Please note: scholarship amounts are determined each year and published on the website in the late autumn. No rights can be derived from information about previous years.

Amsterdam Merit Scholarship (AMS)

We aim to attract the world’s brightest students to our international classrooms. Therefore, outstanding students with a non-EU nationality can apply for the Amsterdam Merit Scholarship. A few scholarships are available each year. Last academic year, we could award 1 scholarship per programme.

Application deadlines

 The results of the Scholarship committee will be announced at the end of April.

*Please note that you need to have submitted a complete application via SIS My Applications before this deadline. So we advise you to register in Studielink a few days prior to this date.

General Criteria Amsterdam Merit Scholarship

To be considered for the scholarship, applicants need to meet the following general criteria:

• You hold a non-EU nationality only.
• You have excellent academic results (for example 90-100% / A+(+)).
• You are not entitled to receive a Dutch study grant or loan ("Studiefinanciering").
• You do not receive a full coverage scholarship for the same period of study as the AMS.
• You have submitted a complete application to one of the Economics and Business' programmes before the scholarship deadline.
• You will register and participate in the early selection/matching rounds, see application form.
• You are able to comply with Dutch visa regulations as indicated by the Dutch Immigration Service (IND).

Selection criteria

The best candidates are selected for a scholarship on the basis of their academic excellence and promise in the field. This means that your application will be compared with other applications for the available scholarships. You need to provide:

• An excellent GPA (for example 90-100% / A-A+).
• An excellent UvA Matching result (for Bachelor's Actuarial Science, Business Analytics, Econometrics and Data Science). Applicants must register and participate in the early selection/matching rounds, see application form.
• An excellent selection result (Bachelor's Business Administration and Economics and Business Economics).
• Motivation letter (not more than 300 words) to tell us why you deserve this scholarship, including eventual financial needs
• Proof of English proficiency (if applicable)*:
  • TOEFL IBT: overall score of 100 (minimum score of 22 in each component, but higher subscores give you an advantage);
  • IELTS (Academic test): overall score of 7.0 (minimum score of 7.0 in each component, you can apply with a subscore of 6.5 but higher subscores give you an advantage);
  • Cambridge Assessment English: Certificate in Advanced English: 190 points overall and in each skill or Certificate of Proficiency in English: 190 points overall and in each skill.
  • LanguageCert Academic: minimum total score of 70, with a minimum score of 65 in each subscore.
  • Pearson PTE Academic: minimum total score of 71, with a minimum score of 65 in each subscore. The test must have been taken no more than two years before the student’s enrolment date.

*You are exempted from taking the English test if you have a secondary school diploma from a school located in and accredited by the respective authorities in Australia, Canada (except Quebec), Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, or the US. See the website for other exemptions.

Application process

Application for the Amsterdam Merit Scholarship is part of your Bachelor’s programma’s application.

1. Apply for the Bachelor's programme via Studielink and via SIS 'My Applications' before the above mentioned deadline.
2. As part of your Bachelor’s application, you are asked whether you want to be considered for a UvA scholarship. Check this box if you want to be considered and if you fulfill all requirements mentioned above.
3. Upload your scholarship motivation letter under 'Additional Documents'. Please note that you need to manually add this to your application as an additional upload. The scholarship motivation letter needs to contain the following information:

• First and last name
• UvAnetID
• Bachelor programme you are applying for
• Previous/current education
• Country of previous/current education
• GPA previous/current education (if you are not graduated yet, please fill out your current GPA)
• Are you participating in UvA Matching or the Selection Test
• English Language Proficiency Test score
• Motivation explaining why you deserve this scholarship (max. 300 words)
• Recommendation letter by a dean, teacher, or academic supervisor

Please use the following template for your scholarship motivation letter:

You can only upload one document (PDF) to your application, so make sure to include all the required information in the document you upload. If you submit your application without your scholarship motivation letter document, your scholarship application will be found incomplete and you will no longer considered for a scholarship.

Limited number of scholarships

We provide a limited number of scholarships for excellent students. Last year we offered 1 Scholarship per programme.

Payment of the scholarship

Please note that the scholarship works on a reimbursement basis and is not a tuition fee waiver. You will therefore have to arrange the payment of your tuition fee yourself. The scholarship will be paid out in 12 equal instalments.