Belgium Govt Scholarships 2024/25 for ARES Partner Countries.

Belgium Govt Scholarships 2024/25 for ARES Partner Countries

Belgium Govt Scholarships 2024/25 for ARES Partner Countries

Are you a national of an ARES partner country? Do you have a higher education degree? Do you have professional experience and would you like to deepen your skills in a development-related topic?

Belgium Govt Scholarships 2024/25 for ARES Partner Countries. The ARES scholarships offer you the opportunity to follow a one-year advanced bachelor’s or master’s degree program or a 2-to-6-month continuing education program within a higher education institution of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation in Belgium.

Awarding Country: Belgium

Eligible Countries:

ARES Partner Countries: – Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

Program Level:

Bachelors
Masters
Continuing Education Courses

Programs: The list of Programs under Belgium Govt Scholarships 2024/25 is as follows:-

Bachelors:

https://www.ares-ac.be/en/cooperation-au-developpement/bourses/ressortissants-sud/bacheliers/810-bachelier-de-specialisation-en-business-data-analysis

Masters:

Continuing Education Courses:

Financial Support Type:

Economy class air travel one round trip
Living allowance
Exceptional costs related to visa applications
Registration fee
Insurance fee

How to apply

Applicants must submit their applications for Belgium Government scholarships for the 2024/25 academic year through the designated application procedure and ensure that they meet the eligibility criteria outlined below. A selection panel for each training course will evaluate the administrative admissibility of applications, and ARES will then analyze them to select scholarship recipients.

ARES will treat all applications received between the first and last day of the call equally. ARES actively encourages women to apply and will prioritize women for equal quality applications.

Applying for an ARES scholarship is completely free. ARES does not charge any fees at any stage of the application or selection process. You may inform us via e-mail at scholarships-cooperation@ares-ac.be of any problems with individuals or companies claiming to represent ARES and request any payment.

Procedure for Submitting Applications

Your application should be submitted to ARES via the GIRAF platform:
You must first ensure that you have an active GIRAF account.
- You can create an account on the GIRAF platform via this link. This account will be validated (within a few hours to a few days, don’t create more than one account) by ARES and you will receive a confirmation mail to create a password.
- If you created a validated account last year, you can reuse that account and if necessary reset your password.
Once logged into your GIRAF account, you can access the application form via the Competitive Calls tab of your GIRAF profile. Please note that you must only click once on the “International training application 2024-2025” button. You will then find your form in the My Tasks table of the Competitive calls.
You can complete your form several times, as long as you use the “Save and edit later” option. You will find your form each time in the My Tasks table of the Competitive Calls tab in GIRAF.
As soon as you click on “Submit my application”, your application is sent to ARES and you can no longer modify it. You can still consult it in the My Submitted files

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS

Applications must be submitted via GIRAF by 17 November 2023 at noon (Belgian time, UTC+1) at the latest. Applications submitted after this date will not be considered.

All successful and reserved candidates will receive an email at the end of the selection process (June 2024). Unsuccessful candidates will receive an e-mail by the end of June 2024 at the latest. No communication other than that mentioned above will be made to applicants.

Admissibility criteria

To be eligible, the applicant must:

Be national, reside and work in one of the following countries: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Guinea (Conakry), Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
Hold a diploma comparable to a graduate level degree (300 credits ECTS) from Belgian university studies for advanced masters and continuing education courses (equivalent to Bac+5); Hold a diploma comparable to an undergraduate level degree (180 credits ECTS) for advanced bachelors (equivalent to Bac+3). The candidate must have held the relevant academic degree for a maximum of 20 years at the time of the start of the course. Childbirth and/or adoption increase this maximum period by one year.

Possess relevant professional experience in an ARES partner country of at least two years after graduate studies for advanced bachelor, postgraduate studies for advanced masters, and continuing education courses.

Complete the application in the language in which the training is given and can attest a good written and spoken knowledge of it. Moreover, knowing a minimum of French allows for a good integration into daily life in Belgium.
Apply for only one training course.

Please note that compliance with the admissibility criteria does not guarantee selection and eligibility for the course (see Selection Criteria).

To be considered for the ARES scholarship, applicants must not obtain prior admission to one of the French-speaking institutions in Belgium.

Application files will not be considered if they:

Applicants must ensure they complete all requirements and provide the necessary documents (certified copy of the diploma, etc.). A certified copy is a copy of the document with a stamp and signature of the competent authority (notary, town hall, municipal administration, etc.) certifying it as “a true copy of the original.”
do not mention compliance with the admissibility criteria specified above (certified copy of diploma, professional experience, etc.).

List of documents required for the application to be valid:

2 letters of recommendation (academic and/or professional);
Certified copies of the original diplomas;
Certified copies of the original transcripts for all years;
Proof of occupation for the last 5 years;
Certificate of nationality or copy of passport;
Pre-project (for certain courses – see the admission conditions specific to the courses).

Applying for an ARES scholarship is completely free. ARES does not charge fees at any stage of the application or selection process. You may inform us via e-mail at scholarships-cooperation@ares-ac.be of any problems with individuals or companies claiming to represent ARES and request any payment.

Selection criteria

A deliberative jury organized for each training carries out the selection. The ARES grants the selection panel the right to evaluate the compliance of the applications with the common selection criteria described below, individually or in combination with each other. We may apply additional criteria for each training. The criteria are announced on the training description page (see above).

Quality of the academic curriculum

We evaluate the academic quality of applications based on diplomas, lists of completed courses, results, teaching or research activities, and publications

For degree programs, we will prioritize applicants who have not yet completed a degree with equivalent skills, except under exceptional circumstances duly justified in the application file.

The benefit of previous scholarships

We will give priority to applicants who have not yet received an ARES scholarship in Belgium

Professional experience

ARES gives priority to people who, after their university studies, have had the opportunity to work in a profession related to development issues. The social impact of the professional experience is an element of appreciation.

Membership in a partner institution

In the case of equality, individuals who work in an institution with which ARES has a partnership, either in the context of institutional support or in the context of a research for development or southern training project, receive priority over the other selection criteria.

The potential of people to be actors of change in their society

The selection panel will particularly focus on application files from candidates who, in addition to their academic qualities, have demonstrated commitment to development. Candidates illustrate their commitment by working with the most disadvantaged social groups and engaging with them to find efficient ways to defend and promote their interests.

Nationality criteria

ARES wishes to diversify the geographical origin of its recipients. It ensures that there is no over-representation of any nationality in the international training programs.

Gender

In the selection process, we must respect the cascade effect for gender. This definition states that the proportion of women selected must be greater than or equal to the proportion of applications from women that we assess as being of sufficient quality.

If the selection does not respect this cascade effect, we must justify it accordingly.

ARES guarantees the possibility of deferring a grant in case of pregnancy (for men and women).

The ability (personal and professional) to ensure a transfer of the knowledge and skills acquired by the scholarship holders.

The applicant must provide maximum guarantees regarding their return to their country of origin or to another developing country, as well as their reintegration into a field that will enable them to utilize the training acquired in Belgium in a development context (e.g. a work contract or a formal promise of commitment) and to generate a multiplier effect.

Official Link: ARES