Who can apply? 

Who can apply for a full PhD (3-4 years)?

  • You must have the Chinese nationality, and meet the eligibility requirements of CSC.
  • You are a last-year Master students from a Chinese university (for 4-year scholarship)
  • Or a last-year Master student from a university outside of China (for 4-year scholarship)
  • Or a student who already obtained a Master degree (for 4-year scholarship)
  • Or a first-year PhD student currently enrolled in a university outside of China  (for 3-year scholarship)

 

Who can apply for a jointly supervised PhD (6-24 months)?

 

What does the scholarship cover? 

Based on the agreement between VUB and CSC, the scholarship include a monthly allowance for the allocated period & international flight offered by CSC, and tuition fee waiver & health insurance offered by VUB (Note: the insurance is only provided for full PhD or jointly-supervised PhD students). 

Type of PhD scholarships

- Full PhD candidates (3 to 4 years for a PhD degree at VUB) 

 - Jointly supervised PhD - only for PhD students currently enrolled in a Chinese university (6 to 24 months for exchange or double-degree based on a mutual agreement for each student)

The VUB-CSC scholarship programme offers two kinds of jointly supervised PhD programmes:

  • Jointly supervised PhD without a PhD degree from VUB (equivalent to the PhD exchange or guest student at VUB). 
  • Jointly supervised PhD for a student who wishes to obtain double PhD degrees from both VUB and the home university in China based on the agreement between two universities and two supervisors. In this case, an agreement will be signed between the promoter (or supervisor) at VUB and the promoter at the Chinese university for a specific PhD student. The application follows the same procedure as a PhD candidate mentioned above. Please feel free to contact us for more information.

*Note: According to the policy of CSC, the Chinese supervisor of jointly supervised PhD students can apply for a one-month scholarship to visit the supervisor in VUB.

Application procedure and timeline (academic year 2025-2026)

FOR CSC-VUB JOINT SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME (CSC与荷语布鲁塞尔自由大学合作奖学金): FULL PHD & JOINTLY SUPERVISED PHD (TO START YOUR PHD IN SEPTEMBER 2025)

The online pre-application for the academic year 2025-2026 is available.

*IMPORTANT: You need to contact supervisors/professors before starting the online pre-application. The contact details can be found in the topics list mentioned below.

16 Oct 2024 - 16 Dec 2024
  1. Please check if you meet the requirement for this scholarship according to the CSC regulation "国家建设高水平大学公派研究生项目选派办法" (only in Chinese).
  2. Please read carefully all information about doing a PhD at VUB by clicking here.
  3. A reference to find a PhD topic and contact a professor/supervisor by downloading the list from here (updated on 4th October 2024 for the intake in September 2025).
  4. Start your online per-application by clicking here.

    *Important Note: please make sure that you have already started contacting professors while you are proceeding the per-application online. If you do not get reply from professors within 2 weeks, please send an email to csc@vub.be for help (mentioning the name of the professor and your full name).

16 December 2024

Deadline for VUB online per-applications. There is a possibility that we might open a second deadline depending on the number of applicants after the first deadline. Please check the update of this website regularly. 

Before end of February 2025

VUB (International Relations office) provides offer letters to the pre-accepted candidates for their scholarship applications before the CSC deadline, and sends the list of pre-accepted candidates to CSC.

10-31 March 2025

The candidates who are pre-accepted by VUB apply for CSC scholarship before the CSC deadline.

April-May 2025

CSC selection process for the final candidates for obtaining the CSC scholarship.

May-June 2025

Upon confirmation of final candidates sent by CSC, VUB informs the final candidates to start the VUB PhD application procedure and provides the official admission letters. The final candidates will be informed by CSC individually for the arrangement for the scholarship.

September 2025

Enroll at VUB, and participate in the info session especially organized for CSC students. We strongly suggest students arrive VUB at least one week before the official start of the academic year. Please refer to the VUB academic calendar by clicking here. Please take the original documents ("gong zheng jian" or "gong zheng shu") of your authorized/translated Graduation Certificate, Degree Certificate, and Transcript of your Master programme from your home university.

Postdoctoral candidates and visiting scholars

Please contact professors or research group by yourself by referring to the PhD topics mentioned above or visit our research portal: https://researchportal.vub.be/

Please note that after accepted by VUB, postdoc and visiting scholar need to apply for Single Permit before applying for Belgian visa. 

If you have questions concerning the procedure, please send an e-mail to csc@vub.be, mentioning 'CSC Postdoc Application' or 'CSC Visiting Scholars Application'. If you already have a VUB supervisor, please inform us the name of the professor, research topic, and duration via email. 

APS certificate

The final candidates who obtained the VUB-CSC scholarship do not need an APS certificate anymore since 2018. CSC grant holders are fully exempted from the APS procedure, but only based on the exemption name list provided by the International Relations office at VUB to the relevant Belgian authority. If the candidates applied through this website, the names will be added to the list automatically. If the candidates applied through other channels, please notify the International Relations office by sending an email to csc@vub.be

More information about APS on VUB website can be found here, or the official APS website here.

Please note that the information above may be subject to change under certain circumstances.

Other types of CSC scholarships (outgoing & incoming)

Language: English 

Level:  

  • Bachelor 
  • Master 
  • PhD 
  • Post-Doc 
  • Staff 

Student Type:  

  • Exchange Student 
  • Degree Student 
     

Country:  China 

Type-Level Assignment:  

  • exchange bachelor
  • exchange master
  • exchange phd
  • exchange post-doc
  • exchange staff

 

Contact

Should you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact us by sending an e-mail to csc@vub.be. Please mention 'CSC PhD Application' or 'CSC Postdoctoral Application' in the subject of your e-mail for Chinese applicants.

For the VUB students who would like to apply for studying in China as an exchange student, please mention "CSC scholarship outgoing mobility" in the subject of your e-mail.

Dear applicants,

Thank you for your interest in VUB. Please note that you are using the valuable time of the supervisors (or say promoters) for your PhD application. If you are accepted by a VUB supervisor but later decide to use the offer from another university (instead of VUB) to apply for a CSC scholarship, please respectfully inform the supervisor and the VUB International Relations office immediately. You may otherwise offend the supervisor and might be reported to CSC.

Thank you for your cooperation!