UNESCO/People’s Republic of China (The Great Wall) Co-Sponsored Fellowships Programme 2017-2018

Click here to read the Announcement Letter for Session 2017-2018

What is it about?

The Government of the People’s Republic of China has placed at the disposal of UNESCO for the academic year 2017-2018 seventy-five (75) fellowships for advanced studies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. These fellowships are for the benefit of developing Member States in Africa, Asia–Pacific, Latin America, Europe and North America and Arab region.

Tenable at a number of Chinese universities, these fellowships are offered to senior advanced students intending to to pursue higher education or undertake individual research with periodic guidance from assigned supervisors for a duration of one academic year (from September 2017 to July 2018). In most cases, fellows will participate in the programmes conducted in English while in exceptional cases, some candidates may be required to study Chinese language before taking up research or study in their field of interest.

Twenty (20) of the 75 fellowships are especially intended for candidatures of teacher educators and trainers from the 10 African countries under UNESCO-China Funds-in-Trust Project (CFIT) to pursue an Advanced Training Programme for Education Administrators and Teacher Educators at East China Normal University.

Invited Member States

AFRICA – 46 Member States:
Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC – 38 Member States:
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Cook Islands, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, Niue, Palau, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Viet Nam

ARAB STATES – 13 Member States:
Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Yemen

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBEAN – 26 Member States:
Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Venezuela

EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA – 12 Member States:
Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine

Programmes of Study

Please visit the official web page of China Scholarship Council (CSC) for the fields of proposed studies at the selected chinese universities:http://www.csc.edu.cn/laihua/universityen.aspx

(Check an explicit introduction of UNESCO/China (the Great Wall) Co-sponsored Fellowships Programme provided by China Scholarship Council (CSC), please visit: http://www.campuschina.org/scholarshipdetailen.aspx?cid=97&id=2051 )

Eligibility

(i) Applicants applying for general scholar programs must be under the age of forty-five (45) and have completed at least two years of undergraduate study; and those who applying for senior scholar programmes must be a master’s degree holder or an associate professor (or above) and under the age of fifty (50).

(ii) English proficiency is required.

(iii) Be in good health, both mentally and physically.

How to Apply?

Step 1:
Read carefully the Announcement letter, especially the attached ANNEX II, for UNESCO/China Co-Sponsored Fellowships Programme 2017-2018 to understand the requirements for eligible candidatures and the procedures for the submission of application.

Step 2:
Visit the official website of China Scholarship Council (CSC): http://www.campuschina.org/, to check more details on the fellowships programme and available fields of study and universities of your interest.

Step 3:
Prepare your application documents (in English or Chinese) properly according to the requirements prescribed in ANNEX II.
Applicants are encouraged to contact in advance with their target Chinese universities. For the applicants who have received the pre-admission letters from designated Chinese universities by the time of submission, please attach your pre-admission letters in the supporting documents.

Step 4:
Register in CSC Chinese Scholarship Information System for International Students at www.campuschina.org/noticeen.html (Programme Category Type A, Agency number 00001) and submit your online application by following the guidance in Instructions of the Chinese Government Scholarship Information System for International Students.

Step 5
Print out your online application form and send it to the National Commission for UNESCO of your country, attached with the hard copies of all the required documents (in duplicate).

NOTE: As National Commission for UNESCO of the invited countries will select and transmit the documents of nominated candidates to UNESCO Paris Headquarter by 20 April 2017 at the latest, applicants are advised to submit their application, both online and to their National Commissions as early as possible. Click here for the directory of National Commissions for UNESCO.

Submission and Selection of Candidates

Due to the intergovernmental character of UNESCO, individual application is not acceptable for UNESCO. Applicants should contact the National Commission for UNESCO of their home countries and submit their application documents, in both hard and advanced copies, to the National Commissions after completing their online application in the website of China Scholarship Council (CSC). The National Commission will select qualified candidates and transmit the application documents of nominated candidates to UNESCO.

The hard copies of the applications, attached with the letter of nomination endorsed by the National Commission, should be addressed in duplicate to Mr Stoyan Bantchev, Chief of the Participation Programme and Fellowships Section, 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France, and reach UNESCO imperatively by 20 April 2017 at the latest. An advanced copy of the application documents should be sent as early as possible by email to s.bantchev@unesco.org, l.ndobo@unesco.org and b.qin@unesco.org.

UNESCO and the Chinese authorities will select the seventy-five (75) most qualified candidates. The National Commissions to UNESCO of the beneficiaries will be duly informed by UNESCO.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to submit a language certificate when I apply for UNESCO/China Fellowships Programme?

Yes. Applicants should submit faithful language certificates at the time of submitting their application. There is an official form of “Certificate of Language Knowledge” provided by UNESCO. Certificate of Language Knowledge is especially mandatory for the applicants without the certificate of international language proficiency test such IELTS or TOFEL. In this case, applicants must submit the form signed and stamped by the certified language institutions or language tutors.

Applicants who have already obtained the language certificates issued by official authorities such as TOFELS and IELTS should fill in the form according to the results and information reflected on their language certificates and note in “COMMENTS” that a copy of the corresponding language certificate is attached with this form. If possible, applicants can ask their National Commissions to stamp on this form after verifying that what the applicants write on the form is faithful to the attached certificate, but this is not mandatary.

Applicants who apply for the programme taught in Chinese are recommended to attach the copy of valid HSK (Chinese proficiency test) in their application documents.

Can I apply to this fellowships if I don’t have the Pre-admission Letter from a Chinese university?

Yes. Pre-admission letter is not mandatory for application.
However, as most Chinese universities would open for application from international students since early March, applicants are encouraged to communicate with their target universities in advance. In previous examples, some universities would provide Pre-admission Letter for qualified applicants as a supporting document for scholarships.

For the applicants without Pre-admission letters, Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) will transmit the application documents of eligible candidates to universities for further selection.

I have completed the online application, where should I submit the hard copy of my application?

Applicants should submit to the National Commissions for UNESCO of their countries after completing the online application. Owing to the intergovernmental character of UNESCO, all applications must be channeled through the National Commissions and no exception will be made for any individual application.

Documents should be prepared in compliance with the requirements stipulated in the Announcement Letter and submitted before the deadline