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 is available in the call for applications.

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

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 a scholarship if you are admitted to one of the eligible master’s programmes by 21 March 2024. 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 will be evaluated at a later time due to the change, it’s unlikely you will be admitted by 21 March 2024. 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 21 March 2024) we will evaluate your scholarship application.

Applicants must apply for a master’s programme before applying for an SI scholarship. The application period at University Admissions is 16 October 2023 – 15 January 2024. If you submit a late application at University Admissions, you may still apply for an SI scholarship between 12 – 28 February 2024. 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 21 March 2024 will be considered for a SI scholarship.

There is no application fee to apply for an SI 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 an SI 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) and Konstfack – University of Arts, Crafts and Design 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

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 an SI scholarship. Only the applicants who are admitted to an eligible master’s programme by 21 March 2024 will be considered for an SI 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 21 March 2024 due to this late submission, your scholarship application(s) will not be considered. We cannot make any exceptions.

On our scholarship page, you can choose your country of citizenship and the level of studies you are interested in, to find out if there is any scholarship programme suitable for you. If you can’t find your country of citizenship in the drop-down list, there is unfortunately no scholarship available for your country at this time. We suggest that you look for other scholarship opportunities in such case.

If your country of citizenship/nationality is included on our list of targeted countries, then you may apply. As long as it is not specifically stated in the call for applications, it is not a requirement that you currently live in your home country or have completed your bachelor’s degree in your home country.

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

Applicants who have dual citizenship in countries not listed on the DAC list of ODA recipients are not eligible for the SI scholarships.*

*Exception: Moldovan applicants with dual citizenship in Romania may apply for a scholarship even though they are EU citizens and must state the citizenship that is eligible for the scholarship when applying to the SI Scholarship for Global professionals.

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 workds 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 is very fierce within Global Professionals 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 here.

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 SI scholarships, 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 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 an SI scholarship.

As of the academic year 2024/2025 the Swedish Institute will only be able to grant scholarships for citizens of countries listed on the OECD/DAC list, therefore Russian nationals will no longer be able to apply for the SI Scholarship for Global Professionals. We suggest Russians turn to the Study in Sweden scholarship database to find other scholarship opportunities provided for international students interested in studying in Sweden.

The scholarship application period for master’s studies starting in the autumn semester 2024 is 12-28 February 2024. The application portal will close at 14:59 CET, 28 February 2024.

First, you must apply for a master’s programme, then you can apply for an SI scholarship. The application period at University Admissions is 16 October 2023 until 15 January 2024. If you applied late at University Admissions, you may still apply for an SI scholarship between 12-28 February 2024. 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 21 March 2024  will be considered for an SI 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 2024 is 12-28 February 2024. 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 froms 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.

In your application, you should try to ensure that the contact details provided in the applications are valid and do not change at least until 25 April 2024. You should also ensure that the referees you have chosen to support your applications check their email as well as spam-box regularly during this period and answer our emails in time. We unfortunately do not have the possibility to inform the applicants in advance due to the large amount of applications.

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:
Currently employed full-time, working 40 hours per week for 50 weeks per year for 1 calendar year prior to 12 February 2024, 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:
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 2023 and 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 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.

In your application, you should try to ensure that the contact details provided in the applications are valid and do not change at least until 25 April 2024. You should also ensure that the referees you chosen to support your applications check email-box as well as spam-box regularly during this period and answer our emails in time. We unfortunately do not have the possibility to inform the applicants in advance due to the large amount of applications.

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.

A deferment or study leave is only possible under a few exceptional and unpredictable circumstances. If you already know that there may be an obstacle that prevents you from beginning your studies in Sweden on time, follow the study plan of your master’s programme or graduating within the given time frame of the programme, we recommend that you apply again when the circumstances allow.

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!