Last year, a couple of our Urban Management and Development Master students, Nadia Cortes and Esteban Zuluaga from Colombia, held a Webinar on the Orange Knowledge Programme Scholarship.
Nadia has a background in sociology and Esteban in urban planning. In pursuit of a second master’s degree, they both chose to follow the MSc in Urban Management and Development at IHS, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Nadia chose to specialize in Urban Housing Equity and Social Justice, and Esteban in Urban Land Governance for Sustainable Development. In the webinar they answered some questions from prospective students on the application procedure for the Orange Knowledge Programme scholarship. The full video of the webinar is available at the end of this page.
What is the Orange Knowledge Programme scholarship?
The Orange Knowledge Programme scholarship is delivered by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managed by the embassies and NUFFIC, a cooperation agency dedicated to education in Holland. The Orange Knowledge Program is a full scholarship and it is available almost in all the universities in the Netherlands for urban professionals coming from 53 different countries. Different deadlines apply depending on the master’s degree or short courses that prospective students are interested it. For the deadlines applicable for 2020, click here.
What was your experience with the application process for the OKP scholarship?
In terms of applying for the scholarship, Nadia and Esteban shared in the webinar that the application procedure was much simpler than it seemed.
The first important step was to receive the acceptance letter from the Institute. This letter was an essential part in the application process.
The second step was to collect and send the rest of the required documents. They stated that the documents differ depending on the country of the applicant and there is a 5 to 6-day span during which the students can prepare them after receival of the acceptance letter. From their experience, it is very important to be organized regarding the preparation of the different documents and to start early, because there are many deadlines to keep in mind. Nadia and Esteban also highlighted that the average grade of undergraduate studies is not a determinant condition to be accepted.
Once they sent out their papers, they had to wait a couple of months for the approval. In Nadia and Esteban’s experience, June is perhaps the estimated date in which students receive an answer. Next, when they received the confirmation that they were admitted, they passed to the third step and were invited by IHS via email to apply for the OKP fellowship. They also shared that many people from Colombia were granted the scholarship. Out of eight people in total, three or four had received it. Also, a lot of people from Africa, the Philippines, from Asia and South West Asia came to study to IHS with the help of the grant.
How did the scholarship benefit you during your study and your stay in Rotterdam?
In the webinar Nadia and Esteban shared that the scholarship not only helped them with the financing of the tuition fees. It also provided them with a monthly support (around 970 euros per month), the expenses of the visa, the covering of the round-trip tickets from their home country and the arrival and settling in costs, as well as help with all the legal paperwork required for their immigration status. They shared that the scholarship facilitated their arrival and daily life in Rotterdam. Therefore, they encouraged everyone who is interested in this scholarship to apply.
How did IHS support you during the process?
According to Nadia and Esteban, much of the information about the scholarship was available on the website of the Institute www.ihs.nl. In addition, when they found that they won the scholarship, they received via email all the necessary instructions to complete the entire acceptance process. When it comes to additional questions that they had, Nadia and Esteban shared that IHS was very responsive and helpful. That is why, they advise students who needed further clarification to contact IHS directly.
For any request and further information on the OKP scholarship, we welcome candidates to contact us at the following email admission@ihs.nl or to visit our webpage here.
