Guideline for scholarship hunting for Beginners

There are a lot of scholarships available for international students in different countries of the
world. Deadlines and application requirements vary from country to country. In this
documents I tried to explain scholarship hunting process step by step for beginners. You need
to prepare some supporting documents before starting this process. These documents are:
1) Academic CV, Most Important to draft a good CV(not job CV)
2) State of Purpose (SOP)/Motivation Letter
3) Research Proposal
4) IELTS test (not required for china)

Here is a good sample of academic CV

ALI IMRAN
Pharmacist at Aga Khan University Hospital Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Email: dr@gmail.com
Skype ID: ali4

OBJECTIVE
To become a good researcher in Pharmacology.

EDUCATION

Institute/Degree Year Marks/CGPA Division

Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm-D) 2013 3.42 1st
Hamdard University, Karachi,
Pakistan
www.hamdard.edu.pk

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
I have more than four years of professional work experience and served in several
organizations with different designations. The detail is given below:

1. Pharmacist at Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) Rawalpindi, Pakistan

I have been serving as a pharmacist at AKUH since September 2016 to date. My
responsibilities at AKUH include:
Supervision of immunization department of the hospital. I am responsible to monitor
vaccination scheduling of individuals and raising awareness about contagious
diseases among indoor and outdoor patients
 As a member of Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO),
Identification of deserved patients to get Hepatitis treatment from the hospital at
minimal cost
Revision of physician’s prescription to ensure the quality of prescribed dose and
diminish the possibility of drug-drug interaction before dispensing to patients

2. Pharmacist at Aga Khan Health Service Rawalpindi, Pakistan

I have worked for more than two years from May 2014 to July 2016 as a pharmacist at
Agha Khan Health Service (AKHSP) Rawalpindi, Pakistan. In this organization I had the
following responsibilities:
Implementation of pharmacy practices and counseling of patients for safe and
effective use of medicines
Supervision of immunization department of the organization

3. Assistant Product Manager at Global Marketing Services(GMS) Rawalpindi, Pakistan

I have worked from August 2013 to April 2014 as an Assistant Product Manager in a drug
marketing company, GMS, Rawalpindi. In this organization my duties were:
Supervision of customer care services and delineate the steps to be taken to upsurge
the customer satisfaction on the basis of customer survey
Advertisement and Introduction of new medical products in market

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
Communicable and Non Communicable diseases Educator in Aga Khan Local Health Board
Rawalpindi/Islamabad Pakistan from January 2015 to present

I conduct health awareness sessions to the public on prevention and life style
modification to avoid different non communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension
etc. and communicable diseases like Hepatitis and HIV AIDS etc. I am also indulged in
identifying different communicable diseases in different areas and scheduling the
treatment plans of low income individuals and arranging free medical camps. I am also
involved in motivating the population for vaccination

LAB INSTRUMENT SKILLS

Spectrophotometer
Refractometer

RESEARCH INTEREST
Life style modifications to prevent non communicable diseases
Approaches for detection of non-communicable diseases in low income areas
Prevention of communicable diseases by immunization
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
From the start of my service, I have been gone through several professional training courses
and attended workshops to excel my expertise in practical field. Some selected sessions are:
Two days training session with as a “Representative Health Worker” from 1st to 2nd
April 2017. This training was assisted by Aga Khan Health Board Pakistan to train health
workers to enhance their professional capabilities
Basic Life Support for Healthcare provider by American Heart Association. The agenda
of this session was to give medical care for the victims of life threatening illnesses and
injuries
I have attended four days training session in Supply Chain Management from Pakistan
Institute of Management Lahore from 4th to 8th October 2015
INTERNSHIPS
I did my internships during Pharm-D studies to develop concrete concepts and have a deep
understanding of different knowledge areas of my field. The detail is given below:
8 weeks Training(Internship) in Hospital Pharmacy at Imam Clinic and General
Hospital Karachi in 2012-2013
5 weeks Internship at Dr. Zia Ud Din Hospital in June-July 2010 as Hospital Pharmacist
4 weeks internship in Genix Pharma Karachi in June-July 2011 as Industrial Pharmacist
and worked in the Production, Quality Control, Quality Assurance, Packaging, Ware
House departments of this industry

PROFESSIONAL SOFTWAREs AND COMPUTER SKILLS

I am an efficient user of Inventory management software for the last four years
MS office software package

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
IELTS SCORE: 7.5 Bands

REFERENCES
Dr. Sheikh Abdul Khaliq
In-charge Department of Pharmacy Practice
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Pharmacy
Hamdard University
Karachi
E.mail: abdul.khaliq@hamdard.edu.pk
 Here is a sample of motivation letter/SOP/Study Plan

Study Plan

Science and technology plays an essential role and key to the quality lives of human beings.
My motivation of selecting the engineering field is to contribute in this noble cause for the benefit of
humanity. I always strive to excel my knowledge and technical expertise in my field. Unfortunately, the
developing countries do not have state of the art research facilities, necessary to carry out high-quality
research at Ph.D level. I have completed MS in electronic engineering and serving as Lecturer at The
University of Faisalabad, Pakistan. Now I want to pursue PhD in electronic/electrical engineering at
some prestigious foreign engineering institute having excellent research facilities. I am very thankful
to the courtesy of University of Ulster for providing such tremendous opportunity for the international
students to study at top ranked university equipped with sophisticated research labs.

I tried my best to refine my learning abilities and technical skills to cope with emerging
engineering challenges in the field of electrical engineering during my graduation. My BS final year
project title was “Development of Non-intrusive Load Monitoring and Management system for
Domestic Applications”. This system was capable to monitor the power consumption of different loads
and manage them for power saving.

After graduation, I got admission in MS electronic engineering on scholarship at one of the

prestigious engineering institute of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and
Technology.

My MS thesis title was “Fabrication and Investigation of Thermoelectric and Photo-

thermoelectric Devices for Power Generation and Instrumentation based on Inorganic Nano-
materials”. These devices utilize waste heat of the surrounding to generate electric power and also
can be used as sensors. I have one conference publication from my thesis. I am zealous to learn
nanotechnology and its application in renewable energy systems. In addition, I want to work on the
fabrication of thin film thermoelectric and photo-thermoelectric devices for small scale power
generation and electronic applications in PhD.

Furthermore, I am registered engineer under Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC). I have

participated in different technical training sessions, seminars, and workshops which contributed to
enhance my profession knowledge about emerging technologies.

Moreover, after graduation I did one month internship at Water and Power Development
Authority (WAPDA) Engineering Academy, Faisalabad, Pakistan. During this internship, I learnt about
practical turbine, motors, transformer and generator. I also enhanced my knowledge about power
distribution and its related equipment. It was a worthy experience which helped me a lot to develop
concrete concepts about power generation and distribution. During my MS I also worked as teaching
assistant of different under graduate courses and laboratories. This experience assisted me to groom
my professional skills.

In addition, I have firm belief that I have the desired capability and enthusiasm to carry out
high quality research in Ph.D under the supervision of world class researchers at your prestigious
institution. I am quite confident that the Doctoral Program at you institute will provide me with the
appropriate knowledge, practical experience, skill, efficiency and chances to participate in developing
the current system. I assure the concerned authorities that I would not let them down. I will burn the
mid night oil to fulfill all the requirements of the degree program. After completion of Ph.D, I have a
plan to rejoin the teaching profession in Pakistan. I will look forward for your positive response.

Muhammad Haroon Rashid

Lecturer,

School of Electrical Engineering, The University of Faisalabad, Pakistan.

How to prepare research proposal

How to Write Research Proposal

https://www.facebook.com/groups/InternationalScholarshipsUniverse/
Research Proposal
Requirements
Research proposal should fulfill the following requirements
1. It should match with your Interest
2. It should match with latest Research
3. It should be according to advertised opportunity
4. It should match with any Professor Research field.
How to Decide Topic / Title?
1. Decide your Interest (any interesting subject)
2. Go to the University webpage, in which you are interested
3. Go to your department webpage
4. Go to the Professor’s Profile
5. Find Professor related to your research interest
6. Download and read his latest research paper to know about latest research
7. Go to Google Scholar
8. Search the latest REVIEW PAPER on that field
9. Read this Review Paper to know about all the previous research on this topic
10. Try to find the drawbacks or limitations of the previous research
11. Try to create ideas, how can you address the drawbacks and limitations of the previous
research.
12. Try to write many titles of your Research Proposal
13. Choose the best title (not too short nor too long, full explanatory)
14. Start writing proposal
How to Write Research Proposal
https://www.facebook.com/groups/InternationalScholarshipsUniverse/
Research Proposal Structure
1. Title
a. Precise and full explanatory
b. Not too short nor too long
2. Table of contents (Not mandatory)
3. Abstract
4. Introduction / Literature Review / State of the Art
5. Research motivation
6. Research objectives
7. Problem Statement / Research Problem
a. Introduction
b. Case study / Simulation / Example
c. Drawbacks
8. Propose Methodology
a. Method
b. Case study / Simulations / Example
c. Benefits
9. Conclusion
10. References

Now you are ready to apply for scholarships. Once you have selected you desired country and
scholarship then next steps are given below:
1) Contact a potential supervisor before applying

Although, it is not mandatory to get the acceptance of your future supervisor but it is
better to have contact with professor before submitting your application for
scholarship. It China and Korea a large number of scholarships are being offered and
relatively easy to get a scholarship as compared to European countries. In Korea, there
are two intake per year i.e. fall and spring. You supply for MS program or MS leading
to PhD program (integrated degree) in Korea. In china and Korea if a supervisor is
willing to accept you, it means your chances of admission are above 80%. But one
drawback of these countries may be language barrier. You have to learn their language
to survive there and you can’t settle down there permanently after the completion of
your degree. But it can be an option to do MS from these countries and then apply in
Europe for PhD scholarship. Because at MS level in European countries less number of
scholarships are being offered as compared to number of applicants. But at PhD level
number of candidate will decrease significantly as compared to MS level level in Europe
and your chances of selection will increase.
2) How to search out professor of your interest and contact him:
• Firstly go to the official website of the university where you want to apply
• Click on graduate schools/faculty/ research degrees icon and select your
department from the list and click it
 • Now you are in departmental website, where you will find an information
about faculty members of the department. Usually their names, email and
research areas are mentioned here. But if you could not find any information
about faculty members, google it as: faculty members of ABC department of
XYZ university. Hopefully it will work.
• Mostly professor are the in charge of some lab and sometimes lab link is also
given with research interests of the professor. Go to the lab and read about the
research activities that are being carried out these days carefully.
• Now here is a trick, for example you mentioned your research interest in your
CV as:
Research interests: ABC
Where the professor or lab interest is XYZ. Then change you research interests from ABC to
XYZ every time before contacting a new supervisor. This will increase your chances of
selection.

• How to write an email to the professor:

Professor usually have a very tight routine and they receive 100’s of emails per day from all
over the world. You have to write email in such a way that can provoke professor to read and
reply you. Again here is a trick. For example at university website the research area of the
professor is ABC. Now keep this area in your mind while drafting email for him. The subject of
your email should be punching, it is very important because the usually decide to read an
email on the base of subject of email. Subject should be like this:
Subject: Prospective MS/PhD candidate for research in ABC
Here ABC should be supervisor’s research interests not yours. Even if is a little bit different
form your interest but you are confident that you will take it. Then every time change your
research interests according to the professor’s interests in your subject of email and CV. It is
better to call the professor by name. He will feel good. Again here, he will only read first 4 to
5 lines of your email and leave it if it is not impressive. Here is a trick again. Don’t introduce
yourself in the first few lines the email body. Directly start form his research activities. Here is
a sample that can be edited according to your area.

Dear Professor Alesso,

I hope that you will be doing well. I am Haroon from Pakistan. I have gone through the research
activities being carried out in your research group/lab. These research activities directly
relates to my previous research experience and interests. I want to work in you group as MS/
PhD Candidate. My brief introduction and research profile is given below:

My name is Haroon Rashid and I have completed MS electronic engineering

majoring in semiconductor materials and devices from one of the top ranked engineering
institutes in Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq khan Institute, Pakistan with over 2 years of teaching
experience. I have research experience in the fabrication and investigation of semiconductor
devices based on nanomaterials. During my MS thesis I worked on fabrication of thin film
thermoelectric and photo-thermoelectric cells based on nano materials. During my MS
studies, I was the member of organic semiconductor devices research lab.

I am the first author of one published conference paper. I have also compiled
one journal paper ready for submission. Now, I intend to pursue my MS/Ph.D under your
supervision. It will be an honor for me if you accept me as your MS. Kindly see the attachment
for my CV and don’t hesitate to contact me if you need some additional information about
me. I will look forward for your positive response.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

In above email highlight and bold your plus points and change their color. There
should not be any grammatical or spelling mistake in your email. Wait for 15 days to get reply
form him and don’t send him email again and again. If you got a positive response from him
then go ahead for application. Sometimes professor will refer you to some person who will
guide throughout the application process. If you contact 50 professors, you may get 2 or 3
replies or even no reply.

Links of some scholarships

1) Highly paid CAS-TWAS PhD fellowships in China

http://www.fellowship.cas.cn/dms/
2) Here you can search available scholarships around the world.
http://www.mastersportal.eu/search/#q=ci-11|di-106|lv-
master,preparation&start=0&length=10&order=relevance&direction=desc
3) Chinese Government Scholarships
http://en.csc.edu.cn/
4) Korean Government Scholarships
http://www.niied.go.kr/eng/contents.do?contentsNo=78&menuNo=349
5) Common wealth scholarships in UK
http://adspk.pk/wp-content/uploads/NTS-Commonwealth-General-Scholarships-
Progam-2017-for-Master-Degre-MBA-B.Sc-Hons.jpg
6) Canada Scholarships
http://www.vanier.gc.ca/
7) Study in Germany

http://germanystudy.net/a-z-for-studying-in-germany-from-application-to-visa-and-
arriving/
8) DAAD Scholarsips in Germany
https://www.daad.de/deutschland/stipendium/en/
9) Japanscholarships
http://www.transenzjapan.com/blog/mext-scholarship-application-form-step-by-
step/
10) Scholarships in USA
http://www.cies.org/
 11) Taiwan Scholarships
http://www.scholars4dev.com/3103/taiwan-government-scholarships-for-
international-students/
12) Thailand scholarships
http://www.siit.tu.ac.th/academics.php?sid=37&ssid=30
13) Swiss scholarships
https://www.sbfi.admin.ch/sbfi/en/home/bildung/scholarships-and-grants/swiss-
government-excellence-scholarships-for-foreign-scholars-an.html
14) Australia Scholarships

https://internationaleducation.gov.au/Endeavour%20program/Scholarships-and-
Fellowships/Pages/default.aspx

In European Universities PhD positions are offered and advertised as open positions i.e. one
student is selected against predefined thesis topic on the base of open competition. These can
be offered at any time during a year. Visit university websites for further information. You can
also search scholarships from search bar of scholarships network group. Just type your field in
search bar then search it as shown below in figure. Moreover read file section of this group
for more information about scholarships.

Regards:
Muhammad Haroon Rashid
PhD Scholar
Thomas Johann Department of Electronics, Tallina Tehnikaülikool
Email: haroonrashid199@gmail.com