The China Scholarship Council (CSC) provides scholarships for Chinese citizens who want to do PhD research at Leiden University. If you would like to pursue a PhD at Leiden University with a scholarship from the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC), we recommend you to apply to the CSC-Leiden Joint PhD programme.

Application process

• Find a  supervisor at Leiden University. You can find a supervisor in your area of interest by browsing the staff pages of the relevant institutes: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/science;
• Contact your intended supervisor to discuss possibilities and potential interviews;
• If your supervisor agrees to host you, the supervisor should contact the Graduate School Office of her/his intention to accept you as a PhD candidate;
• You will then receive an e-mail from the Graduate School Office with a request to submit the required documents and the topic for your intended research for credential evaluation. Required documents include a CV, a BSc diploma and transcript, a MSc transcript until the latest date possible. The Graduate School Office reserves the right to ask for additional supporting documents;
• Only if you have been provisionally admitted to the graduate school, your supervisor will provide you with an acceptance letter. The letter must be signed and written on university letterhead paper.
  
  IMPORTANT: Please note that an acceptance letter is only valid if the candidate has been successfully (provisionally) admitted to the graduate school. Moreover, you can only appear on the official list of CSC-Leiden joint scholarship applicants if you have been provisinally admitted to the graduate school.

Application deadline

• The deadline for submitting all required documents to the graduate school and informing the graduate school about a research topic you agreed on with your intended supervisor is 22 February 2019.
• CSC does not accept individual applications, so please find out your submitting organization on the CSC website and contact the relevant office as soon as you decide to apply.
• Between March 10 and March 31 2019: Please submit all  application materials for the CSC-LU scholarship via the CSC website
  • You must include your letter of acceptance, a copy of your intended supervisor's CV and a research proposal for application. Please inform yourself about the required materials via the CSC website;
  • Indicate that you are applying for a Leiden-CSC joint scholarship on the first page of your application.
• IMPORTANT: Please pay attention to the deadline of your submitting organization in China(受理单位). Most submitting organizations set a deadline before March 10. Please follow the requirements of your submitting organization.

Further practicalities

• For practical matters such as visa, insurances, bank matters and accommodation for international PhD candidates, please visit the website of the Leiden University’s Service Centre International Staff

For visiting/exchange PhD researchers:

• Please also inform the Graduate School Office about your visit by sending an e-mail to gsoffice@science.leidenuniv.nl.