Netherlands Nuffic Fellowships Programme 2016/2017 for study in the Netherland

Application Deadline: July 5th 2016

The Netherlands organisation for international cooperation in higher education (EP-NUFFIC) offers fellowships to participate in training courses in The Netherlands. The aim is to promote capacity building within organisations in eligible countries via training and education for professionals. This is initiated and (almost) fully funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the budget for development cooperation.

FP Fellowships:

A new fellowship application round opens on the 24th of May 2016 ! The training courses for which you can apply are (click on the course subjects for more detailed information about the course):

• Gender Responsive Governance (23 January – 3 February, 2017)
• Fiscal Decentralisation and Local Finance (13 – 24 February, 2017)

(There are no MSP Scholarships available for this deadline. However, participants from Jordan and Egypt are eligible to apply for NFP Scholarships. The next opportunity to apply for MSP Scholarships will open in September 2016.(

By following the steps as outlined below, you will ensure that your application meets the requirements to qualify for a NFP scholarship. All these steps need to be taken before the deadline of 5 July 2016!

Please read the instructions carefully and prepare all the documents in advance. There are many applicants for these scholarships and only applications that comply with all the prescribed requirements will be assessed. You are personally responsible for the quality of your application!

All supporting documents must be uploaded in PDF format and must not exceed 2 MB. The following instruction can assist you: Instructions to convert documents to PDF 

(If you encounter problems converting documents, please contact us at [email protected])

Step 1:      Check eligibility

In order to qualify for a NFP Scholarship, you need to meet the following selection criteria. You must:

• be a national of, and working and living in one of the 50 countries on the NFP country list;
• not be employed by an organisation that has its own means of staff-development, for example:
  multinational corporations (e.g. Shell, Unilever, Microsoft),
  large national and/or a large commercial organisations,
  bilateral donor organisations (e.g. USAID, DFID, Danida, Sida, Dutch ministry of Foreign affairs, FinAid, AusAid, ADC, SwissAid),
  multilateral donor organisations, (e.g. a UN organization, the World Bank, the IMF, Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, IADB),
  international NGO’s (e.g. Oxfam, Plan, Care);
• must have an official passport that will still be valid for at least three months after completion of the training;
• must not receive more than one fellowship for courses that take place at the same time;
• English Language skills: The short courses are taught in English. Therefore, it is important that your English language skills (writing and speaking) are good.
• Work experience: Minimum of 2 years of experience required, working with or for local or regional authorities. It is to your advantage if the work/experience is related to the content of the training.

The next opportunity to apply for MSP Scholarship will open in September 2016.  To be eligible for a MSP Scholarship you must meet the selection criteria mentioned above. Furthermore you:

• must be a national of, and working and living in one of the countries on the MSP country list valid at the time of application;
• must have an official passport that will still be valid at least three months after completion of the training;
• must not be over 45 years of age at the time of the grant submission.
   

Step 2:      Prepare a Government Statement

For some countries, applicants must provide a government statement that meets the requirements of the country in which the employer is established. Please check the Overview Government statements to determine if you need a Government statement.

If you do need a Government statement, you have to provide one using one of the following prescribed formats: NFP Scholarship or MSP Scholarship (MENA)

Prepare this document in advance and convert it to PDF (less than 2 MB). You will need this document when you complete your Scholarship Application in the second phase.

Step 3:           Prepare your Employer Statement

All applicants must provide an Employer Statement according to the format that Nuffic prescribes. Your Employer Statement consists of 3 parts and together this must form 1 (one) PDF document which is no larger than 2MB.

The 3 parts are:

• Declaration by your employer (Permission to participate)
• Motivation by your employer and your own motivation
• Implementation plan (with clear goals and deadlines)

Important notice:

• If your employer statement misses 1 or more parts, your application will be discarded.
• Please click see the following Example of an Employer Statement (including guidelines about the quality of the statement).
• Should you encounter problems converting your Employer Statement into 1 PDF document, please mail us at [email protected] and we will assist.

Please use the following format: Format Employer Statement (in pdf)
(After you have completed and confirmed your application with The Hague Academy, you will receive an admission email from us including this same Format Employer Statement in Word. You can download this and use it to complete your personal Employer Statement in the Nuffic database called Atlas)

Step 4:           Prepare a copy of your passport

You need a passport that will still be valid during a period of at least three months after completion of the training you are applying for. Prepare a scanned copy in PDF (not exceeding 2MB).
 

Step 5:           Apply for admission with The Hague Academy

• Apply with The Hague Academy by completing this special Nuffic application form .
• After completing this form, you will receive a registration code, a link and instructions to complete the final stage of your application.

Step 6:           Registration for a Nuffic (NFP or MSP) Scholarship (final step)

After completing your course admissions with The Hague Academy for Local Governance, you need to continue with Phase 2 of your application for a Nuffic Scholarship by registering in the online Nuffic database called Atlas.

• You will have to answer the following 3 questions in Atlas:
  Question 1: What is the issue or problem you want to address in your country?
  Question 2. How will this training course enable you to address this issue?
  Question 3. How will you address this issue with your position within your organisation?
• Please read the ‘Quality Guidelines for your motivation in Atlas’
• Pay careful attention to the formulation of your answers. Be specific and base your answers on factual information. Refrain from copying the course information or learning needs from our website. Through the various assessment stages of the application, the answers to these questions will be closely scrutinized.
• In the confirmation email from The Hague Academy, you received a registration link and code for Atlas.
• Upload the supporting documents that you prepared in Steps 1-4. Please note: It is not possible to temporarily save once you have started your scholarship application. You need to complete it in one session. Therefore it is important that you have all the supporting documents ready.
• Please read the Obligations for NFP and MSP applicants carefully before you start your application

All these steps need to be taken before the deadline of 5 July 2016. Don’t wait too long and start your application on time. If you have any questions, you can contact us at [email protected]

For Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the  Netherlands Nuffic Fellowships Programme 2016/2017 for study in the Netherland