NFP in transition
10 Mar 2010
The eleven Nuffic staff members who manage all aspects of the Netherlands Fellowship Programmes (NFP) have a busy year ahead of them. For eight months they will continue to work according to the old method, but the new NFP must be operational by the start of November 2010.
Nuffic programme manager Inge Zuidema explains: "Starting in November, people will be able to apply for an NFP scholarship via Scholarships OnLine (SOL). The application is already being used for digital applications for the Huygens programme, to the satisfaction of the applicants. We are now modifying it so that it can also be used for the NFP. We intend to further expand SOL for the NFP, turning it into the online application for institutions, scholarship applicants and embassies.
In addition to the new online application, a new method will be introduced for the selection of scholarship recipients – from now on, the preferences of the embassies and the Dutch institutions will have priority in determining the selection. The embassy will determine how much the candidates might achieve for the development of their country, and the institutions will assess their academic qualifications."
Advantages of SOL
One advantage of SOL for the NFP is that all parties involved will be able to track the status of applications. Scholarship applicants, for example, will be able to find out sooner whether they have been selected for an NFP scholarship. Another major advantage is that the applications will take place digitally, meaning that the mountains of paper application forms that still make the rounds of the embassies, institutions and Nuffic are set to disappear. This will also save the Dutch institutions a lot of work, by eliminating the need to send out mass mailings to candidates regarding the NFP selection results, among other things.
The NFP programme managers see the new application and selection procedure as a major improvement in efficiency. Inge Zuidema also believes that everybody involved in the NFP will quickly become accustomed to their new roles as soon as the new approach is underway. It will take some getting used to, but there are no major difficulties.
Support from Nuffic
Institutions and embassies can count on support from Nuffic. In 2009, the embassies’ fellowship officers took part in an intensive workshop in order to acquaint themselves both with the new system and their new responsibilities. Nuffic will also be organizing a number of symposia and training courses for Dutch educational institutions.
Change also brings with it new initiatives and renewed vitality, keeping old programmes such as the NFP (which have existed for over half a century under various names and guises) energized and modern.