Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp Scholarships
The Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) manages a scholarships programme for students from low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).
The Belgian Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGD) is the main scholarship sponsor for ITM. Through ITM, DGD offers scholarships for
- Master programmes
- Short courses
- PhD studies
As postgraduate certificate courses are mainly targeting students from EEA countries, no scholarship programme is available for these courses.
ITM is a preferred partner for the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program (JJ/WBGSP). If you received an admission letter for a full-time master track at ITM and your home country is assisted by the World Bank, you can apply for a scholarship from the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program.
There are often alternative (full or partial) scholarship opportunities and applicants are strongly encouraged to also search for other sponsors such as employers, private sponsors, development cooperation projects or national agencies supporting studies abroad.
Who can apply for a DGD scholarship?
Citizens from any LMIC can apply. Applicants need to be both citizen of and actually living in a LMIC as defined in the OECD-DAC list of LMICs.
A majority of scholarships, but not all, will be awarded to citizens from the countries defined as priority countries for the Belgian Directorate for Development Cooperation (see list below). But, as mentioned higher, students from any LMIC can apply.
The DGD country list includes:
Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Palestine, Philippines, Peru, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, Zimbabwe.
Note that candidates with an second citizenship from a high income country (e.g. through a double nationality) or candidates who are employed in a high income country or have been for more than one year in the three years preceding the application for a scholarship, cannot be awarded a DGD scholarship through ITM.
DGD scholarships can cover travel, tuition (registration and credit fees), insurances and livelihood.
A DGD scholarship can be full, covering all items mentioned above or partial and only cover one or a few items (e.g. only tuition fees or only livelihood).
In a part-time MSc study track a DGD scholarships can also cover the costs of a course components (modules) outside ITM, in the framework of credit mobility (e.g. in the tropEd network), or at partner institutions within the framework of a collaborative/joint programme.
Selection criteria
As stated higher, scholarships (full or partial) can only be awarded to candidates who fulfil all criteria for admission to the course, including the language proficiency requirement. During the online application process applicants can download a DGD scholarship application form. ITM indeed only accepts DGD scholarship applications as part of a course application file.
ITM and DGD will jointly award the available scholarships among the academically highest ranked candidates. DGD scholarships can only be awarded to candidates less than 46 years old at the end of the course or at graduation. See also ITM scholarship regulations.
Selection criteria as defined by DGD and used to rank applicants for the available scholarships are:
- Personal motivation
- Gender: at equal qualification, preference for female scholarship candidates
- Preferably not have been awarded a DGD scholarship in the past and not yet have studied in a high-income country
- Preferably employment in a research institute, a higher education institution, the public sector, the social economy, a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) or in a non-governmental organisation
- Employment characteristics and or prospects, as per support of an employer
- Likely professional (re-)integration after following the course
- Employment in a context where the learnings can be readily applied.
DGD scholarships for doctoral candidates
Each year, three PhD scholarships can be awarded to ITM alumni who are admitted to the ITM doctoral (PhD) programme. Admitted PhD candidates have to comply to DGD eligibility criteria (nationality, home address/domicile and age) before a DGD PhD-scholarship can be awarded. A PhD scholarship can provide financial support for up to four years (48 months) of doctoral training.
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