Eric Bleumink Fellowship

Who can apply

Hold the nationality of one of the eligible countries listed
Receive a provisional or unconditional admission offer for a University of Groningen master's programme before February
Have excellent academic performance, preferably confirmed by letters of recommendation, and excellent bachelor's grades
Meet the English language proficiency requirements of the chosen programme
Be available for, and able to complete, the entire programme
Be in good health, so that Dutch health insurance can be arranged
Have no other means of financing the study
The fund is aimed at students from the least developed countries whose training would build academic capacity in their home country, not a general merit criterion

There is no application form

There is no application form for this fellowship, and that trips people up. You cannot apply to the Eric Bleumink Fund directly. You apply to a University of Groningen master’s programme in the ordinary way, and only if that application results in a provisional or unconditional offer before February does the university’s own Admission Office and faculty boards consider you for nomination. Treat the master’s application deadline, not any date associated with the fellowship, as the one you have to hit, and complete it before 1 December to leave enough processing time. For the wider picture of what studying in the Netherlands actually costs beyond tuition, see the guide to studying in the Netherlands.

Who is actually eligible

The eligible-nationality list is long and specific rather than a general “developing countries” description: it names around 75 countries by name, spanning most of Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and parts of Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific. Check your own country against the official page’s list rather than assume eligibility from the fellowship’s general framing.

The university receives hundreds of applications for this fellowship every year and is explicit that only a limited number of grants are issued against that volume, so a strong master’s application matters twice over here: once to get admitted, and again because it is the same application the nomination decision is based on.

How the decision actually happens

The decision itself is quiet rather than communicated. The Admissions Office and the faculties’ Admission Boards decide nominations jointly, weighing your master’s programme application against separate nomination criteria the university does not publish in detail. If you are nominated, you will be told before 1 February. If you have not heard anything by then, you were not selected, and the university states plainly that it will not respond to further enquiries about individual decisions, so there is no appeal to file or additional explanation to request afterward.

The fund’s history

The fund is named for Eric Bleumink (1935 to 2025), who served as the University of Groningen’s Rector Magnificus from 1984 to 1988 and then chaired its Board until his retirement in 2000, the year the fund launched in his name. It runs on donations from University of Groningen alumni and staff rather than the university’s general budget, administered through the Ubbo Emmius Fund. By its 25th-anniversary review in December 2025, the fellowship had supported more than 100 students from around 30 countries since 2000, in line with its stated aim of building academic capacity in scholars’ home countries rather than simply funding study abroad for its own sake.