Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) annually invites applications for IRO doctoral scholarship programme available for students from Developing Countries. The applicant must be a citizen of one of the countries on the OCDE DAC table that are considered as: Least Developed Countries, Low-Income Countries or Low Middle-Income Countries.
As one of its contributions to development cooperation, KU Leuven offers scholarships every academic year to exceptional students from developing countries to course their PhD in the largest university of Flanders, Belgium. The programme is organised and managed by IRO, the University’s
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( votes)The programme is organised and managed by IRO, the University’s Interfaculty Council for Development Cooperation. This programme is intended for the student to do his or her whole research at KU Leuven; therefore, any other type of agreement (e.g. Sandwich programmes, etc) are not envisioned.
The candidate must hold an academic qualification at least equivalent to a high distinction. Degrees obtained with a final score equivalent to second class second/lower division will not be taken into consideration.
Course Level: Scholarships are available for pursuing Ph.D program at KU Leuven.
Study Subject(s): Applicants for the IRO Doctoral Scholarship Programme may choose a research topic proposed by one of the KU Leuven Doctoral Schools: Humanities and Social Sciences, Science, Engineering and Technology Biomedical Sciences or applicants may propose their own research topic.
Scholarship Award:
DOCTORAL STUDENTS
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PRE-DOCTORAL STUDENTS |
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Monthly basic amount | € 1,514 (75% of the net salary of an assistant) paid at the end of each month |
€1000 paid at the beginning of each month |
With accompanying partner (and children) living in the same address with a valid Belgian residence permit.** Partners who receive any other income are not eligible. | Housing allowance of € 200/month |
Housing allowance of € 200/month |
Child allowance and accident insurance as an employee for work-related accidents* | Covered by the Belgian social security* | Not covered |
Installation Allowance (only for students who are not living in Belgium; upon arrival) | €550 | €550 |
Tuition fee | Waived | Waived |
Affiliation with a Belgian Health Insurance company | Reimbursed by KU Leuven | Reimbursed by KU Leuven |
Third-party liability insurance (private life) | Reimbursed by KU Leuven | Reimbursed by KU Leuven |
Professional and accident insurance coverage; third party liability insurance (study-related matters and for professional liability) | Paid by KU Leuven | Paid by KU Leuven |
Return flight tickets for the IRO student and his/her partner (and children)** living in Belgium with a valid residence permit. One way ticket to return to your home country at the end of your research. | Paid by KU Leuven | Paid by KU Leuven |
- The doctoral scholarship is subject to partial or full social security depending on the country of origin. Please refer to page 36 of the brochure Travelling to Leuven.
- Does not apply for people with a long term EEA residence permit or nationality.
- The IRO Doctoral Scholarship does not include financing for mobility within the framework of the PhD. Nonetheless, the Interfaculty Council for Development Co-operation offers mobility grants for PhD candidates and their (co)promoters; these grants are organized on a competitive basis.
Scholarship can be taken in Belgium
Eligibility:
- The applicant must be a citizen of one of the countries on the OCDE DAC table that are considered as: Least Developed Countries, Low-Income Countries or Low Middle-Income Countries.
- The applicant may not possess citizenship from an EU country. The applicant may not posses a long-term EU residence permit.
- The candidate’s latest master’s degree must have been awarded no more than ten years prior to October 1st, 2018 (including the ongoing calendar year).
- The candidate must hold an academic qualification at least equivalent to a high distinction. Degrees obtained with a final score equivalent to second class second/lower division will not be taken into consideration.
- The research project must have excellent academic quality, with a special focus on the development relevance of the proposal.
- The vacancies that are published on the KU Leuven website are already funded and thus, cannot participate for this scholarship.
- The candidate must demonstrate a development-oriented motivation.
- The candidate must be supported by a KU Leuven promoter.
- The candidate must be supported by a local co-promoter at the candidate’s home country or where most of the research will be carried out and which must be one of the countries on the OCDE DAC table that are considered as: Least Developed Countries, Low-Income Countries or Low Middle-Income Countries.
- The candidate must be supported by excellent recommendations from relevant referees.
- The candidate must follow the application procedure and complete his file before deadline. Please make sure to fill up the application form with the following instructions:
- First name and last name exactly as written on the passport.
- Status: Doctoral Programme (diploma contract) or Predoctoral programme.
- Academic year: If you apply between September and October 2017, you must select 2017-2018; we will change this manually once the call for applications for 2018-2019 opens. Starting from November 2017, you must select 2018-2019.
- Is this application also intended as a scholarship application? Yes.
- Name of the scholarship agency: IRO Doctoral Scholarship
Please do not submit your application unless it fulfills the conditions enlisted above. Incomplete or late applications will not be taken into consideration without exception.
Nationality: Students from one of the countries on the OECD DAC table that are listed under the following categories: Least Developed Countries, Low-Income Countries or Low Middle-Income Countries can apply for this IRO Doctoral Scholarship Programme.
List of Countries: Afghanistan, Kenya, Armenia, Angola, Korea, Dem. Rep., Belize, Bangladesh, Kyrgyz Rep., Bolivia, Benin, Tajikistan, Cameroon, Bhutan, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Congo, Rep., Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Cambodia, Egypt, Central African Rep., El Salvador, Chad, Fiji, Comoros, Georgia, Congo, Dem. Rep., Ghana, Djibouti, Guatemala, Equatorial Guinea, Guyana, Eritrea, Honduras, Ethiopia, India, Cuba, Gambia, Indonesia, Guinea, Iraq, Guinea-Bissau, Kosovo1, Haiti, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Micronesia, Federated States, Laos, Moldova, Lesotho, Mongolia, Liberia, Morocco, Madagascar, Nicaragua, Malawi, Nigeria, Mali, Pakistan, Mauritania, Papua New Guinea, Mozambique, Paraguay, Myanmar, Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Niger, Swaziland, Rwanda, Syria, Samoa, Tokelau, São Tomé and Príncipe, Tonga, Senegal, Turkmenistan, Sierra Leone, Ukraine, Solomon Islands, Uzbekistan, Somalia, Vietnam, South Sudan, West Bank and Gaza Strip, Sudan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Yemen and Zambia.
College Admission Requirement
Entrance Requirement: The candidate must hold an academic qualification at least equivalent to a high distinction. Degrees obtained with a final score equivalent to second class second/lower division will not be taken into consideration.
Test Requirement: No
English Language Requirements:
- Applicants need to provide official proof of English proficiency, the only accepted certificates are:
- IELTS: Academic
- TOEFL: iBT, computer-based or paper-based
- TOEFL ITP is not accepted
- Cambridge: CAE or CPE
- FCE is not accepted
- Applicants can find more information about the English proficiency certificates here.
How to Apply: Applications may be submitted via online or post.
It is the sole responsibility of every candidate to complete their online application file.
Follow accurately the online application instructions. you must pay special attention to the following conditions:
- Before submitting the online application form, make sure to have the following fields correctly filled in:
- Your first name and last name must be written EXACTLY as they appear on your passport.
- The status must be either “Doctoral programme (diploma contract)” or “Predoctoral programme”.
- If the application is submitted between September and October 2017, the academic year must be 2017 – 2018; starting from November 2017, the academic year must be 2018 – 2019.
- The answer for the question “Is this application also intended as a scholarship application?” is “Yes”.
- The name of the scholarship agency is “IRO Doctoral Scholarship”.
- Make sure to upload all the core documents. Please follow the instructions about uploading PDF documents and pay special attention to the following guidelines:
- The bachelor’s degree diploma must be saved as IROdiplomaB_your last name.
- If you have more than one diploma, it should be clearly indicated (i.e. IROdiplomaB1_your last name)
- The bachelor’s degree transcript must be saved as IROtranscriptB_your last name.
- If you have more than one transcript, it should be clearly indicated (i.e. IROtranscriptB1_your last name)
- The master’s degree diploma must be saved as IROdiplomaM_your last name.
- If you have more than one diploma, it should be clearly indicated (i.e. IROdiplomaM1_your last name)
- The master’s degree transcript must be saved as IROtranscriptM_your last name.
- If you have more than one transcript, it should be clearly indicated (i.e. transcriptM1_your last name)
- The English proficiency certificate must be saved as IROenglish_your last name.
- ONLY the certificates enlisted here can be accepted.
- The scanned copy of your passport must be saved as IROpassport_your last name.
- The thesis proposal must be saved as IROproposal_your last name. The document must include the electronic signature of the KU Leuven promoter and the original signatures of the applicant and local co-promoter. Only the official IRO format must be used.
- Your CV must be saved as IROcv_your last name.
- The motivation letter must be saved as IROmotivation_your last name. The document must include the electronic signature of the KU Leuven promoter and the original signatures of the applicant and local co-promoter. Only the official IRO format must be used.
- The bachelor’s degree diploma must be saved as IROdiplomaB_your last name.
- Additionally, you must upload the following:
- The CV of your local co-promoter; it must be saved as IROlocalcopromoter_your last name.
- Only if you are currently living in one of the EU or EEA countries, you must upload your residence permit and save it as IROrespermit_your last name.
- Only if you are applying for a doctoral programme in either economics or applied economics, a GMAT or GRE score (for a GMAT score, please contact GMAC[code JQH7X51] and arrange for an original scorecard to be sent directly to the Admissions Office by ETS or GMAC, respectively, before November 13th 2017.
- Please note that the system only accepts one application form per faculty. Even though your research topic may be different and your prospective promoter may be different within the same faculty, you still can submit only one application for the first research topic and promoter, and you will have to send an email to irocandidates-at-kuleuven.be with your guest account number on the subject of the email to inform that you want to apply for a second topic with a different promoter within the same faculty.
Submission of physical documents: It is the sole responsibility of every candidate to submit all the requested documents. It is strongly recommended to send your documents with a courier service as they can be tracked and therefore, their arrival can be acknowledged by you. Due to the large volume of application documents, reception of them cannot be confirmed.
Every package must include your guest account number on the envelope.
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- Your IRO research proposal signed by you (original signature), your local co-promoter (original signature) and your KU Leuven promoter (electronic signature).
- Applicants who are already enrolled in a doctoral programme at KU Leuven will only need to prepare a detailed progress report as defined by their Doctoral School. The report must be signed by the KU Leuven promoter and the members of the doctoral student’s examination committee.
- Your IRO motivation letter signed by you (original signature), your local co-promoter (original signature) and your KU Leuven promoter (electronic signature).
- Certified copies of your diplomas and transcripts of records.
- Two recommendation letters by relevant referees; only the official IRO format must be used; neither your local co-promoter nor your KU Leuven promoter can provide such letters; both letters must be sent in sealed envelopes by your referees before the deadline.
- Your IRO research proposal signed by you (original signature), your local co-promoter (original signature) and your KU Leuven promoter (electronic signature).
Application Deadline: The deadline for applications is January 31, 2018.