Students must try their best to take care of themselves financially, in particular by searching for scholarships through public or private institutions in their country of origin and in Switzerland.
We recommend contacting the Students Services of your study institution, which will provide relevant advice and information, notably about scholarships or exchange programmes offered by your own government and/or institution. Then, contact the nearest Swiss consulate or embassy, where you will find information about studying and living in Switzerland and available governmental scholarships.
For those students who are unable to secure funding, the Geneva Academy has the generous support of some donors who offer a limited number of scholarships to admitted candidates, in accordance with certain specific requirements. Allocation of scholarships is based on: 1) country of origin; 2) the evaluation of candidate's academic merit and financial need; 3) plans to return to the country of origin to strengthen its capacity building and know-how in the subject matters of the programme. For more information, see below.
Prospective students are required to indicate whether they need a scholarship at the same time as they apply for the programme, by ticking the appropriate box in the application form and by filling the scholarship application form. Decisions on admission to the programme are made based the overall merit of the candidate and his/her ability to secure funding beyond the limited resources the Academy has at its disposal, while decisions on the attribution of scholarships also take into account whether the applicants satisfies the specific requirements established by the scholarship donor.
Categories of scholarships allocated by the Academy
Full scholarships
Usually, these full scholarships cover the tuition fees (15,000 CHF) and the cost of living over 12 months (18,000 up to 20,000 CHF in total). The Academy can count on approximately 10 full scholarships.
At the moment, the donors contributing to the scholarship programme of the Academy agree to grant full scholarships to admitted applicants who:
| 1) |
come geographically from Latin American countries or from low- or middle-income countries according to income categories used in the World Development Indicators.
At the moment there are unfortunately no full scholarships available for applicants coming from developed countries; |
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| 2) | demonstrate academic merit; | |
| 3) | do not possess the financial means to sustain the tuition fees of the programme and/or the cost of living in Geneva; | |
| 4) | state their plans to return to their country of origin to strengthen its capacity building and expertise in the subject matters of the programme. |
Tuition scholarships
These grants cover the tuition fees of the programme (15,000 CHF) and do not cover other expenses related to the cost of living of the students. The grants are directly paid to the Academy on behalf of the beneficiaries. At present the Academy can count on approximately 10 tuition scholarships, for admitted applicants who:
| 1) |
come from low-income countries according to the UNDP Human Development Index.
While strong preference is given to applicants from low-income countries, a very limited number of tuition scholarships are available for applicants coming from medium- and high-income countries; |
|
| 2) | demonstrate academic merit; | |
| 3) | do not possess the financial means to sustain the tuition fees of the programme and/or the cost of living in Geneva; | |
| 4) | state their plans to return to their country of origin to strengthen its capacity building and expertise in the subject matters of the programme (only for applicants coming from low human development countries and Latin American countries). |
