The International Buddhist Education Foundation (IBEF) established the IBEF Fellowship to encourage Buddhist Monastic students who need financial aid to study Buddhism and complete their studies at the University of the West (UWest). Like Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, the University of the West (UWest) is also a nonprofit and WASC accredited liberal arts university just outside of Los Angeles. It is committed to providing a whole-person education, nourishing mind, body, and spirit, and facilitating cultural understanding and appreciation between East and West. Moreover, this unique approach underlies all academic offerings and gives UWest its unusual character. UWest believes in learning with, from, and on behalf of others, and encourage our students to forge their own path.

The University of the West offers a number of scholarships and fellowships to international students. These are based on several factors which include academic merit, need basis, sports ability and many more. Further, in association with IBEF, the University of the West provides one of its trademark fellowship to international students seeking to pursue Buddhism studies.

AMOUNT OF FELLOWSHIP

For Every Spring and Fall semester.

• $3,000 each semester for Ph.D. degree students
• $3,000 each semester for DBMin degree students
• $2,000 each semester for MA or M. Div degree students

However, this fellowship is not available for non-degree seeking students. Nor can a fellow take this fellowship in conjunction with IBEF scholarship.

Further, the fellowship entails 150 hours of work per semester at the University of the West.

ELIGIBILITY

Students applying for the International scholarship must be Buddhist monastic. Further, s/he must fulfill the following eligibility requirements:

• New or current students in the Department of Religious Studies and Department of Buddhist Chaplaincy at the University of the West, who agree with the concept of Humanistic Buddhism, and not currently receiving any other form of a full scholarship.
• Likewise, the Applicant must have a Term GPA and Cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above.
• Further, the applicants must be full-time students: graduate applicants must enroll in a minimum of 9 units per semester. Exceptions to this rule are only possible under the following circumstances
  • MA and MDiv Buddhist monastic students who are in the final semester of their degree studies, and do require full-time to fulfill graduation requirements
• Ph.D. and DBMin Buddhist monastic students who are not enrolled full-time may petition in writing to be considered for IBEF under the following circumstances:
  • The student is in the final semester of their required course work and does not need a full-time enrollment to complete the course requirements.
  • The student has completed all course requirements and is preparing for their Candidacy Examination. (Important: The student must register for a minimum of 3 credit hours per semester to be eligible).
  • The student has successfully completed their Candidacy Examination and is registering for REL 710 or BMIN 710.

How To Apply

New students can submit the Fellowship application when applying for admissions. While the current students can submit the Fellowship application to IBEF Liaison Officer. Further, the candidates must submit the following documents along with the application form to apply for the fellowship.

• Completed IBEF Fellowship application form;
• Official Transcript (in English) of the highest education;
• Two letters of recommendation.
• Also, IBEF Essay
• • Statement of Purpose (Why did you decide to study Religion?)
  • The reason why you are applying for the Fellowship.
  • After you graduate, what do you hope to contribute to Buddhism?

Once the candidates accumulate all their documents in order, they must submit their documents along with the application by mail to the following address

Atten: IBEF Scholarship/Fellowship
University of the West
1409 N. Walnut Grove Ave.
Rosemead, CA 91770

Deadline

The Applicants must submit their application along with the required documents no later than May 1, 2019.