Master of Governance and Development ICP Connect Scholarship

Benefits & funding

• The scholarship covers the full 12-month programme.
• Funding covers tuition, travel, insurance and living expenses; the official pages do not publish a component-by-component award amount.

Eligibility

• Applicants must be nationals of one of these 29 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Palestine, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines or Vietnam.
• At the time of application, applicants must also reside in one of those 29 countries, which need not be their country of nationality.
• For this advanced master, applicants must be no older than 45 on 1 January of the intake year.
• Applicants normally need a Master’s degree in development studies or a related discipline with good results. A four-year Bachelor’s degree may qualify only when the curriculum, research training and relevant experience demonstrate Master’s equivalence; a three-year Bachelor’s degree alone is not accepted.
• If a certificate is required, the stated minimum is TOEFL iBT 79 or IELTS 6.5 overall with at least 6.0 in each component.
• Applicants may submit only one ICP Connect scholarship application per year, may not combine it with another scholarship or grant, and must not previously have received a Belgian-government study scholarship or enrolled at a Belgian higher-education institution before 1 January of the intake year.
• Employment in higher education, government or civil society and relevant professional experience are preferences, not hard requirements; newly graduated and private-sector candidates may still be considered with a strong profile.

Application process

1. 1
   Check both the programme’s academic requirements and the ICP Connect scholarship rules.
2. 2
   Submit the IOB application through Mobility-Online before the scholarship deadline and select the Governance and Development programme.
3. 3
   Upload a passport copy, CV, motivation letter, degree certificates, transcripts, any required English certificate, two recent signed recommendation letters and, if applicable, an employer certificate.
4. 4
   If academically accepted, send the requested legalised academic documents for authenticity screening.
5. 5
   For the 2026–27 cycle, scholarship selection results were scheduled to be released through Mobility-Online between 1 and 15 May 2026.

Program timeline

1. 1 November 2025

   Applications opened for the 2026–27 cycle.

2. ICP Connect scholarship application deadline.

   1 February 2026

3. Academic and scholarship assessment.

   Mid-February to mid-April 2026

4. Selection results scheduled for release.

   1–15 May 2026

5. Programme starts.

   September 2026

6. Programme ends.

   September 2027