Scholarships in Austria for International Students 2026/2027

Austria plays a different scholarship game from most countries, and understanding it will save you months. At Austrian public universities, tuition itself is remarkably low — EUR 726.72 per semester for most non-EU students — so the real cost of an Austrian degree is living expenses, and the real scholarship question is how to fund your life in Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck, Linz or Salzburg while you study. The funding system built around that reality is run by the OeAD, Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation: a family of grants headed by the Ernst Mach Grant, a central database at grants.at where almost every legitimate Austrian award is listed, plus merit scholarships paid by the universities themselves under Austrian study law. This guide explains scholarships in Austria for international students for 2026/2027 as the system actually works — who the Ernst Mach variants are for, what they pay in the current calls, why the worldwide grant does not fund a full degree, and how to combine low tuition, university merit awards and doctoral employment into a realistic funding plan.

We write for international students from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria, Indonesia and worldwide, and we are specific about eligibility because Austrian grants are precise instruments: the Ernst Mach Grant worldwide funds research stays of one to nine months for postgraduates and postdocs; the Ernst Mach Grant for universities of applied sciences funds study visits of four to ten months; and the Ernst Mach Grant – ASEA-UNINET can fund a full PhD of up to 36 months, but only for applicants from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Read the variant that matches your profile, verify it in grants.at, and ignore any website that promises you a generic “fully funded Austrian government scholarship for a full bachelor’s degree” — that programme does not exist. You can compare Austria with neighbouring systems in the StudyGraduate scholarships directory as you plan.

Scholarships in Austria at a Glance

Notice what is missing from this table: a central Austrian scholarship that pays for a complete bachelor’s or master’s degree for a student arriving from outside Europe. Austria funds mobility, research stays, excellence after enrolment, and doctoral work — and it keeps degree tuition so low that a well-prepared student can self-fund the degree while competing for these grants to support living costs. That is the honest shape of the system, and the rest of this guide shows you how to work it.

Why Study in Austria?

Start with the numbers. A non-EU student at an Austrian public university pays EUR 726.72 per semester in tuition, plus the Austrian Students’ Union (ÖH) fee — EUR 26.20 per semester in 2026/2027 at the universities whose fee pages we verified. That is roughly EUR 1,500 per year in total compulsory charges for a degree from institutions such as the University of Vienna, TU Wien, the University of Graz or the University of Innsbruck. EU/EEA and Swiss students pay only the ÖH fee within the standard study duration plus two tolerance semesters. Compare that with international fees in the UK, the US or Australia and Austria’s proposition becomes clear even before any scholarship: the degree itself is close to free; you are funding rent, food, insurance and transport in a Central European capital.

Quality supports the arithmetic. Vienna is a global research hub in fields from mathematics, physics and life sciences to music, history and social sciences; TU Wien and TU Graz anchor strong engineering and computer science; Innsbruck specialises in alpine, physics and biomedical research; and specialist institutions such as ISTA (Institute of Science and Technology Austria) run fully funded, English-taught PhD programmes where candidates are employed on salaries. Programmes at master’s and doctoral level are widely available in English, while bachelor’s degrees at public universities are still taught mainly in German — a decisive practical point we return to under eligibility. Add a central-European location, an excellent public transport system, and a residence framework that lets graduates seek work, and Austria becomes one of the most rational destinations in Europe for a student who plans carefully.

The OeAD and grants.at: Where Austrian Scholarships Live

The OeAD is Austria’s national agency for education and internationalisation, administering scholarships and research grants on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Women, Science and Research. Its overview of programmes is published at OeAD — scholarships and funding programmes A to Z, and its database grants.at is the official, searchable home of Austrian scholarships and research funding. Make grants.at your single source of truth: filter by your country of origin, target group and field, open the call text for any grant you consider, and rely on that text — amounts, deadlines, age limits — over any third-party summary, including ours. The OeAD also runs a housing office that scholarship holders can use, and it helps scholars arrange the health insurance Austrian authorities accept. When an agent or website describes an Austrian scholarship that cannot be found in grants.at, treat the claim as unverified until proven otherwise.

The Ernst Mach Grant Family, Explained

Ernst Mach Grant — worldwide

The worldwide grant is the flagship for researchers. It supports postgraduates — principally students currently enrolled in a doctoral programme outside Austria — and postdocs who want to carry out a research stay of one to nine months at an Austrian university or research institution. The current call pays a monthly grant rate of EUR 1,300, grant holders are exempt from tuition fees for the stay, and the OeAD assists with arranging accommodation and health insurance, the costs of which are paid from the grant. Two conditions define the programme. First, you need the consent of an Austrian academic supervisor before you apply — the host relationship is the foundation of the application, so contacting professors is step one, not an afterthought. Second, it cannot finance a complete degree: it is a mobility and research grant, not a degree scholarship, and extensions are not possible. For the 2027/28 academic year the OeAD closing date moved earlier than in older cycles: applications close on 1 December 2026 for stays between September 2027 and August 2028 — Austrian university hosts, such as WU Vienna’s institutes, ask interested candidates to make contact by early November 2026 to leave time for the host-side process. Applicants must be no older than 35 in the worldwide programme’s published rules and must not have lived or studied in Austria immediately before the stay; confirm the exact conditions in the grants.at call text.

Ernst Mach Grant — ASEA-UNINET (for Southeast Asia)

Within the ASEAN-European Academic University Network, this variant is the closest thing Austria offers to a fully funded doctorate for international students — and it is restricted to five countries of origin: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. It offers three routes: a Full PhD Grant of up to 36 months to complete an entire doctorate in Austria; a Postdoc Grant of four to nine months for researchers teaching at ASEA-UNINET member institutions; and a Music Practice Grant of nine months for instrumental, vocal, composition or conducting students. The monthly grant rate is EUR 1,300, and for the Full PhD route a mobility subsidy of EUR 300 raises the effective rate to EUR 1,600 per month. The 2027/28 call opens in mid-September 2026 and closes on 1 March 2027, with applications submitted through grants.at. Be clear-eyed about coverage: even at EUR 1,600 per month, the OeAD frames these grants as substantial funding toward your costs, and you should budget for accommodation and insurance within it. Indonesian applicants — a core StudyGraduate audience — should treat this as a first-choice route and begin supervisor contact a full year ahead.

Ernst Mach Grant for Universities of Applied Sciences

This variant serves students rather than researchers: undergraduates and master’s students from non-European countries who have completed at least four semesters can spend four to ten months studying at an Austrian University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule). The published grant rate in recent calls is EUR 1,300 per month, with a typical application deadline of 1 March for the following academic year. It suits students whose home university has Austrian FH partners or whose field — applied engineering, tourism, health sciences, business informatics — is taught strongly in the FH sector. As with every Ernst Mach line, verify the rate, eligible countries and deadline in the current grants.at call before you plan around it.

Follow-up and other OeAD grants

The Ernst Mach Follow-up Grant (EZA) funds one-to-three-month research stays for former OeAD scholarship holders who are now researching or teaching in non-European developing countries, with a 1 February closing date. The OeAD A-to-Z list also includes network and bilateral programmes (CEEPUS for Central and South-Eastern Europe, Eurasia-Pacific Uninet, cooperation development research under APPEAR, and scholarships of the Scholarship Foundation of the Republic of Austria for defined fields and target groups, among others). Each has narrow eligibility by design. Search grants.at with your exact nationality and level; ten minutes there will tell you more than a week of reading general blogs.

Tuition Fees: The Scholarship Austria Gives Everyone

Because tuition is so low, it functions as a universal partial scholarship. The structure, confirmed on official university and Study in Austria tuition pages, is: EU/EEA/Swiss degree students pay no tuition within the minimum study duration plus two tolerance semesters — only the ÖH fee (EUR 26.20 per semester in 2026/2027). Students from third countries pay EUR 726.72 per semester plus the ÖH fee from the first semester at public universities. If an EU student exceeds the tolerance period, a fee of EUR 363.36 per semester applies. Exemptions and refunds exist in special cases — for certain scholarship holders, exchange students, and students from specified countries under development-cooperation rules — and each university publishes its own waiver procedure; the University of Innsbruck’s tuition fee and financial support page and TU Graz’s fee pages set out the mechanics clearly. Universities of Applied Sciences and private universities set their own fees, which can be substantially higher, so price your specific programme rather than assuming the public rate. The remaining financial gate is the residence permit: non-EU students must prove monthly funds of EUR 1,308.39 if aged 24 or over (EUR 722.58 if under 24) at the rates used in recent OeAD guidance, plus rent above a threshold and insurance costs — a scholarship letter from the OeAD counts toward this proof, which is one more reason the Ernst Mach grants matter beyond their cash value.

University Scholarships: Leistungsstipendium and Förderungsstipendium

Once enrolled, international students can compete for Austria’s statutory university scholarships. The Leistungsstipendium (performance scholarship) rewards outstanding academic achievement in the previous academic year — typically a grade average of 2.0 or better across the counted examinations — and pays a one-off EUR 750 to EUR 1,500. It is awarded by your own university, is independent of income (there is no means test), and is open to enrolled students including internationals with Austrian grades to show. The Förderungsstipendium (promotion scholarship) pays EUR 750 to EUR 3,600 toward the material costs of a thesis, dissertation or comparable project — travel, materials, conference costs — again applied for at your university. Neither award funds a degree on its own, but together with the near-zero tuition they form the realistic Austrian funding stack for a self-funded master’s student: pay roughly EUR 1,500 a year in fees, fund living costs from savings, family support and permitted student work, and compete for these awards as you progress. Individual universities and cities add their own prizes and emergency funds from time to time; ask your university’s scholarship office what exists for your faculty. If you want to model the full cost before applying, the StudyGraduate tools section includes calculators to plan a monthly Vienna or Graz budget.

Doctoral Funding: Employment, Not Just Scholarships

For doctoral candidates, Austria’s main funding mechanism is employment. PhD positions are advertised as jobs — project staff on grants from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and other funders, or university assistant positions — and are paid under the collective agreement for university staff with full social insurance, pension contributions and paid leave. Salaries are set by the collective agreement’s pay grades and step progression; universities state the exact gross salary in each vacancy notice, and you should rely on the notice rather than any general figure. Alongside employment, institute-based programmes such as ISTA’s PhD recruit cohorts directly onto funded positions with no tuition and no application fee. The practical implication: if you want a funded Austrian PhD, you apply for advertised positions and programmes continuously through the year, not once in a scholarship season, and your application is judged as a research hire — publications, technical skills and supervisor fit dominate. Browse openings on university job portals and the FWF ecosystem, and compare Austrian doctoral offers with those in our guide to PhD scholarships in Germany, where the employment model is similar.

Eligibility: Who Can Apply for What

Austrian eligibility turns on four variables. Level: the Ernst Mach worldwide grant requires postgraduate or postdoc status — bachelor’s and master’s students are not its target group; the FH variant serves enrolled undergraduates (after at least four semesters) and master’s students; ASEA-UNINET’s full PhD route requires a completed degree qualifying you for doctoral study. Nationality and residence: Austrian citizens are excluded from the incoming Ernst Mach lines; ASEA-UNINET is limited to its five countries; the Follow-up Grant requires former-scholar status and a developing-country academic post. Age: a maximum age of 35 applies in the Ernst Mach programmes’ published rules (with higher limits for some postdoc lines — check the call). Language: you need very good English and/or German for research stays, and for degree study the language of the programme rules everything — German at C1 level for most German-taught degrees (universities may admit at a lower level with conditions), and IELTS or TOEFL evidence for English-taught master’s and doctoral programmes as each university specifies. Add the residence-permit means test described above, and you have the complete gate. Work through it honestly in that order before writing a single application paragraph.

Benefits and Real Costs Compared

The OeAD’s own worked examples make the budgeting point plainly: even with a monthly scholarship, scholars can need additional funds in their bank account to satisfy the residence-permit calculation once rent and insurance are counted. Treat the Ernst Mach grant as very strong support — in Vienna it covers a careful student’s core monthly costs — but arrive with a savings buffer, not with empty accounts.

Programmes and Fields of Study

The Ernst Mach programmes are field-open: natural sciences, technical sciences, medicine and health sciences, agricultural sciences, social sciences, humanities and the arts all appear in the grant definitions, and the worldwide line is used by researchers from tax law to robotics. What decides success is not the field but the host: a named Austrian supervisor, a concrete research plan for the months requested, and a fit with the host group’s agenda. For degree study, Austria’s strengths include mathematics, physics and astronomy (Vienna, Innsbruck), computer science and engineering (TU Wien, TU Graz), life sciences and medicine (Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck, and ISTA for doctoral research), economics and social sciences (Vienna, WU), and world-leading music and arts universities for performance study — the route the ASEA-UNINET Music Practice Grant exists to serve. Use the StudyGraduate universities directory and the rankings pages to shortlist institutions, then go to each university’s own programme pages for language and admission rules.

How to Apply, Step by Step

1. Find your exact grant in grants.at. Filter by country of origin and target group, open the call, and record the rate, duration, age limit, deadline and document list. This call text is your contract with reality.
2. Secure an Austrian supervisor (research grants). Identify professors whose current projects match yours, and write a short, specific approach: your topic, what you would do in their group in the stated months, and what you bring. Hosts often need internal lead time — WU Vienna, for example, asks candidates for the worldwide grant to make contact by 1 November 2026 for the 1 December 2026 OeAD deadline.
3. Prepare the research plan. Write a focused proposal for the stay: question, method, month-by-month work plan, and expected outputs. Vague plans are the most common reason credible candidates are rejected.
4. Assemble documents. Expect to upload your CV, degree certificates and transcripts, the supervisor’s consent or acceptance letter, recommendation letters, passport copy and, where required, language evidence — in the formats grants.at specifies.
5. Submit online at grants.at before the deadline. Deadlines are firm: 1 December 2026 for Ernst Mach worldwide stays in 2027/28; 1 March 2027 for the ASEA-UNINET call; 1 February for the Follow-up Grant. Submit days early; the portal is not forgiving at midnight.
6. In parallel, handle degree admission if relevant. FH-variant students and doctoral applicants must satisfy the host institution’s admission or enrolment requirements separately from the grant application.
7. Prepare residence and finance evidence. Once selected, use your grant notification with your savings evidence to meet the residence-permit means test, arrange accepted health insurance, and book OeAD or private housing early — Vienna dormitories fill fast.
8. After arrival, compete for university awards. Register with your faculty’s scholarship office, note the Leistungsstipendium criteria, and perform accordingly in your first year.

Required Documents

A typical Ernst Mach file contains: the completed grants.at application; a CV with publications where relevant; degree certificates and transcripts; a research or study plan; the written consent of the Austrian academic supervisor or host institution; two recommendation letters; a copy of your passport; proof of language competence where the call requires it; and evidence of your current enrolment (for PhD students applying to the worldwide grant) or employment (for postdocs). Degree applicants to Austrian universities additionally provide school-leaving or degree documents with any required legalisation and certified translations, plus language certificates at the level the programme demands — German C1 for most German-taught degrees, or the specified IELTS/TOEFL scores for English-taught programmes. Keep certified copies ready for the residence authority as well; Austrian administration rewards complete files and processes them noticeably faster.

Deadlines and Timeline

Deadlines in this table are those published for the 2027/28 calls at the time of writing. OeAD calls are republished each cycle and dates have moved before — the worldwide deadline, for instance, is earlier than in older cycles — so always re-verify your date inside grants.at.

Selection Criteria and How to Improve Your Chances

Ernst Mach selection is an expert review of a research proposition, not a grades lottery. Reviewers weigh the quality and feasibility of your plan for the exact months requested, the strength of the host match, your track record relative to your career stage, and the benefit of the stay to your home institution and field. Improve your odds by doing the unglamorous things superbly: choose one host whose current — not historical — projects need your skills; propose work that can genuinely finish in the funded months and produce a defined output such as a paper, dataset or method; show, with evidence, that the work cannot be done as well at home; obtain recommendation letters that discuss the specific project; and respect every formal rule in the call, from age limits to the requirement not to have been resident in Austria in the qualifying period. For university merit scholarships later, the criterion is transparent — grades — so your first two semesters in Austria are themselves a funding strategy.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

The costliest mistake is applying to the Ernst Mach worldwide grant to fund a full master’s degree: it funds one-to-nine-month research stays for postgraduates and postdocs and explicitly cannot finance a complete programme. Second, ASEA-UNINET hopefuls from outside the five listed countries waste a cycle on a grant they cannot hold. Third, candidates contact supervisors in late November for a 1 December deadline, leaving hosts no time to consent — contact belongs in early autumn. Fourth, applicants budget as if EUR 1,300 a month plus no savings will satisfy the residence authority; the OeAD’s own examples show top-up funds are commonly required. Fifth, bachelor’s applicants overlook language: most public-university bachelor’s degrees are German-taught at C1 level, and no scholarship fixes that. Sixth, students assume private universities charge the public EUR 726.72 rate — they set their own fees. Seventh, applicants trust aggregator sites over grants.at and miss that a deadline has moved, as the worldwide grant’s did. Every one of these errors is avoidable with the checks in this guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a fully funded Austrian government scholarship for a full degree?

For most international students, no single such programme exists. The exception in this guide is the Ernst Mach Grant – ASEA-UNINET Full PhD route (up to 36 months at EUR 1,600 per month effective rate), open only to applicants from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Otherwise Austria combines very low public tuition with mobility grants, university merit awards and paid doctoral employment rather than full-degree scholarships.

How much is the Ernst Mach Grant in 2026/2027?

The current published rate for the Ernst Mach lines covered here is EUR 1,300 per month, with the ASEA-UNINET Full PhD route receiving an additional EUR 300 mobility subsidy for an effective EUR 1,600 per month. Rates are set per call — confirm the figure in the grants.at call text for your cycle before budgeting.

What are tuition fees in Austria for non-EU students?

At public universities, EUR 726.72 per semester plus the ÖH student union fee (EUR 26.20 per semester in 2026/2027) — about EUR 1,506 per year in total. EU/EEA/Swiss students within the standard duration plus two tolerance semesters pay only the ÖH fee. Universities of Applied Sciences and private universities set their own, often higher, fees.

Can I apply for the Ernst Mach Grant as a master’s student?

Not for the worldwide grant, which targets PhD students, postgraduates and postdocs for research stays. Master’s students should look at the Ernst Mach Grant for Universities of Applied Sciences (a four-to-ten-month study stay, if you meet its conditions) and at Erasmus Mundus or home-university exchange funding. After enrolment in Austria, you can compete for university merit scholarships.

Do I need German to study in Austria?

For most bachelor’s degrees at public universities, yes — German at C1 level is the norm, though universities publish their own admission staging. Many master’s and doctoral programmes are taught in English and ask for IELTS or TOEFL instead. Research stays under Ernst Mach require very good English and/or German. Always check the language of your exact programme.

How much money must I show for the Austrian student residence permit?

At the rates used in recent OeAD guidance, students aged 24 and over must prove EUR 1,308.39 per month and students under 24 EUR 722.58 per month, with additional amounts where rent exceeds the included threshold, plus insurance costs. A scholarship award counts toward this proof, but the OeAD’s worked examples show scholars may still need savings on top of the grant.

When is the Ernst Mach deadline for 2027/28?

The worldwide grant closes on 1 December 2026 — earlier than in older cycles. The ASEA-UNINET call closes on 1 March 2027, and the Follow-up Grant on 1 February 2027. Confirm your programme’s date in grants.at, because OeAD republishes calls each year and dates move.

Can international students get the Leistungsstipendium?

Yes. The performance scholarship (EUR 750–1,500, one-off) is awarded by your Austrian university for excellent grades in the previous academic year, is not means-tested, and enrolled international students with Austrian examination results can apply through their university. Its companion, the Förderungsstipendium (EUR 750–3,600), supports thesis and project costs.

Sources and Verification

Sources used: the OeAD’s official programmes A-to-Z page and scholarship FAQs (oead.at); grants.at call information as summarised by host institutions including WU Vienna; the official Study in Austria tuition pages (studyinaustria.at); and tuition and financial support pages of the University of Innsbruck and TU Graz. Amounts and deadlines are those published for the 2026/2027 and 2027/28 calls described.

Disclaimer: Scholarship details, grant rates and deadlines change with each call. Always confirm deadlines and amounts on the official website — grants.at for OeAD programmes — before applying. StudyGraduate is an information portal, not an agency or a university: we do not promise or guarantee selection, admission, funding or a residence permit. For wider planning, explore our study abroad guidance and guides.