DAAD/EPOS Scholarships for Young Professionals from Developing Countries

About the DAAD-EPOS scholarship

The “Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst” (DAAD) has selected the MEG programme as a development-related postgraduate course and so the programme can offer a limited number of EPOS Scholarships. Candidates will be selected first by the programme committee of the MEG programme. In a second step, DAAD will check our selection carefully and decide upon the candidates.

This is a highly competitive application process with strict requirements. Scholarship applicants must fulfill both the DAAD EPOS requirements AND the admission criteria for the MEG programme.

Note: The DAAD-EPOS scholarship application has to be submitted one year ahead of admission (15 October 2024 for study begin October 2025). The applications for the MEG programme and for the scholarship are linked, meaning that the required documents compose an application for both.

If you do not fulfill the requirements for a scholarship application (see below), you may want to look at the information for regular applicants. For them application is due only half a year ahead of admission (May 15, 2025).

Application deadline for winter semester 2025/26

Who can apply

Young professionals from developing countries (DAC countries) who meet all of the following requirements:

• have an academic degree, that is not older than six years at the time of application (October 2024)
• have a minimum of 2 years of relevant professional experience (post Bachelor, at the time of application); internships and volontary work are not accepted

Note that employment in academia, like teaching and research at a university or research institute, is not considered relevant work experience for this scholarship type; only in very exceptional cases can it be accepted.

Application procedures

How to apply (update 23.07.2024)

Complete the Online Eligibility Assessment (OEA)

If you are not sure if you fufill the admissions requirements for the programme, consider filling in the OEA. Within one week you will receive an e-mail confirming if you are eligible to apply for the programme and fore the DAAD scholarship or not. OEAs will be processed only until October 8.

Basic Information

• All documents listed below, under Application Documents need to be merged into one single PDF file, compressed, and sent to info-meg@unr.uni-freiburg.de

• Referees have to send their reference letters directly to info-meg@unr.uni-freiburg.de, not to the applicant.

• All documents must be sent electronically by October 15. Incomplete applications cannot be considered.

• If you hand in the documents listed below, there is no need to submit additional documents required in the DAAD application form (e.g. project outline). Please contact us, if you need help to merge and/or compress the PDF files

Application documents

1.    DAAD Application Form (download DAAD Application Form), don´t forget date of issue

2.    MEG Application form (download)

3.    Letter of Motivation, following this MEG Guideline , don´t forget date of issue

SPECIAL CASE

If you are applying - apart from MEG - to other Master programmes of the DAAD-EPOS programme, you have to write a  SECOND motivation letter in which you explain why you are applying for these specific programmes and why you have chosen the order of priority. You must provide the exactly same letter of motivation to all programmes you are applying for.

• The letter should be a maximum of 2 pages long, should refer to your current occupation, your motivation for further study and related to that, to your order of priority.
• It has to include date of issue
• Without this letter, DAAD will exclude you from the application process. You can apply for maximum three DAAD-EPOS master programmes.
• Make sure that you indicate your choices also in the DAAD application form. If you apply for more than one EPOS programme without indicating it in the DAAD application form, DAAD will exclude you from the application process.

4.  CV

• format EUROPASS
• full CV without any unexplained gaps
•  in reverse chronological order
• incl. the date of issue

 5. Transcript of Records (original and certified translation if necessary).

• The transcript needs to be uploaded in it´s original version and if necessary in it´s  English or German certified translation.

• Your Bachelor´s transcript must contain a final weighted average/CGPA and a grading scale. The grade must be NUMERIC (not alphabetical or qualitative).  If your transcript lacks the above, please attach an annex with the missing information (e.g. link to your university´s official grading scale). Without this information we cannot assess and consider your application.
• For the assessment of your application we can only consider your bachelor grade, even if your last degree is a Master´s degree. Therefore, make sure to upload the transcript of your bachelors degree.

• It you  have a Bachelor and a Master degree please also upload the transcript of your Master degree for our information, but keep in mind that we cannot consider the grade of your Master degree.
  
   

6. University degree certificate

• The degree certificate needs to be uploaded in it´s original version and if necessary in it´s  English or German certified translation.

 7. Certificate for professional experience relevant to MEG 

•  Work certificate(s) for at least two years of relevant professional experience at the time of application (October 2024).  The letter must state the exact dates of employment.  An employment contract cannot be accepted as it only shows that you were employed, but not for how long. Internships or voluntary cannot be accepted.
• the letter must be written on headed paper, including an original (not scanned) or code certified digital signature, the date signed and a stamp.

8. Two recommendation letters

• one from your current employer (DAAD requirement)
• one from an academic (MEG requirement)
  

• ask both referees to write a reference letter based on the Guideline for Referees.
• the letters must be written on headed paper, including an original (not scanned) or code certified digital signature, the date of signature and a stamp.
  

• Do not send the reference letters yourself. These must be sent from the referees directly to us. Letters that you send us yourself cannot be recognized. Each referee should send the letter to info-meg@unr.uni-freiburg.de before Oct 15, 2024. You must fill in the names and contact dates of your chosen referees in the MEG application form, page 2.

9. English Language Certificate (originals or certified copies).

• Language certificates have to be submitted until October 15. Exceptions are allowed only if applicants can upload the registration proof for a test date on or before October 15 and provide the test result until October 31. No exceptions to this rule.

• We accept either TOEFL (iBT 95 points, PBT 600), IELTS (Band 7) or Cambridge (level C1) or PTE (Pearson Academic, score 76). TOEFL certificates cannot be older than 2 years. For the other tests there is no such limit.

• We are registered for TOEFL online verification. Our TOEFL code number is 8692, dept. code 99.

• For IELTS verification there is no code number and applicants who have not already received a pdf version of their certificate should upload a screenshot of their result, which we will then verify.

EXEMPTIONS:

• Native English speakers are exempted from a language proof. They shall upload a copy of their passport.
• Applicants who followed their entire university studies in English in an English speaking country (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) or in a country where English is the official language are exempted from the English Certificate.
  

10. Signed DAAD checklist      VERY IMPORTANT!

• The checklist has to be printed out and signed with a pen and then be scanned again (a digital signature cannot be accepted).

• The documents listed are mandatory. Please read very carefully and make sure that you submit the documents exactly the way it is required. Only tick a document off if you included it.  If a stamp or a signature when required on a document is missing, DAAD will reject the application.

11. APS Certificate

     Compulsory only for applicants from China, India and Vietnam. Can be submitted later during matriculation.

12.  Submit:

• All documents listed above have to be merged into one single PDF file, compressed, and sent to info-meg@unr.uni-freiburg.de

Waiting for results / Interview

You will be notified by the end of January about the first results of the selection process. If you are nominated for the short-list an interview will follow. Only after the interview, the selection of scholarship candidates will be finalised. By mid-February, the final results will be communicated.

Online Info Session

Join us online to ask and get answers to all your MEG Programme + DAAD Scholarship application questions

on

July 3,  2pm CES or

August 28, 2pm CEST or

September 18, 2 pm CEST