Fellowship overview

UNESCO is calling for applications for the 2021-22 edition of the Global Education Monitoring Report Fellowship. The Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report Fellowship Program aims to support researchers who wish to contribute to or work on comparative and international education from a fresh standpoint. The fellows selected under this program will be part of a group of researchers and academics who are promoting knowledge in this area while working with the GEM Report team in a thriving research community.

Fellowship details

Application deadline: 11 January 2021 (11:00 pm Paris time)

Announcement of decision for successful applicants: 1 February 2021

Review meeting: 15 February 2021 (to be confirmed)

Anticipated start date: 1 March 2021

Duration: between 6 and 11 months, depending on the work to be undertaken.

Awarding institution: UNESCO

Benefits

The work will be carried out remotely. The GEM Report team will provide:

• A stipend (nearly USD19,500) for the duration of the fellowship.
• A mentor from the team of GEM Report researchers. The GEM Report staff will allot 2-3 hours per week to mentor and guide the fellows remotely.

Eligibility criteria

Applicants should meet the following criteria to be eligible for the fellowship.

Academic background:

• Have an advanced university degree in education, sociology, economics, political science, psychology, demography, statistics, psychometrics, or other relevant fields.

 Professional background:

• Demonstrated experience in policy analysis in an academic/research or national/international agency setting.
• Demonstrable experience in project organization in research and/or policy contexts.
• Contacts within the education policy atmosphere would be an asset.
• Experience of education systems in low, middle, or high-income countries.

Tools:

• Fair knowledge of and solid experience in utilizing statistical techniques involving large-scale survey data.
• Experience using statistical analysis software like Mplus, R, STATA, SPSS, or SAS would be advantageous.

Languages:

Be fluent in one of the two UNESCO working languages (English and French) and the capacity to draft to a high standard in English.

Selection criteria

Applications must be submitted in English. Applications will be reviewed and evaluated by the GEM Report team.

The below factors are important in selecting the successful research proposals:

• Originality
• Potential to influence the international education agenda, and
• Scientific strength.

Particularly, the GEM Report Fellowship Programme research proposals may be:

• Using the GEM report’s data sources
• Enriching the content of the GEM Report
• Promoting the SDG 4 monitoring agenda,
• Supporting the themes of forthcoming GEM reports,

Fellow’s main responsibilities

• Complete a related background paper for the incoming GEM Report or other Report projects. The background paper should be centered on original and previously unpublished analysis. Data can be taken from several sources, including national or cross-national learning or literacy valuations and household, school, or labor force surveys. The background paper should contain policy recommendations.
• Partake in GEM Report team activities to ensure close compliance between the research and the objectives of the team and to further find out and broaden the research in accordance with the needs of the international education agenda and policymakers at the national, regional, and global level

How to apply?

Applicants may send their proposals through the email below.

Submission email: gemreport.fellowship@unesco.org

Applications should include:

• Curriculum Via in UNESCO format
• One page with short project title, abstract (150 words), duration, budget

Project proposal (max. 5 pages / 2500 words) with the following information:

• Research question/aim of the project
• Relevance to the GEM Report
• Proposed data and methodology
• Timeline and resources

For more details and background information on the fellowship, go to the Call for Proposals announcement.