VLIR-UOS Awards Scholarships : vliruos.be

Organisation : Vliruos
Announcement : VLIR-UOS Awards Scholarships
Applicable for : 31 eligible countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America
Application Deadline : October

Website : https://www.vliruos.be/en/home/1
Guideline : https://www.southafricain.com/uploads/142-VLIR_UOS.pdf

VLIR-UOS Awards Scholarships :

** VLIR-UOS has scholarships available for the academic year 2016-2017.
** VLIR-UOS awards scholarships to applicants from 54 eligible countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to attend one of seven selected training or 15 selected Master programmes.

Related : Department of Higher Education and Training Horizontal Cooperational Scholarship : www.southafricain.com/138.html

** The programmes are taught in English at a Belgian Flemish university or university college.
** For information on taught academic programmes download the info document here.
** VLIR-UOS covers all related expenses.

Target: Applicants from Africa, Asia and Latin America

Scholarships to study in Flanders, Belgium :
VLIR-UOS awards scholarships :
** to applicants from 31 eligible countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America
** to attend one of the selected trainings or Master programmes
** taught in English
** at a Belgian Flemish university or university college
** covering all related expenses

Deadline :
** A call for scholarship applications is launched every year in October.
** The deadline depends on the training or Master programme you are applying for.

How do I apply for a scholarship :
** To apply for a scholarship, you first need to apply for the training or Master programme.
** To apply for a training or Master programme, visit the website of the training or Master programme of your interest.

** Follow the guidelines for application for the programme as mentioned on its website.
** In the programme application, you can mention whether you wish to apply for a scholarship.
** In case you do, the programme coordinator forwards your application to VLIR-UOS.
** Applications submitted by the candidates to VLIR-UOS directly will not be considered!

** Take into account that you can only apply for one training or Master programme per year.
** The dates of application are determined by the programme. Check the website of the training or Master programme for more details.
** You will receive the selection result by e-mail, as soon as possible after selection and at the latest by mid-June.
** In case of doubt, please contact the training or Master programme.

Eligibility criteria :
** You can only apply for a scholarship if you meet the following requisites.

Nationality and Country of Residence :
** A candidate should be a national and resident of one of the 31 countries of the VLIR-UOS country list for scholarships (not necessarily the same country) at the time of application.

Age :
** The maximum age for an ICP candidate is 35 years for an initial masters and 40 years for an advanced masters.
** The maximum age for an ITP candidate is 45 years.
** The candidate cannot succeed this age on January 1 of the intake year.

Professional background and experience :
** VLIR-UOS gives priority to candidates who are employed in academic institutions, research institutes, governments, social economy or NGO’s, or aim a career in one of these sectors.
** However, also candidates employed in the profit sector (ICP and ITP) or newly graduated candidates without any work experience (ICP) can be eligible for the scholarship.

** The ITP candidate should have relevant professional experience and a support letter confirming (re)integration in a professional context where the acquired knowledge and skills will be immediately applicable.

Fungibility with other VLIR-UOS funding :
** A scholarship within the VLIR-UOS scholarship programme is not compatible with financial support within an IUC- or TEAM-project.

** Candidates working in a university where such projects are being organized, should submit a declaration of the project leader stating that the department where the candidate is employed is not involved in the project.

Former VLIR-UOS scholarship applications and previously awarded scholarships :
** A candidate can only submit one VLIR-UOS scholarship application per year, irrespectively of the scholarship type.
** As a consequence, a candidate can only be selected for one VLIR-UOS scholarship per year.

** The ICP candidate has never received a scholarship from the Belgian government to attend a master programme or equivalent or was never enrolled in a Flemish higher education institution to attend a master programme or equivalent before January 1 of the intake year.

Selection criteria :
** Candidates who meet all the eligibility criteria and are ranked highest on the basis of the selection criteria, will be proposed by the university to VLIR-UOS as a candidate for the scholarship.

The following criteria will be taken into account for the selection of candidates for a scholarship :
Motivation :
** It is essential that the motivation and the career goals of the candidate focus on development relevant goals which are dealt with in the master programme.
** Not only previously obtained academic results are key, but also the potential of the candidate to act as a ‘change agent’ in the home country after completion of the master programme.

Professional experience :
** Preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate a higher possibility of implementing and/or transferring the newly gained knowledge upon return to the home country.

Gender :
** The selection committee will aim at a relative balance between the number of male and female candidates awarded a VLIR-UOS scholarship.

Regional balance :
** The selection committee will aim at a diversification of candidates from different countries and continents.

** The selection committee will also aim to award at least 50% of the available scholarships to candidates coming from Least Developed Countries or Other Low Income Countries (defined by OESO-DAC for ODA recipients), given that there are sufficient qualitative candidates from these countries.

Social background :
** In case of two equally qualified candidates, preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate that they belong to a disadvantaged group or area within their country or an ethnic or social minority group.

Eligible training programmes :
** Management of Electronic Information and Digital Libraries
** Technology for Integrated Water Management
** Food Safety, Quality Assurance Systems and Risk Analysis
** Human Rights for Development
** Road safety in Low and Middle-Income Countries
** Audiovisual Learning Materials
** Dairy Nutrition

Eligible Master programmes :
** Development Evaluation and Management
** Globalisation and Development
** Governance and Development
** Human Settlements
** Biology – Specialisation Human Ecology
** Water Resources Engineering
** Molecular Biology
** Aquaculture
** Statistics – Specialisation Biostatistics
** Environmental Sanitation
** Nematology
** Human Nutrition
** Physical Land Resources
** Food Technology
** Marine and Lacustrine Science and Management