Description
The Netherlands Fellowship Programmes (NFP) are demand-oriented fellowship programmes designed to promote institutional development. The NFP target group consists of mid-career professionals who are in employment.
The overall aim of the NFP is to help alleviate qualitative and quantitative shortages of skilled manpower within a wide range of governmental, private sector and non-governmental organizations. This by offering fellowships to professionals to improve their capacity to contribute to the development of their employing organizations.
The NFP is initiated and fully funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the development cooperation budget. The ministry has contracted the Nuffic to administer the NFP.
Priorities
Half of the available funding from the NFP budget should be spent on fellowships for female candidates and for candidates from sub-Saharan Africa. Additional priority is given to candidates from priority groups and/or from marginalized regions, to be defined by the embassies.
For students who come from:
- Zimbabwe
- Zambia
- Uganda
- Tanzania
- Sudan
- South Africa
- Senegal
- Rwanda
- Nigeria
- Namibia
Want to go to:
- Netherlands
Disciplines:
- Any discipline
Eligibility
To be eligible for an NFP fellowship, applicants must be a national of one of the following 60 countries:
Afghanistan, El Salvador, Nepal, Albania, Eritrea, Nicaragua, Armenia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Autonomous Palestinian Territories, Georgia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ghana, Peru, Benin, Guatemala, Philippines, Bhutan, Guinea-Bissau, Rwanda, Bolivia, Honduras, Senegal, Bosnia-Herzegovina, India, South Africa, Brazil, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Burkina Faso, Iran, Sudan, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Suriname, Cambodia, Jordan, Tanzania, Cape Verde, Kenya, Thailand, Kosovo, Uganda, Colombia, Macedonia, Vietnam, Costa Rica, Mali, Yemen, Cuba, Moldova, Zambia, DR Congo, Mongolia, Zimbabwe, Ecuador, Mozambique, Egypt, Namibia.
A candidate applying for an NFP fellowship for a short course must:
- be a national of and working in one of the selected developing countries on the NFP country list valid at the time of application;
- be a mid-career professional with at least three years’ work experience;
- not have received an NFP fellowship or any other fellowship in the three years prior to the start of the proposed short course. (Please note that the Ministry has decided not to check applications against this specific criterion anymore as of the April 2010 NFP deadline until the May 2011 NFP deadline. If the Netherlands Embassies establish that an applicant has received multiple scholarships during the recent past, they can make a remark about this. The Dutch institutions have the possibility to exclude these applicants);
- have been unconditionally admitted by a Dutch institution to one of the short courses on the course list. This means that the applicant must have met all the requirements set by the Dutch institution;
- have completed an NFP short course application form and have submitted all the required documentation to the Netherlands embassy or consulate;
- be nominated by his or her employer, who pledges to continue paying the candidate´s salary and guarantees the candidate will be able to return to an equivalent position at the end of the fellowship period. Partial payment of salary can sometimes be allowed as an exception to the rule. It is up to the Dutch embassy to decide if an agreement between the employer and the candidate about partial continuation of payment of salary is acceptable. It should be noted, however, that NFP allowances are not sufficient to support family members, either in the home country or in the Netherlands;
- not be employed by a large industrial, commercial, international or multinational organization, which can be assumed to have sufficient resources of its own to finance staff training;
- offer evidence of proficiency in speaking and writing the language of instruction. If this is English, candidates who have received their tertiary education in any language other than English must provide evidence in the form of a score in an internationally recognized test, such as IELTS (a score of at least 6.0) or TOEFL (a score of at least 550 points on the paper-based test , 213 points on the computer-based test or 79 on the internet-based test). An exception to this rule is made for candidates who have received their tertiary education in the English language, and for candidates who have previously attended a course or programme with a Dutch educational institution, but no longer than two years ago;
- be available for the entire period of the course and be physically and mentally able to take part in the entire course;
- declare that they will return to their home country immediately after the short course has ended;
- comply with country-specific rules set by RNE (for more information please contact the Netherlands Embassy or consulate in your home country).
Benefits
An NFP fellowship, which is granted for the duration of the programme, is intended to provide a contribution towards the costs of living, to cover the costs of tuition fees, and the cost of visas, travel, insurance, thesis research, etc.
Subsistence allowance
All costs of subsistence including housing
- In the Netherlands: EUR 32,00 per day
- In an NFP country: EUR 485,00 max per month, eur 17,00 per day
Personal allowance per month for the duration of the course: EUR 17,00
Visa costs: The actual costs are reimbursed
The fellowships, which are granted for the duration of the programme, cover the tuition fees plus the costs of international travel, subsistence, books, and health insurance.
Application information
The application and selection procedure consists of nine steps (divided in two phases):
Phase 1: Application for admission at a Dutch educational institution
Applicants first apply for admission to the short course of their choice. Applications should always be directed to the Dutch institution of the course. The short courses overview provides the academic application deadlines for each short course.
The Dutch institution assesses the application and decides whether or not the applicant´s educational background and other experience meet the specific requirements for the course in question. The Dutch institution then informs all applicants of its decisions. Successful candidates will receive a letter indicating that they have been (provisionally) admitted. Admission must be unconditional in terms of the candidate´s education and language proficiency. Admission may be granted provisionally, subject to the candidate finding suitable funding for the course.
Candidates are eligible for a fellowship only if they have been admitted to the course of their choice and meet all the criteria. Candidates can only apply for a fellowship for one course per fellowship application deadline. Being admitted to more than one course with the same fellowship application deadline means that candidates will have to select one course before applying for a fellowship.
Phase 2: Application for a fellowship
After receiving their letter of admission, candidates can apply for an NFP fellowship by presenting a completed NFP short course application form to the Netherlands embassy or consulate in their own country, accompanied by the necessary documentation. The application should be submitted well before the deadline for applications set by the embassy or consulate.
The form can also be obtained from the Netherlands embassy or consulate. Some embassies require applications to be submitted in duplicate. In some countries applications have to be submitted to the embassies through local governmental organizations. Candidates are therefore advised to check any local regulations with the Netherlands embassy in their country.
Candidates should NOT send their fellowship application forms directly to Nuffic or to the Dutch provider, but should forward them to the Netherlands embassy or consulate in their own country.
The embassy or consulate assesses each application against the criteria listed above. Special attention is given to:
- whether the application was submitted before the deadline;
- whether the application stems from multi-year agreements made with selected organizations;
- whether the candidate has presented al etter of admission to the short course in question;
- whether the information accompanying the application is complete and correct, and whether the required documentation (such as passport, diplomas and language test) is in order;
- whether the course is on the list of short courses starting in 2010;
- whether the course has added value for the sustainable capacity development of the employing organization and the development of the NFP country;
- whether the candidate fulfils any other specific requirements set by the embassy, consulate or country in question.
The embassies and consulates forward all fellowship applications that meet all the criteria to Nuffic.
Nuffic decides how many fellowships will be available for each course. The allocation of fellowships over the various courses is based on the number of eligible fellowship applicants for each course.
The Dutch institution selects the candidates who will receive fellowships. The Dutch institution informs all candidates directly of their decisions, and applies to Nuffic for a grant.
Nuffic awards the grant for the Dutch institution to cover the fellowship holders´ costs, including the tuition fees.
The Dutch institutions pay each fellowship holder a monthly allowance for the duration of the short course; they also administer the fellowships, make logistical arrangements, and give guidance to the fellowship holders.
Three-year rule
Please note that as of the 1 November 2009 NFP application deadline candidates are not allowed to have received a fellowship in the three years prior to the start of the proposed short course or master´s degree programme.
Application deadlines
The deadlines for admission to short courses vary and can change throughout the year. You should contact the Dutch institution directly for further information.
Fellowship application deadlines
There are four fellowship application deadlines for short courses. A reference to the fellowship application deadline set by the Netherlands embassies and consulates can be found as categories on the short courses overview. The specific embassy deadlines for NFP applications can be downloaded: http://www.nuffic.nl/international-organizations/docs/nfp/overview-deadlines.pdf
Additional information
Candidates are eligible for a fellowship only if they have been admitted to their chosen master’s degree programme and meet all the criteria. Candidates can only apply for a fellowship for one programme per fellowship application deadline. Being admitted to more than one programme with the same fellowship application deadline means that candidates will have to select one programme before applying for a fellowship.
The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Abidjan is closed. Originally the Netherlands Embassy in Accra would handle the NFP fellowship applications originating from the Ivory Coast. Unfortunately, this Embassy is not in the position to verify documents from applicants from the Ivory Coast. For the time being it is therefore not possible for people from Ivory Coast to apply for the NFP.
The fellowship desk of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Kampala, Uganda, will be closed from the 16th of November 2010 until the 10th of January 2011 and the 7th of March 2011 until the 29th of August 2011. In this period the fellowship will only deal with selected applicants who were awarded a fellowship.
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