Maastricht University Netherland Scholarship Requirements:

All candidates applying for the 2025 Maastricht University Scholarship must meet the following requirements:

• 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 participating full-time master programme at Maastricht University (participating programmes) for the 2024-2025 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 2024.

• 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 2024-2025 scholarship programme applicants.

2025 Maastricht University Scholarship Duration

• The Scholarship programme offers 24 full scholarships of €34,000 (including tuition fee waiver and monthly stipend) each academic year

• 13 months for a one-year master programme

• 25 months for a two-year master programme

• 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: Please use the template for the motivation letter. This template will focus on your motivation for the scholarship.

• 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 scholarship reference letter guidelines; please 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 2023.

• The contact details of one referee: Please note that we might 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 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.

Deadline: 1 February, 2025