| Call for Applications 2010 – Round VII |
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NB: information presented in this page is in chronological order starting from the most recent item.
Publication of Results of the Interviews, Final Rankings and successful applicants - Round VII Selection Process
The YCS interviews for Round VII selections were held on Thursday 8th, Friday 9th, and Saturday 10th April 2010, at KIPA premises in Pristina. A total of 113 candidates (and not 112 as announced by mistake on 26 March) were invited to take the interviews, and only 2 candidates didn’t come on the day of interviews.
Out of the 113 interviewed, a total of 42 grants were awarded and 6 candidates were retained as reserve. For each sector, the following decisions were taken by the Panels Members, inclusive of the YCS Scholarship’s stakeholders (ECLO and Government of Kosovo):
- - for Macroeconomics and Public Finance 21 grants were awarded, and 3 applicants were retained as reserve; - - for EU Law 9 grants were awarded, and 1 candidate was retained as reserve. Furthermore, due to the non satisfactory performance of candidates in the sector of Energy, Environment and Mining, the YCS stakeholders, in agreement with Panel Members and in line with the Rules of Procedure, decided to re-qualify Mr Arianit Dobroshi into the EU Law sector (stream Transport Law and Regulations) under the strict condition that the grant awarded be used only and exclusively for an LLM in European Aviation Law. Therefore a total of 10 grants were awarded in this sector (9 plus 1 conditional) and 1 candidate retained as reserve; - - for Veterinary, Phitosanitary and Food Safety 4 grants were awarded, 2 conditional and 2 full grants. For the 2 conditional grantees an obligation to follow 4 and half months of intensive English language training has been imposed, in line with the Rules of Procedure. No one has been retained as reserve due to non-satisfactory and insufficient performance of the other candidates competing within this sector; - - for Energy, Environment and Mining 3 grants were awarded, and 1 candidate was retained as reserve. The overall performance of candidates in this sector was well below the average in the other sectors and one suitable candidate, Mr Arianit Dobroshi, requested the Panel to be considered for a grant under EU Law, stream Transport Law and Regulations, where and if exceptional circumstances would have applied, in line with the Rules of Procedure. As explained above, the candidate’s request was accepted under the strict condition to follow an LLM in European Aviation Law, also taken into account that within EU Law’s candidates nobody was awarded a grant in Transport Law and Regulations; - - for Management of Cultural Heritage 4 grants were awarded and one candidate was retained as reserve.
All candidates who passed the interviews and who were not awarded a grant can come to the YCS office to be shown the “consensus minutes” relating to their own interview, and receive feedback on their performance. The time to do so is from 10 to 12 am, everyday until Thursday 22nd of April inclusive, at the YCS Secretariat office in the Government Building.
Publication of Results from the Written Exams - List of Candidates Invited to the Interviews(26/03/2010 @ 18h45)
The results of the written exams and the list of candidates invited to the interviews are now published (below). Interviews will take place in KIPA - Kosovo Institute of Public Administration, in Pristina, on Thursday 8th, Friday 9th and Saturday 10th of April. The answer sheets filled in by the candidates during the exams were placed in sealed envelopes, signed by the invigilators present in each of the rooms where the exams took place. On Monday 15th March all sealed envelopes were sent, at the presence of both ECLO and ACDEI, to the University of Louvain la Neuve, in Belgium, to be correct by optical marker reading. As established by the Rules, all participating candidates are welcomed to control by themselves their own results in case they believe there has been a mistake in marking their tests. Candidates can come to the premises of the YCS Secretariat, located in the Government Building, Room 108, in Pristina, to control their results from 10 am to 12 am everyday from Monday 29th March until Tuesday 6th of April.
A total of 404 applicants were invited to the written tests, and 331 candidates showed up on the days of the tests, 134 on Friday 12th and 198 on Saturday 13th. Out of the 331, 330 candidates completed the 5 tests, while 1 candidate (on Saturday 13th) was asked to leave the premises for inappropriate behaviour during the exam. The list of the 73 candidates "no-show" and the expelled candidate can be downloaded here.
The 331 candidates who took part to the tests were competing in the following sectors: - EU Law: 56 candidates (1 expelled) - Macroeconomics and Public Finance: 162 candidates - Veterinary, Phitosanitary and Food Safety : 18 candidates - Energy Environment and Mining: 39 candidates - Management of Cultural Heritage: 56 candidates
The results published are divided per sector, as the ranking order of candidates is established sector by sector (as per the Rules of Procedure).
Only candidates who have passed the established English thresholds have been considered in the ranking order. The Rules of Procedures (pag.6 and 13) set the following English thresholds: - Normal English threshold: 65% of correct answers in the 3 combined English tests; - Reserve English threshold: 60% of correct answers in the 3 combined English tests; - Special English threshold: 50% of correct answers in the 3 combined English tests (applicable only to the sectors of Veterinary, Phitosanitary and Food Safety and to Energy, Environment and Mining, pag.6 Rules of Procedure). Furthermore, candidates invited to the interviews under this regime can be awarded only a "conditional grant" (Rules of Procedure, pp.6-7).
As established in the Rules of Procedure (pag.13), the Reserve and the Special English Thresholds apply, at the discretion of ECLO and ACDEI, only where and if in a given sector there would be not enough candidates who have passed the Normal English threshold of 65% of correct answers.
The overall results in the 3 combined English tests were the following: - EU Law: 18 candidates passed the Normal 65% threshold, 3 passed the Reserve 60% threshold, 34 scored less than 60% and 1 was expelled; - Macroeconomics and Public Finance: 65 candidates passed the Normal 65% threshold, 10 candidates passed the Reserve 60% threshold, and the remaining 87 scored below 60%; - Veterinary, Phitosanitary and Food Safety: 3 candidates passed the Normal 65% threshold, 2 candidates passed the Reserve 60% threshold, 3 candidates passed the Special 50% threshold, the remaining 10 scored below 50%. - Energy, Environment and Mining: 13 candidates passed the Normal 65% threshold, 2 candidates passed the Reserve 60% threshold, 6 candidates passed the Special 50% threshold, the remaining 18 scored below 50%. - Management of Cultural Heritage: 26 candidates passed the Normal 65% threshold, 4 candidates passed the Reserve 60% threshold, the remaining 26 scored below 60%.
In the Rules of Procedure (pag.13) it had been established to invite to the interviews up to 105 candidates, divided by Sectors in the following manner: - for EU Law- up to 32 applicants - for Macroeconomics and Public Finance - up to 38 applicants - for Veterinary, Phitosanitary and Food Safety - up to 15 applicants - for Energy, Environment and Mining - up to 10 applicants - for Management of Cultural Heritage - up to 10 applicants
The above numbers were established as long as a sufficient number of suitable candidates would have emerged from the written exams in each of the specific sector.
Confronted with the results mentioned above, ECLO and ACDEI decided to reshape the number of candidates invited to the interviews, as established by the Rules of Procedure: ""If not enough suitable candidates are found within individual sectors as indicated in the call for application then candidates invited to the oral examination may be recruited from the other lists, if there are enough suitable candidates. Accordingly, and dependant on the written tests results, ECLO and ACDEI may also decide to either increase or decrease the number of available scholarships per individual sectors, or alternatively to reduce the overall number of available scholarships and invite to the interviews fewer candidates than initially planned, and/or they may propose a change of sector for suitable candidates. (Rules of procedure, page 13)""
Accordingly, ECLO and ACDEI also decided to reallocate some of the available scholarships within the sectors in order not to change the overall number of scholarships available (ie, 42). This is the new allocation of scholarships within the 5 sectors: - EU Law: 9 scholarships available (it was 13); - Macroeconomics and Public Finance: 21 scholarships available (it was 15) - Veterinary, Phitosanitary and Food Safety: 4 scholarships available (it was 6) - Energy Environment and Mining: 4 scholarships available (no changes) - Management of Cultural Heritage: 4 scholarships available (no changes)
Furthermore, considering in particular the results in the EU Law and in the Veterinary, Phitosanitary and Food Safety sectors, where applicants' performance at the written test was less satisfactory than in the other sectors, as not enough candidates met the required thresholds in English, ECLO and ACDEI decided to use the Reserve English Threshold (ie, 60% of correct answers) as minimum English threshold to establish the list of candidates invited to the interviews for EU Law. They also decided to use the Special English Threshold (ie, 50% of correct answers) as minimum English threshold to establish the list of candidates invited to the interviews for Veterinary, Phitosanitary and Food Safety. For the other 3 sectors instead, the Normal English Threshold of 65% applied. Results in all the tests are reported only for candidates who passed the above English thresholds in their specific sectors. For those candidates who did not pass the English thresholds results for the other 2 tests are not reported as they do not qualify for the interviews.
ECLO and ACDEI also decided to waive the thresholds in the Verbal and Numerical Reasoning (VNR) test and in the EU General Knowledge (EU GenK) test, in order to ensure the participation to the interviews for as many applicants as possible (as long as, again, candidate would have passed the minimum English thresholds set for the specific sector). However, scores in the Verbal and Numerical Reasoning test and in the EU General Knowledge test are of course used to establish the ranking order, and the points accumulated at this stage are counted towards the interviews.
Based on the above, a total of 112 candidates are invited to the interviews, divided as follows: - EU Law: 21 candidates invited for up to 9 scholarships to award - Macroeconomics and Public Finance: 64 candidates invited for up to 21 scholarships to award - Veterinary, Phitosanitary and Food Safety: 7 candidates invited for up to 4 scholarships to award - Energy, Environment and Mining: 10 candidates invited for up to 4 scholarships to award; - Management of Cultural Heritage: 10 candidates invited for up to 4 scholarships to award
Finally, 26 candidates with incomplete applications, who were required to complete their applications by 19th of March and who have failed to do so by the deadline, have been rejected, and their results will not be published (they are indicated in the list as "incomplete applications - rejected").
The list of candidates invited to the interviews, the interviews schedule, and the overall results are downloadable below. Interviews will take place in KIPA - Kosovo Institute of Public Administration, in Pristina, on Thursday 8th, Friday 9th and Saturday 10th of April. The day of the interview cannot be changed for anybody. DOWNLOADS: Interviews Schedule and Timetable
RESULTS: Macroeconomics and Public Finance sector Veterinary, Phitosanitary and Food Safety sector Energy, Environment and Mining sector Management of Cultural Heritage sector
CONDITIONALLY INVITED APPLICANTS(08/03/2010 @ 18h45) You can download the list of "conditionally invited" applicants here. Applicants on this list must provide the required document no later than Friday 19th March at 16h45. Applicants who will not provide the required documents will be excluded from the Selection, and their results from the written exams will not be disclosed.
PRESELECTION RESULTS and APPLICANTS INVITED TO THE WRITTEN EXAMS(05/03/2010 @ 16h45) The Pre-Selection screening of the applications received took place in Pristina, from 1th to 4th March. A total of 419 applications has been received (and not 416 as announced by mistake Friday 26th February). Out of the 419 applications, 15 have been rejected and 404 applicants are invited to the written tests. Applicants have been rejected either because they were ineligible under the Rules of Procedure of the Scholarship, or because their applications were substantially incomplete. You can DOWNLOAD the list of REJECTED APPLICATIONS here.
Of the 404 applicants invited to the Written exams (you can download the lists below on this page), only 125 have presented a complete application.
The YCS Round VII Selection Committee, taking into consideration the above numbers and instead of inviting only those 125 applicants with complete applications, has decided to “conditionally invite” also the other 279 applicants in order not to reduce the number of scholarships available (ref. to YCS Rules of Procedure, pages 8-10).
The “conditionally invited” 279 applicants, who have presented applications that are formally not complete, are required to complete their applications during the week 15-19 March 2010 by bringing to the YCS office the missing documents. These 279 applicants are “conditionally invited" to the written exams. The “condition” is that these 279 applicants complete their application before 19th March at 16h45. In almost all cases the application is incomplete because the copies of ID or Diplomas/Transcripts have not been certified as requested. Applicants in this situation have been included on the lists of the written exams with the mention “conditionally invited”. Further information explaining which documents need to be provided by these "conditionally invited" applicants will be published on this page Monday 8th March. Even if these 279 applicants are invited to the written exams it does not mean that their written exam will be taken into consideration. These 279 applicants must complete their application by 19th March 2010 otherwise they will be rejected and eliminated from the Selection, no matter the results of the written exams. Again, more information for “conditionally invited” applicants will be released on Monday 8th March. You Can DOWNLOAD HERE the List of Applicants invited to the Written Exams on FRIDAY 12th March You Can DOWNLOAD HERE the List of Applicants invited to the Written Exams on SATURDAY 13th March All Applicants invited to the Written Exams MUST download, read and understand the Rules of the Exams. You can download the Rules of the Written Exams here.
APPLICATIONS 2010 are now CLOSED(26/02/2010 @ 16h45) 416 candidates have applied at the close of the Call for Applications on Friday 26th February at 16h45. The Pre-Selection Stage of YCS - Round VII will start next week, and on Friday March 5th it will be published here the lists of applicants invited to sit the written exams. RULES of PROCEDURE of YCS - Round VII Selections can be downloaded here and the Annex to the Rules here. FOR APPLICANTSHow to Prepare for the Written Exams.The exams are composed of 3 sections.1) English Knowledge exams: it will be composed of 3 parts, as described in the Rules of Procedure (Listening, Reading and Grammar Structure). We strongly advise you over the next two weeks to be exposed to English language as much as possible (read books and newspapers in English, review your grammar knowledge, and try to listen as much as possible to broadcasts in English - radio, news, movies, entertainments, etc.). Use every possible opportunity you may have to practice your skills in this language. The time for this test will be of 2h45 minutes (in 3 different parts) and you will not be allowed to leave the room during the whole of the test. If you finish the individual parts before others you will be required to stay at your place quietly. 2) Verbal and Numerical Reasoning exam: This exam requires you to read and understand several short paragraphs in English. For each paragraph you will have then to answer 2 to 4 multiple-choice questions related to the contents of the specific paragraph. The questions will require from you to elaborate and work with the information contained in the specific paragraph in order to find the right answers. You do not need prior knowledge of any kind for this test. You only need to use your logical reasoning with both words and numbers. The exam has 2 parts, one "Verbal Reasoning" and one "Numerical reasoning". In the "Verbal reasoning" part (25 questions) you will need to reason on the wording of the paragraphs in order to provide the correct answers. In the "Numerical reasoning" (15 questions) instead you will have to reason on numbers, ratios (hence fractions) and percentages, and you will be required to make elementary operations (additions, subtractions, multiplications, divisions and percentages). The use of a calculator will not be allowed for the test as the numerical operations required to answer the questions are very simple. Use your logics and remember that on this exam time is crucial. You will have a maximum of 1h40 min., which means 2 and half minutes per question as there are 40 questions. Do not exceed the time for each question. The best way to prepare yourself for this test is to search on internet for this kind of exams, and practice similar tests a few times until you feel comfortable. 3) EU General Knowledge exam: the exam consists of 80 questions and you will have 1h30 min for this test. Prepare yourself on the documents provided on the YCS website (links below on the page or hereafter ). Focus first on the study of the booklet "Europe in 12 Lessons" by Pascale Fontaine, available online at: http://ec.europa.eu/publications/booklets/eu_glance/60/index_en.htm Then prepare yourself on the following chapters of the "Facts Sheets on the EU" (2009 online edition), by the European Parliament: Part I, HOW THE EUROPEAN UNION WORKS and, Part III, THE INTERNAL MARKET. You can print from internet the "printable version" of the web-pages and use it to prepare for this exam, as this document (Facts Sheets on the EU) is only available online at the address below. : http://www.europarl.europa.eu/parliament/expert/displayFtu.do?language=EN&id=74&ftuId=index.html for the EU General Knowledge exam have been drew only from these materials, therefore if you study well the suggested documents you will not have problems with this test.
APPLICATIONS 2010 OPEN(11/01/2010) The European Commission Liaison Office (ECLO) to Kosovo and the Agency for Coordination of Development and European Integration (ACDEI) in the Prime Minister’s Office of the Government of Kosovo, announce the opening of the 7th Round of applications to the Young Cell Scheme, the EU post-graduate scholarships programme for Kosovo, which is currently implemented by SOFRECO SA. Applications are open from 11th January 2010 and until 26th February 2010 and successful applicants will be offered the opportunity to study in a Master’s programme at Universities in the EU Member States. The Scholarship Programme, whose working language is only English, will offer up to 42 full grants (the actual number of grants awarded may also be less depending on suitability of candidates and availability of funding). This call is open to graduates in law, economics and/or management, political science, arts and literature, engineering, geology, mining, veterinary, biology, nutrition, chemistry and other academic backgrounds (as specified by the Rules of Procedures) in line with the following sectors of specialisation: - EU Law (3 Streams: a) Legal Approximation - 5 scholarships , b) Intellectual/Commercial/Industrial Rights - 5 scholarships , c) EU Transport Legislation - 3 scholarships ) – up to 13 scholarships available - Macroeconomics and Public Finance (2 Streams: a) Macroeconomic - 10 scholarships and b) Public Finance - 5 scholarships) - up to 15 scholarships available - Veterinary, Phitosanitary and Food Safety - up to 6 scholarships available - Energy, Environment and Mining - up to 4 scholarships available - Management of Cultural Heritage - up to 4 scholarships available DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT OF FINAL ANNOUNCEMENT HERE IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES APPLICANTS: CLICK HERE TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL AND RECEIVE APPLICATION DOCUMENTS INCLUSIVE OF THE SELECTION RULES OF PROCEDURE(NB: the above links is currently not working as Round VII applications are now closed)
FOR APPLICANTS:
28/12/2009 The European Commission Liaison Office (ECLO) to Kosovo and the Agency for Coordination of Development and European Integration (ACDEI) in the Prime Minister’s Office of the Government of Kosovo, announce the forthcoming opening of the 7th Round of applications to the Young Cell Scheme, the EU post-graduate scholarships programme for Kosovo, which is currently implemented by SOFRECO SA. Applications will be open from 11th January 2010 and until 26th February 2010. (NB: the above links is currently not working as Round VII applications are now closed)
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