VU Masters Fellowship Programme (VUFP) 2025/2026 for International Students – The Netherlands

The VU Fellowship Programme (VUFP) offers talented prospective students the unique opportunity to pursue a degree in a selection of Master’s programmes at VU University. VU University has committed to providing approximately 1 million euro towards attracting highly motivated, excellent students.

Application Deadline: 1st December 2024

Eligible Countries: International

To be taken at (country): VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands

Eligible Field of Study: Courses offered at the University

About Scholarship: The VU Fellowship Programme (VUFP) offers talented prospective international students the unique opportunity to pursue a Master’s degree Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam has committed to providing approximately 1 million euro towards attracting highly motivated and excellent students.

All VUFP applications received by 1 February will be reviewed by the faculty at which the applicant will be participating in a Master’s programme. Faculties then nominate applicants to the central scholarship committee, which then awards scholarships to the most talented students. The award is based on the motivation letter, the quality of previous education and the student’s academic performance therein. A scholarship offer will then be made to successful candidates.

Type: Masters, Fellowship

Selection Criteria and Eligibility

• The VU Fellowship Programme (VUFP) is a Merit scholarship programme for strongly motivated students with excellent study results.
• Eligible candidates must be able to prove their academic excellence, and they must be admitted to an English-taught Master’s degree at VU Amsterdam starting per September 2019.
• Students with the Dutch nationality and/or a Dutch degree (given that the Dutch degree is used for admission) are not eligible for admission.
• Students following a one-year Master’s programme may not apply for the VUFP scholarship for a second year.
• Students already enrolled in a two-year Master’s programme who have not been awarded the VUFP scholarship in 2018/2019 are not eligible to apply for the VUFP scholarship 2019/2020.
• Only when a student was granted a scholarship from the beginning, then the scholarship can be extended if he/she achieved 100% of the credits of the first year.
• The Faculty VUFP committee will be asked to demonstrate to the Central VUFP committee that these credits have indeed been achieved.
• The scholarship will only be granted to a student once and is explicitly intended for the Master’s programme for which it has been awarded.

Number of Scholarships: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: When applying for the VUFP scholarship, you automatically also apply for the NL Scholarship(formerlyHSP). No separate application is necessary. 

NL Scholarship is a contribution towards the costs of living. It is 5.000 EUR or 10.000 EUR for the entire duration of your study period. Please note:

• • The NL Scholarship is awarded only for the first year of your study programme. You will not receive the NL Scholarship for the second year of your studies even if you are following a two-year study programme.
  • We have around 20- 25 HSP scholarships available. Only a few of the VUFP awardees will get the NL Scholarship.

Duration of Scholarship: One or two years of Masters degree programme

How to Apply

Step 1: Register for a Master’s programme (from 1 October 2024)  
Register for a Master’s programme in Studielink and after that in your personal dashboard on vu.nl. Here you can find more information on how to apply for one of our English-taught Master’s programmes. Please note that you must have been already conditionally admitted to the Master’s programme before you can apply for the VUFP scholarship.
Advised deadline Master’s programme application: 1 December 2024

It is essential that you submit your programme application in time if you wish to apply for the scholarships. Realistically, you should aim to submit your programme application no later than 1 December. And if your programme’s admission procedure includes an intake/assessment, we advise you to submit your complete programme application even earlier.

Step 2: Submit VUFP application (from 1 November 2024)
Submit your VUFP application in your personal VU dashboard. 

Please note that you can apply for the VUFP only for one master programme! This means that if you apply for several master degrees, when submitting your VUFP application you must choose for which master programme you wish to do so. 

Deadline VUFP application: 1 February 2025 (23:59 CET)

To apply please fill out this form and at the end of it paste the GPA proof/ programme transcript and a grading scale explanation. Once done, save it as a one file in .PDF format and upload it in the Scholarship section of your personal dashboard on vu.nl (located on the Complete Registration page).

Answer all questions and include the GPA proof/ programme transcript. Not answering one or more questions or not including the GPA proof/ programme transcript will result in your application being considered incomplete.

Please note that you can submit your application only once. Make sure to double check if your application is complete and sufficient before submitting it. You will not be allowed to submit it again!

Visit Scholarship webpage for details