FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg Scholarships for International Students 2026/27

Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) is one of Germany’s largest and most research-intensive universities, spread across the twin cities of Erlangen and Nuremberg in Bavaria, with particular strength in engineering, natural sciences, medicine and economics — and a close industrial ecosystem anchored by Siemens Healthineers and the Medical Valley. For international students, FAU’s financial starting point is one of the best in Germany: Bavaria charges no general tuition fees at public universities, so a standard FAU degree carries only the semester contribution, not a tuition bill. Scholarships at FAU then concentrate on two honest jobs. The first is rewarding excellence through the Deutschlandstipendium, €300 per month, half donated by companies, foundations, alumni and private individuals and half by the German state, with an application window that FAU publishes precisely each year — for winter semester 2026/27 it ran from 15 June to 15 July 2026. The second is rescuing the finish: FAU’s International Affairs office runs a graduation scholarship, funded from DAAD and Free State of Bavaria sources, that pays €1,000 in a single transaction to international master’s and state examination students in their final semester who meet a published grade, credit, language and income test, with the winter semester 2026/27 deadline set for 28 October 2026 at 12:00 noon. This guide explains both schemes in full official detail, adds the external DAAD and BAYHOST routes FAU itself signposts, and is candid about the limit FAU states openly: German universities generally do not hold funds to pay international students’ living costs, so a FAU budget is built on your own proven funds first and scholarships second.

Use this article with our FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg profile for programmes and admissions, the StudyGraduate scholarships directory for national schemes you can hold at FAU, and our scholarships in Germany guide for the DAAD programmes that fund students before they arrive in Erlangen or Nuremberg.

FAU Scholarships at a Glance

Two features of the FAU system deserve emphasis. First, precision: FAU publishes exact deadlines with times of day, exact grade bands and exact income thresholds, which means FAU applications are won on compliance as much as on merit — an application uploaded at 12:05 on deadline day is late, full stop. Second, scale honesty: €1,000 once, or €300 a month, are meaningful sums in Erlangen’s moderate rental market, but neither replaces the €11,904 per year you must show for the residence permit in 2026. Students who internalise both facts — apply exactly, budget independently — are the ones FAU’s funding actually reaches.

Tuition and Costs in Bavaria: No General Tuition, With Two Caveats

Bavaria does not charge general tuition fees for standard degree programmes at FAU, for German or international students. You pay the semester contribution each semester, which funds student services and the student union, and your living costs in Erlangen or Nuremberg. Caveat one: continuing-education and certain fee-bearing master’s programmes can charge programme fees under Bavarian rules, so a professional or continuing-education master’s applicant must read their specific programme page and treat any published fee as part of the funding plan — the “Bavaria is free” rule covers standard consecutive study, not every programme with a FAU logo. Caveat two: FAU’s own International Affairs office tells students plainly that, in contrast to many other countries, German universities unfortunately do not have funding to award grants towards international students’ living costs, and that students typically rely on home-country scholarships or their own resources. That sentence, from the university itself, is the most important financial fact in this guide. Plan Erlangen or Nuremberg — both mid-cost by German standards, with Erlangen’s Siemens-driven rental market tighter than Nuremberg’s larger one — on the blocked account figure of €11,904 for 2026, part-time work within the student residence rules once you are settled, and scholarships as acceleration, not foundation.

The FAU Graduation Scholarship: €1,000 for Your Final Semester

FAU’s International Affairs office offers scholarships for completing studies to international students, based on special funding from the DAAD and the Free State of Bavaria. The scholarship is open to students in master’s and state examination degree programmes who are nearing completion — the final semester, usually while writing the thesis or taking final examinations. It is paid to successful applicants in one transaction and amounts to €1,000 in total. For winter semester 2026/27, the application deadline is 28 October 2026 at 12:00 noon, and successful applicants are informed by email about the next steps two weeks after the deadline; unsuccessful applicants are informed as well, which removes the silent uncertainty that plagues many schemes.

The eligibility test is fully published, and every element is checkable. You must be an international student without German citizenship or permanent residence; your FAU graduation must be planned by the end of March 2027; your current GPA must be good or very good, defined as between 1.0 and 2.3 in the German system; at least 75 ECTS must be visible in your transcript of records; you need German language proficiency at least at basic level; and you must show financial need — only students with a monthly income of under €992 are entitled to apply, with lower-income students given priority, and a statement about your financial situation included in the application form (savings and funds in blocked accounts do not count towards monthly income, a humane detail that stops your visa reserve from disqualifying you). You must be actively enrolled at FAU and continuously resident in Germany for the coming semester. Students holding the nationality of a country on the United Nations list of Least Developed Countries are given special consideration, and students with extracurricular involvement are also given special consideration. Who cannot apply is equally explicit: exchange students, bachelor’s students, and students in one-year orientation, pre-master or postgraduate programmes are not eligible, and the scholarship does not fund stays abroad.

The application is submitted online through the portal linked from the official page, using your FAU IdM login, with the academic year entered as 2026/27 and the application semester as Wintersemester 2026/27. Upload the up-to-date transcript of records from FAUcampus, your current certificate of enrolment and your CV. Separately — and this is the step students fumble — a reference letter from a full FAU professor, on the template provided, assessing your performance and estimating your graduation date, must be sent as a PDF from the professor’s personal FAU email account to the International Affairs contact named on the official page; it may arrive after you submit your own part but must arrive before the deadline. Incomplete applications are not processed. In practical terms: ask your thesis supervisor for the reference the week you decide to apply, not the week of 28 October, because the professor’s estimate of your graduation date is also the document that proves your “graduation by end of March 2027” eligibility.

The Deutschlandstipendium at FAU: €300 per Month for Top Students

FAU supports its top students through the Deutschlandstipendium, the national programme in which half of each scholarship is donated by companies, donors, friends or alumni and the other half comes from the German state — a donor gives €150 per month and the government matches it, so each holder receives €300 per month, €3,600 per year. FAU awards the scholarships across engineering, business and economics, the sciences, law, medicine, the humanities and social sciences, and the published selection criteria are academic achievement, voluntary work, international experience and other personal qualities. Students at FAU can apply once a year; funding is initially granted for one to two semesters — the winter semester and the subsequent summer semester — and can be extended annually with effect from the winter semester until the end of the standard duration of study, with a renewed application required each time. For winter semester 2026/27, the application period began on 15 June 2026 and ended on 15 July 2026 as a final deadline.

Strategically, the Deutschlandstipendium is FAU’s main merit route for international undergraduates and master’s students alike, and it rewards the same profile the graduation scholarship later rewards: strong grades plus documented engagement. FAU’s alumni can also fund scholarships through the programme — donations of €150 and above are doubled by the government — which steadily grows the pool. Because the window closes in mid-July for a winter start, incoming students need their admission and documents ready in June, and enrolled students should treat the spring semester as preparation season: collect the engagement confirmations and references while your transcript is at its best. As everywhere in Germany, the national double-funding logic applies to talent-based awards, so declare any other merit funding you hold when you apply.

External Routes FAU Signposts: DAAD, BAYHOST and the Foundations

FAU’s programme pages for international master’s students tabulate the routes the university expects you to use before and alongside its own schemes, and they carry a warning worth repeating: scholarship deadlines are typically much earlier than the master’s application deadline. The DAAD heads the list. Where an eligible FAU course is listed in DAAD programmes such as EPOS, master’s applicants from eligible countries can secure €992 per month and doctoral applicants €1,300 per month — rising to €1,400 from February 2026 in current calls — plus the insurance, travel and supplementary allowances of the specific call, applied for from the home country in the autumn before entry. BAYHOST, the Bavarian Academic Center for Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, is FAU’s regional speciality: students from Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe should check BAYHOST’s scholarship calls for Bavaria, which exist precisely because Bavarian universities recruit strongly from that region. Once enrolled, FAU points students to the Deutschlandstipendium, to StipendiumPlus — the thirteen publicly funded foundations for outstanding students — and to the e-fellows.net database for further opportunities, noting that many scholarships in Germany are awarded by religious or political organisations to students who share and can evidence their values and engagement.

Doctoral researchers at FAU are funded through the university’s graduate school structures, institute and project positions, foundation doctoral scholarships and DAAD research grants rather than through the two student schemes above; the graduation scholarship explicitly serves master’s and state examination students, and bachelor’s students are excluded from it. The practical doctoral method at FAU is to secure the supervisor and research group first — Erlangen’s engineering, materials and medical technology groups are deeply project-funded — and then align scholarship applications with the group’s project calendar and the graduate school’s advertised calls, taking amounts only from the call in front of you.

Eligibility Summary

How to Apply: Step by Step

Step 1 — Apply for admission early, because every FAU scholarship sits behind enrolment and scholarship deadlines run earlier than programme deadlines. Step 2 — Build the year-one plan on your own funds: blocked account €11,904 (2026), semester contribution, and living costs, with external DAAD applications filed the previous autumn where you are eligible. Step 3 — In your first June at FAU, apply for the Deutschlandstipendium inside the mid-June to mid-July window with transcript, CV and engagement evidence ready. Step 4 — Renew deliberately: the Deutschlandstipendium extension needs a fresh application each year before the winter semester. Step 5 — In your final semester, run the graduation scholarship checklist: confirm GPA within 1.0–2.3, at least 75 ECTS on the transcript, basic German evidenced, income under €992 documented, graduation by the round’s end date realistic — then complete the online form (academic year 2026/27, Wintersemester 2026/27), upload transcript from FAUcampus, enrolment certificate and CV, and ensure your professor’s templated reference is emailed from their FAU account before 28 October 2026, 12:00 noon. Step 6 — Keep proof: submission confirmation email and the portal’s second-stage steps completed; FAU states incomplete applications are not processed.

Required Documents

Graduation scholarship: completed online application form including the financial-situation statement; up-to-date transcript of records from FAUcampus; current certificate of enrolment; CV; and the reference letter from a full FAU professor on the official template, assessing performance and estimating the graduation date, sent as a PDF from the professor’s personal FAU email account to the International Affairs contact named on the official page. Deutschlandstipendium: the application in the current call with the achievement, engagement and international-experience evidence the criteria demand. External routes: DAAD and BAYHOST files per their calls — degree certificates, transcripts, language certificates, study or research proposal and references — prepared months ahead, because their deadlines precede FAU’s own.

Deadlines and Timeline

Tips to Improve Your Chances

Learn basic German even if your degree is English-taught: the graduation scholarship requires at least basic German, so an A-level certificate quietly removes a disqualifier many strong applicants discover too late. Keep your GPA inside the 1.0–2.3 band and your ECTS accumulating visibly in FAUcampus, because both are hard gates, not preferences. Build one real extracurricular commitment — it earns “special consideration” in the graduation round and strengthens the Deutschlandstipendium file, where voluntary work and international experience are explicit criteria. Manage your final-semester income honestly under €992 per month and document it cleanly. Brief your professor early with your transcript and thesis timeline so the reference letter can estimate a credible graduation date. And in Erlangen’s industry-rich environment, treat HiWi (student assistant) posts and working-student roles in research groups and Medical Valley companies as part of the funding plan from semester two — they pay, they build the CV, and they put you in the rooms where references and doctoral positions originate.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

The first is assuming a scholarship will fund the visa: FAU itself warns that German universities do not hold living-cost funds for internationals, and the consulate wants €11,904 regardless. The second is missing the noon deadline — 28 October 2026 at 12:00, not midnight — or submitting your own documents while the professor’s reference never arrives, which leaves an incomplete, unprocessed application. The third is applying for the graduation scholarship from the wrong level: bachelor’s, exchange and pre-master students are excluded by rule. The fourth is discovering the basic-German requirement, the 75-ECTS transcript test or the €992 income ceiling in the deadline week. The fifth is letting a continuing-education master’s fee surprise you because you assumed every FAU programme is tuition-free. Each mistake is a published rule read too late; the fix is a single careful pass through the official pages in the semester before you need the money.

Part-Time Work and the Erlangen–Nuremberg Budget

FAU’s funding picture is completed by the region’s labour market, which is unusually generous to students. Erlangen hosts major Siemens and Siemens Healthineers sites, Nuremberg offers a large service and trade-fair economy, and the university itself employs student assistants across its institutes, clinics and libraries. Working-student (Werkstudent) roles in engineering, IT, medical technology and administration commonly align with FAU degree subjects, so the same hours that fund your semester also build the record your Deutschlandstipendium renewal and your final-semester reference letter will describe. Plan the interaction with the graduation scholarship deliberately: in your final semester, your documented monthly income must be under €992 to remain eligible, and lower income is prioritised, so the semester in which you write your thesis is the wrong semester to maximise working-student hours. The coherent FAU sequence is therefore to work and save in the middle semesters, hold the Deutschlandstipendium where you win it, and let the €1,000 graduation scholarship plus reduced hours carry the thesis months. Keep every contract and payslip: FAU’s applications run on documents, and the student who can evidence income, enrolment, credits and engagement from one organised folder applies in an afternoon while others are still requesting certificates.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does FAU charge tuition fees for international students?

Bavaria charges no general tuition for standard degree programmes, so you pay the semester contribution and living costs. Some continuing-education master’s programmes charge fees — check your specific programme page.

How much is the FAU graduation scholarship and when is the deadline?

€1,000 in total, paid in one transaction, for international master’s and state examination students in their final semester. For winter semester 2026/27 the deadline is 28 October 2026 at 12:00 noon, with graduation planned by the end of March 2027.

What GPA and credits do I need for the graduation scholarship?

A current GPA between 1.0 and 2.3, at least 75 ECTS visible in your transcript, at least basic German, active FAU enrolment, continuous residence in Germany, and monthly income under €992. LDC nationals and students with extracurricular involvement receive special consideration.

How does the professor’s reference letter work?

A full FAU professor completes the official template, assessing your performance and estimating your graduation date, and sends it as a PDF from their personal FAU email account to the International Affairs contact on the official page. It may follow your own submission but must arrive before the deadline.

How much is the Deutschlandstipendium at FAU and when do I apply?

€300 per month (€3,600 per year), half from private donors and half from the state, initially for one to two semesters and extendable annually with a renewed application. For winter semester 2026/27 the application period was 15 June to 15 July 2026.

Can bachelor’s students get the FAU graduation scholarship?

No. It is limited to master’s and state examination students; bachelor’s, exchange, orientation, pre-master and one-year postgraduate students are explicitly ineligible.

What external funding should FAU applicants check?

DAAD programmes before arrival (EPOS pays €992 per month at master’s level and €1,300, rising to €1,400 from February 2026 in current calls, at doctoral level), BAYHOST for students from Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, and the StipendiumPlus foundations after enrolment.

How much money must I show for the residence permit?

€11,904 for one year in 2026, normally in a blocked account. FAU notes that German universities generally cannot grant living-cost funding, so plan on your own resources plus any scholarships you actually win.

Sources & Verification

Official pages: Scholarships for International Students About to Graduate — FAU; FAU Deutschlandstipendium (Germany Scholarship) — FAU.

Verified against official sources in October 2026: FAU — Scholarships for international students about to graduate (graduation scholarship €1,000 one transaction, deadline 28 October 2026 12:00 noon, GPA 1.0–2.3, 75 ECTS, basic German, income under €992, graduation by end of March 2027, LDC and extracurricular special consideration, exclusions, document list and professor reference procedure); FAU Deutschlandstipendium pages (€300 per month / €3,600 per year, donor €150 matched by the state, selection criteria, application period 15 June – 15 July 2026 for winter semester 2026/27, one-to-two-semester initial funding with annual extension); FAU programme financing pages (DAAD and BAYHOST signposting, StipendiumPlus and e-fellows.net for enrolled students, scholarship deadlines earlier than programme deadlines); FAU International Affairs financing statement (German universities generally hold no living-cost grants for international students). DAAD EPOS rates and the €11,904 blocked account figure follow the StudyGraduate brief’s verified fact updates. Details change yearly, so always confirm deadlines and amounts on the official website before applying.

Disclaimer: StudyGraduate is an information portal, not an agency. We do not promise selection, admission or visa approval; decisions rest solely with FAU, the DAAD, BAYHOST and the funding organisations named above.