Orange Knowledge Programme (OKP)

• you must be interested in one of Tilburg University's one-year Master's programs. 
• you must be a professional and national of, and working and living in, one of the countries on the OKP country list  valid at the time of application.  Currently, the participating countries are: Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Colombia, Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia,  Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon,  Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam, Yemen and.
• you must have a current employer’s statement which complies with the template provided by the Nuffic. All information and all commitments detailed in the templates must be included in the statement;
• you must not be employed by an organization which can be expected to have its own means of staff development. Such organizations are, for example:
  - multinational corporations (e.g. Shell, Unilever, Microsoft)
  - large national and/or a large commercial organizations
  - bilateral donor organizations (e.g. USAID, DFID, Danida, Sida, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, FinAid, AusAid, ADC, SwissAid
  - multilateral donor organizations, (e.g. a UN organization, the World Bank, the IMF, Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, IADB)
  - international NGOs (e.g. Oxfam, Plan, Care);
• you must have an official passport valid until at least three months after the date you submit your application;
• you must have a government statement that meets the requirements of the country in which the employer is established (if applicable).

If you are certain that you are eligible for an OKP Scholarship, we recommend that you start to collect your application documents as soon as possible. You will only be able to start your OKP application after you have been admitted to a program of study and after the OKP application system opens on February 8, 2023  for the September intake(*). 

Your scholarship application must be submitted online  and must be complete before the Scholarship application deadline, which is March 30, 2023 (16.00 CET) for the September intake. All registered students (both conditional and unconditional admitted) from one of the OKP eligible countries (see above) will receive an information sheet (including the link to the application system) by the end of February 2023.

Please note: you must also meet the conditions of admission detailed in your conditional admission statement by March 30, 2023.

In the  scholarship application, you must complete your personal details, the program for which you want to register for an OKP Scholarship, and include a motivation letter. You must also upload the following documents:

• a copy of a valid passport
• a statement from your employer
• a statement from your government (if applicable for your country) 

Your application must be complete with all the required documentation according to the templates provided. Applications that are not submitted according to the process above or that do not provide documents according to the templates will not be accepted.

If you are admitted to the Master’s program for which you have applied, we will send you the link to the OKP online application system by the end of February 2023, so that you can start the process for applying for an OKP Scholarship.

PLEASE NOTE: your Scholarship application must be complete in the OKP system by March 30, 2023 (16.00 CET) for the September intake. 

The Dutch institution will submit a grant request to Nuffic requesting funding for eligible applications.

• The Netherlands Embassy will check the applications on their eligibility, and will assess the applications based on the eligibility criteria and the Embassy country focus areas.

• Only eligible applications will be taken in to further consideration. Applications that do not meet the eligibility criteria will be rejected.

• The selection will be determined by the available deadline budget, the number of applicants and the quality and suitability of the applications.

• The scholarships are awarded in a competitive selection to highly motivated professionals who are in a position to introduce the newly-acquired skills and knowledge into their employing organization.

• Candidates whom have been nominated will be informed of the outcome of the selection by the Dutch institution.

Tilburg University has a maximum number of candidates who can be nominated for a Scholarship. Tilburg University will therefore decide which candidates will be nominated for an OKP Scholarship once all applications for admission have been processed.

If a candidate is nominated for a Scholarship by Tilburg University, his or her application will continue to the next stage of the assessment process. The appropriate Netherlands Embassy will check the application against the OKP eligibility criteria. If eligible, the application will be further assessed. This process will result in a ranking of all eligible applications.