Maastricht University Holland-High Potential scholarship

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 2020-2021 academic year. Please click here for a full list of the 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 2020.
• 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 2020-2021 scholarship programme applicants.

Application deadline
The deadline for applying is up to and including 1 February 2020.

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 simoultaneously. 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 2020. 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 (log in with your 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[at]maastrichtuniversity[dot]nl by midnight on 1 February 2020 (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 2019. 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.