According to the Taipei-based European Economic and Trade Office (EETO), two academics and 22 students from Taiwan have been awarded the scholarship this year, a 58 percent increase compared to the 14 students and no academics who were successful in 2008.

Each student will receive a grant of between 21,000 euros and 42,000 euros (US$29,375-US$58,750) depending on the length of their course, while the scholars will each receive a grant of 13,000 euros to support a three-month academic visit to Europe, the EETO said.

Launched in 2004, Erasmus Mundus is a cooperation and mobility program in the field of higher education that aims at enhancing the quality of European higher education and to promote dialogue and understanding between people and cultures through cooperation with countries outside the European Union.

Meanwhile, a European Commission press statement released via the EETO said that some 10,000 students and academics from around the world were winners of this year's Erasmus Mundus scholarship program.

In the 2009-2010 academic year, 8,385 students and academics will go to study or teach in Europe, while 1,561 Europeans will spend time at partner institutions in countries outside Europe.

Jan Figel, the European commissioner for education, training, culture and youth, said in the statement that the Erasmus Mundus program is growing in popularity and, with its emphasis on quality and excellence, doing an outstanding job of promoting European higher education on the world stage.

“Erasmus Mundus is going from strength to strength. In the years since 2004, when it began, the program has been able to establish itself as one of the world's foremost international mobility programs,” Figel said.