€780,000 Erasmus+ grant to BHU’s faculty of arts, ETEducation
Varanasi: The tourism management section of the faculty of arts at Banaras Hindu University secured the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education (CBHE) Grant from the European Union.
This achievement marked the first Erasmus grant awarded to the faculty of arts and represented the largest Erasmus funding received by BHU to date, amounting to €780,000 (₹8 crore) for the three-year period from Nov 2025 to Oct 2028.
The BHU Vice-Chancellor Prof Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi expressed his delight at this significant recognition from esteemed humanities scholars. Registrar Prof Arun Kumar Singh officially signed the European Union project agreement. Prof Sushma Ghildyal, dean of the faculty of arts, highlighted upcoming international projects and MoUs that promised fresh perspectives and growth for the faculty.
The BHU team is led by Dr Pravin Rana of tourism management. He said that the project will benefit faculty, students and stakeholders through enhanced learning opportunities, including four international training workshops and study trips scheduled for training and meetings in Albania, Moldova, South Africa and India (BHU) and study visits in Slovenia, Spain, Malta, and Greece. These global engagements will expand BHU’s academic networks and facilitate shared teaching and research experiences.
He said that the project, titled SacredTravels4Growth: Higher Education and Sustainable Growth through Religious Tourism, unites 16 partner institutions across 8 countries—Albania, India, Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Moldova, Malta, and South Africa—with BHU and Karnataka University as India’s representatives.
This international consortium aims to enhance higher education capacity in religious tourism, cultural heritage preservation, and sustainable regional development by sharing best practices from Europe and partner nations.
Rana said that the idea of a European student-exchange programme emerged in the 1970s as European countries sought to promote cooperation in higher education. In 1987, the European Community officially launched ERASMUS (European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students). In 2014, the EU merged several education, training, youth, and sports initiatives into 1 integrated programme called Erasmus+. It included higher education mobility, school education, vocational training, adult learning, youth exchanges and youth work, sports cooperation, and capacity building projects.
Upcoming initiatives under the project include establishing new international collaborations and MoUs, offering SWAYAM-based online courses, and organising global workshops, conferences, and expos in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism, Indian Institution of Architects (IIA), and ASSOCHAM.
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