The information below remains live for your reference only!
Please read all the guidance notes on this page before applying for a Prospect Burma scholarship. Once you have completed reading the notes, you will find a link to an electronic application form at the end of this page.
If you prefer to hear this information via video, we also have a video presentation with visuals in English and narrative in Burmese.
What is a Prospect Burma scholarship?
A Prospect Burma scholarship is financial support for a person from Myanmar to study towards a degree level course or higher. It can be used towards costs such as tuition fees, academic materials, living costs (including food and accommodation) and return travel to the place of study. A scholarship will provide financial support for a period of:
- 1 year for a bachelor’s degree (you will need to reapply for subsequent years of study)
- up to 2 years for a master’s degree
- up to 3 years for a PhD
Timing
Apply between 1 December 2023 and 31 January 2024, to support your study beginning in 2024 (also 2025 if applying to WLU, Canada and for Public Policy course at Chiang Mai University).
You must use our application form at the foot of this page. To ensure fairness, we will not accept any applications received after 31 January 2024, or not submitted using the application form.
Eligibility
To apply, you must meet all of the following criteria. You must:
- be applying to, or have a letter of acceptance from, a university or college outside Myanmar to study towards a bachelor’s degree or higher
- already have all the paperwork that ourselves or the university/college would require, e.g. academic record, English qualifications, references, passport details, other funding awards
- be a current or former Myanmar national, living in Myanmar or another country
- come from an underprivileged family and/or can demonstrate financial need
- have a career direction and strong ambition to benefit the people of Myanmar, and be able to demonstrate to us how your degree will help you achieve this
- already have a passport which will be current for your date of travel and six months beyond
(If you do not meet all of these criteria, or the application deadline has passed, here are some other support providers you could look at)
What can you study?
A Prospect Burma scholarship can be used to support your study of any bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, PhD or equivalents. But you must demonstrate to us how the qualification will help you benefit people in Myanmar.
Where can you study?
The scholarship can be used to support your study at any university or college outside of Myanmar, from which you already have a letter of acceptance. However:
- We particularly welcome applications to study at universities which offer reduced tuition fees for certain courses, for students who receive a Prospect Burma scholarship. See the list of universities and courses offering full or partial fee waivers.
- For bachelor’s degrees, we will not usually support applications to study in countries with high living costs (e.g. North America, Europe, Australasia, Japan, South Korea) unless a substantial tuition fee reduction has been offered by the university.
Other conditions
- A scholarship cannot be used to support other family members, additional travel during study, or additional trips (e.g. seminars, conferences, field trips) which do not contribute to degree credit.
- Scholarships can be used to cover health insurance, but not separate medical, dental, optical or other health-related costs. You must purchase adequate health insurance or have other arrangements in place to cover these costs.
- We positively encourage you to explore other funding opportunities at the same time including other ‘partial’ scholarships, so that Prospect Burma would provide just part of your funding. But if you have received a ‘full scholarship’ from elsewhere, you are fully funded already so we will disregard your application. You must insert all details of your other funding in your application form.
- Scholarship awards are paid directly to your bank account in most circumstances. However, where we have a relationship with your university, the tuition fee portion of the award will be paid directly to the university.
Preparing your application
You will need to collate your supporting paperwork in order to complete the application. After you submit your application, you will receive a confirmation email which will ask you to submit electronic copies to us. Here is a helpful checklist:
- Proof of enrolment (if already registered as a student)
- Two references (from the referees you name in your application; in English, no set format)
- Any letter giving other awards or grants
- Recent academic records and any existing academic references you may have
- Personal details page of your passport or travel document
- TOEFL, IELTS or any other English qualification
Filling in your application form
The link to the electronic application form is at the bottom of this page. Before you access it, please (1) download a blank sample of the form here so you can see what the form looks like in advance, and (2) read the guidance notes below on how to use the electronic form. It will also be useful to (3) watch the video below (in Burmese) on how to complete the application form.
Clicking on the form and opening the first page
At the first page, click the ‘Start New Application’ button and fill in your personal details in section 1, including your email address. When you press ‘Next’ at the end of section 1, you will be sent an email which will give you an application number (beginning with APP-) and a link to your online application form.
Each time you finish a section and press ‘Next’, that page and previous pages will automatically save. You can leave the portal at any time – just use the Online Application Link in the email sent to you to re-enter and continue where you left off.
Section 6 – Financial Information
This section will ask you to calculate your expected costs for your year’s study, and other ways you have sought to meet or reduce these costs. Use this section to show us how you are already taking steps to fund your study. This could include securing other partial scholarships, personal savings, a student loan, part-time employment, or choosing courses which offer full or partial tuition fee waivers. The form will help you to arrive at a total remaining amount to apply for. (If you are applying to WLU, Canada, see additional guidance).
Section 7 – About You
This section will ask you to write two short essays about yourself. Read the guidance in the section carefully. You must address all the points mentioned in the guidance in order to be considered for shortlist and interview. You must write the essays yourself. If you have applied in a previous year, do not use the essays you wrote before, you must write new ones.
Final page
Once you have completed Section 7, the final page will invite you to press ‘Next’. At this stage, if you press ‘Next’, your application will be submitted and you cannot make any further edits to it.
If you do not want to submit your application yet, just press ‘previous’ or leave the page, and use the Online Application Link sent to you via email to enter the portal at a later time. You can submit your application any time up until 31 January 2024.
When you sign and submit your application, you will be certifying that the information you have provided is true to the best of your knowledge. Supplying false information could require a scholarship award to be cancelled and repaid back to Prospect Burma.
Watch our video (in Burmese) for more guidance on filling in the form correctly.
After you have submitted your application
You will receive a confirmation email asking you to submit your supporting paperwork. A copy of your application will be attached as a pdf.
In May and June 2024, we will invite shortlisted candidates to interview. Please do not message us in May/June to ask if decisions have been made, as this only slows down the decision-making process. We can only contact successful candidates. If you do not hear from us by the end of June, your application has not been successful.
Application form
If you have read all of the guidance notes and are now ready to begin the application, please click here.