Libya’s brightest academic stars share their experiences of studying in Europe to encourage the next generation to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.
Taking the step to leave family and country is a leap into the unknown for any student, but the rewards are immeasurable. To encourage young Libyans to participate in future programmes, students and academics who have benefitted from EU scholarships grants shared their experiences at the EU-Libya Inter-ministerial meeting held in April in Tunis.
Erasmus Mundus Grantees
Thirty-year-old Rafa Rejeibi, an alumnus of the Young Mediterranean Leaders Programmes – an initiative of the European Training Foundation in 2012 – spoke of her delight at being selected along with one other student from Libya. The programme offers places for just 16 students from the whole Southern Mediterranean region to work on public policies at the European Training Foundation at Torino University in Italy.
“There was a call for proposals and at that time I thought it’s a great opportunity to learn about public policies, especially because I teach at Tripoli University,” she said.
Following this programme, Rafa was then selected to stay with the foundation for three months to work on entrepreneurship and small to medium-sized business action plans for Libya. The focus was on Libyan stakeholders including the Ministry of Economy that had a programme to invest in incubators to help more young people get support for their projects. She was also part of an evidence-based study that focused on the Libyan labour market to help as many students as possible to integrate in the job markets.
“The relationship between what we teach and the labour market should be invested in our students. As a university professor, I have always believed that we should help our students to obtain the skills that would enable them to enter the labour market with confidence” .
