VLIR-UOS awards scholarships to students from developing countries so that they can follow a training and master’s programme in Belgium.

These scholarships cover all related expenses. Every year, VLIR-UOS awards up to 180 scholarships to first-year master’s students and 70 scholarships to training participants

The master’s programmes, lasting one or two academic years, focus on specific problems of developing countries.

These are designed to enable graduates to share and apply acquired knowledge in the home institution and country.

Selection Procedure Training and Master Programmes Eligible Countries

Scholarships for Developing Countries: Application and Selection Procedure

• Applicants applying both for academic admission and for a VLIR-UOS scholarship need to consider both the admission requirements and the scholarship criteria.
• Applicants applying for academic admission but not for a scholarship, simply need to consider the admission requirements from the host university where the programme is organised.
• The host university is in charge of the academic admission of applications.
• Study results will be taken into consideration during the selection but relevant professional experience and prospects for applying the acquired insights after return to the country are the most important academic selection criteria.
• The academic admission requirements are specific for every programme.
• Consult the requirements from the programme you choose at the list of programmes of
• The scholarship selection is carried out by a joint selection commission of VLIR-UOS and the host university.
• The host university – not the applicant! – forwards the applications for a scholarship to the VLIR-UOS secretariat after the academic admission.
• The VLIR-UOS scholarship criteria are taken into consideration.
• These criteria consist of, on the one hand, qualification criteria which need to be fulfilled in any case by all scholarship applicants and, on the other hand, of selection criteria that are evaluated by the selection committee.
• The VLIR-UOS scholarship criteria can be found in a download at the bottom of this page.
• All applicants will receive an acknowledgement of receipt of their application.
• Applicants, who are accepted both academically and for the scholarship, will be contacted by e-mail by VLIR-UOS and the host university.
• Applicants who are not selected academically will be informed by the host university.

Scholarships for Developing Countries: Eligible Countries in Africa

Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Scholarships for Developing Countries: Application Deadlines

Master’s programme: 1 February. Training programme: 1 February except the training about the Great Lakes (30 November).

For more information and scholarship application, see; VLIR-UOS Scholarships for Developing Countries Website