Jogi és Bölcsészeti Ösztöndíj roma diákoknak

A Jogi és Bölcsészeti Ösztöndíjprogram (Law and Humanities Scholarship Programme, rövidítve LHP) nyílt, érdemeken alapuló tanulmányi versenyt hirdet azon roma hallgatók részére, akik a következő országok állampolgárai vagy lakosai: Moldova, Oroszország és Ukrajna. A jelentkezőknek saját országuk (vagy tartózkodási országuk) valamelyik államilag akkreditált, jó hírnevű egyetemén kell tanulmányaikat alap-, mester- vagy doktori szinten folytatniuk. Az LHP Program keretében évente 50 ösztöndíjat adományozunk jogi és bölcsészeti tanulmányokat folytató diákoknak.

A jelentkezés elküldésének határideje 2011. április 30.

The Roma Education Fund Scholarships Programme (REF/SP) and „Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” Foundation announces the eighth year of Law and Humanities Programme (LHP) for eligible Romani students at the university level in Moldova, Ukraine and Russia for 2011 – 2012 academic year. The funds for Law and Humanities Programme come from the Remembrance, Responsibility and Future Foundation and the Roma Education Fund.

Eligibility Criteria for Applicants
Eligibility criteria of the REF/Scholarships Programme set standards, according to which applicants’ qualifications are assessed. The Programme Applications are screened for appropriate academic standards, completeness of submitted documents and deadlines met. The applicants who do not meet the eligibility criteria of the Programme/s are not further considered in the academic competition of the Programmes.

Applicants should:

	be openly Roma, willing to appear publicly as Roma
	have been or will be accepted at a state accredited university in their home country or country of residence as full-time students in the upcoming academic year. Persons planning to get enrolled in a university in the upcoming year, but not enrolled in one at the moment of application, are also eligible. Please note that the home country and country of residence has to be one of the Programme countries as follows: Moldova, Russia, Ukraine
	apply by the set deadlines
	pursue their studies for obtaining a Bachelor, Master, or PhD degree
	submit a completed Application Form
	submit a statement of purpose that expresses applicants’ academic goals and/or accomplishments and shows the commitment to study
	submit an essay that considers the most outstanding issues that Roma face in the applicant’s country, how those issues affect the local community and what are the possible means to address them
	provide an official transcript of the university grades from all completed academic years as well as the latest completed semester of  September – December 2010. If the applicant has not been enrolled in school/university recently, s/he should provide certified copies of the latest received grade transcripts and /or diplomas
	submit at least one detailed and informative recommendation letter, describing the academic performance and/or extra-curricular activities of the applicant
	sign electronically the Contractual Obligations section of the online application form
	study in the field of Law and Humanities
	provide evidence of acceptance in full-time university studies within a recognized university in the applicants’ own country or country of residence by presentation of an original university enrolment certificate for the academic year for which they are applying for scholarship support

Note: shortlisted applicants for LHP Programme will be invited to personal interviews (see below details on interviews).

LHP has the possibility to support the same applicant throughout his/her studies for:

• one Bachelor degree, transfer to another university/faculty/field of studies being allowed only once,
• one Master degree, for maximum two years, and,
• one PhD degree, for maximum three years,

The Programme will only support students in attaining one degree of each academic level.

Applicants who receive an academic scholarship from another organization/s for the academic year 2011-2012, may not be eligible for the REF/SP LHP. Employees of REF, the Open Society Institute or national foundations of the Soros Foundations Network (SFN), as well as those individuals working on projects funded by the Roma Education Fund or who receive honoraria (consultants, fellowships) from REF or SFN are not eligible for REF Scholarships.

Selection Criteria
Selection criteria for REF Scholarship programmes take into account the quality of the documents submitted. The applicants must strive to comply with the selection criteria and present competitive application materials. The selection criteria for all Programme countries and programmes are as follows:

Decision Making Mechanisms
REF/SP Staff and the Programme Country Coordinators are not directly involved in the process of Scholars’ selection. The Programme staff has an observing role in the selection process. Please see the role of the Staff and Country Coordinators in the Operational Manual.

Selection of scholars from the pool of applicants is carried out by a National Selection Board (NSB). The NSB members for the Law and Humanities Programme (LHP) are selected for their positions through an open competition and serve in the boards from 3 to 5 years. The Programme strives to select representatives of academia and Roma communities for the NSBs in all programme countries.

The International Selection and Advisory Board (ISB) of REF deliberates and takes decisions on the undecided cases provided by the NSBs and on certain cases of appeal (see below details on the latter).The ISB Members represent International NGOs, academic programmes, experts with experience in managing Scholarship schemes, etc. The Board Members serve on ISB from 3 to 5 years.

Selection Process
Applicants who comply with the Programme’s eligibility criteria and submit complete application packages respecting the deadlines as set below are considered eligible. The short-listed applicants are asked into the personal interviews by the National Selection Board in country. The final decisions are made by International Selection and Advisory Board in Budapest, Hungary.

The selection process consists of several steps and levels, with slight variations according to the specific programme. Key steps are explained below:

Step One: Verifying whether the requirements of the Eligibility criteria of the Programme/s are met. The step consists of a technical verification of the application materials which is done by the Scholarships Programme administration staff.

Step Two: Evaluating the application content. The evaluation is carried out by the REF/SP National Selection Board (NSB) members in respective Programme countries. The NSB members review the Application Materials and discuss each application in a Selection Board Meeting.

Step Three: Conducting personal interviews with the applicants. The shortlisted applicants are interviewed by the NSB members in each above-mentioned country (see below details on interviews).

Step Four: Forwarding to ISB. This step may be needed if the decisions on the particular applications are not reached by NSBs. The debated Applications are forwarded to the International Selection and Advisory Board for further consideration.

The Programme classifies the applicants in two groups for further selection: renewal applicants and new applicants. The two groups do not compete against each other, but are each assigned a quota.  This approach allows the Programme to run a competition while providing a fair chance to scholars within relevant academic levels.

Renewal applicants – Students/scholars who received the LHP Scholarship for the previous academic cycle and are applying to renew their scholarship

New applicants – Students/scholars who did not receive the LHP Scholarship in the previous academic year, regardless of whether they received it in earlier years

The Programme has established a quota per country based on a combination of criteria. Among these are Roma population ratio per country, availability of affirmative measures in tertiary education, and accessibility of EU student/loan funds of the potential applicant pool. In the LHP Programme160 scholarships will be granted.

! Please note that REF/SP conducts several screenings throughout the application/selection cycle by contacting the universities and/or the reference persons.

Communication of Selection Decisions
The Programme communicates the outcomes of the selection process to the respective applicants after the second, the third and the fourth steps (see page three under Selection Process) of selection via e-mail by sending either an official Rejection Letter (with specified reasons for rejection), or a Notification Letter (with the confirmation that the candidate was shortlisted for the scholarship), and a Grant Letter (with details on the stipend to be received).

The applicant may appeal against the National Selection Board decision within the set deadlines. The appeals should be sent to REF/SP. The REF/SP team categorizes the appeals and sends them to the Scholarship Programme Ombudsman (contact of the Ombudsman is available on REF webpage), who analyzes individual appeal cases based on the materials provided by the applicants, the Programme and the NSBs. While analyzing the appeals, the Ombudsman may choose to turn to the professional advice of the International Selection Board Members.

Additional Benefits of the Scholarship Programme
REF is in the process of developing an additional set of support activities for Scholarship beneficiaries to enhance their chances of graduating on time with good grades and starting a successful career afterwards. It is anticipated that these activities will include but not be limited to: participation in programme conferences and workshops, various training opportunities and information to promote educational, professional and personal development, possibilities for internships and small-scale community project initiatives. Participation in all these activities will be voluntary.

It is expected that these activities will be provided through a Beneficiary Networking Programme (hereinafter: BNP) which will also be open to persons who have been beneficiaries of REF Scholarships in the past.

In addition, BNP will develop a process of exchange and communication by which current and former beneficiaries can support each other in the expansion of their social and professional networks within and beyond the Roma community on both national and international levels. BNP will strive to develop a mechanism for current and former beneficiaries to self-organize around issues and concerns of interest to them, including but not exclusively Roma education.

In the longer term, one of the anticipated outcomes of the BNP will be a mutually supportive community of current and former beneficiaries that is committed to actively supporting the fulfilment of the REF mission and the broader promotion of Roma inclusion.

As a first step REF/SP Programme is launching a Beneficiary Pilot or Reference Group with a purpose to ensure beneficiary participation in the Programme planning and strategy elaborations as well as lay out the foundation for starting the Beneficiary Networking Programme.

In order to be informed about the opportunities offered under the BNP, students will need to clearly indicate in the section of the Contractual Obligation form (as a part of the Online Application Form) their consent to be contacted by the Programme for BNP purposes. Providing the consent for this part is on a voluntary base and does not influence the decision making of the scholarships selection process.

By providing their consent, students agree that the personal data they provide in the application form can be used for the following purposes:

• Sending to students invitations to participate in activities under the Programme;
• Creation of the database of those interested in BNP activities;
• Sharing contact information among the members of the BNP;
• REF Scholarships Programme outreach activities.

Stages of Application and Deadlines
In order to be considered for scholarship in the academic year 2011-2012 students will have to comply with the two deadlines/stages described in detail below.

Stage One – Deadline: April 30th, 2011

– Application Form must be filled in electronically and:

• be completed thoroughly; applicants must provide all the requested information and answer each questions as contained by the Form,
• contain full family and first name, mailing address, country of residence, city, e-mail and telephone number (please insert the local codes!); the address must be valid for summer months and academic year period,
• contain full name of University/Institute, Faculty, Department and Specialization; year of study during academic year 2011-2012 (for example 1st year, BA or 2nd year MA) and anticipated year of graduation,
• contain acknowledgement of being Roma and interest in Roma issues,
• outline the budget requested for one academic year,
• contain a statement of purpose that expresses applicant’s academic goals, accomplishments, and the commitment to study,
• contain an essay that considers the most outstanding issues that Roma face in the applicant’s country, how those issues affect the local community and what are the possible means to address them.

– Recommendation Letter/s must be scanned and uploaded as attachments within the application form and:

• be written by an individual familiar with the applicant’s academic or/and Roma related activities; such person can be the applicant’s university professor, an NGO leader or work supervisor,
• bear the original signature and stamp (if available) of the reference person,
• NOT be written by a  relative or a personal friend,
• NOT be written by a person who has applied for scholarship for the academic year 2011-2012, or is currently receiving any REF/SP scholarships!

– Grade transcripts must be scanned and uploaded as attachments within the application form and:

• be an official academic grade transcript from all completed academic years as well as the latest completed semester of September – December 2010 (in case applicants have not been enrolled in school/university lately please provide certified copies of the latest received grade transcripts and /or diplomas),
• bear the original stamp of the university and signature of the university representative.

– Bank account information must be filled in electronically into the application form and:

• must contain the following: applicants’ EURO account number, SWIFT, IBAN and the bank address; the bank account must be opened in the name of the applicant and valid for the 2011-2012 academic year period

– ID/passport copy must be scanned and uploaded as attachments within the application form and:

• be legible and, if an ID, have copies of both sides.

– Contractual Obligations form is a part of the Application package that needs to be accepted by Applicants in order to be further considered for the academic competition:

• the Contractual Obligations, a legally binding article serving as an agreement by the applicant to follow the REF/SP requirements and conditions if the applicant is selected for the scholarship,
• the Contractual Obligations in English language will be reviewed and signed electronically by each applicant. (country language translations are provided for the reference of the Applicant)
• please note that signing the Contractual Obligations does NOT entitle or guarantee the selection of the applicant for a scholarship!

Stage Two – Deadline: September 15th, 2011

– Enrolment certificate must be scanned and uploaded as attachment to the application form and:

• be an original enrolment certificate from the applicants’ university showing that he/she is enrolled for the academic year 2011-2012,
• contain the applicant’s full name, his/her year of study, name of university, faculty, department, specialization and type of study (i.e. full time, part time, distance etc.),
• NOT bear corrections unless stamped and signed by the issuing person.

– Tuition fee certificate must be scanned and uploaded as attachment to the application form and:

• be an original tuition fee certificate indicating cost of tuition for the academic year 2011-2012 (if applicable); the tuition amount should be indicated on the enrolment certificate, an additional stamp needs to be placed next to the indicated amount.

Please note that the Programme accepts the ‘proof of acceptance’ or „conditional acceptance” issued by the University where the applicant will be studying, if the School at which the applicant is/will be studying is unable to produce official Enrolments before the end of the first academic semester.

LHP Scholarship Awards

The LHP scholarship is transferred to the applicant’s bank in one instalment. It is to be used to cover tuition, textbooks, exam fees and partially living expenses. The scholarships are not automatically awarded for the subsequent academic year, however are subject to renewal in case of successful completion of the prior academic year. For renewing the scholarship from one academic year to another, the students must reapply.

Please note that starting with 2011 the application process for all REF scholarship schemes is electronic and the online application forms, as well as all other relevant application materials, are accessible on the REF webpage.

If the applicants wish to contact the Programme with inquiries/questions, they will need to write to their respective Country Coordinator or scholarships@romaeducationfund.org.

REF/Scholarships Programme

Teréz körút 46.

Mark Center IV. floor

H-1066 Budapest, Hungary

www.romaeducationfund.org

Attention to Applicants – Programme Timeframes to follow:

www.romaeducationfund.org