DAAD In-Region Scholarship for Master and PhD at IIT Bombay

Are you graduated or graduating shortly and planning to join a graduate school or have a Master’s degree and plan to pursue a PhD in India, but are concerned about funding?

Don’t worry! Today I will explain to you about the DAAD In-Region Scholarship to pursue a Master or PhD at one of the prestigious institutes in India – IIT Bombay.

About DAAD

At first, let us know a bit about DAAD.

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) was founded in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1925. Since then, it has become one of the world’s leading and renowned funding organizations for students and researchers.

DAAD has branches in different countries. In India, it has headquartered in Delhi, and it is responsible for five countries: India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka.

Students wishing to apply for DAAD scholarship often have questions like

• What is the DAAD Scholarship?
• What is the DAAD in-region scholarship requirements for Master or PhD?
• Is DAAD in-region scholarship fully funded?
• When Should I apply for a DAAD scholarship?
• How to prepare a document for the DAAD in-region Scholarship?
• How to apply for a DAAD scholarship?

so on…

I will try, with clear explanations, to respond to all these questions in depth in order to clear up your concerns about a scholarship.

Understand the program objective

It’s necessary to understand why DAAD supports the study for students from Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. What’s the program’s purpose? I want to underline what DAAD listed on the website already.

The goal of the program is to produce a strong candidate who can contribute to sustainable growth.

You may, therefore, correctly have assumed that scholarships for Master or doctoral studies are mainly development-related. So, individuals intending to pursue a career in teaching and research are more likely to obtain the DAAD scholarship.

Check eligibility

Once you understand the program and its purpose, the next step would be to check the eligibility for the program.

Some of the essential eligibility criteria are:

If you are applying for a Master, you must have a four-year Bachelor degree or in the final year of your Bachelor degree and will be completing the degree before joining IIT Bombay

If you are applying for PhD, you must have a two-year Master degree or in the final year of your Master degree and will be completing the degree before joining IIT Bombay

You must be a citizen of one of these countries: Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal or Sri Lanka

If you have a gap after your last degree, make sure it is not above six years at the time of application

You need to produce report cards after taking any English language test (TOFEL or IELTS) at the time of application

These are the critical eligibility criteria you must meet to proceed to the next step in the scholarship process.

Select degree

Either you can opt to study in the same branch as your previous degree, or you can pursue an interdisciplinary degree.

Previously, the DAAD has defined five degrees you can choose from but recently modified, and now any degree from the following list can be selected.

• Renewable Energy
• Climate Change
• Engineering
• Public Health
• Good Governance

Make sure that you have done adequate homework by visiting the IIT Bombay Website. Browse the structure of courses, syllabus, professor’s interest, etc. to see clearly if your interest is in line with your chosen department.

The same is true for PhD students.

Browse through professor profile, check research interest, publications, and, if possible, download and review some relevant papers of professor.

That way, you may have a clear understanding of the professor’s research interest and analyze yours if it aligns.

It would be best if you interact with the professor via mail so that you know that the aim of your research is in line with the professor and to understand better the subject matter and the potential research opportunities.

Don’t worry if your interest doesn’t align entirely with the professor. You should still contact the professor and talk about possible adjustments that suit you both.

Funding Details

The duration of funding for a Master is generally two years, and for PhD program, it is usually five years.

Once you are selected and joined IIT Bombay, your funding will start from July or August. It depends upon the institute’s joining date.

The funding covers the following

• Monthly scholarship
• Study and research allowance
• Tuition fees
• Printing allowance
• Travel allowance
• Insurance

Once you join the institute, you can open a saving bank account visiting Canara bank or SBI bank branch office, which are inside the institute. You can send your bank details to the program coordinator. The DAAD office will then disburse your funding to your account.

You will receive funding for the first year. After that, you need to renew every year by sending your progress report, timeline, and other necessary documents.

It will be notified to you by the program coordinator via mail when to send the document for funding renewal.

I hope you have a good understanding of the DAAD scholarship requirement, the conditions for eligibility, and the funding by now. 

Let’s start with document preparation.

Application process

Keep in mind that you have to submit your documents to both DAAD and IIT Bombay simultaneously.

For DAAD, you have to upload some documents in the portal, whereas some documents need to be couriered to the DAAD office, Delhi, before the deadline. The deadline to submit all your documents to DAAD is January 05.

For IIT Bombay, you have to courier all your documents before the deadline. The deadline to submit all your documents to IIT Bombay is January 15.

Documents Requirement

Let’s explore in-depth on how these documents are prepared, one by one.

Application form

Photo by Cytonn Photography from Pexels

The application form for IIT Bombay can be download from here. Either you can print it and fill it with a pen, or you can edit the application form and fill in your PC and add the date and digital signature.

But, For DAAD, you must register in the DAAD portal first. Use this link to register.

After registration, go to Personal Funding and click on Application. The application form is available for download from there.

The application form is an editable pdf file. And you can fill in all of your information by simply opening a file in your PDF reader.

Educational documents

You have to submit both DAAD and IIT Bombay the grade transcripts and degree certificates. These include secondary (10th), higher secondary (11th and 12th), bachelor and Master (for PhD), grade transcripts, or mark sheets and certificates.

It is recommended that you scan all educational documents listed above and save them in PDF format.

In the case of DAAD, you have to access the portal and upload these documents there in PDF format.

You have to send a printed copy to IIT Bombay.

In any case, it may be useful in the future when you have scanned and saved it as PDF on your PC.

Curriculum Vitae

For both DAAD and IIT Bombay, Curriculum Vitae is essential.

The DAAD recommends preparing a CV in European format. You can visit the Europass website and make your CV.

You have to insert your details, and once you added all your details, then you can download and save it on your PC.

Letter of motivation

The letter of motivation (also often referred to as the “statement of purpose”) offers an overview of the technical qualifications, personal reasons for choosing to study at the chosen university in our case IIT Bombay, and the opportunity to convince the committee as to why you are the right candidate.

Don’t take it as just another document. Quite often, the letter of motivation makes the most significant difference between acceptance and rejection in your admission process.

A letter of motivation is required for both DAAD and IIT Bombay.

You can either prepare one for both, or you can make specific to each one. I recommend making a specific one; it does not mean you have to prepare completely distinct. The content may be the same, but the overall theme may be different.

For IIT Bombay, you should, for instance, focus on demonstrating your academic and professional abilities, projects, etc. whereas, for DAAD, you can write a balanced one covering academic, professional, extracurricular, plan, etc.

If you want guidelines on how to prepare a letter of motivation, click here to download pdf.

English language certificate

As proof of the English language requirements, both IELTS and TOFEL are accepted.

If you wish to appear for the TOFEL paper-based, the overall score needed is 580, with 4.0 in the writing section. The minimum total score for Internet-based is 95 and 20 in writing.

For IELTS, a total score of 6.5 is required with 6.0 or more in each section.

Test scores more than two years old will not be accepted for consideration.

Recommendation letter

A recommendation letter is another crucial piece of document that can play a major role in your admission or rejection.

For IIT Bombay, three recommendation letters are required, and at least one recommendation should be about your academic performance issued by a faculty member.

If you have work experience, you can approach your manager or supervisor for a recommendation.

All three can also be from professors. I recommend you contact the professor who taught you courses in which you performed well, and he/she knows you properly.

The letter of recommendation should be signed and stamped by the professor in the official letterhead. The envelope should be sealed.

For DAAD, however, it is different. You should log in to the DAAD portal. Go to Personal funding and click Request for Reference Form. Once you entered the details of your referee, you can download the reference form from the portal.

The reference form consists of a set of questions that your referee needs to answer. The form is in editable PDF format.

Once your referee answered the questions in the form, make sure it is signed and stamped by him/her.

You have to send the sealed envelope containing a recommendation letter to the DAAD office, Delhi.

Additional documents

For IIT Bombay

You need to download a personal particulars form for the foreign scholar. You can download it by clicking here.

And the copy of your passport page showing your nationality and personal details is also required.

For DAAD

You should prepare a tentative timeline about what you will be doing in two years or five years, depending on your program Master or PhD.

I recommend downloading the course structure and syllabus from your chosen department website.

For Masters students, generally, the first year is course work, and the final year is a research project.

For PhD, they have to take some courses to fulfill the mandatory credit requirement. Apart from that, the research work that you and your chosen supervisor agreed for.

The copy of your passport page showing your nationality and personal details is required for DAAD as well.

PhD candidates have to submit the following additional documents:

Offer letter issued by IIT Bombay after confirmation of PhD position. Subsequently, the selected candidates are required to submit the ‘Declaration of Acceptance’ issued by the academic supervisor assigned to them at IIT Bombay

Detailed and precise PhD proposal, including detailed work and time table (if applicable: mentioning the planned research stay in Germany, see “Additional benefits”)

Abstract of the proposal on one page (please include name and title of proposal)

After document preparation

Now, you have prepared all your documents for both DAAD and IIT Bombay.

DAAD

The next thing is to upload the documents in the DAAD portal.

The documents you need to upload in the portal are listed below. The deadline to submit all your documents to DAAD is January 05.

• Duly filled application form
• 10th mark sheet or transcript and certificate
• 11th and 12th transcript and certificate
• Bachelor transcript and degree certificate
• Master transcript and degree certificate (For PhD)
• Curriculum Vitae
• Letter of Motivation
• IELTS or TOFEL report card
• Copy of the passport
• Timeline
• Work experience certificate if any (optional)
• Research proposal (for PhD)
• One page Abstract with name and title (for PhD)

Once you upload the above documents application summary will be generated in the portal. Which you have to download and print a copy of it.

The printed copy of your application summary and a sealed envelope containing your recommendation letter need to be sent via courier to the DAAD office Delhi.

Address of DAAD office Delhi

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
3rd Floor, South Block
DLTA Complex
R.K. Khanna Stadium
1 Africa Avenue
New Delhi – 110029
Mrs. Pooja Midha
Board Number: +91 11 66465500, Ext 511
Direct Number: +91 11 66465511
E-mail: midha@daaddelhi.org

IIT Bombay

Similarly, the documents you need to send by post to IIT Bombay are listed below. The deadline to submit all your documents to IIT Bombay is January 15.

• Duly filled application form
• 10th mark sheet or transcript and certificate
• 11th and 12th transcript and certificate
• Bachelor transcript and degree certificate
• Master transcript and degree certificate (For PhD)
• Curriculum Vitae
• Statement of purpose
• IELTS or TOFEL report card
• Copy of the passport
• Duly filled personal particulars form for a foreign scholar
• Work experience certificate if any (optional)
• Three recommendation letters in a sealed envelope
• Research proposal (For PhD)

Address to send your documents for IIT Bombay

Dy. Registrar / Asst. Registrar (Academic)
Academic Section,
2nd floor, Main Building,
IIT Bombay, Powai,
Mumbai – 400 076
Maharashtra, India.
Ph.: +91 – 22 – 2576 7041 / 7044

You can track your document using a tracking id to monitor your courier status.

Alternatively, after sending your documents just drop a mail to the program coordinators stating that you have sent your documents by post and request them to send a document received mail.

Besides, I also request you all to please check the official website of both DAAD Delhi and IIT Bombay as the document requirements change from time to time. You can click the link below to go to the official website.

DAAD | IIT Bombay

What after the submission of documents?

The program coordinator will review your documents in the Academic section at IIT Bombay. If you meet the minimum requirements, then your documents will be forwarded for review to the relevant department.

Based on the history of students admitted under the DAAD in-region scholarship at IIT Bombay, Master Students may or may not receive an interview call.

Preparing for an interview is safer, though. The interview aims to assess your academic and technical skills and to ensure you are the right applicant for the program.

But in the case of PhD, you’ll definitely get a call for an interview. I suggest that you prepare for an interview thoroughly, review your research proposal several times, review some fundamentals relevant to your research, and some general questions.

If your application is successful, you will receive an offer from IIT Bombay in February or March.

After you receive your offer, send your offer to the program coordinator at the DAAD office, Delhi.

You can check your scholarship application status in the DAAD portal. Mostly the selection result is out at the end of May or June.

Final thoughts

This post is to inform readers about the DAAD in-region scholarship and how they should begin step by step.

Do not rush to prepare documents before gathering and understanding about the scholarship in detail.

I hope this post will help you to prepare your document smoothly and answer your doubt regarding document preparation.

Still, if you have any queries which are unanswered in the above post, please drop a mail.

You can drop an email visiting the contact me page. If you find this article helpful, don’t forget to leave a comment.

Don’t forget to share this article with your friends.

Bipin Sharma

Bipin Sharma is an Energy Systems Engineer. He cherishes, sharing his knowledge with other people. For the latest updates from him, subscribe to AcadBuddy. Do not hesitate to drop a message.