FAQ – SI Scholarship for Global Professionals

No. The Swedish Institute (SI) is a government agency, not a university. We administer the SI scholarships, but not university programmes/courses. Please visit University Admissions or contact the Swedish universities directly.

No. A list of master’s programmes eligible for the SI Scholarship for Global Professionals will be available 1 November 2024 in the call for applications.

You should apply through University Admissions portal. Note that Stockholm School of Economics (SSE), Konstfack – University of Arts, Crafts and Design and Stockholm University of the Arts have their own separate processes for intake and admissions.

No, you do not need to inform us about any problem you have regarding your application at University Admissions. However, SI will only consider you for the scholarship if you are admitted to one of the eligible master’s programmes by 27 March 2025. We are unfortunately unable to make any exceptions.

You can find the information on how your application to University Admissions will be affected when you change the ranking here. You don’t need to inform us about your new ranking or any related communication with University Admissions.

If your application to University Admissions is evaluated at a later time due to the change, it’s unlikely that you will be admitted by 27 March 2025. In that case, your scholarship application will not be considered by SI. If the change in ranking does not delay your admission (and you are admitted no later than 27 March 2025) we will evaluate your scholarship application.

Applicants must apply for a master’s programme before applying for the scholarship. The application period at University Admissions is 15 October 2024 – 15 January 2025. If you submit a late application at University Admissions, you may still apply for the scholarship between 10 – 26 February 2025. However, there is a risk that your University Admissions application will be given the status “late application”, which can delay the admission process. Only applicants who are admitted to one of the eligible master’s programmes by 27 March 2025 will be considered for the SI Scholarship for Global Professionals.

There is no application fee to apply for the scholarship. There is, however, an application fee that you need to pay when you apply for programmes via University Admissions. If you do not pay the application fee by their deadline, your application to University Admissions will not be processed, and therefore you cannot be considered for the scholarship. Please contact the University Admissions for questions related to the application fee.

For questions regarding the admissions process to the University Admissions and their application fee, please contact University Admissions directly.

No, it is not refundable. Note that the application fee is not related to your scholarship application.

No, you do not need to inform us.

The Stockholm School of Economics (SSE), Konstfack – University of Arts, Crafts and Design and Stockholm University of the Arts have their own application processes. Please read through the application process thoroughly and contact the universities directly should you have any questions:

Stockholm School of Economics
Konstfack – University of Arts, Crafts and Design
Stockholm University of the Arts

Once you have submitted your application for master’s programmes to University Admissions, you will get a personal application number consisting of seven or eight digits. Log in to “My pages” at universityadmissions.se, to find the number. You will need the application number when you apply for an SI Scholarship.

If you applied to the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) or applied for any other eligible master’s programmes that are not handled by University Admissions, you should enter seven or eight zeroes (i.e. 00000000) as application number in your scholarship application.

The Swedish Institute and University Admissions are two separate government agencies. You should contact University Admissions or the university directly if you have questions regarding documents required for your application to them. If you fail to submit the required documents to University Admissions on time, your application may be deemed late, and then you will not be considered for the scholarship. Only the applicants who are admitted to an eligible master’s programme by 27 March 2025 will be considered for the scholarship.

You do not need to inform us about it. Instead you should contact University Admissions or the Swedish universities you are applying to. If you cannot be admitted to any eligible master’s programme by 27 March 2025 due to this late submission, your scholarship application will not be considered. We cannot make any exceptions.

SI is currently calling for applications for two scholarships: SI Scholarships for Global Professionals and Pioneering women in STEM. Please read more about their eligibility criterias here.

For SI Scholarships for Global Professionals, you will have to fill in your country of citizenship and the level of studies you are interested before applying to check if you meet the eligible criterias.

Yes, you may apply for both scholarships if you meet the requirements. You are however not able to be awarded more than one scholarship at SI. 

Yes, as long as you hold citizenship in one of the eligible countries, you are eligible to apply for the SI scholarship. We do not take into consideration the country in which you are currently residing when making our selection.

If you have dual citizenship(s) and both are eligible for a Global Professionals scholarship, you should only choose one citizenship when submitting your application to SI. Applicants who apply more than once using different citizenships, will have both applications disqualified.

No, there are currently no scholarships available from SI for bachelor level studies.

No. Here you can find all opportunitites for funding and grants currently offered by SI.

No, there are currently no SI scholarships available for PhD studies or postdoc research in Sweden.

Applying for PhD and postdoc research programmes works differently in Sweden, read more about it here. 

The SI Scholarships for Global Professionals requires both work and leadership experience. You can find the detailed information here.

We are unfortunately not able to comment or assist on individual applications beforehand, as this would create an unfair advantage. Please use your best judgement and decide what you believe are the most appropriate experiences to include in your application. If you believe your experiences should be counted as work/leadership experience, you can count them, as long as you can provide the required proof/validation of these experiences. Experiences that cannot be validated according to our requirements, will not be considered by the selection committee. Additionally, the competition for the scholarhsip is very fierce and the selection committee will give greatest priority to those who have a strong professional background and documented leadership experience from employment within certain fields. Read more about the priorities in the call for applications.

No. If you are already enrolled in a master’s programme in Sweden you are not eligible to apply. We suggest that you look for other scholarship opportunities.

SI does not have any requirements for language proficiency and GPA for applicants on master’s level, as these assessments are done by the universities and University Admissions.

Find more information regarding language proficiency and potential GPA requirements here or on the specific university’s website.

Yes. The competition for SI scholarships is very high. We recommend that you also look for and apply for other scholarships from your government, organisations in your country or from the Swedish universities where you would like to study.

To be eligible for the scholarship, you must be liable to pay tuition fees to Swedish universities in accordance with the information provided by University Admissions.

This does not mean that you need to pay tuition fees by your own means if you are awarded a scholarship. It only means you need to be required to pay when you apply. In general, citizens of countries that are not part of the European Union (EU), European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland are required to pay tuition fees. The SI Scholarship for Global Professionals covers both tuition fees and living expenses, which means EU citizens (for example) are not the target group of this scholarship.

Kindly contact University Admissions directly if you have questions about whether or not you need to pay tuition fees.

The tuition fee will be paid by SI directly to the university in case you are awarded the scholarship.

We recommend that you apply for other scholarships provided by the Swedish universities where you would like to study and other organisations, have a look at our list at Study in Sweden. 

The selection of eligible countries is guided by the government strategy that the Swedish Institute reports to. SI has received new directives for our regulatory mandate which has led to new priorities for the activities that the Swedish Institute offers. We fully understand that the changes are disappointing for students from the affected countries.

If your country is no longer eligible for the scholarship, we recommend that you look for other scholarships from your government, organisations in your country or from the Swedish universities where you would like to study.   

No, all current scholars will receive their scholarship as planned. The changes only affect new aspiring scholars.  

The scholarship application period for master’s studies starting in the autumn semester 2025 is 10-26 February 2025. The application portal will close at 14:59 CET, 26 February 2025.

First, you must apply for a master’s programme, then you can apply for the SI Scholarships for Global Professionals. The application period at University Admissions is 15 October 2024 until 15 January 2025. If you applied late at University Admissions, you may still apply for the scholarship between 10-26 February 2025. However, the risk is high that your application to the universities will be evaluated as a “late application”, which can delay the admission. Only applicants who are admitted to one of the eligible master’s programmes by 27 March 2025 will be considered for the scholarship. We suggest that you also look for other scholarship opportunities.

Unfortunately, we do not have the possibility to accept late applications. The scholarship application period for master’s studies starting in the autumn semester 2025 is 10-26 February 2025. If you missed the deadline, we suggest you look for other scholarship opportunities.

We only accept digital applications submitted via our online application portal. You can find a link to the online application portal in the call for applications, during the application period only. It is important to read through all the information on our website as well as the instructions in the forms before applying.

Find information regarding the document needed for your scholarship application in the call for applications under the section ‘How to apply’. There you will also find the SI forms that are mandatory use for your documents. Any document that is not required will not be considered.

You must use the form uploaded on the call for applications. If any mandatory document is not in the format as required, the application will be deemed ineligible. We make no exceptions.

Note! The SI forms are updated each year, and thus forms downloaded from previous years are not valid.

The SI Scholarships for Global Professionals requires two letters of reference. At least one letter of reference must be based on your work experience (including both part-time and full-time employment). The second letter of reference can be based on your academic performance or any type of work experience. However, it will be a merit if this second letter of reference is based on your involvement in networks or civil society organisations outside of your regular work. If you are not able to provide these documents, your application will be deemed ineligible. We make no exceptions.

We accept translations as long as they are performed by a notarised translator with the notary office’s official stamp. It is not acceptable for individual applicants to translate the documents on their own. The original document and the translation should be uploaded as one PDF.

You can find more information in the instruction in the form.

Due to the large amount of applications, we are unfortunately unable to inform any applicants in advance. You should try to ensure that the contact details of the referees that you provide are valid and remain unchanged at least until 24 April 2025. You should also ensure that the referees check their email, including their spam-box regularly during this period and answer our emails in time.

Click the text “Choose one” and you will see an arrow to the right. Click the arrow and a drop-down list will be shown. Choose the one option that suits you the best.

If you are using a Mac-computer and are unable to click at the drop-down lists, we suggest that you try filling out the form on a PC instead.

Here are two examples of how to calculate your employment hours. 

Scenario 1:
The applicant is currently employed full-time, working 40 hours per week for 50 weeks per year for 1 calendar year prior to 10 February 2025, and previously worked part-time as freelancer 12 hours per week for 28 weeks per year for 3 calendar years. 

The calculation is (40 hours x 50 weeks x 1 year = 2,000) + (12 hours x 28 weeks x 3 years = 1,008) = 3,008 hours. 

An applicant within this scenario meets the eligibility criteria for work experience required within the SI Scholarships for Global Professionals. 

Scenario 2:
The applicant owns a company as self-employed, working 10 hours per week for 35 weeks per year for 3 calendar years. The company will close down on 31 December 2024 and the applicant does not have another employment. 

The calculation is (10 hours x 35 weeks x 3 years) = 1,050 hours. 

An applicant within this scenario fails to meet the eligibility criteria for a scholarship due to the lack of work experience hours. 

The person who signs for your work and leadership experience should be someone who knows you in a professional rather than a personal capacity.

• It should be someone who knows about your experience at the company/organisation. It does not have to be your direct manager. It can be, for example, the HR manager or the head of the organisation, as long as he/she can comment on your experience on behalf of your employer.
• If you work in a student organisation at your university, you may ask a staff at the university who knows about your experience to certify it and it can be stamped by either the university or the organisation.
• If you work as a freelancer, you may ask the professional association or agency, where you are registered as a freelancer or receive work from, to sign and stamp.
• If you work in a family business or you are the owner, we can accept a signature from a client or a staff that works at your company but who is not a family member. However, the client should not be a private person but rather a company/organisation. The client is only allowed to certify the working hours that you have worked for them. The stamp should be the official stamp of the company/organisation.

Applicants to the SI Scholarships for Global Professionals must use our form uploaded in the call for applications. If you are not able to provide the required proof, your application will be deemed ineligible. We make no exceptions.

Yes, all applicants need to prove the authenticity of the required documents for his/her applications.

You must use the correct SI form for Proof of Work and Leadership Experience to demostrate your work and leadership experience. The form consists of one part for work experience and one part for leadership experience.

You can submit up to three work experience forms to demonstrate up to three different work experiences; you can submit up to two leadership experience forms to demonstrate up to two different leadership experiences.

You should merge all the forms into one PDF-file. All the work experience forms should be presented first in reverse chronological order, and then followed by all leadership experience forms sorted in reverse chronological order.

Each one of the forms should not exceed one page and in total the entire PDF-file submitted should not exceed five pages (except the instruction page).

You can find more information in the instructions in the respective form.

No, you do not have to provide proof for each of your work experiences. However you do have to follow these requirements.

You can find more information in the instructions in the respective forms.

If you want to be considered for the SI Scholarships for Global Professionals, you must provide the required documents. We make no exceptions. If you are not able to follow our instruction, your application will be deemed ineligible.

You are of course welcome to apply again next year.

Due to the large amount of applications, we are unfortunately unable to inform any applicants in advance. You should try to ensure that the contact details of the referees that you provide are valid and remain unchanged at least until 24 April 2025. You should also ensure that the referees check their email, including their spam-box regularly during this period and answer our emails in time.

Click the text “Choose one” and you will see an arrow to the right. Click the arrow and a drop-down list will be shown. Choose the one option that suits you the best.

If you are using a Mac computer and are unable to click at the drop-down lists, we suggest that you try filling out the form on a PC instead.

No, any additional pages will be disregarded.

It is up to you to decide which parts in the CV form are relevant for your application and you can delete the parts that are not relevant for you. The maximum length of the CV is three pages.

You must use the SI form for CV that is available in the call for applications. An application with a CV in any other format (including Europass CV) will be disqualified.

Click the text “Choose one” and you will see an arrow to the right. Click the arrow and a drop-down list will be shown. Choose the one option that suits you the best.

If you are using a Mac computer and are unable to click at the drop-down lists, we suggest that you try filling out the form on a PC instead.

Deferral of an SI scholarship can only be granted once you have started your studies.

The SI Scholarships for Global Professionals does not include insurance coverage. We recommend that you turn to the university you are applying for to receive more information about their specific arrangements regarding insurance for international students.

I have another question!

Kindly make sure that you have read through all the information on our website and the instructions in our forms for the required documents, before you contact us. To look for your answer in the call for applications and in the forms is the most efficient way to get your problem solved.

You can contact us through the contact form below. Due to heavy workload, it may take a few days until you get an answer. Thank you for your patience!