The typical number of supported applicants per year is 5, meaning the total grant budget is 250,000 forints. However, the Rector may deviate from this—based on the recommendation of the College’s Scientific Student Council (FTDT) evaluating the applications—resulting in either more or fewer scholarships being awarded. Supporting more than 5 scholarship recipients is only possible with the approval of the Senate and only if the annual funding amount does not exceed 500,000 forints.

At the beginning of each autumn semester, the Scientific Student Council (FTDT) announces the current dates of the in-house conference of Dharma Gate Buddhist College (hereinafter: in-house conference), during which it also publishes the submission deadline and conditions for the current scholarship application.

The submission deadline for applications is typically the first week of November in the autumn semester.

The application materials must include the following for the planned TDK thesis:

– the title,
– a content outline,
– a sample chapter or excerpt (4,000–6,000 characters),
– a provisional bibliography, and
– a recommendation from a lecturer or advisor.

Applications must be submitted via email to the address specified in the call for applications.

• Submitted applications are reviewed and ranked by the FTDT during a meeting convened specifically for this purpose by the secretary in November, based on the following criteria:

  – Professional relevance and originality of the work (50 points)
  – Representative value of the work (50 points)

  The representative value indicates how well the given work may represent the College in a national competition. Within this category, the following aspects are evaluated:

  – Presence of Buddhist philosophy, history of tradition, comparative (philosophical of religion) or linguistic interpretive character (e.g., translations) in the planned thesis (30 points)
  – Demonstration of the ability for independent reasoning and critical thinking (20 points)

  – The applicant’s academic performance (50 points)
  To assess academic performance, the FTDT chair or secretary requests the applicant’s academic progress indicators in advance from the Director of Studies. For first-year students who do not yet have progress data, the committee proportionally adjusts the scores of the first two categories (professional relevance and representative value).

  For the evaluation of the above aspect, if the FTDT member(s) are not lecturers or researchers, the Rector appoints an ad hoc committee from the faculty to evaluate the applications. The evaluation must consider the following:

  – The proposed research topic (20 points)
  – The planned bibliography (15 points)
  – Lecturer/advisor recommendation (15 points)

  Only applicants whose work reaches at least 120 points are eligible to receive the scholarship.

The College enters into a scholarship contract with the winning students, in which the student commits, in exchange for the scholarship, to:

– completing the thesis by the deadline announced in the internal conference notice,
– participating in the next internal conference (presentation of the thesis), and

– in case of a positive evaluation of the thesis, participating in the upcoming OTDK (National Scientific Student Conference); and
– if the student fails to meet the above two conditions, repaying the full amount of the scholarship received.

If the winner’s student status terminates before the scholarship conditions are fulfilled (typically because the supported student graduates and the OTDK is held biennially), the Rector may waive participation in the OTDK on a discretionary basis, provided the thesis is completed and presented at the internal conference.

If the student is unable to fulfill the commitments due to circumstances beyond their control, the Rector may exercise leniency.

In all other cases, the winning student may be required to repay the full amount of the scholarship if the commitments are not fulfilled.

These TDK Scholarship Regulations apply to scholarship applications announced in the academic year 2019/2020 and thereafter.