Maastricht University (UM) Holland-High Potential Scholarship will close soon

Maastricht University is one of the topmost universities in Europe. It is the second youngest among the 13 Dutch universities.

The Maastricht University (UM) Holland-High Potential Scholarship programme offers 24 full scholarships of € 29,000 (including tuition fee waiver and a monthly stipend) each academic year for highly talented students from outside the European Union (EU) who have been admitted to a master’s programme at UM.

The Scholarship programme consists of both the High Potential Scholarship (funded by the Maastricht University Scholarship Fund) and the Holland Scholarship, which is financed by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in conjunction with Dutch universities and universities of applied sciences.

It is aimed at international students from outside the EU/EEA who wish to follow a full degree programme in the Netherlands.

Host Country: Netherlands

Host University: Maastricht University

Nationality: International students outside the EU

Number of Awards: 24

Degree Level: Master’s 

Benefits:

• The scholarship covers living expenses (€12,350 – 13 months; €23,750 – 25 months), health and liability insurance (€700), visa application costs (€192), tuition fee (€13,800, €16,000 or €16,800, depending on the tuition of your study programme), and pre-academic training costs.
• The High Potential scholarship is awarded for the duration of the Master’s programme – 13 months for a one-year master’s programme and 25 months for a two-year master’s programme.

Programs offered by University
Visit this link to find out the programmes applicable for this scholarship: https://cutt.ly/aIMPlmv

Eligibility: 

• You hold nationality in a country outside the EU/EEA, Switzerland or Surinam and meet the requirements for obtaining an entry visa and residence permit for the Netherlands.
• You do not hold a double nationality from an EU/EEA country.
• You have applied for admission to a full-time master programme at Maastricht University for the 2022/23 academic year.
• You meet the specific admission requirements of the UM master programme to which you have applied.
• You have never participated in a degree-seeking higher education programme in the Netherlands. Students who have completed exchange programmes in the Netherlands are welcome to apply.
• You are not older than 35 years of age on 1 September 2022.
• 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, UM will give preference to applicants whose academic transcript or certified letter of academic excellence demonstrate that they are among the top 5% of the 2022/23 scholarship programme applicants.

 Application requirements

• Curriculum Vitae
  Your CV should be up-to-date, contain relevant information about your education and (job) experience, and should not be longer than two A4 pages.
• Letter of motivation
  Your letter of motivation should be up-to-date and specifically tailored to this scholarship programme. Generic letters of admission that do not directly address your motivation for UM Holland-High Potential scholarship selection will be rejected. Your letter of motivation should be no longer than one 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 UM 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.
• Personal statement of financial needs. Please explain why you would benefit from being awarded a scholarship and describe your personal circumstances such as financial difficulty, sole parent/caretaking responsibilities, medical condition, disability, refugee status etc.
• A reference letter. We have prepared a scholarship (visit this link for the reference letter guidelines - https://cutt.ly/iIMATkA) 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 2021
• The contact details of one referee
  Please note that we check the authenticity of your referee by contacting your referee. Therefore, ensure that you take the following steps when choosing a referee and submitting their details:
  - Relationship to the 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.
  - Work telephone number of your referee; be sure to include the applicable country calling code.
  - Work or institutional email address of your referee. Letters referencing only a personal email address will be rejected. 

Selection Procedure: 

Step 1: The UM International Services Desk checks if all applications are complete after 1 February 2022.

Step 2: The UM International Services Desk sends all complete applications to each UM Faculty in February 2022.

Step 3: Each Faculty selects and ranks their top 5% of scholarship applicants and sends these to the UM International Services Desk for a final check-in in March 2022.

Step 4: The UM International Services Desk confirms the Faculty selections by the end of March 2022.

Step 5: The UM International Services Desk will inform all candidates of their application status in April 2022. Your status will be selected, waitlisted or rejected by the beginning of May 2022 at the latest. Waitlisted application statuses will be changed to selected or rejected by May 2022.

Scholarship awardees will receive more information about the UM Pre-Academic Training programme and arrival in Maastricht upon receiving their award letters. The UM Pre-Academic Training  (link - https://cutt.ly/AIMAN2w) is a three-week mandatory component of the UM Holland-High Potential Scholarship programme. The Pre-Academic Training takes place in August 2022.

Step 6: You must sign and return the award letter to the UM International Services Desk to accept the scholarship.

Application Deadline: 1 February 2022

Application Link: Prospective Master’s students can apply through this link: https://cutt.ly/FIMA6Ae

Further Information: 

It is very important that you go through this link to learn about the details and requirements of the scholarship application: https://cutt.ly/oIMSojP