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The Copernicus Scholarship offers six outstanding prospective non-Dutch students the opportunity to follow the Sustainable Development Prestige Master's programme at Utrecht University. The scholarship programme is highly selective. Only candidates of the highest achievement and promise relevant for the Sustainable Development Prestige Master's programme may receive a scholarship.

The master’s programme Sustainable Development consists of three tracks: (a) Energy & Resources;
(b) Land Use, Environment and Biodiversity;
(c) Environmental Policy and Management.
The six scholarships are equally divided between the three tracks. This results into two scholarships per track per year.

Duration and number of scholarships
Selected students will receive a scholarship for a maximum period of 24 months.

Amount of scholarship
Selected Master's students are awarded a scholarship up to a maximum of 2,500 Euro per year, for the duration of two years. In total this amounts to 5,000 Euro.

Aim of the programme
The scholarship is meant to make a significant contribution towards the costs of travel and living while studying in Utrecht. It is necessary to find additional funding to be able to finance your study and stay completely. As one of the requirements for being granted a residence permit in the Netherlands, students from non EEA countries must prove to the IND (immigration and naturalisation office) that they have sufficient financial means. The university advises a budget, not including the tuition fee, of 10,000 to 14,000 Euros per year to cover costs for rent, insurance, living expenses, course books and local transportation alone.

Selection procedure
The selection for the Copernicus Scholarship is carried our by an Admissions Committee of the Department of Science and Innovation Management within the Faculty of Geosciences.

This Admissions Committee will determine the order of priority of all the eligible candidates on the basis of the criteria below. Awarded grants are exclusively linked to the Master's programme for which the grant was applied for and exclusively linked to the proposed starting date. Awarded grants cannot be transferred to other Master's programmes and also not to another starting date.

Eligibility criteria
The applicant must meet the eligibility criteria in order to be considered for one of these scholarships. The applicant should:

1. hold a non-Dutch passport and not be eligible for support under the Dutch system of study grants and loans.
2. have been admitted to the Prestige Master's Programme Sustainable Development.
3. hold a relevant Bachelor’s degree or equivalent thereof from a non-Dutch university with a Grade Point Average of 7,5 or higher according to the Dutch grade system. In the Netherlands grades from 1.0 up to 10.0 are used, with 1 being worst and 10 being best. A GPA of 7,5 is (for instance) comparable with at least an 60% in the UK and a B+ (or a 3.3) in the United States.
4. belong to the top 20% of his/her year, proving from a university statement from the university where the Bachelor’s Degree was obtained.
5. be able to comply with the conditions to obtain a Dutch visa (only for students from non EER countries).
6. include a bachelor’s thesis or equivalent thereof.
7. include a motivation letter of one page in which she or he clearly points out why this scholarship should be awarded to her or him.

Selection criteria
Eligible candidates are selected for a scholarship on the basis of the following criteria:

1. Their academic excellence and promise in the proposed field of study;
2. The academic quality and concrete results of the preceding education, as evidenced, for example, by grades, test scores, publications, letters of recommendation;
3. The quality and relevance of the motivation letter (academic content, intercultural and communication skills, personal motivation);
4. The quality and feasibility of the financial plan in the application for a place in the Master’s programme;
5. The quality of the application itself (completeness, accuracy, consistency).

Application procedure
Candidates who expect to meet the high standard are invited to send the Copernicus Scholarship application form as well as all other relevant documents as mentioned above to:

Utrecht University
Faculty of Geosciences
Student Desk
Heidelberglaan 2
3584 CS Utrecht
The Netherlands

It is strongly advised to send the scholarship application in the same week as the application for the Master’s Programme is sent. Please note that you need to send the application for the Master’s Programme to a different address. The application for the Master’s Programme (for the study itself) should be sent to:

Utrecht University Student Services
Attn. to the Admissions Office UU
Post Office Box 80125
3508 TC Utrecht
The Netherlands

Deadline of scholarship application
Copernicus scholarship applications from candidates for Sustainable Development starting in September must be received before April 15th of the same year. Copernicus scholarship applications from candidates for Sustainable Development starting in February must be received before October 15th in the preceding year. Notification of the scholarship awards are expected six weeks after closing dates. Please note that no scholarship applications will be accepted after the dates specified above.

Further inquiries
Any further inquiries should be directed to the Communication Consultant of the Department of Science and Innovation Management, Mrs. Mariëlle van Gelderen by e-mail only, in order to ensure efficient response: m.vangelderen@geo.uu.nl

Provided by: the Faculty of Geosciences
http://www.geo.uu.nl/20419main.html

Source of this announcement can be found here.

Application form is available for download

Deadline: 2007/04/15