The Awqaf postgraduate grant: open all year, and three academic references

Most scholarships have an application season that opens and closes. The Awqaf grant for postgraduate students does not: registration is open all year round, and the General Secretariat awards a number of grants to master’s and doctoral students annually. These are the steps as set out on the official service page.

Who can apply

• The thesis must be in the field of waqf and matters connected to it.
• It must address new subjects that serve the aims of waqf.
• The university must be recognised by higher education in Kuwait.
• The student must not be funded by any other body. This is disqualifying, not merely a preference.

The documents to prepare

1. A completed support application form.
2. A summary of your academic CV.
3. A certified copy of your most recent degree or its equivalent.
4. A certificate from the university confirming enrolment for a master’s or doctorate, and acceptance of the thesis subject.
5. A copy of the research plan approved by your supervisor.
6. References from three professors who taught you at your most recent degree.
7. Two recent passport photographs.

Where to send it

Through the General Secretariat of Awqaf’s official website with the documents attached, or by visiting the Secretariat in person — the studies and research section of the Department of Studies and External Relations, during working hours. The project email is hscommittee@awqaf.org. The service carries no fees, fixed or variable.

How your application is judged

The scientific committee for supporting postgraduate students in the field of waqf reviews applications, and the assessment rests mainly on the research plan rather than the CV: its comprehensiveness, its currency — how far the subject speaks to present reality — and its originality. The committee writes a report on each student justifying its recommendation to accept or reject.

What you commit to if accepted

• An acknowledgement that you have read the support regulations.
• An undertaking not to receive funding from another body.
• An undertaking to print and publish the thesis.
• An undertaking to acknowledge the support of the State of Kuwait, represented by the General Secretariat of Awqaf, at the thesis defence and in the printed and published work.

That last obligation follows from Kuwait’s role as the state coordinating the efforts of Islamic countries in the field of waqf.

Photo: an aisle between library shelves — by Guywelch2000, licence CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: Kuwait’s official government portal, service page for supporting postgraduate students in the field of waqf, provided by the General Secretariat of Awqaf.