Maastricht University NL-Euregional Refugee Scholarship

UM recognizes that it can be difficult for students from refugee communities to access and succeed in higher education. In order to support these learners, the UM-NL Euregional Refugee Scholarship programme offers tuition waivers per academic year for talented refugee students from the Meuse-Rhine Euregion who have been admitted to a master’s programme at UM.

The applicant should have a strong motivation to pursue a master’s degree at Maastricht University, possess a refugee residence permit in Belgium or Germany and currently live in the Euregion The scholarship consists of a partial tuition waiver to cover the difference between statutory tuition fees and institutional tuition fees. The awardee should pay the statutory tuition fee in the amount of € 2,314, equal to a refugee with a residence permit (type III) in the Netherlands.

Who is eligible?

All candidates must meet the following requirements:

  • You hold nationality in a country outside the EU/EEA and are a refugee in Belgium or Germany.
  • You can proof that you reside in the Euregion.
  • You are willing to sign a consent form that you will not move to the Netherlands and agree to commute to Maastricht University.
  • You have applied for admission to a full-time master’s programme at Maastricht University for the 2024-2025 academic year. Please note that the master’s programmes Medicine and Physician-Clinical Investigator are not eligible for the UM-NL Euregional Refugee Scholarship.
  • 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.

Application deadline
The applications for the scholarship are open as of October 2023. The deadline of the applications for 2024-2025 is 1 June 2024.

Duration of the UM-NL Euregional Refugee Scholarship

  • 12 months for a one-year master's programme
  • 24 months for a two-year master’s programme

Amount of the UM-NL Euregional Refugee Scholarship

Living expenses

Not included

n/a

Health & Liability insurance

Not included

n/a

Visa application costs

Not applicable

n/a

Tuition fees award

€16,000 -/- €2,314 = €13,686*

€18,400 -/- €2,314 = €16,086*

Arranged and paid by the UM International Services Desk

Tuition fees student

€2,314*

To be paid by the student

Travel expenses

Not included

To be paid by the student

Pre-academic training

At cost

Arranged and paid by the UM International Services Desk

*This amount is subject to change for academic year 2024-2025

Application procedure

Step 1: Register for a master’s programme 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: the master’s programmes Medicine and Physician-Clinical Investigator are not eligible for a UM Euregion Refugee Scholarship.
  • Please note: you must be conditionally approved for admission to your study programme at UM in order to be awarded a scholarship.
  • Please note: if your study requires the payment of a handling fee as part of your programme’s admissions procedure, you can apply for exemption as a refugee. Please go forward with that exemption process as soon as possible because otherwise your application will not be taken into consideration. To check whether your programme requires the payment of a handling fee, please check your study programme’s webpage under the menu tab ‘Admission requirements’.

Step 2: Please send your application together with the required documents via email to refugee@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
Please note that you will only be able to submit your application once, so please ensure that all of your documents 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.

  1. Application form. Please fill out the application form to apply for the scholarship.
  2. 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.
  3. 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-NL Euregional Refugee 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, why you want to study at Maastricht University 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.
  4. Proof of academic excellence. You may send the following document in order to prove your academic excellence: your university transcript that explicitly states your grade point average or class ranking for your entire study programme (if available).
  5. Consent form. Fill out the form and confirm that you will not live in the Netherlands, will reside in the Euregion and commute to Maastricht
  6. Proof of registration at your current address
  7. A copy of your residence permit in Belgium or Germany
Step 1 Register for a master via
Studielink.nl  
Step 2 Fill out the 
application form
Step 3 Fill out the
consent form
Step 4 Sent the forms to the email
address stated in the form

Selection procedure

Step 1: The UM International Services Desk checks that all applications are complete.
Step 2: The International Services Desk reviews all complete applications together with each UM faculty by June 2024.
Step 3: Each faculty selects and ranks their top 5% of scholarship applicants and sends these to the UM Refugee Taskforce for a final check mid June.
Step 4: The UM Refugee Taskforce confirms the faculty selections by the end of June 2023.
Step 5: The International Services Desk will inform all candidates of their application status in June. Scholarship awardees will receive more information about the Pre-Academic Training programme upon receiving their award letters. The Online Pre-Academic Training is a two-week mandatory component of the UM Euregion Refugee Scholarship programme. The Pre-Academic Training takes place in August 2024.