Selection scholarships for exchange OUTSIDE the Erasmus area
Erasmus+ area = 27 EU Member States + North Macedonia, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Serbia and Turkey
Academic year 2025-2026
Information for Ghent University students
Please note: these guidelines are (possibly) subject to change due to unconfirmed guidelines and scholarships
from one of the main funders!
For your information: The United Kingdom doesn’t belong to the Erasmus+ zone. Scholarships for an exchange to the United Kingdom
are therefore part of this selection process. Through this call you can’t apply for a scholarship for an exchange to Switzerland as it has
its own scholarship program.
Introduction
These guidelines contain information on:
• The eligibility requirements for a scholarship
• The range of scholarship possibilities for an exchange outside the Erasmus+ zone.
• The criteria and procedures applied when awarding the scholarships
The eligibility requirements for a scholarship
- The exchange concerns your study, internship or research as part of a master’s dissertation and needs to be acknowledged
and validated in the curriculum.
- The exchange is part of a curriculum of a bachelor, master or master after master programme.
- The exchange is part of a diploma contract, which therefore means that the exchange falls within the curriculum leading
to graduation. To qualify for a scholarship, the exchange must not take place within a credit target contract.
- The exchange last a minimum of 1 month (a bottom limit of 28 days) and a maximum of 12 months. The number of credits
must be proportional to the duration of the exchange.
- All disciplines are eligible for an exchange experience.
- You don’t pay tuition fee in the receiving institution/company/organisation.
- Your faculty decides which destination you can go to and also which period you can stay abroad during your study. For
more information, contact your Faculty Committee for Internationalisation (FCI).
- Students of all nationalities are entitled to apply for an exchange grant. However, you cannot apply for a grant to an
exchange destination in your home country (where you lived before your enrolment at Ghent University).
- You submitted an exchange application via OASIS which has been selected by your faculty. If you want to be considered for
an exchange grant for destinations outside of the Erasmus+ area, please select ‘Grant for exchanges outside Erasmus area’
as the appropriate funding channel in the application.
- On exchange for studies?
- If your stay concerns study, your faculty needs to have a bilateral framework agreement (‘BIRAK’), more specifically a
Cooperation Agreement or a Student Exchange Agreement, with the partnering institution abroad. You can address
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your FCI for an overview of the Agreements or you can consult the following link: [Link]
(use the following filter: Mobility Type = Student Mobility).
- You take 30 ECTS for one semester or 60 ECTS for a whole academic year, and you study at least one semester at the
partner institution. The exchange starts after September 1 unless the guest institution requires the student to attend
earlier because of the academic calendar or any other possible reason. The exchange concerns the academic year
2025-2026 and ends before the next academic year (2026-2027) starts.
- On exchange for traineeship or research for Master’s dissertation?
- A cooperation Agreement or a Student Exchange Agreement is not necessary (but desirable) in the scope of an
internship or research as part of a master’s dissertation.
- Your exchange last a minimum of one month with a minimum of 5 ECTS. and must be recognized in your curriculum in
the academic year 2025-2026. For example:
- If you stay abroad (internship/research) during the summer period, July-August 2025, and if your stay
is part of a course in your curriculum during the academic year 2025-2026, please indicate that you
wish to be considered for an exchange grant;
- If you stay abroad (internship/research) during the summer period, July-August 2026, and if your stay
is part of a course in your curriculum during the academic year 2026-2027, please DO NOT indicate
that you wish to be considered for an exchange grant (you will have to wait for the next call for
grants).
The range of scholarship possibilities
General principle: grant allocation depends on your socio-financial situation. The higher your needs, the better your chances of a higher
scholarship.
A potential scholarship can be a travel allowance (Category 1) or a travel allowance combined with a monthly allowance for (maximum)
4 months (Category 2). An application for a scholarship is automatically for Category 1 and Category 2. Receiving a Category 1 or a
Category 2 scholarship depends on the selection results. A student can only receive one scholarship per academic year.
CATEGORY 1: Travel allowance
• A travel allowance depends on the distance between the sending institution and the receiving institution. The travel
allowances per country are known already and can be consulted here.
• The number of available scholarships in Category 1: around 200.
• The VLIR-UOS travel grants for internship and research are part of this category. These are scholarships for an internship
or research in a country in the Global South (Africa, Asia, Latin-America).
Extra requirements for these are:
- You must follow a mandatory preparation moment before your departure and add proof of this to your file.
Ghent University offers in collaboration with UCOS - University Center for Development Cooperation - several
preparation days on different dates. Of course you do not have to wait for the selection result to already
register and/or participate. Register for the preparation day.
- Your studies at Ghent University are not part of a European exchange programme nor are they funded by a
European grant. You are not a recipient of any other type of funding coming from the budget of the Belgian
Directorate-General for Development Co-operation (in Dutch abbr. to DGD);
- You have not been allocated a VLIR-UOS travel grant before;
- You are eligible only if your exchange destination features on the VLIR-UOS list of destination countries:
▪ Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, the DR of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinee, Cameroon, Kenya, Madagascar,
Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South-Africa
▪ Asia: Bangladesh, Cambodia, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, the Palistinian territories, Sri Lanka, Vietnam
▪ Latin-America: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru, Suriname
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CATEGORY 2: Travel Allowance + Monthly Allowance
- On top of the travel allowance, a monthly allowance of € 700 is added in category 2. An extra monthly top-up of € 200 can
possibly be added (for some scholarship programmes) for students who receive a study grant from the Flemish
Government, students with a disability acknowledged by the Flemish Agency for Disabled Persons (Vlaams Agentschap
voor Personen met een Handicap, VAPH), or students with a working student status.
- A monthly allowance is allocated for a duration of four months at most. You are allowed to extend your stay abroad
beyond those four months, but you can only be allocated an allowance for one to four months at most. The number of
monthly allowances you will receive is determined in advance. It is important in that respect to fill out the duration of
your exchange as correctly as possible in your OASIS exchange application;
- Number of available scholarships in CATEGORY 2: around 100
Category OTHER: the UK and GUGC
The majority of existing scholarships belongs to one of the categories described above. There are, however, two exceptions:
• If your exchange destination is in the United Kingdom (UK), you may be eligible for:
- a travel allowance (as described in category 1);
- a travel allowance + a monthly allowance (as described in category 2);
- a travel allowance + a monthly allowance, whereby the monthly allowance amounts to a different sum as the one
determined in category 2. The allowance amount for academic year 2024-2025 (yearly adapted, no amounts
available yet for AY 2025-2026) is €419 per month, €669 for students who receive a study grant from the Flemish
Government.
• If your exchange destination is the Ghent University Global Campus (GUGC) in South Korea, you may be eligible for:
- a travel allowance (as described in category 1);
- a travel allowance + a monthly allowance, whereby the monthly allowance may amount to a different sum as the one
determined in category 2. This depends on the number of selected exchange applications for GUGC. In case the
number of applications exceeds the available budget, the monthly allowance may amount to a lower sum than the
one determined in category 2.
The criteria procedures applied when awarding the scholarships
General Principles:
- grant allocation depends on your socio-financial situation. The higher your needs, the better your chances of a higher grant;
- grant allocation does not require a separate application. In the exchange application (via OASIS) you simply need to select
‘’Grant for exchanges outside Erasmus area” as the appropriate funding channel;
- also be sure to substantiate your request thoroughly in the ‘motivation’ text box (via OASIS).
The evaluation and selection is conducted based on the information that is available through OASIS. You will be awarded plus points
and minus points for the different criteria, which allows for a ranking based on the total scores. Please read below how this works.
PLUS POINTS
The plus points are awarded based on your status and your financial needs, as well as on the duration of your stay.
1. Status
The following categories merit HIGH plus points:
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a. students who have been allocated a Flemish study allowance (corroborated by the Flemish Agency for Higher
Education, Adult Education, Qualifications and Study Grants, in Dutch abbr. to AHOVOKS) 1;
b. students with a disability (recognised by the Flemish Agency for Persons with a Disability) 2;
c. working students. In this case, the student is either an employee or a job seeker and their university training is
part of an employment track determined by the Flemish Employment Agency. To be eligible, the student cannot
be a holder of a Master’s degree or a second-cycle diploma.
2) Financial needs
A- The following circumstances merit HIGH plus points: based on a limited portfolio, Team International Mobility
determines that the need for an exchange grant is high.
We realise that although students may not belong to the categories described above (1), they may still have high socio-
financial needs. In these cases, a study abroad experience is impossible due to your socio-financial background unless you
are allocated a high exchange grant. The socio-financial needs you experience in this case do not concern the high expenses
to be made in the context of a study-abroad experience. Rather, they concern your socio-financial situation and available
income in general.
In case your socio-financial situation and general available income are such that a stay abroad is impossible without a high
exchange grant and you don’t have the Belgian nationality, we advise you to send a short portfolio, containing the following
information:
a) Financial plan (maximum 1 page)
Explain how you plan to finance your stay abroad (marked in euro’s). How much do you think your stay abroad will
cost (accommodation, meals, transportation, costs of living in the area, etc)? What income can you count on (support
parents, holiday job and/or job during the academic year, savings, etc)?
b) Socio-financial motivation (maximum 0,5 page)
Why do you need the scholarship the most from a socio-financial point of view? Here, you can also quote other
personal reasons such as family situation, social circumstances, if you want to. If applicable, you can add supporting
documents to your motivation. Possible supporting documents can be:
- Tax bill from your parent(s) or evidence of independent student with a minimum wage;
- Evidence of work process;
- Proof that you are part of a family with modified social circumstances;
- Pay slip of holiday job and/or job during academic year;
- Other
You can send your portfolio to International@[Link], You have time to do so until 21 February 2025 (included).
Evaluation
If Team International Mobility deems that your socio-financial need is very high, you will be allocated the same amount of
high plus points as the students in category (1).
B - The following circumstances merit HIGH plus points: the Office Student & Disability determine that the need for an
exchange grant is high.
In case you are a student with a disability, and the exchange experience comes with demonstrable ADDITIONAL costs DUE
TO your disability, we advise you to get in touch with the Office Student & Disability . Your faculty liaison officer will consider
your question. You have time to do so until 21 February 2025 (included).
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the data in the data warehouse of the Ministry of Education and Training will be considered as correct.
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the data in the data warehouse of the Ministry of Education and Training will be considered as correct.
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Evaluation
If the Office Student & Disability deems that there is a demonstrable additional cost due to your disability, you will be
allocated the same amount of high plus points as the students in category (1).
3. Duration of your stay
You will be allocated higher plus points gradually, depending on the duration of your stay abroad. The exchange has a
minimum duration of one month (5 ECTS credits). The longer the exchange, the more plus points you will receive. The plus
points increase gradually up to a maximum duration of four months (cf. the monthly allowances). The main reason why we
use this criterion is to foster a more sustainable mobility. Another reason to stimulate longer exchange experiences is to
hone your intercultural and international competencies. In addition, the expenses of short-term exchange experiences are
higher, relatively speaking, than those of longer stays abroad.
MINUS POINTS
We allocate minus points to students who have had previous exchange opportunities during their study career, as well as to students
who have previously received a high grant for a non-Erasmus+ exchange experience.
1) The following situations merit LOW minus points: you have had a prior exchange experience during your study career, either
to an Erasmus or an ‘outside Erasmus+’ destination.
We allocate low minus points because we definitely do not want to dissuade students from participating in a second
exchange experience. But we still allocate those minus points because we want to support students who have not
participated in an exchange experience before, and give them priority in the grant allocation process.
2) The following situations merit HIGH minus points: you have had a prior exchange experience to a destination outside the
Erasmus+ zone during your study career AND you received a high grant (monthly allowance and travel allowance).
The grant allocation mechanism gives priority to students who have never received a high exchange grant before. However,
the principles above do not necessarily mean that you are completely ineligible for a grant in the context of an exchange
outside the Erasmus+zone. It does mean that your application will not be considered as high priority. In case of an
insufficient number of grants, your application may be left out of consideration.
The MOTIVATION Text Box in OASIS
You will be awarded a score on the ‘motivation’ text box you add to your exchange application in OASIS (maximum length: 0,5 page).
Be serious about writing a meticulous academic motivation for your exchange experience at the institution/organisation of your choice.
Good to Know
- An exchange grant is NEVER fully cost-effective.
- A student can only be allocated 1 scholarship per academic year.
- There is always a chance you may NOT receive an exchange grant. If the scholarships are in high demand, and the available
funds are insufficient, your application may be left out of consideration. This does not mean that you cannot participate in
an exchange experience, but it does mean that you will have to do so without a grant.
- If you have been allocated an exchange grant and it turns out that your exchange application does not meet the criteria
(e.g. it does not meet the bottom limit of ECTS credits or the minimum duration), the grant can be reclaimed.
- Each faculty has its own deadlines for exchange applications in OASIS. Please contact your Faculty Committee for
Internationalisation (FCI) for more information.
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- Please take into account that your application also has to be accepted by the partner institution/host organisation.
Whether or not they will receive exchange students is always their decision to make. Your selection is final only after
acceptance by the host institution.
- In some cases, incorrect information regarding the duration of your stay in your exchange application may turn out to your
disadvantage. It is therefore important to fill out the dates as truthfully as possible.
- In some cases, we might contact you for more information during or after the selection procedure, or with the request to
upload more information in an application tool of a funding agency. You will be notified of this. In such cases, it is
important to retain all the requested documents throughout the entire selection procedure up until the publication of the
selection results.
- Safety situation at your destination: sometimes for some countries travel restrictions apply or the general safety situation
is uncertain. It’s possible that you’re granted a scholarship but that you will not be able to leave to your host country. For
most destinations there are no problems but you will only receive admission to leave for an exchange if certain conditions
are fulfilled: for instance positive travel advice from the Belgian authorities or no restrictive measures that seriously
impede daily life in your host country. Receiving a scholarship is conditional and does not guarantee you will be given the
green light to leave. We advise you not to incur any expenses for transport, accommodation, etc. prior to formal admission.
- Please make sure that you are well-prepared for your stay abroad.
- Administrative processes and or documents (e.g. visa, insurance papers, passport, command of the language)
- Health risks (e.g. vaccinations, information from the Institute of Tropical Medicine and/or information on your own
medical background: [Link])
- Security risks (cf. any travel advice issued by the Federal Public Service of Foreign Affairs: [Link]).
- financially: draw up a budget plan: what are the estimated expenses of a stay abroad (accommodation, meals,
transportation, living expenses in the area, etc.)? What types of resources do you have (financial support by your
parents, summer job, job during the academic year, savings, etc.)? Try to be as conservative as possible and factor in
potential expenses as broadly as possible.
Summary
- You have an exchange application in OASIS, selected by your faculty.
- A grant allocation does not require a separate application. We retrieve most of our information from OASIS. If you want to
be considered for an exchange grant for destinations outside the Erasmus+ zone, please select ‘‘Grant for exchanges
outside Erasmus area” as the appropriate funding channel in the application.
- In case you experience a demonstrable socio-financial need for a high(er) grant to fund your stay abroad, send a short
portfolio to International@[Link].
- Students with a disability, whose stay abroad would come with a demonstrable additional cost due to their disability, can
get in touch with the Office Student & Disability.
- Be serious about writing a meticulous academic motivation for your exchange experience at the institution/organisation of
your choice. Submit this motivation in OASIS using the corresponding text box.
THE SELECTION RESULTS WILL BE PUBLISHED ON MAY 23 AT THE LATEST
Second Call for Scholarships: Autumn 2025
If, due to academic circumstances (for example trainee post unknown, subject Master’s dissertation unknown, a one-year Master’s
programme), you are not yet eligible for the current call for scholarships, you may still be eligible for the upcoming call in the
Autumn of 2025 (more information will follow). However, the grant opportunities during the upcoming Autumn call will be limited to
a number of travel allowances (without monthly allowances).
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Contact
Every student who is interested in a scholarship for a foreign stay outside the Erasmus area can contact his/her FCI in order to
prepare the stay abroad. A list of FCI’s can be found here.
For additional general information on the existing grants or the selection mechanism, please get in touch with Team International Mobility
at international@[Link]
