According to the Committee Chair, Prof. Dr. Utz Dornberger, who also serves as the Director of the SEPT Competence Center, selecting the seven successful applicants was challenging due to the abundance of exceptional candidates. "We hope the recipients make excellent use of this study opportunity at Leipzig University," he emphasized.
As the figure below shows, most applicants were from countries in the Global South, underscoring their keen interest in academic programs on small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs') development. SMEs represent about 90% of businesses and over 50% of global employment, according to the World Bank. The SEPT MBA is among the few programs worldwide focused on SMEs, dedicated to conveying theoretical knowledge, application-oriented findings, and practice-relevant experience in the management, promotion, and development of SMEs.
In South and Central Asia, applicants were from Pakistan (104), Afghanistan (28), India (11), Bangladesh (10), Nepal (4), Sri Lanka (3), Bhutan (2), Uzbekistan (1), and Kazakhstan (1).In East Asia, applicants were from Indonesia (17), Thailand (7), the Philippines (4), Mongolia (4), Cambodia (3), Vietnam (3), Laos (1), and China (1).
Moreover, applicants from the Middle East were from Syria (6), Yemen (3), Iran (2), Jordan (2), the United Arab Emirates (2), Iraq (1), Lebanon (1), Palestine (1), Kuwait (1), and Saudi Arabia (1).
In South America, applicants were from Colombia (8), Brazil (3), Ecuador (3), Bolivia (2), Peru (1), and Uruguay (1). Similarly, in North and Central America, applicants hailed from Mexico (8), Panama (2), Nicaragua (2), Costa Rica (1), El Salvador (1), Guatemala (1), and Honduras (1).
In Africa South of the Sahara, applicants were from Nigeria (35), Ghana (34), Kenya (15), Zimbabwe (8), Ethiopia (7), Liberia (5), The Gambia (5), Malawi (3), Sierra Leone (3), Sudan (3), Uganda (3), Angola (3), Cameroon (2), Tanzania (2), Mozambique (1), Senegal (1), and Zambia (1). Moreover, applicants from North Africa (Sahara) were from Egypt (13), Algeria (2), and Libya (1).
The DAAD EPOS offers individual scholarships to participants from developing countries each year, allowing them to pursue development-related postgraduate courses at selected universities in Germany.
