Apply for the Fully Funded 2025/26 ARES Scholarships for Bachelor’s or Master’s Study in Belgium

Ednah Carrick August 30, 2024

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Closing Date: 18 October 2024

Apply for the Fully Funded 2025/26 ARES Scholarships for Bachelor’s or Master’s Study in Belgium

Are you a national of an ARES partner country? Do you have a higher education degree? Do you have professional experience and would you like to deepen your skills in a development-related topic?

The ARES scholarships offer you the opportunity to follow a one-year advanced bachelor’s or master’s degree program or a 2-to-6-month continuing education program within a higher education institution of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation in Belgium. Call for applications for the award of a scholarship as part of the international trainings taught/given during the 2025-2026 academic year are now open.

Overview

The Academy for Research and Higher Education (ARES) is the federation of higher education institutions (HEIs) of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB) in Belgium. As an umbrella organisation, ARES ensures overall coordination of the higher education sector in FWB. ARES is also a recognised stakeholder/actor in Belgian development cooperation. As such, it manages a budget from the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD) to carry out academic cooperation projects between French-speaking Belgian higher education institutions and their counterparts in 31 partner countries.

This call for proposals is part of the ARES International Training programme, which aims to build the capacity of young professionals from partner countries by providing them with specialised training or continuing education in Belgium.

Objectives of the ARES Scholarships

The main objective is to give nationals of an ARES partner country the opportunity to pursue a specialised bachelor’s degree, a specialised master’s degree or continuing education diploma at an FWB establishment in Belgium.

Objectives of ARES International Training programme include:

Increase the level of qualifications of participants;
Empower people in their countries of origin;

Strengthen interpersonal and professional networks;
Improve the capacity of the home institutions of scholars;
Highlight international themes;

Promote the expertise and experience of participants of training courses;
Enable scholarship holders to become agents of change in their home institutions and in society, in favour of development.

Who can apply?

The candidate must:

Be a national of, reside in and work in one of the 31 eligible countries (list below);
Be a holder of:
- a diploma comparable to a 2^nd cycle diploma (300 ECTS credits) from a Belgian university for specialised masters and continuing education courses;
- a diploma comparable to a 1^st cycle diploma (180 ECTS credits) from Belgian higher education for specialisation baccalaureates.
Demonstrate at least two years’ relevant professional experience in an ARES partner country.

Eligible countries

In Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, DR Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
In South America and the Caribbean: Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, Peru.
Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Vietnam.

In Asia: Palestinian territory.

Duration?

Bachelor’s and specialised master’s degrees: 12 months maximum.
Continuing training: 2 to 6 months maximum.

Financial support?

The scholarship includes:

International travel expenses;
Subsistence allowance;

Exceptional costs associated with visa applications (only for bachelor’s degrees and specialised master’s degrees);
Tuition fees (only for bachelor’s degrees and specialised master’s degrees);
Indirect mission expenses (for continuing education only);