Amsterdam Merit Scholarship (AMS)
Title: Amsterdam Merit Scholarship: €25,900 Funding for Non-EU Law Students at the University of Amsterdam
Meta description: The University of Amsterdam’s Amsterdam Merit Scholarship offers €25,900 to non-EU/EEA students admitted to select LLM programmes. Here’s the eligibility criteria and deadline.
Body:
If you’re outside the EU/EEA and eyeing an LLM at the University of Amsterdam, this scholarship is worth building your application timeline around — it’s worth €25,900 for the 2026–2027 academic year, and it’s specific to four law programmes only.
Eligible programmes:
- International and European Law
- Transnational and European Private Law
- Law & Finance
- International Criminal Law
Who can apply:
- Non-EU/EEA passport holders who aren’t eligible for Dutch government study financing (Studiefinanciering)
- First-time Master’s applicants at UvA — if you already hold a Master’s from Amsterdam, you’re not eligible
- Able to meet Dutch visa requirements and enrol full-time by 1 September
You don’t need an admission decision in hand before applying for the scholarship — but you do need to have submitted a complete LLM application by the same deadline.
What they look at:
- Your GPA, which needs to be roughly a 4.0 (US scale), first-class honours (UK), or an 8.0 on the Dutch 10-point scale
- A 500-word letter of motivation explaining why you want this specific programme and why the scholarship matters to you
- Your CV
- The overall strength and completeness of your application
Deadline: 15 January, 23:59 CET — for both your LLM application and your scholarship application. Miss one, and the other doesn’t matter; they’re assessed together.
A tip if you’re eyeing more than one UvA scholarship: if you’re also applying for the Julia Henriëtte Jaarsma-Adolfs Fund, you can indicate this on the same form and only need to submit one motivation letter for both.
You’ll hear back from the Selection Committee by the end of March.
For more information and application:
Visit the official website of the Amsterdam Merit Scholarship
