For candidates

NO. A formal requirement for participation at the Kirkland Program is at least a Bachelor’s diploma at the time of filing an application. It is obligatory to complete full course of study, for which the BA or MA degree is awarded, before applying.

YES. The candidates applying for the study programs in English should find a specific program in this language at one of the Polish universities and should know Polish at a basic level, i.e. be able to understand spoken and written Polish as well as be able to communicate in everyday life situations during their stay.

Information about educational programs (including English-language ones) can be found on the websites of Polish universities. Below are the addresses of the universities with which the Program most often cooperates:

• Uniwersytet Warszawski – www.uw.edu.pl
• Szkoła Główna Handlowa w Warszawie – www.sgh.waw.pl
• Szkoła Główna Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego – www.sggw.pl
• Uniwersytet Jagielloński – www.uj.edu.pl
• Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Krakowie – www.nowa.uek.krakow.pl
• Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza w Krakowie – www.agh.edu.pl
• Uniwersytet Wrocławski – www.uni.wroc.pl
• Uniwersytet Marii Curie Skłodowskiej w Lublinie – www.umcs.lublin.pl

The program of study is a very important part of the application form and should include, among other things, the following information:

• Main purpose of the scholarship program and its relevance to the candidate’s previous experience
• Proposed program and city of affiliation in Poland
• Proposed type of professional internship and educational institution, where the candidate would like to pursue his/her internship
• Significance of the scholarship project to the candidate’s professional field, alma mater, country and professional (academic) career
• Plans related to the completion of the proposed project.

Required number of characters “Project Statement”- minimum 4 000, maximum – 6 000.

Contacting the chosen university is not required at this stage. In the application, the candidate should indicate the institute, department and university where his/her chosen subjects can be studied. The final decision on the place of affiliation of a grantee is made by the Selection Committee at the end of June (the Committee may direct a grantee to a different city of affiliation than the one indicated by him/her in the application form, if it decides that this will be more beneficial for the person in question).

No certificates from the workplace are required. It is crucial to write the previous employments in an appropriate field of the application form. The authenticity of the information included in the form is confirmed by the candidate’s signature.

YES, provided that it was full-time training, i.e. 40 hours per week. In such case, the Program may request for the attachment of documents confirming such student training in the required number of hours.

It is absolutely necessary to fill out the form on-line in order to make the application valid. In case of any technical problems with the form, please contact us at: kirkland@kirkland.edu.pl

Nothing should be sent by regular post. It is essential to apply via application form – and attache all of the documents.

The main objective of the Kirkland Program is to share the experience of the Polish transformation, so only areas related to systemic and economic transformation, listed in the Program announcement, can be studied under the Program

The Kirkland Program offers a two-semester non-degree study program at universities aimed at expanding the candidate’s knowledge with new experiences. None of the two-semester study programs provided by the Polish public universities offers a possibility of earning an academic degree. The Kirkland Program ends with a diploma of participation and it is of prestigious nature only.

The persons who are studying in Poland during the Program selection process are not eligible to apply for the Kirkland scholarships. Candidates must have at least 2 years break after previous foreign scholarship (longer than 6 months).

The first term paper may be written in the language other than Polish, upon consent of the advisor, but the diploma project must be in Polish. The persons pursuing study programs in English, who write all their papers in English, are the exception.

The Program offers a stipend of 2 500 PLN x 9 months. In addition, the following costs are covered: educational fees, accommodation in Poland, insurance, travel to and from Poland.

The recruitment process consists of three stages:

Stage I – formal evaluation of applications (checking whether all candidates meet the required formal criteria)

Stage II – substantive evaluation of applications (experts in fields such as economics, law, political science, social science, etc. evaluate the documents submitted by the candidate [the project statement is of particular importance]). Successfully evaluated candidates are invited for interviews. Those invited to the third stage will be notified by email in the second half of March.

Stage III – interviews (are organized online or at diplomatic missions of the Republic of Poland in most countries listed in the announcement, usually in April).

Information about the final results of the competition is sent by e-mail in June.

The application form does not have to be filled out in full right away. You can do it in several stages, saving and completing draft versions:

– you enter data into the form

– you save the draft version (make a note of the special code that will allow you to reopen the draft version)

– in order to complete the data you open the draft version and edit the form further

– after carefully checking the data, you register the form and send the application to the Commission (command “Register Form/Submit” at the bottom of the page); after this operation, you cannot change the data. If the project statement does not have at least 4,000 characters with spaces, the form will fail to register; if not all required fields are filled in, the form will also fail to register. If any fields do not apply to the candidate, enter “Not applicable.”

– EXAMPLE FORM IN PDF: in Polish and in English

The Program Officer may be contacted by
– e-mail: kirkland@kirkland.edu.pl
– Facebook: www.facebook.com/LKscholarships.in.Poland