Full scholarship available in Holland

Are you a Nigerian citizen residing in Nigeria? Would you like to complete a MA in development in Holland? 

The Maastricht University Holland-High Potential Scholarship programme is offering 24 full scholarships for highly talented students from outside the EU. Deadline: 1 February 2018

Who is eligible?

All candidates must meet the following requirements:

• You hold nationality in a country outside the EU/EEA and meet the requirements for obtaining an entry visa and residence permit for the Netherlands.
• You have applied for admission to a full-time Master’s programme at Maastricht University which is participating in this scholarship programme
   Participating Master's programmes in this scholarship programme
• You meet the specific admission requirements of the UM Master’s programme to which you have applied.
• You have never participated in a degree-seeking higher education programme, a primary education programme, or secondary education programme in the Netherlands. Students who completed exchange programmes in the Netherlands are welcome to apply.
• You are not over 35 years of age on 1 September 2018.
• You have obtained excellent results during your prior education programmes, as demonstrated by your latest grade transcript or certified by academic excellence. If several applicants are equally qualified, we will give preference to applicants whose academic transcript or certified letter of academic excellence demonstrate that they are among the top 5% of the 2018/19 scholarship programme applicants.

Application procedure

Step 1: Register for one of the participating Master´s programmes at Maastricht University. For further details on how to register for an Master’s programme at UM, please see your prospective programme’s webpage. Once you have submitted your application via Studielink, you will receive a student ID number. You will need a student number in order to complete and submit the Scholarship Application Form (see Step 2 below).

Apply now!

Please note: only the study programmes in the list above are eligible for a UM Holland-High Potential Scholarship. You must be conditionally approved for admission to your study programme at UM in order to be awarded a Scholarship. If your study programme requires the payment of a handling fee as part of your programme’s admissions procedure, UM Scholarships do not cover handling fees. You are responsible for paying any handling fee your programme may require by 1 February 2018. To check whether your programme requires the payment of a handling fee, please check your programme’s webpage under the menu tab ‘Admission requirements.’

Step 2: Please fill in the application form through the Apply Now button, on the right side of this page, upload the following documents in .doc, .docx, or PDF format, and submit your application. Please note that you will only be able to submit your application once, so please ensure that all of your documents and referee contact details are up-to-date.

• Curriculum vitae. Your CV should be up-to-date, contain relevant information about your education and (job) experience, and should not be longer 2 A4 pages.
• Letter of motivation. Your letter of motivation should be up-to-date, tailored specifically to this Scholarship programme, and no longer than 1 A4 page. Be sure to argue why this scholarship is important to you, why you should be selected, and what your role as an ambassador of Maastricht University would be during your scholarship period, and during the upcoming years after you finish your studies at UM.
• Proof of academic excellence. You may upload one of the following documents in order to prove your academic excellence: 1. Your University transcript that explicitly states your grade point average or class ranking (i.e. first class honours) for your entire study programme; or, 2. A letter signed by your institution’s Head of Department or Registrar stating that you are one of the top 20 students in the graduating year of your study programme. Please ensure that the letter contains the contact details of your Head of Department or Registrar.
• The contact details of your referee. Please note that we will be in contact with your referee and ensure that you take the following steps when choosing a referee and submitting their details.
  • Relationship to applicant: indicate your referee’s connection to you; is this your professor, thesis supervisor, employer? Please remember that family members may not function as referees.
  • Telephone number of your referee: Make sure to add the applicable country calling code.
  • Email address of your referee: Work email addresses are preferred.

Please note that you will only be able to submit your application once, so please ensure that all of your documents and referee contact details are up-to-date.

Step 3: Contact the referee you provided in your application form and ask them to submit their reference letter by email hhp.scholarship@maastrichtuniversity.nl by 1 February 2018. We have prepared Scholarship reference letter guidelines; please print these out or forward them to your referee, as they will help your referee to write a good reference letter on your behalf. Please note that referees must be (former) professors, lecturers, or employers, and not family members. Recommendation letters should be dated and written no earlier than February 2017. Please also note that it is your responsibility to liaise with your referee and ensure that they submit their letters by 1 February 2018 (Central European Time). Applications for which we have not received reference letters are unfortunately incomplete, so please communicate on time with your referee about this important step in the Scholarship application process.

Selection procedure

Step 1: The UM Scholarship Office checks that all applications are complete.

Step 2: The Scholarship Office sends all complete applications to each Faculty by 5 February 2018.

Step 3: Each Faculty selects and ranks their top 5% of Scholarship applicants and sends these to the UM Scholarship Taskforce for a final check by 2 March 2018.

Step 4: The UM Scholarship Taskforce confirms the Faculty selections by 15 March 2018.

Step 5: The UM Scholarship Taskforce will inform all candidates of their application status by 20 March 2018. Your status will be selected, waitlisted until 1 May 2018 at the latest, or rejected. Waitlisted application statuses will be finalised as selected or rejected by 1 May 2018. Scholarship awardees will receive more information about the Pre-Academic Training programme and arrival in Maastricht upon receiving their award letters. The UM Pre-Academic Training is a three-week mandatory component of the UM Holland-High Potential Scholarship programme. The Pre-Academic Training takes place in August.