Financial Aid

Financial aid is a one-off benefit granted upon a documented application submitted by a person pursuing education at a doctoral school of the University of Warsaw who, for reasons beyond their control (i.e. through no fault of their own), has temporarily found themselves in difficult personal circumstances resulting in costly, short-term difficulties in pursuing their education and preparing their doctoral dissertation.

The Rules and Regulations on Granting Financial Aid to Doctoral Students of the University of Warsaw stipulate that financial aid may be granted, in particular, as a result of:

• the loss of a permanent and primary source of income (except for the loss of entitlement to a doctoral scholarship) by the applicant, their spouse or parent, where the applicant is wholly financially dependent on that parent;
• the birth of the applicant’s child;
• a sudden illness or accident affecting the applicant, their spouse, child or parent, where the applicant is wholly financially dependent on that parent;
• the applicant’s sudden need to provide care for an ill spouse, child or parent, where the applicant is wholly financially dependent on that parent;
• the death of the applicant’s spouse, child or parent;
• damage caused by fire, flooding, a natural disaster or another disaster;
• hostilities in the applicant’s country of origin or in the country in which their spouse, child or parent resides, where the applicant is wholly financially dependent on that parent;
• the need for psychological or psychiatric support arising from a sudden event.

Applications are processed by the Student Welfare and Support Office (the email address for contacting the financial aid body is: bpm@uw.edu.pl).

You can receive financial aid if: 

• you are pursuing studies at a doctoral school of the University of Warsaw;

and

• you provide reliable documentation demonstrating that, through no fault of your own, you are temporarily experiencing difficult personal circumstances that result in costly, short-term difficulties in pursuing your education.

Please remember that your entitlement to financial aid ceases when you lose your doctoral student status. You are also not entitled to financial aid while your doctoral student rights are suspended as a disciplinary measure.

If your entitlement to financial aid ceases, you must immediately inform the financial aid body. Any financial aid received unduly must also be repaid without delay.

Applications for financial aid may be submitted throughout the academic year, including during the summer holidays. As financial aid is a one-off benefit, there is no specific day of the month by which an application must be submitted.

The application must be submitted via the USOSweb system. After logging in to your individual account in the USOSweb system, go to the “Common section” tab and then select “Applications”. Complete the financial aid application for the relevant academic year.

The application is an electronic document. To submit it via the USOSweb system, click “Next: sign and submit electronically”. The USOSweb system will then open another screen where you will be asked to enter an authorisation code sent to your individual email address. The application will only be submitted electronically via USOSweb system once the authorisation code has been entered.

A financial aid application should be submitted immediately but no later than within 6 months from the date of the event, entitling the applicant to the benefit (unless the applicant credibly demonstrates and documents that for reasons beyond their control, it was impossible to submit the application within this period).

The applicant are required to provide documentation of your difficult personal circumstances.  In particular, you must demonstrate a causal link between the event concerned and the temporary difficult personal circumstances resulting in costly, short-term difficulties in pursuing your education.  You must also provide documents that enable your financial circumstances to be assessed so that the financial aid body can determine the amount of financial aid to be granted.

A list of the required documents can be found in § 17 of the Rules and Regulations. Gathering them may take some time, so do not leave your application until the last minute. During the proceedings, the financial aid body may request that you submit additional documents confirming that you meet the conditions for receiving financial aid.

Please remember that documents in foreign languages must be accompanied by a certified translation into Polish.

If you come from a country affected by hostilities, the financial aid body accepts documents issued in English.

A person pursuing studies at a doctoral school of the University of Warsaw who provides false or incomplete information with the intention of obtaining financial aid may be subject to criminal and disciplinary liability.

You can also monitor the status of your application in the USOSweb system. Applications may have the following statuses:

In Progress – the application is currently being completed. You may freely make changes to the document. Please note! Please note that applications and declarations with this status will not be reviewed.

Submitted – at this stage, you can no longer make changes to the application. From this point onward, the submitted documents are subject to verification. To avoid problems with submitting your application, make sure that your email address in the UW domain is displayed in the USOSweb system.

Returned for Correction / Returned for Completion – during the verification process, the coordinator identified errors or missing documents. Detailed instructions on how to correct or complete the application can be found in the comment visible in the USOSweb system or in the email sent to you.

Ready for Review – verification of the submitted documents has been completed. The application is now ready for formal assessment.

Reviewed – this status indicates that the decision will be made available shortly.

Reviewed (decision to be delivered) – the decision will be or has been made available in USOSweb. Please be patient, as the decision will become available once it has been signed.  It may take several days for the decision to appear in USOSweb. The decision can be found under the “List of Documents” tab. Log in to the USOSweb system, select “Common section” tab, and then find “List of Documents” in the left-hand column.

The maximum amount of financial aid is equivalent to the doctoral scholarship payable after the month in which the mid-term evaluation was conducted (currently PLN 5,500.50 gross). Financial aid may be received twice in an academic year, on the basis of two different events.

Financial aid may not be granted if the same event has already served as the basis for granting financial aid from another source of funding at the University of Warsaw, in particular financial aid granted by the Office for Personnel Social Benefits of the University of Warsaw.

Financial aid will be paid by the Bursar’s Office of the University of Warsaw on the following dates:

If you disagree with the Rector’s decision, you have 14 days from the date on which it is served on you to  submit a motion for reconsideration of case.

A motion for reconsideration of case may be submitted:

• in person at the Student Welfare and Support Office, located at ul. Stawki 5/7, 00-183 Warsaw, room 7;
• by post to the University of Warsaw address (ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28, 00-927 Warsaw), marked “dla BPM” [in eng. “for BPM”];
• via the General Administrative Office of the UW, marked “dla BPM” [in eng. “for BPM”];
• via ePUA;
• via e-Delivery.