Do you want to study abroad, but aren't sure how to pay for it? There is a plethora of ways to do so, and a world of reasons WHY to study abroad!
Here are two ways to obtain financial assistance for study abroad:
Universities, states, private foundations, and large companies abroad willingly provide financial support to foreign students. “Why?” you may ask.
It’s simple.
The task is to educate and attract talented personnel from all over the world to work in the territory of their country. For the sake of this, educational institutions and other organizations are ready to allocate generous funding for various categories of students.
Financial support is usually presented in the form of grants and scholarships.
Method One: Grants
An international grant is a form of reward for young students (usually up to 30 years), which can cover the cost of education to the last cent – from the study course itself to travelling and living in the country. Incomplete grants also exist that cover study fees only.
Other costs of transfer, air tickets, and accommodation with meals in this case remain for the student.
A grant can not be obtained so easily, but you can win it. For this, you need to do the following:
Contact the university you are interested in and find out if it is currently offering grants. If yes, then you have a chance to get financial support from the university. The school will require you to fill out some documents. The main thing is to write a good personal statement.
Apply through the embassy of the country where you want to study. Government grants are provided in most countries under the jurisdiction of the ministries of education and culture. The procedure for participation in a grant competition is similar to a university one – you need documents and an explanation of why you should get it.
Participate in the program of partnership and exchange for students between your country and foreign universities. This option is relevant if you are already a student of a domestic institution and are dreaming of moving abroad.
Contact a private fund interested in the development and support of the field of science or art you are planning to study in. It is not difficult to find such funds on the internet. On their own sites, there are also requirements for candidates for a grant.
Method Two: Scholarships
Scholarship programs are quite flexible in nature. Almost everyone will be able to choose a suitable option. Like grants, scholarships are full and partial, covering, respectively, the educational costs of the student. In order to receive scholarships, you also need to apply to the desired university or embassy.
The scholarship options are vast, and they can be received by:
Students who showed high academic results in the first months of study at a university. In this case, the university or state reimburses the funds spent by the student and pays the rest of the expenses in the framework of its program, after which the studies will continue free of charge.
In contrast to grants, which are designed primarily for applicants 20-30 years old, even schoolchildren can receive scholarships. If the school where the child is studying is a partner of some higher education institution, then it can offer the student free tuition after graduation from the school. Such “gifts” can also be obtained for diligent study and high scores in all school disciplines.
Scholarship services, like fast web, have enormous databases of scholarship opportunities. As well, ask your university's study abroad office for potential scholarship opportunities.
Worth trying? YES!
Studying abroad for free is absolutely possible. One has to decide which country and institution to choose and start looking for information on funding and conditions of admission in advance (for example, start learning a language as early as possible). Keep in mind that it may take you about a year to get prepared. However, the result is worth it, right?
One distinction decides how much of any of this applies to a given student, and it is worth checking first. Universities across Europe charge very different tuition to an exchange student arriving under a partnership agreement than to a student who enrolls independently. The University of Freiburg, in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, charges non-EU students 1,500 euros per semester and exempts exchange students and Erasmus students from that fee entirely, while a student who arranges the same semester outside an exchange program pays it in full. The course, the campus, and the term are identical. The agreement is what differs.
Costs in France changed in 2026. Differentiated tuition fees for new non-EU students now stand at 2,895 euros a year for a bachelor's degree and 3,941 euros for a master's, beginning with the 2026/27 intake, with fee waivers limited to roughly 10 percent of students and exemption now described officially as the exception rather than the rule. Students enrolled under a partnership exchange agreement remain exempt. Any cost estimate for France written before 2026 is now out of date.
Financial aid is the piece students overlook most often. Federal aid can follow a student abroad through a consortium agreement between the home institution and the host program, which means a term abroad is sometimes closer to funded than it first appears, before a single scholarship application is written.
A full breakdown of these arrangements, with current fee figures and the federal regulations behind them, is in our guide to the five arrangements that make study abroad genuinely free.
This article was originally published in 2019 and updated in October 2026 with current fee figures.