Scholarship Interviews
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We will interview you in a meeting or by calling you
We will contact you to agree on a place, date and time for your interview, which may be at your local New Zealand Embassy, High Commission, at a third-party location, or by phone or online video conference.
Two of our representatives conduct the interview over 40 minutes. The interview has six questions. We allow about four to six minutes for each question. Your answers will reveal if you are suitable for a New Zealand Scholarship.
Typical interview questions
The interviewers will ask you about your study programme
They will ask about:
- your preferred courses i.e. the study programme(s) on your application form
- how your preferred courses will improve the social and economic development of your country
- your commitment to and motivation for improving your country
PhD applicants should be able to articulate what steps they have taken to find a PhD supervisor, as well as the suitability of their research topic.
The interviewers will ask you two questions about how you cope with challenges
You can’t prepare for these questions before the interview. We will present a hypothetical scenario of something that could happen, and then ask you how you would deal with this scenario.
The interviewers will ask you a question about your resilience
Before the interview, you should think about some examples of when you have been resilient. A good way to describe your example is to use the C-A-R method – Context, Action, Result. You can research this method before the interview.