Apply for the Manaaki New Zealand Scholarship: My Experiences and 2026 Application Guide
It’s the time of the year when you’re wondering about doing something new, growing up as a person, and perhaps considering an international scholarship. You might be interested in applying for the Manaaki New Zealand Scholarship. In this blog, I’ll tell you how I became a preferred candidate…twice!
What is the Manaaki Scholarship?
The Manaaki Scholarship is a fully funded educational opportunity provided by the New Zealand Government to support students from developing countries in pursuing postgraduate studies at New Zealand institutions. These scholarships aim to develop future leaders who can contribute to the sustainable development of their home countries.
Benefits of Manaaki Scholarship:
Here are the benefits of the scholarship:
- Tuition Fees: Full coverage of tuition fees.
- Travel: Return economy air travel between New Zealand and the scholar’s home country.
- Living Allowance: A fortnightly living allowance to cover basic living expenses (this includes rent, food, and living expenses). Currently it’s 1,230 nzd fornightly, or 615 nzd per week.
- Establishment Allowance: An initial allowance to assist with setup costs upon arrival in New Zealand.
- Insurance: Medical and travel insurance throughout the duration of the scholarship.
- Research Support: For postgraduate students, assistance with research and thesis costs.
The Application Stage
The application usually opens in the first week of February, but this year it opened on March 1st and ends in the same month. You have to fill out the eligibility form first. If successful, you will be prompted to create your scholarship application account and start your proper application.
Check if you are eligible
The criteria for eligibility are quite simple:
Country Eligibility: Applicants must be citizens of eligible developing countries. Sad to say, the focus is on the Pacific and select Asian countries only. Check the countries here.
NZ Scholarships Academic Programs: Priority is given to study subjects that align with the development needs of the applicant’s home country. In my case, the priority was sustainable development, agriculture, and the environment, plus people from Mindanao. So there’s only a limited number of related fields, as well as some priority sectors, in your country.
Assess if the study program that you want to pursue aligns with the recommended subjects for your country.
Check the priority programs here.
Recipients are required to return to their home country for at least two years after completing their studies to apply their new skills and knowledge. So if you’re planning to live abroad after the scholarship terms, that’s not possible.
Age Bracket: You must be at least 18 years old. And since if you’re applying for a postgraduate degree (masters/phd), you must have finished you undergraduate program. There’s no upper age limit for applicants, but most of the university or tertiary scholarship would prefer applicants under 40 years of age.
Relevant Work Experience: Applicants must possess at least one year of full-time work experience, defined as 30 or more hours per week, or alternatively, two years of part-time work experience, which involves working up to 29 hours per week. And what it means with experience is that it could be professional or voluntary as long as it’s relevant to the subject you are applying.
Application Form and Essay Questions
The application form consists of personal profiling and a bunch of essay questions. I will create a separate blog about the essay ones but in general, here are some of the major fields you will answer:
- Proposed study program
- Study History
- Work History
- Development Relevance (how your program will help your country)
- Personal questions such as ethics, leadership, relationships, and situational questions
The Psychometric Testing
Now that you have finished submitting the application, you have to wait for 2 months to receive a response. In my case, I received a response on the 5th of April since the application was on February.
This comprehensive assessment is the next stage of the selection process for the Manaaki New Zealand Scholarships where you have to answer three sets of tests designed to provide us the scholarship team insights into your logical abilities, learning agility, behavioural preferences, strengths and development areas.
- Cognitive/Logical Reasoning Test
- Verbal Reasoning Test
- Personality test
And mind you, the first two are a blood bath!
The Interviews
After you finished the tests, the committee will review in detail both your application answers as well as the result of the tests. From thousands of applicants, a shortlist will be created to proceed to the interview. I received the email on the 25th of June.
If you do not make it to the next stage, you will also receive an email to inform you. The interview is done via zoom link with the assigned interviewers from New Zealand or your local embassy.
During the interview, the panel will ask you questions about your proposed studies and your experiences, most of them just the same with the application. I think this is to test if what you put on your application is genuine. The interview takes only around 30 mins to an hour.
The Final Outcome
And so the waiting game begins, the anxiety is on top of your head. You overthink whether the interviews went well. It doesn’t matter now! You will receive the outcome email around Mid-August to Early September (this might change since the application begins in March). And there are only three outcomes:
Preferred Candidate: the first in line for a Manaaki New Zealand Scholarship. To take up a scholarship, preferred candidates must successfully apply for admission to a university or education institution and then successfully apply for a visa.
For the admission, you need to accomplish what the school requires (example, transcript of records, IELTS, personal identity documents) to get Offer of Place.
To get student Visa, you generally need to Offer of Place from the university, your support contract with Manaaki, Medical exam, and personal identity documents). Once accomplished you will be connected to your International Scholarship Officer who will arrange your flights and welcome you to your university.
Reserved Candidate: you are next in line if by any chance a preferred candidate gives up his or her seat or if they are not able to meet the admission requirement of the preferred insitution or visa was not granted. Most reserved candidates who make it to the preferred list receive email at around October and Early November.
Not selected: Unfortunately, no chance for these people to make it. And the decision of the scholarship committee is final. What happens next? If you are preferred, or if you are a reserved candidate that has been moved to preferred, you must reach out to the insitution of choice and apply for admission.
If you get an unconditional offer of place from that school, the Manaaki will officially send you the scholarship contract and the rest of the steps will be a communication between you and a Manaaki officer of your school until reach New Zealand the following year.
My Journey to Becoming An Official Scholar
I applied for the scholarship in 2020, back then it was still called the MFAT scholarship. I went through the same process and received the final outcome by September that I was preffered. Unfortunately, pandemic hit and New Zealand’s borders closed for two years. I also was not unstable mentally so I was not able to push through.
Last 2024 I thought of applying again using the same application! By August I received the final outcome that I was just a reserve candidate so I did not hope to advance. But just two weeks later, I received another email that I became a preffered candidate and so I grabbed the chance and worked through processing my admission at Lincoln University for the degree Masters of Management in Agribusiness.
I got an unconditional offer and visa in November 2024, and fast forward, I’m already on my last semester doing my research essay.
Tips and Observation
Do not use AI to generate your essays. They will know it for sure! Answer as authentic as possible. There are thousands of applications receive each year. In my country, only around 12-16 are chosen each year so the competition is really tough. If you want to have a clear advantage, make sure that your line of work or experiences greatly contributes to the community.
The scholarship team wants to see leaders who can make change or already is one step ahead in helping the country. Most of the scholars I know are from Non Government Organizations or Government workers working or volunteering in line with the areas of focus by the manaaki.
I also observed that your undergraduate grades matter, but not always. The scholarship team wants to find candidate who excelled in their academics because you will go to New Zealand to study and that your capacity to learn should be at par with their standards. So if you’re still working on your undergraduate grades, do good. But I know other recipients who don’t have perfect A grades. Some even have only satisfactory marks in undergraduate courses. So don’t lose hope and try.
Do not rush the application; proofread your essays a couple times. I submitted my application on the 22nd of February just a few weeks before the closing. It’s not first come first serve, they go with quality over quantity.
Be aware of the word limits. Do not write too much or too little. On situational questions, the usual method of writing is Describing the Situation, What is Your Action, and What is the outcome. Make sure you write as succinctly as possible.
Hope, but do not expect. As the application is quite rigorous, you’ll never know the outcome. Once you hit the submit button, try to forget about it and don’t overthink, so you still get good sleep at night.
Don’t beat yourself to much into perfection or self-sabotaging yourself if you don’t make it. There’s always next time! You can still improve yourself.
At the end of the day, it’s still about destiny. I know some brightest and most capable applicants who were not accepted. Remember, there are also thousands of other applicants who dream just as you are. I heard in our predeparture briefing that they do several sorting techniques to sift potential applicants. The exact process? We have no idea. If it’s for you, it will be given.
Best of Luck!
As you embark on your journey towards applying for the Manaaki Scholarship, remember that every step you take is a learning experience. The process may seem rigorous, but it’s also an opportunity to reflect on your goals, showcase your dedication, and grow as an individual.
Whether you make it as a preferred candidate, a reserve, or decide to try again next year, the effort you put into this application will shape your path forward. Stay authentic, keep improving, and give it your all. Good luck with your application—New Zealand might just be calling your name! And I hope to see you soon here in the lovely Aotearoa New Zealand.
