The Amsterdam Merit Scholarship (AMS) is the University of Amsterdam’s award for outstanding students from outside the EU/EEA. The Graduate School of Social Sciences (GSSS) runs its own round, with its own deadline and selection.
Recipients study full-time on an English-taught, selective GSSS master’s programme in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Benefits & funding
- An amount equal to the tuition fee, paid out in monthly instalments.
- Not a fee waiver: the full tuition is still owed to the UvA, payable in instalments.
- Granted per academic year and not transferable; later years continue only with satisfactory progress (about 80% of credits a year).
- Living and all other costs are the student’s own.
Eligibility
- A non-EU/EEA passport (every country outside the EU and EEA, listed in the record), and not eligible for Dutch student finance (Studiefinanciering) or the low tuition fee.
- Unconditional admission to a selective, English-taught GSSS master’s, which must be your first bachelor’s or master’s programme in the Netherlands.
- Not open to anyone who must first complete a pre-master’s; the only exception is a required summer research-methods course, paid by the applicant.
- Full-time enrolment, and able to meet Dutch visa rules.
- No other full scholarship for the same period.
Application process
- 1Apply for the GSSS master’s in SIS and tick the AMS box; a scholarship application without a timely programme application is invalid.
- 2Upload one PDF combining CV, scholarship motivation letter, a recommendation letter from a professor or other academic staff member, and a financial plan, by 15 February 2027, 23:59 CET. Late applications are not accepted.
- 3Recipients accept the scholarship conditions in writing before payment.
Program timeline
AMS application deadline (23:59 CET)
15 Feb 2027
selection
March 2027
applicants informed
By mid-May 2027