Frequently Asked Questions

students IHS

Important!

Please note that we do not request our candidates any payment in advance for awarding a full Dutch scholarship. No full-scholarship recipients will be asked for visa expense payments. Please email us at courseinquiries@ihs.nl if you have any doubts about emails you have received on our behalf. All IHS emails, including those of staff are official emails that follow the structure name[at]ihs[dot]nl.

For Prospective Students 

IHS does not offer any scholarships, however you are more than welcome to apply for scholarships by other funding bodies for which the IHS programmes are eligible for.

You can find information about possible external scholarship opportunities on our website here

The MSc degree is issued by Erasmus University Rotterdam and accredited by the Netherlands-
Flemish Accreditation Organisation (NVAO).

The programme is also an officially recognised Master of
Science degree accredited by the Dutch Ministry of Education. The Dutch Ministry of
Education accredits the course as an academic master programme based on assessment
by Quality Assurance of Netherlands Universities (QANU).

IHS does not have any open days, but you can come and visit us. We will give you a tour and introduce you to our academic staff and students. Depending on the date, it might be even possible to attend a lecture. Please email courseinquiries@ihs.nl to book an appointment.

You can also join our monthly live chats event. Read more information here

If you wish to know more about IHS’ work and activities, contact current students, alumni and other professionals, get connected with IHS on Facebook.

You can also ask to be connected with one of our student representatives for more specific questions. Send us an email courseinquiries@ihs.nl and we will try to put you in touch.

Yes, eConfluence is an educational agent who helps IHS recruiting students in certain countries. It is an official representative of IHS. 

For Applicants 

You can check IHS’ requirements on this page.

More specific information on our Master programme requirements can be found here by choosing the Master track you are most interested in.

You will get an auto-generated email after submitting your online application usually within 3 working days.

If you don't receive the confirmation email after 3 days you can email admission@ihs.nl

In the unfortunate case that your application to IHS was not successful, you cannot apply to the same course in the same academic year.

Academic Selection Committee advises you to better your application to meet IHS’ requirements. You are then welcome to apply for the next year’s intake.

The duration of assessment varies per academic course.

Short courses: 

If your application is successful, you will be contacted by us within 3 weeks after you have applied. The unsuccessful applications will not be further notified. 

Master programme:

You can read here about the application rounds and the corresponding application outcome dates. 

Assessment may take longer at certain times of the year (summer and winter vacations, before deadlines…) or if your application is incomplete. You will get an email with the necessary information once you have successfully submitted your online application.

We usually recommend attaching two reference letters to your application, an academic
and a professional one. We do not provide templates for the reference letters. We
recommend uploading all your documents at the same time, however if one of your
referees wishes they can send their letter to admission@ihs.nl

Applying to IHS is free of charge.

Master students who have successfully enrolled in the programme (by means of tuition fee payment or scholarship award) are required to pay the administration costs. 

You can submit your application if you are missing a document, but in certain fields you will need to upload something in order to move onto the next section.

Our Academic Selection Committee will contact you if they notice that your application is incomplete. 

For short courses we do not require a proof of English language proficiency. You however should be fully aware that an adequate level of English language is essential for your participation. 

For master programmes, you can submit your application without the proof of English language proficiency. Please indicate the date on which you will take you English test (must take place before 1 May) and upload the proof of your test registration to your application. Please note that the deadline for sending us your results is 15 May.

IHS does not offer any English classes it is up to you to get the required level of English. 

In addition, our master and PhD programme require an adequate level of English language proficiency. Therefore it is not possible to make any exemption on the required proof of English language proficiency. 

You can apply for as many scholarships as you wish, but please note that some scholarship programmes specify that candidates can only submit one application per deadline. This means that applicants should not submit several applications to one scholarship for different academic programmes.

Please contact the scholarship that you wish to apply for to see the specific rules and requirements.  

For Admitted Students

Yes, our student advisor provides a designated point of contact where you can access professional help, advice and guidance during your studies at IHS. Find out more here.

Fieldwork is an important part of the master programme. Should you choose to complete your fieldwork outside the Netherlands, you are required to cover the additional costs yourself such as travel and accommodation.

To complete your payment you will first need to fill in an Admission Acceptance Form (AAF). You can find the link of this form in your admission letter and/or in the email sent to you. According to your returned AAF, we will ask our finance department to issue an invoice in which all the necessary information such as our banking details is provided to facilitate the payment.

The Admission Acceptance Form (AAF) is the first step towards accepting your place on an IHS master programme. When you return your AAF you indicate your interest in the programme. You can send back your AAF and request an invoice later when you know more about your scholarship outcome.

If you are applying for the Worldbank Scholarship programme and that is your only source of funding please do not fill in the AAF form just yet as this programme requires a different administrative procedure.

Master - The following deadlines are valid for the 2024 intake:

15 May – Early bird payment deadline (€2,000 discount)
15 June – Deadline for transferring the tuition fees for Non-EU/EEA students to secure your place in the programme. Please note that the UMD MSc programme is very popular and that we cannot guarantee your spot in the programme until you have transferred the tuition fees.
1 July- Deadline for transferring the rest of the fees for non-EU/EEA students with visa application and other arrangements.
1 August – Deadline for transferring the tuition fees for EU/EEA students (or applicants who do not require a visa application).

 

Short courses & PhD

You usually should submit your payment at least 10 weeks before the start of the course if you require a visa.

At the moment, the only way to pay your fees to IHS is via bank transfer. All the information
you need to make the transfer will be on the invoice.

As part of your visa requirements IHS should guarantee you decent living conditions throughout your stay in the Netherlands. To make sure of this, you will need to transfer the totality of the living costs to IHS and they will be entirely given back to you monthly.

The monthly amount is set by the Dutch immigration office and it is usually adjusted annually. This amount is 950 euros per month for the 2022/2023 intake. 

If you are planning to study for our master's course you may be eligible for our early bird discount. To get the early bird discount (€2,000), you need to transfer the tuition fees before 15 May. If you make the payment before the deadline, you can deduct €2,000 from your
invoice.

Please note if you are planning to get the early bird discount, we recommend that you submit your application before 15 April so we can receive and review your application in time.

For the short courses (less than 90 days in the Netherlands), students have to apply for a visa on their own but we will provide an invitation letter to support your visa application.

For master programme and PhD programme candidates (staying more than 90 days in the Netherlands), the IHS Educational Management Office will apply for your visa and residence permit from the Netherlands after you have confirmed your participation by the means of scholarship or payment. Please do not start this procedure on your own.

For master's students, you will receive a one year residency permit, which usually begins three weeks before the start of the course.

You should have an international health insurance which covers your studies in the
Netherlands. We advise you to consult your insurance provider to make sure that your
current one is eligible for your stay in the Netherlands. If your current insurance is
indeed valid, you will be asked to submit it for your visa application.

You can view the details of your insurance policy here. IHS can apply for your insurance on your behalf, the costs for the insurance are EUR 480 per year. Your insurance is valid during the period of the Master course plus a week before and after it.

As you will be coming to IHS with a student visa and a specific Dutch residency permit, it is only allowed to work 16 hours per week while studying. However, we do not recommend it as the programme is very intensive.

IHS does not support internships. Based on our policy, it is not possible to undertake an internship during the Master's programme. 

Your family can accompany you to the Netherlands but you will have to make all of the
arrangements (visa, accommodation...) yourself. IHS is only responsible for the students
enrolled in a course.

Please do keep in mind that it can be quite challenging to find suitable accommodation for families. If you are a full scholarship holder, it's also good to know that in most cases the scholarship allowance is only sufficient for one person and the living costs in the Netherlands are high. 

It will depend on the status of your graduation. The master programme lasts one year so the duration of the visa granted is only for one year and cannot be extended. 

- If you have successfully graduated at the time the programme ends (usually in August) you can apply for the one-year job searching visa yourself. 

- If you haven't graduated at the time the programme ends, unfortunately your residence permit cannot be extended and you will have to complete the rest of your study from home country. You however, can still apply for the one-year job searching visa from your home country within 3 years after graduation. 

 

For students whom received a full scholarship for their studies at IHS, it can be required that IHS provides you with accommodation (depending on the contract between IHS and the scholarship provider).

For other students, IHS will provide you with housing information and try to help you find a room in the Netherlands. In case we have any rooms available on campus we will contact our confirmed students with more information on the reservation.

For some programmes you can indeed request for a deferral. You can find the details about the deferral procedure in your admission letter if applicable. 

Applicants who wish to join us later than one academic year from their original application will be required to submit a fresh application when that admission period opens.

If you have deferred your application from the previous year, your previous admission letter will not be eligible for a new scholarship application.

Depending on the date you request for the refund, different rules and costs may apply. You can find a detailed overview in this document

It's a pity that you have to cancel your participation in the course that you have enrolled. You need to first check the cancellation policy here to see whether you are eligible for the (full) refund. After that, you can submit your request via this form

Can't find the answer you were looking for? 

If you can't find the answer to your question then please contact our admissions office: admission@ihs.nl

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