Master Mind Scholarship

Who can apply

Admission to a full 60-ECTS-per-year English-taught Master's programme at a participating Flemish higher education institution; not every English-taught programme in Flanders participates, so confirm your specific programme is eligible before applying
A GPA of 3.5 out of 4.0 or higher, calculated on your most recent Bachelor's or Master's degree using the Scholaro conversion tool
English proficiency proof no older than 3 years: IELTS 7.0 (6.5 for schools of arts), TOEFL iBT 94 (90 for schools of arts), or CEFR C1 (B2 for schools of arts)
Any nationality except Russian; cannot be combined with another Flemish government scholarship, an Erasmus+ or Erasmus Mundus scholarship, a BAEF scholarship, or a Fulbright scholarship
Nomination by only one Flemish institution; each institution may submit a maximum of 20 applications, so there is an internal shortlist before the Flemish Selection Committee ever sees your file
If the scholarship is lost partway through the programme, the student becomes liable for the full tuition fee to continue without it

A country-quota detail that’s easy to miss

The country-quota detail here is easy to miss and worth knowing either way. A handful of scholarships are reserved specifically for applicants from Japan (3 places), Mexico (3), Palestine (2), and the USA (5). If you’re from one of those four countries, you’re competing within a smaller, ring-fenced pool rather than the general list, which can work in your favor. If a selected candidate from a reserved country cancels or declines, the place goes first to the next-highest-ranked applicant from that same country, and only after that does it roll into the general ranked list.

“Waiver” doesn’t mean zero cost

Read the tuition-waiver terms precisely, because “waiver” doesn’t mean zero cost. The host institution can still charge you the same minimum rate a Flemish student on a government grant pays, 136.50 euros for the current academic year, and that figure edges up most years. It’s a small amount next to the 10,225-euro grant, but it’s not nothing, and it’s the kind of detail that surprises people expecting the waiver to mean a completely free tuition bill.

Losing the scholarship mid-programme has a real financial consequence

Losing the scholarship mid-programme has a real financial consequence, not just a paperwork one: if you lose it partway through, you’re liable for the full tuition fee if you want to keep going without it, not just the reduced rate you’d been paying. That’s a meaningful reason to take the first-year academic requirement seriously on a two-year 120-ECTS programme, since the second year’s grant depends on passing everything in year one.

Every institution runs its own deadline, and its own eligible-programme list

Because every participating institution runs its own deadline rather than one central date, the two-year 120-ECTS programmes need extra planning: confirm your specific programme actually participates in Master Mind before you build an application around it, since the scholarship database and the general Flemish English-taught-programme list aren’t the same list. Being admitted to a participating institution and being selected for the scholarship are also two entirely separate decisions, so admission alone doesn’t guarantee funding.

Check the exclusion list before you apply

If you’re already receiving another form of Belgian, EU, or US-Belgian exchange funding, check the exclusion list before you apply. Master Mind explicitly cannot be combined with a Flemish government scholarship, Erasmus+, Erasmus Mundus, BAEF, or Fulbright, so stacking isn’t an option here the way it sometimes is elsewhere.