Higher education institutions choose what study programmes to enter to the scholarship programmes. At Umeå University, all Master's programmes in the international admissions round that comply with the Swedish Institute's general guidelines, have been registered as scholarship programmes. What is new is this has been handled by the International Office in collaboration with Deputy Vice-Chancellor Heidi Hansson.
SI scholarships make a difference
SI scholarships are full scholarships that make it possible to recruit particularly merited students to Umeå University educations, students who would otherwise not afford to pay for the studies themselves. In 2016, the University accepted 32 scholarship holders, of whom several came from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Most scholarships, 20 to be exact, were awarded to students to Master's programmes in Global Health.
Their programmes have traditionally speaking accepted a large number of students from low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia, according to Marie Lindkvist, director of studies at the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine. After the introduction of tuition fees in 2011, these students drastically reduced in number.
"The huge amount of scholarships we have received from SI over the last few years have been crucial in keeping the knowledge and experiences that students from low-income countries contribute with to our educations. Many of these students have worked in healthcare in their home country and are familiar with health conditions there," says Marie Lindkvist.
The fact that Global Health gets such a large portion of the SI scholarships is closely connected to the number of applicants per programme, according to Madeleine Mattsson at the Swedish Institute. Many students applied and were eligible to scholarships to these programmes last year, which is probably a sign of good marketing.
23 Master's programmes registered this year
For the 2017/2018 academic year, 23 Master's programmes at Umeå University have been registered to the Swedish Institute scholarship programmes for international students. All programmes are given in English and can be applied via universityadmissions.se.
"For the 2017/2018 scholarship programme, six new programmes have been added, and six removed. This is due to changed priorities at the Swedish Institute. They have narrowed their focus in comparison to the last selection round. As a consequence, for instance all design programmes have become ineligible," says Wasif Ali, international coordinator at the International Office.
Three scholarship programmes
For the 2017/2018 academic year, the Swedish Institute offers three scholarship programmes:
- The Swedish Institute Study Scholarships
- The Visby Programme
- The Swedish-Turkish Scholarship Programme
All have varying criteria and the selection of eligible degree programmes is made by the Swedish Institute based upon quality and demand from international applicants.
Important dates
Announcements of the SI scholarships consist of two steps in which successful candidates in step 1 go further to the second application step for submitting supporting documents. The first step of the application process is open between 1 December 2016 and 16 January 2017 and the second step is open during 1-10 February 2017. For the Visby Programme, applications take place only during the second step.
For more information:
Swedish Institute
Study in Sweden