Graduate School
Scholarship program
Scholarships for MPhil students
TI runs its own merit-based scholarship program for students in the research master program. The scholarship program started in 2005 and is financed by the departments participating in TI. Since 2008, the Duisenberg school of finance is sponsoring the scholarships for students in the finance track. Scholarships always cover the tuition fee.
Over the years, we offered scholarships in varying amounts to 50-80% of the students that entered the program. Full scholarships are awarded to 30-60% or our first year students. Rates among second year students lie much higher: all second year students who pass their first year with adequate grades receive a full scholarship. In 2009/10 Tinbergen Institute awarded 20 full scholarships to first year students and almost all second year students were fully funded. In addition, Tinbergen Institute assisted students in applying for external scholarships (3 of our students have a Huygens Scholarship for the academic year 2009/10).
Partial scholarships cover the tuition fees and costs for health insurance with a maximum of € 40 a month; full scholarships offer a monthly allowance of € 975 a month on top of this (level academic year 2009/10).
Because the institute's resources are limited, prospective students are advised to apply for external funding as well (see e.g.
Grantfinder
) or
Huygens Scholarship program
.
Applicants who want to compete for a TI scholarship should indicate this on the
application form.
The core (first-year) program leaves little or no time for any jobs. For second year students Tinbergen Institute offers a number of teaching assistantships. Many second-year MPhil students also find other research assistantships in one of the TI departments connected with MPhil thesis research.
For students from the Netherlands and other EEA countries government support is available: full-time students who are Dutch nationals
and are under 30 years of age may be eligible for government support ("studiefinanciering") in the form of a performance grant, a
loan, and a public-transport card (www.ib-groep.nl
). The same scheme is open for select groups of nationals of other
countries (see www.ib-groep.nl
> International visitors > Study grants).
Finally, EEA-nationals may be eligible for tuition fee
restitution by the government (see www.ib-groep.nl
> International visitors > Restitution of tuition fees).
The institute supports students with various facilities, such as shared office space at TI in Rotterdam or Amsterdam and reimbursement of travel expenses between Amsterdam and Rotterdam for MPhil coursework.
Tuition fees for MPhil students
In the master phase of the program a tuition fee is charged to all students. Full-time students who are nationals of an EEA-country and are under 30 years of age at the start of the academic year (September 1) are eligible for a low tuition fee. This fee ("wettelijk collegeld") is determined annually by the Dutch government and equals € 1,672 for the 2010/2011 academic year. Students older than 30 pay slightly more. The tuition fee for the 2010/2011 academic year for all other students is € 9.200. Tuition fees are due until all MPhil examinations, including the MPhil thesis, are passed.
All scholarships (partial and full scholarships) include a tuition waiver for university registration for the year for which the scholarship is awarded.
Funding for PhD students
Students in the programs' PhD phase are typically employed by one of the TI departments as PhD researchers ("promovendi"). These are full-time positions that come with all the benefits of employment, including a good salary. Most positions include a small teaching assignment to help the students gain teaching experience, which is useful for those considering an academic career.