Necessary information to apply for Visegrad Scholarship Program

If you are a citizen of V4 countries pursuing an academic career in bachelor’s, master’s or post-master’s levels, you will find useful information in this article. 

For the citizens of the Visegrad countries, Visegrad fund provides annual scholarships covering the costs of up to four semesters in all disciplines and languages. Read on for the details to apply. 

A bit of background

The establishment of the Visegrad fund dates back to June 9, 2000, when V4 Prime Ministers decided on creating the institution for promoting cultural, scientific and research cooperation between the member countries. 

The fund also aims to enhance regional cooperation, especially between the V4 countries (Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), Western Balkans, and EU Eastern Partnership countries.

Visegrad is an international donorship company. Since its establishment in 2000, fund has made equal donations to all member countries for the whole sum of 8 mln €. Other donors, including Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States donated 10 mln € through various grand programs.

Types of programs you can benefit from

You can find the ways to fund your education through the following scholarship schemes:

• Intra-Visegrad Scholarships is for the scholars and researchers from the Member countries to gain Bachelor’s, Master’s, and post-Master’s degrees.
• Out-Going Scholarships for scholars and researchers from member countries to take Master’s and post-Master’s studies in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine.
• In-Coming Scholarships for scholars and researchers from Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership countries to take Master’s and post-Master’s studies in V4 member countries.

The below chart will help you easier navigate among the study programs you are eligible for based on your citizenship.

Eligibility

To state again, Visegrad scholarships fund citizens of V4 countries, Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership only. Other than that, you should meet the below-given eligibility criteria to receive funding.

You should apply for the countries different from your country of citizenship and permanent residence.

The country where you took your previous grades of studies shouldn't correspond to the one you apply to. 

The distance between the applicant's current university/ permanent residence and the host should be more than 150 km. 

The scholarship is intended to support four semesters for bachelor's and master's studies and two semesters for post-master's studies at most. The minimum length of the supported studying period is one academic semester equaling to five months. 

Consider applying to scholarships one time per application cycle. For the upcoming application cycles, you are not restricted from applying. However, note that the scholarship committee will give preference to those applicants who weren't funded before. 

How to apply?

You can apply for the scholarship exclusively by online application via the My Visegrad system. You should register a personal account, through which you will hold all the further communication related to the scholarship. 

After the registration in My Visegrad, you will be required to fill in the application document. You will be required to fill in some sections of the form and upload certain documents. Note that all the documents should be either in English or translated into English. If a document is longer than one page, consider converting it to pdf format before attaching.

The requested documents vary based on the study program you are applying to. 

For bachelor's and master's studies, you will need to upload the following documents' scanned versions.

• Valid ID document (for EU citizens: photo ID card, for non-EU citizens: passport)
• Diploma supplement or the transcript for the previous two completed semesters
• Letter of acceptance from the host university

For post-master's studies, attach the scans of the following documents:

• Valid ID
• Letter of acceptance from the host university + the detailed working plan

Visit the Visegrad official website's Scholarship Instructions for more details.

Timeline

The deadline for the application is March 15 every year. The entire scholarship selection process takes 165 working days: 30 days to apply, 45 days to review the application and announce selected scholars, 90 days to start the scholarship distribution. 

Breakdown of the selection process will guide you through the stages your application will pass.  

Stage 1: All the applications pass the initial review to check the correspondence to scholarship requirements. Further, the Selection Committee continues reviewing only the applications that fit predefined standards.

Stage 2: As a review result, the Committee gives a list of recommended applicants to the Council of Ambassadors. 

Stage 3: The Council of Ambassadors approves the final list of applicants and the final list of substitute applicants who will receive the scholarship if any of the main lists cancel it. This stage is completed by May 31. 

Stage 4: The Fund is obliged to notify all the applicants about the approval and rejection of their applications by May 31. You will receive information about the status of your application via email. Additionally, you may find the information on the Visegrad official website. If you receive the scholarship, you will be asked to double confirm personal data such as passport numbers, etc. 

The first round of scholarship provision begins every September for the upcoming studying year. 

Suppose the Visegrad scholarship criteria do not apply to you. In that case, there are plenty of others covering different areas of study, degrees, locations, etc., which you can freely find on the web. 

Our articles on Gates Scholarship and Ways to receive scholarships may help you in that.

Published on Jan 22, 2021