4.1. Admissibility criteria
The admissibility criteria are formal features of the application. The documents may be submitted in a national language; however, in this case, a non-certified translation into English must be provided. Personal data will be collected, processed and published in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) No (EU) 2018/1725.
A list of the required documents and annexes to the EMOS application is provided in Annex 2 of this Guide. The application form is available on the EMOS website.
The complete application with annexes is to be sent to ESTAT-EMOS@ec.europa.eu by 31 December of the current year at the latest by 23:59 (Central European Time - CET) with the subject ‘Reply to EMOS Call for applications + name of the university’.
4.2. Eligibility criteria
The eligibility criteria are:
Eligibility criterion 1:
- The programme can be either an accredited master’s programme or a specialisation within an accredited master’s programme/module, i.e. a specific track or a set of courses that are compulsory only for students that are willing to get an EMOS-labelled master’s degree.
- The EMOS label can be awarded, under the conditions of the “Single Market Programme”[3], to universities in a EU Member State, in a EU candidate or potential candidate country, in an acceding country, in a country which is a member of both the European Free Trade Association and the European Economic Area, in a European Neighbourhood Policy country, or, exceptionally, in other third countries based on specific arrangements with Eurostat [4].
Eligibility criterion 2:
The master’s programme is in line with the Bologna process and the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) [5].
If the application does not meet the eligibility requirements, it will not be assessed any further and feedback will be provided only on the aspects that led to it being rejected.
4.3. Selection criteria
The selection criteria are:
Selection criterion 1: The master’s programme is organised in line with the EMOS learning outcomes, includes a master’s thesis or a substitute and an internship in the area of official statistics or a substitute.
Master’s thesis: the programme includes a master’s thesis. In formally justified cases, the master’s thesis can be substituted by an equivalent scientific report on a topic related to official statistics. The development of the master’s thesis/scientific report must be supported by a national statistical institute (NSI), a central bank (CB), an other national authority (ONA), an international organisation (IO) or any other partner organisation producing, managing or analysing statistics and data (e.g., research organisations, universities, line ministries, private companies), as long as the thesis topic is relevant to official statistics and based on the EMOS learning outcomes.
Internships: The programme includes an internship of a minimum duration of 250 hours or at least 10 ECTS in an NSI, a statistical department of a CB, ONA, IO or other partner organisation and is steered and managed by the university as well as the respective NSI, CB, ONA, IO or any other partner organisation producing, managing or analysing statistics and data (e.g., research organisations, universities, line ministries, private companies), as long as the internship focuses on work that is relevant to official statistics.
Ideally, interns should be based on-site within the host organisation. However, this policy is flexible if an alternative arrangement is agreed between the host organisation and the university, and meets the needs of the project. In formally justified cases, the internship can be substituted by practical experience for example within a joint project or as an employee of an NCB, ONA, IO or other partner organization. The substitute has to include practical experience with an equivalent workload in terms of duration.
Selection criterion 2: Written agreement of cooperation with the respective NSI, CB, ONA or IO
The university has set up a written agreement of cooperation with the respective NSI, CB, ONA or IO with regard to internships and other support such as cooperation in teaching and master’s thesis.
Selection criterion 3: Workload: The credits allocated to the master’s programme amount to at least 90 ECTS
The total credits devoted to the EMOS master’s programme amount to at least 90 ECTS which must include:
- At least 50 ECTS allocated to the courses aimed at reaching the EMOS learning outcomes, whereby
• the majority of the 6 subpoints of learning outcome A) Knowledge needs to be covered
• and at least one subpoint of each of the three learning outcomes A) Knowledge, B) Skills and C) Competencies needs to be covered - At least 30 ECTS allocated to a combination of master’s thesis of at least 15 ECTS and internship of at least 10 ECTS or of a minimum duration of 250 hours
- In case of awarding only a minimum number of ECTS to the master’s thesis and internship or in case the specific rules in place do not allow ECTS to be awarded, at least 50 per cent of the master's programme workload, but not less than one year of classes, is allocated to the courses aimed at reaching the EMOS learning outcomes.
Selection criterion 4: Start of the programme
The master’s programme should already be operational or start no later than one year after the application is received by the EMOS Secretariat.
Selection criterion 5: Adequate teaching capacity and qualifications
The university holds adequate teaching capacity and qualifications for the master’s programme. The teacher's resume must demonstrate teaching experience and expertise in a field related to the EMOS learning outcomes. Either by working in an NSI/ONA/CB/IO in a specific area or through research in that area.
4.4. Additional assets
Though not taken into account in the selection criteria, an effective quality assurance system and cooperation with higher education institutions at an international level or participation in European networks are considered as additional assets. The information will give an insight into ongoing projects and the quality assessment mechanism that has been put in place. This information will also feed into further development work of the EMOS network.
[3] Regulation (EU) 2021/690 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 April 2021 establishing a programme for the internal market, competitiveness of enterprises, including small and medium-sized enterprises, the area of plants, animals, food and feed, and European statistics.
[4] In this case, the university located in a third country agrees to not be part of any decision-making entity in the EMOS programme and bears the costs corresponding to their participation in the EMOS programme.
[5] If this is not the case, the university must demonstrate that the programme’s academic credit system corresponds to the ECTS