BJP Scholarship Program

If you wish to apply for support with your university fees in the 2024/2025 academic year through the BJP Scholarship Program, please review the below Information and Guidelines for Applicants.

Click here to access the online application form.

1. WHAT CAN I EXPECT FROM THE BJP SCHOLARSHIP AND EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT PROGRAM?

Through the BJP Scholarship and Educational Support Program, we offer:

• partial financial scholarships to help cover the tuition fees of study at an accredited higher education institution in Poland;
• non-financial support that aims to strengthen general academic learning skills, create opportunities to develop skills and expertise in subject-specific areas, as well as facilitate networking and mutual support within a community of Black, African and Afro-descendant scholars and professionals who work in Poland.

2. WHO CAN APPLY TO THE BJP SCHOLARSHIP AND EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT PROGRAM?

The program is open to applicants who fulfill the following criteria:

• Citizenship of an African country;
• Legal right to stay in Poland;
• 18 years of age or older at the time of applying;
• Have secured acceptance to at least one higher education institution in Poland for study in the 2024-2025 academic year;
• Demonstrate financial need and are not able to pursue the chosen program of study without financial support from the BJP.

At this time, the BJP is not able to offer financial support to students who were previously awarded a BJP scholarship in the 2022-2023 and the 2023-2024 academic years. Although we cannot offer repeat scholarships, we look forward to including previous BJP Scholarship recipients in non-financial forms of support.

3. WHAT KIND OF STUDIES CAN BE SUPPORTED THROUGH THE PROGRAM?

We welcome applications from students studying in diverse fields and accept applications from individuals interested in studying both part time and full time.

Applicants to the BJP Scholarship and Educational Support Program must have documentation that confirms they have been accepted into programs of study and courses that meet the following criteria:

• The program of study or course of study is offered by an accredited higher education institution based in Poland (e.g. universities, schools of higher education, institutes and research centers that offer certificates of higher education);
• The program of study or course of study must culminate in a higher education degree (e.g. BA, MA, MSc, MPhil, MFA, etc.). We can also support students undertaking study at PhD level as well;
• The fees for the program or course of study must be confirmed by an invoice or other official financial document issued by the accredited higher education institution based in Poland.

4. WHAT CAN I EXPECT DURING THE APPLICATION PROCESS?

The application process involves two stages:

Stage I:

Prepare and submit your application pack. Your application pack must include:

• The completed application form, prepared in English and via the online application form;
• Contacts to two individuals who agree to recommend you. Your referees can be, for example, former teachers or professors, current or former employers, mentors. Your referees must not be friends or relatives in order to avoid conflict of interest. The BJP will contact the referees only of short-listed applicants;
• A letter from an accredited higher education institution in Poland that confirms your acceptance into the program of study or course of study that you wish to attend. If you have not yet received an acceptance letter, please make it clear in your application when you expect to receive such a letter;
• A formal document issued by the higher education institution confirming the tuition fee amount and deadline for payment of tuition fees, including the institution’s bank account details. Please specify when you expect to receive such a document if you are not yet able to provide one at the time of submitting your application;
• Scan of a document that confirms your legal right to stay in Poland. 

Applications from those who are still compiling documents will be accepted; however, if your application is shortlisted and selected for a scholarship in the 2024-25 academic year, disbursement of the awarded sum of scholarship will only be possible upon submission of all the required documents.

The completed application pack must be submitted by the deadline: Monday, 5 August 2024, by midnight (CET)

The BJP Review Committee will carefully read all submitted applications and short-list candidates who will be invited to the second stage of the application process. Invitations to short-listed candidates will be sent by the end of August 2024.

Stage II:

The second stage of the application process will involve short-listed applicants and will include:

• An interview with the BJP Review Committee. Interviews will be held online or in-person as agreed with each short-listed applicant. The interview will help us to assess your candidacy with regard to the substantive selection criteria, which are outlined below.
• At this time, the BJP Review Committee will also contact the shortlisted applicants’ referees who were listed in their application forms.

Decisions about the final selection of applicants who will receive a partial BJP scholarship toward their tuition fees in the 2024-2025 academic year will be released by Wednesday, 11 September 2024.

5. WHAT ARE THE SELECTION CRITERIA, HOW ARE APPLICATIONS EVALUATED?

Applications are assessed according to the following criteria:

Formal criteria:

• Does the applicant meet the criteria outlined in the above point 2 of the Information and Guidelines for Applicants (i.e. “Who can apply to the BJP Scholarship and Educational Support Program”)?
• Does the application meet the criteria outlined in the above point 3 of the Information and Guidelines for Applicants (i.e. “What kind of studies do we support through the program?”)?
• Was the application received within the deadline?
• Is the application form completed in the English language and using the online application form?

Substantive criteria:

• Are the applicant’s answers to the questions on the application form genuine and authentic? Please note: we accept the use of Assistive or Generative-AI only to improve readability of your original content, to translate, and/or to refine the language in the application (e.g. text editing, rewording etc.). AI can make suggestions, corrections and improvements to content that applicants authored themselves, but we will not accept the use of such technology to produce content on behalf of the applicant.
• Are the applicant’s answers thoughtfully prepared, clearly presented and compellingly argued?
• Are the applicant’s education and career goals and plans thoughtfully prepared, clearly presented and compellingly argued?
• Were the applicant’s answers and overall presentation during the interview thoughtfully considered and well-prepared?
• Does the applicant demonstrate a need for financial support that justifies a partial scholarship toward their tuition fees?
• Is the application in line with the objectives of the BJP Scholarship and Educational Support Program?

Please note, we can offer partial funding for tuition fees based on documented need of individual applicants. At this time, we cannot offer to cover full tuition fees for any individual applicant.

At this time, the BJP is not able to offer financial support to students who were previously awarded a BJP scholarship in the 2022-2023 and the 2023-2024 academic years. Although we cannot offer repeat scholarships, we look forward to including previous BJP Scholarship recipients into non-financial forms of support..

6. WHEN WILL I KNOW THE DECISION ABOUT MY APPLICATION AND WHERE CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE BJP SCHOLARSHIP AND EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT PROGRAM?

We aim to inform applicants about the decision on their application by email no later than by Wednesday, 11 September 2024.

For more information about the BJP Scholarship and Educational Support Program, please write to us at: office@blackjustice.org.pl