EDHEC Business School's comprehensive scholarship scheme aimed at MIM & MSC candidates
So my name is Michelle Sisto I am the associate Dean for graduate studies at EDHEC Business School. So within that perimeter, it englobes the PhD programme, our
programme Grande Ecole, Master in Management and all of our specialised MSc programmes.
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“What types of scholarships and financial aid does EDHEC offer to international students?”
Regarding scholarships available for international students, and even for our French students, EDHEC has a strong belief in making education possible for students coming from diverse horizons, backgrounds, and have both the economic levels and what they studied previously, regional differences, and so we've put in place a multitude of opportunities for scholarships to encourage that diversity in our classrooms. We have some scholarships that are academic merit-based, aiming for excellence in the profile of students. We have some scholarships that are more oriented for particular regional areas, and we have some scholarships that are also oriented towards diversity. For example, women in finance and women in data science, where we see that we still don't have a sufficient number of women in those areas in the profession, and also in the programmes. And then we also have scholarships
that can be requested, when students are actually in the programme, should there be an instance where somebody's situation changes dramatically while they're already a student here. We have a special commission that looks at changes in the situation for exceptional scholarships.
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“What is a merit-based scholarship and what are the selection criteria?”
So our merit-based scholarships are really based on the profile of our candidates. What we're looking at, when students apply to our programme Grande Ecole and to our MSc programmes, we're looking at their full profile. So their academic background, how they perform in their previous academic studies… We're looking at things like their score on GMAT or the TAGE MAGE or the CAT exam, some kind of aptitude test. We're also looking at the type of school that they went to previously, but that's not the major issue.
It's really where they were. Did they perform really well? And as EDHEC academic excellence is a key driving force for education, we want to offer scholarships to encourage those types of profiles to come to EDHEC. Because we know they have choices amongst diverse, very strong schools, and our aim is to bring the very brightest and the best to EDHEC.
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“How does EDHEC approach need-based scholarships for international students?
For need-based scholarships, we have one system for our French students, and then for international students, we're looking at the profiles of our students. What we will look at
is, what is their overall situation, what is their profile and how can we make an offer to them that would render their participation and education in EDHEC more feasible for them.
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“Describe EDHEC’s new approach to scholarships”
As I mentioned earlier EDHEC really believes in bringing diverse and excellent profiles to our school, and so our approach in terms of scholarships is evermore going in the direction of diversity and inclusion. So we're currently offering, as I mentioned, a scholarship for women in data science and in finance. We also have scholarships that are called the “make and impact” scholarship, and “make an impact” is our tagline at EDHEC. Our strategic plan is really EDHEC for future generations, and so we're looking for this “make an impact” scholarship, for students who have shown in the past that they're willing to engage in their local communities and environmental projects. With coming to EDHEC, the education that they're going to receive here, is going to propel them forward to the next step where they'll make an impact, a further impact, and so what we do for that scholarship is, we ask students to apply with an essay and tell us something about what they've done in the past and where they wish to go. And so for those students, we have a special scholarship. We're also looking to increase now, in line with our strategic plan, for greater diversity and inclusion on socioeconomic as well as cultural, regional, gender differences, and expand our portfolio of scholarships. So we're working on offering more scholarships for high potential women, specific scholarships for certain regions. In terms of regional scholarships we already have some for example: with the French embassy in India we have a special scholarship that pays up to 15 percent of students tuition fees, likewise in Russia with a scholarship that's a hundred percent for a student applying for an MSc with an excellent profile. We work with Campus France. We also have Eiffel scholarships. In Colombia for example, we work with local players like ColFuturo and there's lots of information on the website so anyone who's wishing to apply to EDHEC should definitely look at the “financing your studies” part and reach out to our admissions team to get more information as to what financing is available from their particular region. As we move forward, we will continue to expand this offer both in terms of the number of scholarships and in terms of the amount.
Currently EDHEC issues about 5 million euros in scholarships every year across our graduate studies. About a quarter of all of our students do receive some type of financial aid, and part of our plan moving forward is to expand that to an even higher percentage of students. And for some of our students, to go all the way up to 75% of tuition fees that would be covered for those who are the most in need, notably students coming from particular backgrounds or potentially zones of conflict, or refugees and, or recent immigrants from areas that have been touched negatively by world events.
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“Why is diversity important to EDHEC? How does it relate to your mission to make an impact?”
Well thank you for that question, I think that you know we're in the age that we're living in right now, we've seen that diversity and inclusion is a global issue. We have some researchers within our school, who study the positive impact of diversity and inclusion on the performance of companies. But we believe that diversity and inclusion is essential, to bring a diversity of perspectives to solving some of the major societal stakes that we're facing right now, the challenges that we're facing. So what do we mean by that? Now when we talk about women in finance and women in data science, with the algorithms that are currently directing quite a bit of our lives right now. If the data that goes into those algorithms or the people who are writing those algorithms are not representative of the society at large, then we may end
up with situations where they're detrimental to certain aspects of certain groups in society.
Algorithms that scan CVs, algorithms that give us suggestions for what we should be reading or watching or eating even. So I think that diversity is necessary to have a more equitable society. Things like climate change, bringing together people who come from diverse backgrounds around the world, seeing how its impacts differ around the world and how we can globally work together to find solutions. Of course the strongest element recently is the global pandemic, and we can see that something like this can only be solved by global collaboration.
So bringing together people from all over the world and these diverse perspectives, what we hope to do is to encourage our students to grow into leaders with a global perspective, in order to collaboratively solve some of the big problems that we're facing now.
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"Are your scholarships fee waivers only or do you also offer financial support for travel, housing, and other study expenses?”
Currently EDHEC’s scholarships focus on the tuition fees, although some of the people that we partner with do offer stipends for living, for example the Eiffel scholarship. To be eligible for the Eiffel scholarship, students need to apply and be admitted before early December but that is a scholarship that is within the French ministry and that covers about 1200 euros a month stipend for students in order to cover living expenses, rent…and there are some scholarships that also look at fees for the flights to and from France. So it varies but the bulk of our scholarships are really just focused on the tuition fees.
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“Any scholarship application tips you’d like to offer?”
My first tip would be to make a request. Don't hesitate to make a request. As they often say: if you don't ask, you certainly don't receive. So not to be shy in reaching out and aiming for one of our scholarships. I think another tip would be, for the scholarships that require essays, to take the time to build an essay that really responds to the question that's asked for the particular scholarship, and make it quite personal. What we want to do, when we're evaluating these essays, is get to know the person behind that essay. What's their real desire to make an impact for example, if it's in line with the sustainable development goals, and convince us
that you're somebody who would bring your expertise, your enthusiasm, your drive, and your values to our community, here at EDHEC. And lastly, I would say, be absolutely authentic in what you say and what you write.
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“Is there anything else you’d like to share?”
So I'd just like to add, that you know, beyond the direct scholarships that we've talked about here, at EDHEC there's an institution-wide number of initiatives in order to offer our education and render education more affordable to a wide group of candidates. For example, in our undergraduate programmes, there are students working on a programme that's called “Cordée de la réussite”, where they're going into local high schools, that tend to have and be in areas, that are considered considered disadvantaged or that don't have as high proportion
that go into higher education, to encourage those students to believe that they can access and succeed in higher education. And then we offer up to 75 percent of fees for students who come through that path. In addition, over the last year, I think one area that we're very happy with and grateful for, is during the pandemic we made a call out to all of our alumni and to some of our corporate partners to request additional funding for direct additional scholarships to students. Unfortunately, we had a number of students over time whose family situations changed. Either their family business had a problem or that sadly there was some severe illness or even death in the family. So we wanted to make sure that those difficult events didn't also have an impact on our students' ability to continue with their education. And our alumni really stood up to the call and we raised close to a half a million euros for direct additional aid to our students. So I think there's a very strong sense of community at EDHEC,
and we hope that the students for whom we can make this extra offer available, will continue to be part of that community as they move on to their careers afterwards, and be part of a virtuous cycle of ongoing financing of studies for everyone.
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