Master's Scholarship•Germany

Development-Related Postgraduate Courses (EPOS)

Funding

Fully Funded

Program dates

TBA

Development-Related Postgraduate Courses (EPOS) is a scholarship scheme run by the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst), Germany’s academic exchange service. It funds graduates from development and newly industrialised countries — across all disciplines and with at least two years of professional experience — to take a postgraduate or Master’s degree, and in exceptional cases a doctoral degree, at a state or state-recognised German university. The scheme funds only a fixed list of participating development-related postgraduate courses, many taught in English; the goal is to train specialists who return to drive sustainable development at home. You apply directly to a participating course (up to three), not to the DAAD.

Benefits & funding

  • Monthly stipend of €992 for graduates, or €1,300 for doctoral candidates (€1,400 from February 2026).
  • Payments towards health, accident and personal liability insurance.
  • Travel allowance, unless covered by your home country or another source.
  • Possible add-ons under certain conditions: a monthly rent subsidy and a monthly allowance for accompanying family members.
  • For German-taught courses, a preparatory 6-month German language course in Germany.
  • Funding duration: 12 to 42 months, depending on the study programme.

Eligibility

  • Nationals of a development or newly industrialised country on the DAAD/OECD-DAC eligible-country list (the European countries on the list are limited to Albania, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine).
  • A completed Bachelor’s degree (normally a four-year course) in a relevant subject, with far-above-average results (upper third).
  • At least two years of relevant professional experience after the Bachelor’s degree, at the time of application; the typical holder works for a public authority or a state or private company in a developing country.
  • Academic degrees normally not more than six years old.
  • Applicants resident in Germany for longer than 15 months at the application deadline cannot be considered.
  • Language: for German-taught courses, German level B1 at application and DSH 2 / TestDaF 4 before the course starts; for English-taught courses, IELTS or TOEFL as required by the course (the institutional TOEFL is not accepted).
  • Applicants from the People’s Republic of China must submit an APS Certificate.

Application process

  1. 1
    Choose a participating postgraduate course from the official DAAD EPOS list (you may apply to up to three, ranked by priority).
  2. 2
    Prepare the application set: the EPOS checklist and application form, a Europass CV, one letter of motivation (covering all chosen courses and their priority order), a current employer’s letter of recommendation, employment certificates proving at least two years’ experience, language proof, certified degree certificates and full transcripts.
  3. 3
    Send the complete application directly to the chosen course(s) by that course’s own deadline — applications sent to the DAAD are not forwarded.
  4. 4
    The course’s selection committee proposes candidates to the DAAD; those proposed are contacted to upload their documents to the DAAD Portal, where the final selection is made.

Program timeline

  1. Deadlines vary by course

    each participating postgraduate programme sets its own application deadline for the 2027/28 intake (commonly in the year before the course starts).

  2. After a course deadline

    the course selection committee nominates candidates to the DAAD.

  3. Following nomination

    proposed candidates upload documents to the DAAD Portal and the final selection is confirmed.