Centre international de formation européenne (CIFE)

Master in EU Studies

The Centre international de formation européenne, CIFE, in cooperation with the Jean Monnet Chair of the University of Cologne organises a Certificate programme (one-year) and a Master in EU Studies Online (two-years). CIFE is supported by the Erasmus + programme of the European Union.

These postgraduate blended learning study programmes grant professionals the opportunity to deepen and expand their knowledge of the EU integration process, through a combination of e-learning and intensive face-to-face learning sessions (mainly during weekends in Berlin, Brussels, Istanbul, Rome and Budapest). These programmes allow professionals to continue their studies while pursuing their careers. Both programmes offer the perfect blend of theoretical and practical knowledge of the EU. They also allow participants to gain the skills of negotiation within an international context, drafting reports, planning and managing international projects, and presenting their ideas in a transnational legal dimension.

After the first year, participants will obtain a Certificate in EU Studies online. If they want to specialise in one of the core subjects (Political Science, Economics, and EU Law), the participants may continue with the second year of the Master programme, which puts its focus on an interdisciplinary approach to issues and tasks. After completion, participants receive a Master in EU Studies Online and a degree qualification “Chargé de mission en organisations européennes et internationales”. This qualification is recognised in France as a Master level degree.

Most of the Master in EU Studies Online graduates work for European institutions, international organisations and NGOs. Deadline for the online application is 5 September. A limited number of scholarships are awarded to eligible candidates to cover part of their tuition.

About the Centre international de formation européenne (CIFE)

1. The Department

The Berlin office of CIFE is organising since the beginning in 2003 the European Online Academy programmes.

2. The Institution

CIFE (Centre international de formation européenne) was created in 1954 and is one of the most renowned institutions of postgraduate academic education in Europe. The breadth of its geographical engagement and the variety of its academic programmes testify to CIFE’s major commitments: to a confident, future-oriented vision of Europe, to an innovative concept of teaching and to an openness towards the challenge of a changing world.

CIFE has a strong international orientation, with offices in Nice, Berlin, Brussels, and Istanbul.

Over the past ten years, CIFE has quadrupled the number of its Master’s programmes and quintupled the number of its students. CIFE strongly supports the mobility of its students: the participants in two of its Master’s programme – the trilingual and the Anglophone branches of the Master in Advanced European and International Studies – rotate each trimester, moving their place of study from Franc (Nice) to Germany (Berlin), and Italy (Rome) or Turkey (Istanbul). This truly European experience plunges the students into the heart of Europe with a perspective on the South, East and Southeast.

Offering a continuous, lifelong European education has always been one of CIFE’s major concerns. Its Master’s programmes for young professionals and junior officials, who continue their studies while pursuing their careers, attest to this commitment.

CIFE stands in the forefront of innovation in academic teaching. Two of its Master’s programmes – the Master in EU Studies online and the Master’s programme in Studies on the EU and Central Asia in the International System – are taught as a combination of online courses and intensive phases of face-to-face-learning. Thanks to specifically designed, innovative e-learning platforms, via communication forums and through presence workshops in different European cities (“blended learning”) the participants gain an enhanced knowledge of recent developments in the European integration process.

CIFE embraces an interdisciplinary approach, which makes students, with their specialised and often disparate academic backgrounds, aware of the complex problems in our societies. Various practical workshops (simulations, preparation of European projects), as well as the intercultural, multinational exchange, are of further advantage to CIFE’s programmes, providing the students with the skills and abilities needed on the job market.