Eligibility Criteria
The eligibility criteria will include:
- Proof that the candidate is from a legible country
- The right application form is used
- All required supporting documents are provided and are legible
- Completed application documents received by closing date
- Required previous academic level of study are achieved
- Adhere to all the requirements for candidates as prescribed in The Funding Agreement
- The application is in English
Evaluation and selection of candidate
The selection committee will be convened and each member of the committee will individually score each candidate based on the agreed-on criterion. The average score for each criterion for each candidate will be calculated and used to guide the stage-1 selection committees’ final decision at the sending institution. The ranked of candidates will be forwarded to: (a) the Coordinator and (b) the host institution’s selection committee for stage-2 selection process, together with a detailed record of the selection process. On receiving the results of the pre-selection process, the programme host institution will apply its institutional criteria and procedures for a particular programme to evaluate the candidates and select the best candidate.
The following scoring shall be used for MSc applications:
| Criteria | Maximum Points |
|---|---|
| Good Academic record | 20 |
| Quality of the Motivation Letter **1 | 1 |
| Being an academic staff/research fellow of the university or has potential to be hired by the university during or after the program | 15 |
| Having work experience related to discipline that is being applied for | 10 |
| Evidence of academic growth (e.g. presentation of a paper at a conference, publication etc) | 10 |
| Priority candidate/s identified for human capacity development by the institution**2 | 10 |
| Relevance of previous academic qualifications to the program applied for | 10 |
| Evidence of leadership quality and service to society | 5 |
| Affirmative action for female candidates | 10 |
Key
**1: Request a student to write a motivation letter to show interest in the program that they are applying for
**2: Support letter from the university/institute indicate the priority of candidate or program for capacity building of the university
The following score sheet shall be used for PhD applications:
Provided the candidate does not fail any of the above hurdles, the selection should be ranked on scoring system carried out by a selection committee constituted of all partners (including technical partner)
| Criteria | Score |
|---|---|
| Grades achieved in previous degrees according to academic transcript | 0 - 10 |
| Student’s CV and motivational letter (includes language proficiency) | 0 - 10 |
| Two recommendation letters from previous supervisors | 0 - 20 |
| Student’s research proposal (max two pages) | 0 - 20 |
| Previous peer-review publications or other outstanding academic achievements | 0 - 20 |
| Female or disabled | 0 - 20 |
| Total | 100 |
Communication of the Selection Results
The outcome of the selection process will then be communicated to all the applicants via email whether selected for the award, on the reserve list or is rejected. The successful candidates will also be send scholarship award letter and their names be published on COTRA website unless the student decline the award.