United States).

In addition to collaboration and support from the European Union, the NOHA Programme enjoys the backing of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), inter-governmental organisations (IGOs), and other actors of the humanitarian action community with whom the network has strong collaborative links.

On 10 January 2005 the then Minister of Sciences and Education of the State North Rhine-Westphalia, Hannelore Kraft, opened the new ERASMUS MUNDUS Centre - NOHA Lab at the Ruhr-University Bochum. The centre provides the master students with a reserved space for 20 persons in the main library of the University, Notebooks and a library devoted to issues relating to humanitarian assistance.

Further information on NOHA can be found in the NOHA Service Handbook (Acrobat Reader or equivalent required).