Who can fill out the letter of reference?

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Enclosure to the application for Swedish Institute Scholarships for Global Professionals for master level studies in Sweden starting the academic year 2022/2023.

LETTER OF REFERENCE FORM (Instructions)

The referee is expected to state an opinion of the applicant from a professional perspective, on behalf of the referred organisation, and will thereby provide an important supplement to the letter of motivation and the curriculum vitae for your scholarship application.

To be eligible for SI Scholarships for Global Professionals (SISGP), you must provide two different letters of reference. At least one letter of reference must be based on your work experience. The second letter of reference can be based on your work as well, but can also be an academic reference based on your studies at university. However, it will be a merit if the second letter of reference is based on your involvement in networks or civil society organisations outside of your regular work.

Who can fill out the letter of reference?

The referee should be someone who knows you in a professional rather than private manner. It does not have to be your direct manager. For instance, it can be the HR manager, or the head of the organisation, as long as the person can comment on your work on behalf of your employer.

If you work in a family business, if you are the owner of a business, or if you do freelance work, we can accept a signature from a client or a staff who works at your company who is not your family member. Clients should be companies/organisations (i.e. not private persons) and are only allowed to certify the working hours that you have worked for them. The stamp should be the official stamp of the company/organisation.

If you do freelance work, you may also ask an employee at the professional association or agency where you are registered as a freelancer or receive assignments from to be your referee and to sign and stamp the letter of reference.

Examples of who cannot be used as a referee are

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  Co-workers
  
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  Family members/relatives/partners/friends
  
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  Individuals who demand compensation (money, goods, favours, services or other means) from you in order to give you a statement of reference
  

Requirement

The letter of reference must be completed in English or alternatively translated by a notary public with the notary’s official stamp. The original letter of reference or the English translation should not exceed two pages (excluding the instruction page). Any additional page(s) will be disregarded. In order to be valid, the letter must be completed, dated, signed by the referee, and stamped by the referred company/organisation/university at which you worked or studied and which the referee represents. The stamp can be in any language as long as it is the official stamp of the referring organisation.

If your referee has changed job and is unable to represent your former or current employer, we recommend that you find another referee who still works at the company/organisation and is able to comment on your work performance.

If your employer does not have any stamp, we recommend that you provide a letter of reference based on your experience at another organisation. If, due to the pandemic, you are not able to get a traditional stamp for your reference letter you could explore the possibility to sign the document with a digital signature or stamp.

If it is the only work experience you have, we may accept an official stamp of a notary office. However, your referee still needs to fill in the template and sign it on behalf of your employer. The notary public needs to certify in English that the referee is authorised to represent the referred organisation and to write the letter of reference for you.

Submission

You must merge the two letters of reference into one PDF document before submission. Do not include the instruction in the file. Please present the letter based on your work experience first. If both of your letters are based on your work, please sort them in reverse chronological order. If any letter is not written in English by your referee, you should present the translation from the notary office directly after the original letter in the same PDF document. Kindly note that when the letter of reference stretches over two pages, the referee’s signature and the official stamp of the referring organisation or notary office are required at the bottom of both pages.

Authenticity

SI will carry out random checks on the applications and applicants to scrutinise any false or misleading information, including fabricated documentation. Should any false information be found, the applicant will be automatically disqualified and barred from applying for any SI scholarship programme in the future. Any false information discovered during the scholarship period will cause a termination of the scholarship. The scholarship holder will then have to refund the full scholarship amount to SI.

Do you have any questions?

Please read the instruction above thoroughly. SI cannot make any exceptions. If you have more questions, please make sure to read through the information about SISGP as well as the FAQ.

Enclosure to the application for Swedish Institute Scholarships for Global Professionals for master level studies in Sweden starting the academic year 2022/2023.