Scholarships

AFAD provides students with the scholarships from funds provided for this purpose from the state budget and from their own resources through a scholarship fund. From the state budget, AFAD provides students with a social scholarship, incentive scholarship and doctoral candidate scholarship for PhD students in the daily form of doctoral study.

Social Scholarship

Social scholarship is awarded to students of bachelor’s degree and master’s degree study who meet the conditions stated in the Article on Social Scholarship. A scholarship applicant is not entitled to social scholarship when he/she studies at the particular level of study (Bachelor’s or Master’s degree), after having completed this level of study at the different university or having exceeded the standard length of studies. After submitting a written application in the requested form to the AFAD Study Department, the scholarship procedure shall start. The application must contain all the data and documents necessary for the decision. Otherwise the Study department shall ask the student to complete the documents or add a necessary explanation. For this procedure a deadline of ten business days is set. The student is fully accountable for the accuracy of the data stated in the application.

Due date for evaluation of the scholarship award application shall be 30 calendar days after the date of delivery of the filled out and submitted application to the Study Department. If the Study Department appeals the student to complete the records or provide an explanation, this due date shall start from the date when the records were completed and the explanation was provided. The Rector shall decide on the right to a social scholarship award. The decision on whether the social scholarship shall be awarded or not is issued in two copies, one copy shall be delivered to the student and the other copy shall be recorded in the file which shall be archived for five years by Study Department. 

• Information for applicants for the Social Scholarship in PDF
• Decree of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic on awarding Social Scholarships to university students in PDF
• Application for Social Scholarship Award in PDF

Incentive Scholarship

Incentive scholarship may be awarded to AFAD students from state budget funds for the following activities:

• outstanding performance study obligations during the entire studies at AFAD
• exceptional high quality (Bachelor’s or Master’s) thesis
• achieving outstanding performance in artistic, research, development or sports activities

The Rector shall decide on awarding incentive scholarship after considering real financial sources of AFAD. The Rector shall make a decision on awarding the incentive scholarship in which he shall state the amount of incentive scholarship and reasoning for its award. Incentive scholarship may be awarded to a student at earliest in the second year of study and in the following years of study in the full time Bachelor’s and Master’s level of study, for the achievements from the previous semester, respectively for the achievements in the previous academic year. The student is not legally entitled to be awarded   incentive scholarship.

Doctoral Candidate Scholarship 

AFAD shall provide a student who is in the daily form of doctoral study with a scholarship if he/she has a permanent residency in the European Union, Norway, Lichtenstein, Island or Switzerland. The student is entitled to be awarded with the scholarship during the standard length of studies for which he/she has been admitted to, and only in case he/she has not already completed the higher education of the third level. The student shall receive the scholarship for the entire year from the first day of the calendar month following the day of the enrolment in doctoral study until he/she ceases to be a doctoral student.

Scholarships from AFAD own Funds

AFAD may award a student the scholarship from its own funds in the following cases:

• outstanding performance study obligations 
• achieving outstanding performance in artistic and research activities
• as a single social support in case of a circumstance with serious health consequences
• as a single social support or regular support in case the student has experienced a very unfavourable  personal situation (death of a parent, parents’ unemployment, parents’ divorce etc.) during the academic year.

Scholarship award application pursuant to this article can generally be submitted via the AFAD Study Department at the beginning of the academic year. The student shall attach all the necessary documents which shall warrant the facts decisive for awarding a scholarship. The application is considered by the AFAD Rector who before making a decision shall take into consideration the financial resources of AFAD, whereby the Rector’s decision is final.

Pregnancy Scholarship - Guideline- Valid from 1 April 2021

A pregnant student who has a permanent residence in the Slovak Republic and at the same time is not entitled to a pregnancy allowance from the Social Insurance Agency is granted a pregnancy scholarship in the period from the beginning of the 27th week before the expected date of birth determined by a doctor (beginning of the 13th week). The pregnancy scholarship is to cover increased expenses related to the student's state of health, special material needs and preparation for the birth of a child. The student has a legal right to pregnancy allowance according to Art. § 96b of Act. no. 131/2002 Coll. on Higher Education Institutions as amended.

A student whose studies have been interrupted due to pregnancy is also entitled to the pregnancy allowance.

How to submit an application for a pregnancy scholarship (hereinafter referred to as the "application"):

• complete the application attached to this guideline
• sign the application by hand
• submit the application to the study department together with the following attachments:
  – a medical certificate which states the beginning of the 27th week before the expected date of birth determined by the doctor (Template is attached to the application.)
  – confirmation of the Social Insurance Agency stating there was no right to the pregnancy allowance, https://www.socpoist.sk/pregnancy-benefit/69647s (Template is attached to the application.)
  – a proof of permanent residence in the Slovak Republic

The amount of the pregnancy scholarship is €200 per month and is provided to the student on a monthly basis to a bank account registered in the Slovak Republic, the number of the account is to be stated in the application. The AFAD Rector decides on the award of the scholarship.

The scholarship is awarded from the first day of the calendar month in which the application was submitted. If the requirements for the award of a pregnancy scholarship have been met only for a part of the calendar month in which the application was received, the pregnancy scholarship is awarded for the entire calendar month. The pregnancy scholarship is also provided in July and August.

 Eligibility for a pregnancy scholarship expires:

• a) with the origin of the right to the payment of parental allowance after the birth of a child the student is provided a pregnancy scholarship for,
• b) with the origin of the right to the payment of pregnancy allowance from the Social Insurance Agency
• c) with the end of pregnancy
• d) with completion of studies.

The student shall notify the Study Department of the event on the basis of which her right to a pregnancy scholarship expires choosing the right option a) – c) within 10 working days from the day when this event occurred.

A person who was awarded a pregnancy scholarship and was also paid a pregnancy allowance for the same period of time is obliged to return the pregnancy scholarship provided by the university for this period of time.

For the purpose of proving the eligibility pursuant to paragraph 1, ascertaining, verifying and controlling the correct procedure for proving the right to a pregnancy scholarship, protection and claiming the rights of the student and AFAD, AFAD is entitled to process the student's personal data to the extent necessary to decide on the award of the pregnancy scholarship. For these purposes, AFAD is entitled, even without the consent of the data subject, to obtain her personal data by copying, scanning or otherwise recording official documents on an information carrier to the extent necessary to achieve the purpose of processing.