UM Brightlands Talent Scholarship

All candidates must meet the following requirements:

• You hold the nationality of a country outside the EU/EEA and Switzerland 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 or Switzerland

• 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 2023

• You agree to become an active Brightlands and UM ambassador during and after your studies, by committing to share your experiences during at least one (information) session for students and/or other stakeholders

• You have have been (conditionally) admitted to the participating master's programmes at UM for the 2023-2024 academic year

• 13 months for a one-year master's programme

• 25 months for a two-year master's programme

*This amount is subject to change for academic year 2023-2024

Step 1: Register for one of the participating master's programmes at UM
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 UM. 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 Brightlands Talent Scholarship.Please note: you first have to apply for the master programme at UM to receive your student ID, as soon as you have your student ID you can apply for the scholarship. However, you must be conditionally approved for admission to your master 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, the UM International Services Desk does not cover handling fees. You are responsible for paying any handling fee your programme may require by 1 February 2023. 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, you need to log in with your UM account
You can find the application Form here (the application deadline has passed). 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 than two A4 pages. Please emphasise proven previous extracurricular engagement and active citizenship in your community.
• 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.
  Excellent results during your prior education programmes, as demonstrated by your latest grade transcript. If several applicants are equally qualified, UM will give preference to applicants whose academic transcript demonstrates that they are among the top 5% of the 2023-2024 scholarship programme applicants
• 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, et cetera.

• A reference letter
  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 2022. Letters which do not agree with the guidelines are not taken into account, which means your application is incomplete.

• 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 1: The UM International Services Desk checks if all applications are complete after 1 February 2023.

Step 2: The UM International Services Desk sends all complete applications to the respective UM Faculty in February 2023.

Step 3: The Faculty Admission Office - in cooperation with the respective programme coordinator(s) - ranks your application based on the UM scholarship selection criteria and proposes a top-5 to the Brightlands Talent Scholarship selection committee.

Step 4: The Brightlands Talent Scholarship selection committee (composed of a representatives of UM, the Brightlands campus management and the province of Limburg) invites the top-5 applicants for an online interview, following which a decision is taken. In case you are not selected, you will be added to a reserve list in case the selected candidate(s) decline(s) the scholarship.

Step 5: The UM International Services Desk will inform all candidates of their application status in April 2023. Your status will be selected, waitlisted or rejected by the beginning of May 2023 at the latest. Waitlisted application statuses will be changed to selected or rejected by May 2023.

Step 6: You must sign and return the award letter to the UM International Services Desk to accept the scholarship.