Full-time Master’s Degree Scholarship in the Netherlands 2021

by Samrach · Published December 15, 2020 · Updated December 28, 2020

The Maastricht University (UM) Holland-High Potential Scholarship programme offers 24 full scholarships of €29.000 (including tuition fee waiver and 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.

Who is eligible?

All candidates 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 full-time Master’s programme at Maastricht University for the 2021-2022 academic year.
List of the UM master’s programmes participating 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 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 2021.
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 2021-2022 scholarship programme applicants.

Duration of the UM Holland-High Potential scholarship

13 months for a one-year Master’s programme
25 months for a two-year Master’s programme

Amount of the UM Holland-High Potential scholarship programme 2021-2022

Living expenses	€ 11,400* (12 months) or € 22,800* (24 months)	Paid to students by the UM International Services Desk
Health & liability insurance	€ 700*	Arranged for and paid by the UM International Services Desk
Visa application costs	€ 174*	Arranged for and paid by the UM International Services Desk
Tuition fees	€ 13,800; € 15,500 or € 16,800* depending on the tuition of your study programme	Arranged for and paid by the UM International Services Desk
Pre-Academic Training costs	At cost	Arranged for and paid by the UM International Services Desk

*These amounts are subject to change for academic year 2021-2022

Application procedure

Step 1:Register for one of the participating Master’s programmes at Maastricht University. For further details on how to register for a 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 for Maastricht University. You will need a student number in order to complete and submit the Scholarship Application Form (see Step 2 below).

Please note: only the Master’s programmes in the list above are eligible for a UM Holland-High Potential scholarship.
Please note: you can apply for the Master’s programme at UM and the scholarship simultaneously. However, you must be conditionally approved for admission to your Master’s programme in order to be awarded a scholarship.
Please note: if your study programme requires the payment of a handling fee as part of your programme’s admissions procedure, UM International Services Desk does not cover handling fees. You are responsible for paying any handling fee your programme may require by 1 February 2021. 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 as per the table below:

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS)	Application form
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHML)	Application form*
Faculty of Psychology and Neurosciences (FPN)	Application form
Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE)	Application form*
Faculty of Law (FL)	Application form*
School of Business and Economics (SBE)	Application form*

* log in with you UM account

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. If you have applied for multiple UM study programmes, the UM International Services Desk will ensure that your complete scholarship application is considered for all eligible programmes for which you have a conditionally approved or approved admissions status.

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 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 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 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 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.

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: You will have to contact the referee you provided in your application form and ask them to submit their reference letter per email to hhp.scholarship@maastrichtuniversity.nl by midnight on 1 February 2021 (Central European Time).
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 2020. Please also note that it is your responsibility to liaise with your referee and ensure that they submit their letters before the deadline. 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.

Step 1	Register for a master’s programme via Studielink.nl
Step 2	Fill out the application form See the table in step 2
Step 3	Ask you referee to send a reference letter

Selection procedure

Step 1: The UM International Services Desk checks that all applications are complete after 1 February 2021.
Step 2: The UM International Services Desk sends all complete applications to each UM Faculty in February 2021.
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 March 2021.
Step 4: The UM International Services Desk confirms the Faculty selections by the end of March 2021.
Step 5: The UM International Services Desk will inform all candidates of their application status in April 2021. Your status will be selected, waitlisted or rejected by the beginning of May 2021 at the latest. Waitlisted application statuses will be changed to selected or rejected by May 2021. 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 is a three-week mandatory component of the UM Holland-High Potential Scholarship programme. The Pre-Academic Training takes place in August 2021.
Step 6: You must sign and return the award letter to the UM International Services Desk to accept the Scholarship.

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