Call for Application: TER-ALB-03

CALL FOR APPLICATION FOR ROMA TERTIARY STUDENTS AT BACHELOR LEVEL FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2020-2021

BACKGROUND
Roma Versitas Albania, as a partner organization of the Roma Education Fund, is a participant in the EU-financed regional project, “Increased education opportunities for Roma students and Roma youth in Western Balkans and Turkey.”
The overall objectives of this project are to close the societal and economic gaps between Roma and non-Roma people, to ensure access to quality education for Roma at all stages of academic development, and to facilitate a smooth transition of Roma youth from school to employment, resulting in durable systematic change in the Western Balkans and Turkey.

PROGRAM RATIONALE
This is a merit-based academic scholarship for Roma students who are citizens or permanent residents of Albania. Eligible applicants must be pursuing a Bachelor level, in state-accredited universities in Albania.
Selected applicants will be given the opportunity to participate in the career development counselling, mentorship, softs skills training, internship opportunities in the government and international organisations and facilitated visit to employment agencies enabling access to the labor market.

PROGRAM BENEFITS
Students who will be part of the program will have the opportunity to benefit from these services:

• Scholarship;
• Tutoring and Mentoring Scheme (supplementary lessons for the subjects the student needs);
• Academic development services (vocational training);
• English language courses, office suite, academic writing, etc .;
• Internship; etc.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
Applicants must fulfil the following requirements in order to be eligible in the Roma Versitas Albania TER Scholarship competition:

• Declare themselves openly as Roma;
• Are current students, or will be accepted as students, for obtaining a Bachelor degree at a state-accredited university, in their home country or country of residence, in the 2020-2021 academic year. The home country, or country of residence Albania;
• Demonstrated motivation to pursue employment opportunities in the field of study during the course of the scholarship award;
• Distance learning, part-time studies or non-degree programs are not eligible;
• The period allowed by universities for students to prepare their final thesis (which does not require students’ mandatory attendance to seminars /colloquiums, courses, lectures, mandatory practice, or examination) is not eligible for scholarship support;
• Only submitted, complete and compliant Application Form are considered eligible.

In order to encourage the education among Roma girls, advantage will be given to female applicants.
In order to help on enrolling to the labor market the priority will be given to the applicant that are in the last academic year of Bachelor studies.

Only completed and submitted forms within the time specified in accordance with the online application will be considered eligible.

Important: Applications which do not meet these eligibility criteria are not considered further in the scholarship competition. Ineligible applicants will be notified by Roma Versitas Albania after the closing of the eligibility checking process.

APPLICATION
Candidate has to fill out the online form at GOOGLE FORM, and the following documents must be scanned at the time of application:

• Certificate from the Faculty / University with note of the year of study 2020-2021 and the certificate of grades of the previous year issued not more than one month. For students entering the first year of university, high school grade certificate;
• An identification document, identity card or passport; and
• A letter of recommendation from the professor or tutor.

DEADLINE
The deadline to apply is up to 22 October 2020

APPLICATION PROCEDURE AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF BENEFICIARIES
The interested candidate must apply through the online application form (OAF). Roma Versitas Albania will establish an independent Selection Committee (SC) that will review the applications and make the selection of students based on the above-mentioned criteria. The Selection Committee will keep records of any decision made and will prepare a report describing the selection process and problems they encountered during the process. A list with potential beneficiaries shall be attached to the report. Based on the report the RVA’s staff will send letters to approved and rejected applicants.

At the end of the deadline for online applications, applicants will be notified via email or phone number for an interview, which will take place at the RVA offices on 24 October 2020. The list of 10 students selected to benefit from the program TER-ALB-03 for the academic year 2020-2021 will be published on the website of the organisation.

Each candidate has the right to appeal, within a period of three days from the day of announcement of the results, the candidate may send the complaint via e-mail at [email protected]. The appeal must be justified, and to have attached the necessary documents. Complaints which are not justified by official documents will not be considered. Responding to the complaint filed will be given within three days.

With the approved beneficiary students, a contract will be stipulated that will include the obligations and rights of the project/program, signed by the Executive Director of RV Albania and the beneficiary student.

The necessary documents have to be delivered and the contract have to be signed within the requested time.

The beneficiaries of this project/program will be discontinued participation in the program in case of presentation of invalid documents, false information, and if the recipient does not show progress (progress) in study and/or in case of abandonment of the studies/university.

For more information you can contact us at +355 69 60 89 221 or e-mail at [email protected]