Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program

The scholarship pays tuition and the cost of basic medical insurance taken through the university. While on campus, the scholar receives a monthly subsistence allowance for all living costs, including accommodation, food and books, set according to the host country. It also pays economy air travel between home and the university at the start and immediately after the end of the scholarship, with a travel allowance of 600 US dollars for each trip.

It covers the length of the master's programme or two years, whichever is shorter. It does not pay visa or residence permit fees, family costs, extra courses or language training outside the programme, extra travel, research and field trip costs, or equipment such as computers. It supplements rather than duplicates other funding: applicants who hold another scholarship must tell the Secretariat.

Applicants must be nationals of a World Bank member developing country on the programme's list and must not hold the citizenship of any developed country. They need a bachelor's degree earned at least three years before the application deadline, and must be in paid, full-time development-related work when they apply, with at least three years of paid development-related employment since that degree, gained within the last six years. Part-time paid work can count proportionally, and paid internships count. Unpaid and informal work counts only for nationals of the fragile and conflict-affected countries listed in the guidelines.

By the scholarship deadline, applicants must be admitted unconditionally, except for funding, to at least one participating master's programme outside their country of citizenship and residence. A waitlisted place is not enough. World Bank Group staff, executive directors and their close relatives cannot apply, nor can anyone who declined a JJ/WBGSP scholarship before or did not graduate after receiving one. A previous master's degree does not disqualify an applicant.

Two qualified assessors score each eligible application from 1 to 10, independently. The weights are 30 percent for the quality of professional experience, 30 percent for the professional recommendations, 30 percent for commitment to the home country and 10 percent for education, with credit for how well the parts hold together.

Using the average score, the JJ/WBGSP Secretariat chooses finalists while keeping a reasonably wide spread of countries and a reasonable gender balance. It also takes into account unusual hardship and, other things being equal, favours applicants with less access to money for study abroad. A steering committee of World Bank board members and management approves the list, and winners are told soon afterwards.

Developing country scholars commit to going home after the degree and using what they have learned for their country's social and economic development. The programme does not rule out applicants who hope to continue to a PhD, but asks them to set out their career plans in the statement of purpose. An award is tied to its programme: it cannot be moved to another participating master's.