Architect Timothy Ong Earns the Prestigious Erasmus Mundus Degree

For many people, earning a master’s degree or several is a dream come true. Not only does having a master’s increase your chances of having a better job, it gives you the opportunity to research niche interest topics to help you increase your knowledge. Just recently, news of one of the country’s young architects, Architect Timothy Augustus Y. Ong earned a prestigious degree–the Erasmus Mundus joint master’s Degree. 

What is the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree?

The ALA Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s program is a two-year postgraduate international and interdisciplinary program. Among the courses it combines are architecture, landscape, and archaeology. The degree was developed by a consortium of four higher learning institutions–Sapienza University of Rome; National Technical University of Athens; University of Coimbra; and University of Napoles Federico II alongside their associate agencies across different European countries. These countries include Rome and Naples, Italy; Athens, Greece; and Coimbra, Portugal. With this degree, scholars can get the opportunity to learn new things and gain new experiences while traveling across Europe. 

This scholarship is only offered to 10 individuals worldwide. One of them is Ong who is the first Filipino to have achieved this. Co-founder of Arc Lico and a magna cum laude graduate of the University of the Philippines Diliman, Ong recently returned from completing the degree and has once again set off to Los Angeles, California, this time to pursue the Getty Degree–a year-long fellowship where he’s accompanied by only another individual who was chosen alongside him against 7,000 other applicants.

Completing a master’s degree is a chance that many people strive to earn. With the opportunities it gives to learn and to broaden one’s knowledge, these scholarships make learning sound like prestigious dreams. Hopefully, there will be more people, Filipinos, like Ong who can experience the same opportunities soon.

RELATED READ: In the Eyes of the Top 3: An Interview with New Architects of 2023