Women’s High Potential Scholarship: How HEC Paris is supporting women to fulfil their career ambitions

As the first-ever laureates of the HEC Paris Women’s High Potential scholarship – worth up to €15,000 – begin their first years of studies with us, we reflect on this new funding opportunity and how it’s positively impacting our students.

In 2020, HEC Paris launched the Women’s High Potential scholarship: a funding opportunity open to all female applicants to HEC Paris’ Master’s programs, aiming to provide the world’s brightest female students with access to the best education.

The €15,000 opportunity comes amidst a wider objective: for the last several years, HEC Paris has been more committed than ever to closing the gender gap in the workplace. The aim of the scholarship is to provide our ambitious female students with a head-start, in order to help them achieve their career goals.

A supportive environment for women to fulfil their ambitions

Among the first-ever laureates of this scholarship is Swiss student Patricia Bronder. Joining the MSc International Finance program and receiving the full award of €15,000, she shares why she thinks the scholarship is so important: “it shows how HEC values encouraging women to study finance and other subjects that have historically mainly been taken by men. This reflects that HEC is actively responding to trends and provides a perfect platform for women to accomplish their dreams in currently male-dominated industries”, she says. “After receiving the scholarship, I knew this was an environment I wanted to find myself in.”

A tangible, positive impact 

Reflecting on how the funding opportunity will affect her, Patricia explains: “the scholarship will greatly benefit my studies because it will enable me to entirely focus on my subjects and worry less about finding external opportunities to earn money to finance my degree. So, I feel even more motivated to explore my interest in finance, particularly for my Master’s thesis. To sum up, the scholarship will enable me to focus on my academic interests to a greater extent than would have been possible without it.”

How to apply for the HEC Paris Women’s High Potential scholarship

There is no separate application process for this funding opportunity. To pursue the scholarship, female students simply need to apply to one of our Master’s programs; if you are admitted, you will be automatically considered. Women of all backgrounds and nationalities are eligible for this funding opportunity and will be assessed on overall academic excellence, reviewing all factors of the application. You can apply to our programs here. 

If you are successful, you will be contacted with the news two weeks after your interview.