Support Offered to Students of Lithuanian Descent and the Diaspora

The State Studies Foundation has announced the launch of the competition for providing governmental support for the studies at Lithuanian institutions of higher education by the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of emigrant Lithuanians and foreigners of Lithuanian descent. The competition begins on January 17, 2011.

The children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of the Lithuanian emigrants or foreigners of Lithuanian descent may be provided two kinds of support: social benefits and/or a scholarship based on studying results.

The contestants applying for the governmental support at Lithuanian higher educational institutions must be accepted for first or second level studies at a Lithuanian school of higher education and must have passed their last exam session without any failed subjects (this condition does not apply to the first semester students of first or second level).

The support is not provided to students who are studying the languages of the countries they have arrived from.

The governmental support to the studies of the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of Lithuanian emigrants and foreigners of Lithuanian descent at Lithuanian institutions of higher education is provided as:

Scholarship based on studying results (given for one study semester and paid once a month until the end of semester. The size of the scholarship depends on the studying results);

Social benefits (a one-time payout delivered according to the social status of the applicant).

The applications must be sent from January 17 to February 15. Students requesting governmental support must supply the following documents to the foundation until the end of the term:

1. A filled in and signed application form, which includes the conditions for the support;

2. A document serving as the proof of the individual’s identity or its copy which is valid in accordance to the order determined by legislative acts;

3. A document from a school of higher education, acknowledging the student’s status and including the dates of the beginning and end of semester, including the vacation period;

4. A document indicating the scaled average of the marks of the last exam session (excluding the first semester students of the first and second study level);

5. A document supporting that the student did not fail a subject or indicating the number of failed subjects of the last exam session (excluding the first semester students of the first and second study level);

6. Students requesting social benefits must also supply documents verifying social status (documents verifying the number of family members, death certificates, etc.);

7. The children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of foreigners of Lithuanian descent must supply a document provided by an institution in Lithuanian community, the government of the Republic of Lithuania, a foreign institution providing visas to foreigners or other institution and verifying the person’s Lithuanian heritage.

8. The children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of Lithuanian emigrants must supply a document attesting to the fact that they have lived abroad for no less than 3 years and have arrived to Lithuania not earlier than to the 8th high school grade.

More information about the competition (in Lithuanian) is available here.