Fully funded Masters scholarships are awarded to students and professionals from a number of countries to study in Belgium as well as travel grants to Flemish/European students to do fieldwork/internships in one of the 31 scholarship countries in Africa, Asia or Latin America.

Scholarships for trainings (ITP)

What is an ITP?

International Training Programmes (ITP) are short to medium-term, intensive, interactive, and practical training organized at a university or university college in Belgium/Flanders.

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The trainings target participants from 31 scholarship countries with relevant professional experience in the ITP’s subject and who will be able to transfer the obtained knowledge and skills to a wider audience in their home countries.

We provide 12 scholarships per ITP programme. If any applications are open, you can find them here.

Who can receive an ITP Fully Funded Scholarships?

You can only apply for an ITP scholarship if you meet the following requirements:

• Nationality and country of residence:  A candidate should be both a national and a resident of one of the 31 eligible countries (not necessarily the same country) at the time of the application.
• Relevant professional experience and a support letter: Priority is given to candidates who are employed in academic institutions, research institutes, governments, the social economy, or NGOs, or to those who aim to have a career in one of these sectors. The training candidate should have relevant professional experience and a support letter confirming (re)integration in a professional context where the acquired knowledge and skills will be immediately applicable.
• Fungibility with other VLIR-UOS funding: Candidates who are working at a university where we already fund IUC, TEAM, or SI projects, can receive an ITP-ICP scholarship if they clearly motivate the reason for their application and if they clarify why the participation at the ICP or ITP program cannot be funded as part of the IUC, TEAM or SI program or project funds that already exist.
•  Other VLIR-UOS scholarship applications and previously awarded scholarships: A potential candidate can only submit one scholarship application with us per year – irrespective of the scholarship type – and can, therefore, only be selected for one VLIR-UOS scholarship every year. Candidates who already received one of our scholarships to participate in another ITP, will not be eligible. Candidates who already received one of our scholarships to participate in an ICP (or vice versa) can only be selected if the previously attended course is thematically linked to the ITP.
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What is the application procedure?

1. Check the eligibility criteria for an ITP scholarship. For more information on which criteria you should meet in order to apply for an ITP scholarship, check out the previous section on ‘Who can receive an ITP scholarship?’.
2. Apply for a training program of your choice. To apply for an ITP scholarship, you first need to apply for one of the available training programs. Follow the guidelines for application on the program’s website. You can be the links to all the programs’ websites here.
3. Mention as part of your training application that you wish to apply for a scholarship.
4. Applications that candidates submit directly to our organization, will not be taken into consideration.
5. You can only apply for one training program per year. The dates of application are determined by the program. Check the ITP list for more details.
6. We receive the selection results of the program. The program organizers will contact the selected candidates as well as the candidates on the waiting list by e-mail.

Which costs are covered by the scholarship?

We only provide scholarships for the full duration of the training programme. It is not possible to apply for a partial scholarship.

The detailed current amounts and more information on the different allowances can be found in the document ‘Allowances and guidelines for VLIR-UOS scholarships’.

Scholarship amounts can change at any time in line with decisions of the funding government.

Fully Funded Scholarships for master programs (ICP)

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What is an ICP?

International master programmes (ICPs) are accredited (advanced or initial) master programmes (EQF 7) consisting of 2 or 4 semesters (60 or 120 ECTS respectively) on a subject that is relevant to or specific for sustainable development. We support a selection of 15 ICPs and provide 12 scholarships per ICP programme.

Who can receive an ICP scholarship (eligibility criteria)?

You can only apply for a scholarship if you meet the following requirements:

• Nationality and country of residence:  A candidate should be a national and resident of one of the 31 eligible countries (not necessarily the same country) at the time of the application.
• Age: The maximum age for a master programme candidate is 35 for an initial master and 45 for an advanced master. The candidate cannot exceed this age on the first of January of the intake year.
•  Professional background and experience: Priority is given to candidates who are employed in academic institutions, research institutes, governments, the social economy or NGOs, or who aim at a career in one of these sectors. However, master candidates employed in the profit sector or newly graduated candidates without any work experience can be eligible for the scholarship as well, depending on their motivation and profile.
• Fungibility with other VLIR-UOS funding: Candidates working in a university where we already fund IUC, TEAM or SI projects, can receive an ITP-ICP scholarship if they clearly motivate the reason of their application and clarify why the participation at the ICP programme cannot be funded as part of the existing IUC, Team or SI programme or project funds.
• VLIR-UOS scholarship applications and previously awarded scholarships: A candidate can only submit one scholarship application to us per year – irrespective of the scholarship type – and can therefore only be selected for one of our scholarships per year.
• The Master programme candidate has never received a scholarship from the Belgian government to attend a master programme or equivalent or was never enrolled in a Flemish higher education institution to attend a master programme or equivalent before the first of January of the intake year.

What are important scholarship selection criteria?

The selection commission of each ICP-programme will make a selection out of the eligible scholarship candidates. When making a selection they take into account a number of selection criteria:

• Motivation : it is essential that the motivation and professional goals of the candidate demonstrate the possibility of transferring knowledge/skills or creating extension activities and highlight themes relevant to sustainable development, which are also pertinent to the course. Not only academic results are important, but also and especially the potential of the candidate to become an “actor of change” in his/her home country after the study or training.
• Professional experience: preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate a higher possibility of implementing and/or transferring newly gained knowledge/skills upon return to the home country, preferably in a research institution, a higher education institution, the government sector (national/regional/local), the sector of social economy, or an NGO, thereby contributing to positive societal change.
• Gender : The selection committee aims at a relative balance between the number of male and female candidates that are awarded a VLIR-UOS scholarship. We strongly encourage female candidates to apply. You can read more on our gender policy here.
• Regional balance : The selection committee aims at selecting scholarship holders from different countries and regions and tries to ensure that 50% of a program’s scholarships are granted to candidates from Least Developed Countries or Other Low-Income Countries, given that there are sufficient qualitative candidates.
• Social background : In the case of two equally qualified candidates, preference will be given to candidates from a disadvantaged area within their country or an ethnic or social minority group.
• Previously awarded a scholarship: preference is given to candidates who have never received a scholarship to study in a higher income country (bachelor or master).

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What is the application procedure?

In case you have any questions regarding your application or selection process, please contact the university directly!

1. Check the eligibility criteria for a scholarship.
2. If you meet all the criteria, have a look at the selected master programmes (15).You can find the links to the all the master programmes’ website here.
3. If a specific programme catches your interest, visit the website of the organising university and follow its instructions.Via the university’s website, you will have to apply for both admission to the programme as well as for the scholarship itself. When you apply for the programme, be sure to mention whether you wish to apply for a scholarship.
4. Do not apply for more than one master programme per year.The deadlines are determined by the programme.
5. We receive the selection results of the programme organisers.We will contact the selected candidates as well as the waiting list candidates by e-mail as soon as possible after selection, by mid-June at the latest.

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Which costs are covered by the Fully Funded Scholarships?

We only provide scholarships for the full duration of the master programme. It is not possible to apply for a partial scholarship.

The detailed current amounts and more information on the different allowances can be found in the document ‘Allowances and guidelines for VLIR-UOS scholarships’.

Scholarship amounts can change at any time in line with decisions of the funding government.

Apply here at the Official Website