UM Global Studies Scholarship at Maastricht University

The study programme offers students the opportunity to take part in a local or international field study, develop an intervention for a societal problem presented by a NGO, government, agency, firm or a school and write an interdisciplinary bachelor thesis.

The UM Global Studies Scholarship offers one full coverage scholarship (including a tuition fee waiver and monthly stipend) per academic year for a selected number of top-performing bachelor students from eligible countries with personal development potential who have been (conditionally) admitted to the Global Studies study programme.

Target group: incomingbachelor students with proven academic excellence and personal development potential, that have been (conditionally) admitted to the Global Studies study programme.

Application procedure

Step 1: Register for the Global Studies programme at Maastricht University

For further details on how to register for a bachelor programme at UM, please see the website of Global Studies. 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.

• Please note: you first have to apply for the bachelor 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 meet all admission requirements, except legal residence, of your master programme before the Scholarship deadline. Please be aware that the admission deadline may differ to the Scholarship deadline.
• Please note: if you have to pay a handling fee as part of the 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 2025. To check whether the programme requires the payment of a handling fee, please check here.

Step 2: Please fill in the application form, you need to log in with your UM account

You can find the application form here. 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. 

• Curriculum Vitae
  Your CV should be up-to-date; contain relevant information about your education and (job) experience; include proven previous extracurricular engagement with your previous (academic) organisation/high school and active citizenship in your community; and should not be longer than two A4 pages. If you have received any awards or prizes, please do not forget to mention these on your CV.
• 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
  Continuous good to excellent results during your prior (high school) education programmes, as demonstrated by your latest grade transcript.
• 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 the referee must be a (former) professor, teacher, principal, college counsellor, lecturer, or employer, and not a family member. Recommendation letters should be dated and written no earlier than 1 February 2024. Letters that do not adhere to the guidelines are not taken into account, which means your application is incomplete. You need to upload the reference letter, this cannot be done by your referee. We trust you in this and we can check your reference
• The contact details of one referee
  Please note that we might 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 (former) professor, teacher, principal, college counsellor, lecturer, or 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, unless a valid reason is provided.

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.