Netherlands Fellowship Program for Short Courses

Nuffic, through the Netherlands Fellowship Programme, provide scholarships for short courses in Netherlands for international students.  NFP fellowships can be used for a number of selected courses and are offered by education institutions in the Netherlands. The institutions provide professional training at post- secondary level in several fields of study. The courses lead to a Dutch certificate or a diploma and their duration varies from two weeks to twelve months.

Host Institutions: Dutch Universities and Institutions
Study in: Netherlands, Course starts September 2012 
Field of study: The list of short courses that are supported by the fellowships can be found at NFP brochure including the course list (PDF, 1.5 MB). Please note that this is a provisional list and that information is subject to change. Please regularly check the Nuffic website for the latest information. 
Special Announcement: One can apply for NFP fellowships for one of the training courses – Local Service Delivery and MDG’s which will be held from 15 to 26 October 2012 in The Hague. 
Target group: Students from 61 developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.  Half of the available fellowships should be awarded to female candidates and the other half should be spent on candidates from sub-Saharan Africa. Apart from this, priority is given to candidates from priority groups and/or from marginalized regions to be defined by the embassies. 
Scholarship value/inclusions: The NFP allowance is considered to be a contribution towards the cost of living for the fellowship holder. A fellowship holder can therefore be faced with additional expenses (for instance extra costs for housing). Fellowship holders are advised to check with the Dutch institution if this can be the case for them. The allowances are not sufficient to support family members, either in the home country or in the Netherlands. 
Eligibility: A candidate applying for an NFP fellowship for a short course must:
• Be a mid-career professional with at least three years’ relevant work experience;
• Be a national of, and working and living in one of the developing countries on the NFP country list valid at the time of application (see annex 4);
• Be nominated by their employer, who pledges to continue paying their salary and guarantees that they will be able to return to the same or an equivalent position at the end of the fellowship period;
• Bave been unconditionally admitted by a Dutch institution to one of the short courses on the course list 2012-2013. This means that candidates must meet all the requirements set by the Dutch institution;
• Not have received more than one NFP short course fellowships;
• Not have received an NFP short course fellowship in the year prior to the fellowship application;
• Not be employed by:  a multinational corporation (for instance Shell, Unilever etc.); a large national and/-or commercial organisation; a bilateral donor organisation (for instance USAID, DFID, Danida, Sida, FinAid, AusAid, ADC, SwissAid etc.); multilateral donor organisation, (for instance a UN organisation, the World Bank, the IMF, Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, IADB, etc.); or an international NGO’s (for instance Oxfam, Plan, Care, etc.).
• Have completed and submitted an NFP short course fellowship application including all the required documentation before the applicable NFP fellowship application deadline;
• Be employed in an area to which the study will make a relevant contribution;
• Have a clear-cut, functional relationship with a relevant organisation and be in a position to introduce the newly acquired skills and knowledge into that organisation;
• Be available for the entire period of the course and be physically and mentally able to take part in the entire course;
• Endorse the objective and the aim of the NFP. The aim of the NFP cannot be reached if the fellowship holder does not return to his or her own country. Nuffic would like to urge fellowship holders to return to their home country upon finishing the course or programme to meet the NFP aim in the most effective way. 
Deadline: 2 Oct 2012
Application instructions: To be eligible for an NFP fellowship, candidates need to be admitted to the short course for which they would like an NFP fellowship. Candidates first apply for admission directly to the Dutch institution that offers the short course of their choice.  The Dutch institution assesses the application and decides whether or not to admit the candidate to the short course. Nuffic has no part in the academic admission process.
A candidate applying for an NFP fellowship must have been unconditionally admitted to a Dutch institution for the course or programme for which the candidate applies for an NFP fellowship. This means that the candidate must have met all the academic and administrative requirements set by the Dutch institution.
The deadline for academic applications is earlier, about 1-2 months earlier than the fellowship applications deadline.   Candidates are strongly advised to apply as early as possible for admission to a Dutch institution to allow these institutions enough time to process all the applications for admission in time. 
For 2012-2013, the deadline for fellowship applications is 7 Februrary or 1 May or 2 October in 2012 depending on the course (see the NFP course list for 2012-2013 to know the specific deadline for your chosen course).  The deadlines for paper fellowship applications are always one month before the online application deadline.  The paper fellowship application deadlines are: 1 January 2012, 1 April 2012 and 1 September 2012.
Applications have to be submitted through Scholarships Online (SOL). Through SOL candidates can apply for fellowships online and they can check the status of an application. Other parties such as the Dutch institutions, the embassies and consulates will use SOL to add information about an NFP fellowship application. The embassies and consulates will also use SOL to assess NFP Fellowship applications. 
Further Information: http://www.nuffic.nl/international-students/scholarships/scholarships-administered-by-nuffic/netherlands-fellowships-programmes-nfp/netherlands-fellowship-programmes-nfp