Doctoral Scholarships Programme for Developing Countries, KU Leuven

Welcome to the IRO Doctoral Scholarships Programme!

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 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.

Over the past ten years, the IRO Doctoral Scholarships Programme has supported over a hundred PhD graduates. Having obtained their doctoral degree from KU Leuven, the PhD holders are now utilising their expertise back in their home countries either at a university (by doing academic research), government bodies, civil society organisations or in various sectors of the industry.

KU Leuven is situated at about twenty kilometers from Brussels, the capital of both Belgium and Europe. It is the oldest university of the Low Countries. As such, it has a long-standing tradition of hospitality towards students and scholars from abroad. Currently, almost 7,000 international students (about 15% of the total number of students at KU Leuven) have found their home away from home in Leuven.

GENERAL ELIGIBILITY CONDITIONS 

Online application

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 2016, the academic year must be 2016 – 2017; starting from November 2016, the academic year must be 2017 – 2018.

  • 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.

• 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 score card to be sent directly to the International Admissions and Mobility by ETS or GMAC, respectively, before November 13th 2016.

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@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 acknowledge 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.

• Your IRO research proposal signed by you (original signature), your local co-promoter (original signature) and your KU Leuven promoter (electronic signature).
  1. 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. DO NOT SEND ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS.

• 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 November 13th, 2016 to:

IRO selection committee - your guest account number
International Admissions and Mobility Unit
KU Leuven
Atrecht College
Naamsestraat 63 – bus 5410
3000, Leuven
Belgium .

For more informaation click "Further official information" below.

This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:

http://www.kuleuven.be/english/international/funding/iro