Decision-Making Procedure

The Fund publishes the public call for the award of Zois Scholarships on its website each year by the end of June. The deadline for submitting applications is specified in each call: for secondary school students at the beginning of September, and for university students at the beginning of October. Applications received before the expiry of the deadline are included in the next stage of the procedure to verify the completeness of the application (whether the application contains all the required attachments, evidence, etc.), as specified in the public call. If the application is incomplete, the applicant is invited to supplement it. The fulfillment of the general conditions is then checked, and if the applicant meets them, the application is assessed according to the special criteria claimed (based on outstanding achievements, calculation of grade point average, Golden Matura, or ranking among the top 5% of students in the generation).

Applicants are divided into the following groups:

• applicants applying for the Zois Scholarship based on conditions achieved in primary school (Primary School Group),

• applicants applying for the Zois Scholarship based on conditions achieved in secondary school (Secondary School Group),

• applicants applying for the Zois Scholarship based on conditions achieved in higher or university education (Higher Education Group).

Applications within each group are ranked according to the following criteria:

• higher number of points for outstanding achievements,

• higher number of points for the Matura examination or the ratio between the applicant’s grade point average and the average grade of the student generation (only for Secondary School and Higher Education Groups),

• higher grade point average.

The 60-day decision-making period begins on the day when the last complete application among all timely applications received within the public call has been submitted. The Fund decides on the application for the award of the right to the Zois Scholarship by issuing an appropriate decision or ruling. The right to the Zois Scholarship is granted from the school or academic year of award until the completion of the educational programme at that level. The fulfillment of the right is verified each school/academic year.

Even after the right to the Zois Scholarship has been obtained, the scholarship holder must submit an application for the continuation of the Zois Scholarship at the same level of education if they wish to receive the scholarship without interruption. The application must be submitted before the end of the current school/academic year in order to ensure continuous receipt (more information is available on the subpage regarding continuation of the scholarship).