Master scholarships for higher education in different regions

The term “higher education” (or “graduate program”) is widely used to indicate the level of study after completing your bachelor’s degree. These programs operate in a completely different way from undergraduate studies. Why? Because you already have a degree and are eligible to work.

In general, most scholarships come with constraints: some require you to work for the university, some require you to maintain good grades, and some restrict your freedom of choice in your freedom of study. Think carefully about where you choose to study.

English-speaking country

In English-speaking countries, “scholarship” is not well-defined in the sense that some organizations give you money for free to support your studies. Since their education system operates entirely in English, if you have a good level of English, you can do something for the university besides just studying. The money from the scholarship often comes from such arrangements. In general, you work for the university, and they pay you a certain amount of money, which is commonly called a scholarship.

Two typical types of work associated with this are:

  • Teaching Assistant: You help lecturers organize their lectures for undergraduates (by grading homework, preparing documents for the next lesson, etc.).
  • Research Assistant: You help professors with their research by participating in labs under their supervision.

Academic research skills are important in determining who wins the scholarship, which is obvious since research is the core of these roles. You will also focus to continously enhance all of those during this scholarship.

Non-English speaking country

In contrast to English-speaking countries, their education systems mainly operate in their language. You do not need to be proficient in the local language during your studies, so you can not work as a teaching assistant or research assistant. In this case, a scholarship can be more clearly defined as money some organizations provide (for free) to support your studies.

Often, you need to maintain good grades during the scholarship, and this performance requirement is stricter than scholarships in English-speaking countries. Instead of academic research skills, grades play an important role in determining who wins the scholarship. Such types of scholarship also exist in English-speaking countries, but they are rare and extremely competitive.

Master scholarship from 5-year PhD

In some countries, universities offer 5-year programs that lead to a master’s degree after the first 2 years and a PhD degree after the following 3 years. These master scholarships act as a combination of previous things. You do not have to work for the university during your 2-year master’s study, but you will be restricted to studying such things that are needed and related to the later 3 years, rather than studying freely. In many cases, you may lose your freedom to choose coursework and master internship.