Scholarships in Belgium for International Students 2026/2027

Belgium is one of Europe’s most underrated study destinations — and one of its most generous if you know where to look. Sitting at the heart of the European Union, with Brussels hosting the EU institutions and NATO, this small, multilingual country is home to research universities that consistently perform well in global league tables, tuition fees that are far lower than in the United Kingdom or the United States, and three distinct scholarship systems that between them cover almost every kind of international student. If you are planning your applications for the 2026/2027 intake, this guide explains scholarships in Belgium for international students in full: who funds what, who is actually eligible, how much money is really on the table, when each call opens and closes, and the mistakes that quietly end otherwise strong applications.

The first thing to understand is that Belgium does not have one scholarship system. It has three, and they do not talk to each other. Belgium is a federal country with language communities, and higher education funding follows that structure. The Flemish (Dutch-speaking) community in the north runs two programmes you need to know: the Master Mind Scholarship, a merit award from the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training that is open to outstanding master’s students of almost any nationality, and the VLIR-UOS ICP Connect scholarships, fully funded development-cooperation awards for students from a specific list of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America who want to follow selected English-taught programmes at Flemish universities. The French-speaking Wallonia-Brussels Federation runs the third system: the ARES scholarships, which fund specialised bachelor’s and master’s degrees and short continuing-training courses for professionals from its own list of partner countries, mostly taught in French. You cannot apply to one system and be considered for another. Each has its own eligibility list, its own application platform, its own calendar and its own idea of the ideal candidate. Much of this article is about helping you work out which door — if any — is the right one for you, before you spend weeks preparing the wrong application.

Alongside those three flagship routes, Belgian universities themselves offer institutional funding: doctoral scholarships and research assistant positions at universities such as KU Leuven, Ghent University, the University of Antwerp, UCLouvain and the Université libre de Bruxelles, faculty-level tuition reductions, and Erasmus Mundus joint programmes that happen to include a Belgian partner. Doctoral funding in particular is a major route in Belgium, because many PhD candidates are employed as researchers rather than enrolled as fee-paying students. This guide focuses on the routes an international student applying from home can realistically plan around for 2026/2027, and it is honest about the limits: Belgium’s development scholarships are country-list based, so a brilliant applicant from a non-listed country cannot use them, while the Master Mind award is genuinely global but small and fiercely competitive.

Before you go further, browse the full scholarships directory to see how Belgium compares with neighbouring destinations, and keep our study abroad hub open for the wider planning steps — visas, budgets and timelines — that sit around any scholarship application.

Scholarships in Belgium at a Glance

The table below summarises the three main scholarship systems for 2026/2027, using the most recent official figures available at the time of writing. Amounts are stated per programme because each system structures its money differently: Master Mind pays a single annual grant, VLIR-UOS pays a monthly all-in allowance, and ARES pays a subsistence allowance plus specific cost items. Always confirm the figures for your exact cycle on the official site before you rely on them, because each programme reviews its amounts between calls.

Two patterns in that table matter for your planning. First, timing: Belgian scholarship calendars run much earlier than many students expect. If you want to start in September 2027, the decisive deadlines for VLIR-UOS and Master Mind fall between November 2026 and April 2027, and the ARES call for that intake has, in the most recent cycle, already opened and closed in August–September 2026. Second, language: Flanders is where the English-taught options concentrate, while ARES programmes in Wallonia-Brussels are mostly taught in French, which shapes which system is realistic for you long before funding enters the picture.

Why Study in Belgium?

Belgium’s universities punch above the country’s size. KU Leuven, founded in 1425, is one of Europe’s oldest and most research-intensive universities, and Ghent University, the University of Antwerp, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, UCLouvain and the University of Liège all run substantial English-taught master’s portfolios. You can compare how institutions like these perform in the global university rankings before you commit to a shortlist. For students, the practical attractions are just as important: Belgium sits on high-speed rail lines to Paris, Amsterdam, London and Cologne, so internships, conferences and research visits across Western Europe are genuinely easy; Brussels is a global capital of policy, development and international organisations, which makes it a natural place to study European studies, international relations, development, law and public health; and everyday costs, while not cheap, are generally below London, Paris or Amsterdam, especially in student cities such as Leuven, Ghent and Liège where large student populations keep housing and food markets competitive.

Belgium is also a country where the language question deserves respect rather than fear. You do not need Dutch to study at a Flemish university on an English-taught programme, and you will get by in English in university cities — but daily life, part-time work and internships open up considerably if you learn some Dutch in Flanders or French in Wallonia. ARES applicants in particular should note that most of its catalogue is French-taught, and ARES expects a good command of the language of instruction, with basic French also helping integration. Treat language as part of the scholarship strategy, not an afterthought.

Eligibility: Who Can Apply for What?

Because the three systems are separate, eligibility has to be checked programme by programme. The summaries below reflect the published rules for the most recent calls; the country lists and age limits are exactly the kind of detail that changes between cycles, so use them to plan and then verify against the live call.

Master Mind Scholarship — eligibility

Master Mind is the most open of the three. In principle it is available to new international students of all nationalities who are applying for a master’s programme at a participating Flemish higher education institution — although individual institutions publish their own exclusions (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, for example, states that Russian nationals cannot apply to its Master Mind selection), and the Flemish call reserves a small number of scholarships for priority countries: Japan (3), Mexico (3), Palestine (2) and the USA (5) in the current call, with unfilled reserved places redistributed by ranking. The academic bar is high: host institutions typically require a GPA equivalent of at least 3.5 out of 4.0, and strong English proficiency — VUB, for instance, asks for TOEFL iBT 94, IELTS Academic 7.0 or Cambridge C1 at 185 or above for Master Mind candidates, which is higher than its normal programme entry requirement. You must not already hold a degree from, or be enrolled at, a Flemish institution, you must be academically admitted (or preselected) by the host institution, and crucially you cannot apply for Master Mind directly. The institution preselects and nominates you. You also cannot combine Master Mind with another Flemish government scholarship, an Erasmus+ or Erasmus Mundus scholarship, a BAEF scholarship or a Fulbright scholarship.

VLIR-UOS ICP Connect — eligibility

VLIR-UOS is a development-cooperation programme, and its eligibility is deliberately narrow. You must be a national of one of the VLIR-UOS scholarship countries and resident in one of them when you apply. The 2026–2027 list covered 29 countries: in Africa — Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe; in Asia — Cambodia, Indonesia, the Palestinian Territories, the Philippines and Vietnam; and in Latin America — Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Peru. Note who is not on that list: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal, for example, are not VLIR-UOS scholarship countries, so students from those countries should focus on Master Mind, ARES (if listed there) or university funding instead. Age limits apply on 1 January of the intake year — no more than 35 for an initial master and 45 for an advanced master in recent calls. You may submit only one ICP Connect application per year, you must meet the admission requirements of the specific eligible programme, and preference goes to candidates employed in higher education, government or civil society, or who can convincingly show how they will use the degree for development in their home country. VLIR-UOS has announced that its next programme phase (2027–2031) will work with a shorter country list of 25 countries and fewer scholarships per programme, so checking the current list matters more than ever.

ARES — eligibility

ARES targets professionals, not fresh graduates. For the current call, applicants must be permanent residents of — and working in — one of the 32 ARES partner countries (Palestinian nationals are an exception to the residence rule). The list overlaps with, but is not identical to, the VLIR-UOS list: ARES includes Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Tunisia and Nepal, for example, which VLIR-UOS does not. Applicants need a degree comparable to the Belgian cycle required for their chosen programme (a first-cycle 180 ECTS equivalent for a specialised bachelor’s; a second-cycle 300 ECTS equivalent for a specialised master’s or training), they must have completed that degree within the time limit stated in the call (recent calls use a maximum of 20 years before the programme start, extended for childbirth or adoption), and they must show at least two years of relevant professional experience in a partner country after their most recent degree. You may apply for only one ARES programme per call, the application is made in the language of the programme, and applying is free — ARES explicitly warns that anyone charging you a fee in its name is not acting for ARES.

Benefits and Coverage: What Each Scholarship Really Pays

Scholarship marketing loves the phrase “fully funded”, but the three Belgian systems fund you in very different ways, and budgeting honestly starts with understanding the mechanics.

Master Mind pays a grant of up to €10,225 per academic year for 2026–2027 (the maximum was €10,000 in 2025–2026), paid in instalments across the year, and reduces your tuition to the rate paid by a Flemish student with a study grant — €136.50 for 2026–2027 instead of the standard non-EU tuition fee. For a 120 ECTS (two-year) master’s, the second year is conditional: in the current call you need at least 54 ECTS in the first year to keep the scholarship and receive the final instalment, and if you finish a one-year programme without obtaining the degree, the final instalment ( €1,525 in the current schedule) is not paid. What Master Mind does not do is pay your airfare, arrange your housing or include health insurance on top — the grant is the money you live on, covering accommodation, insurance and a significant share of living costs, as Study in Flanders puts it. At roughly €850 per month across a twelve-month view, it is generous but tight in pricier neighbourhoods, so most holders still budget some savings or family support. Ghent University estimated around 30 Master Mind awards across all Flemish institutions for 2025–2026, with about six at Ghent itself — a useful reminder of the scale: this is a small, prestigious award, not a mass scheme.

VLIR-UOS ICP Connect is the closest of the three to a classic fully funded package, but with a modern all-in structure. The current scholarship framework pays a single monthly allowance of €1,400 for the full standard duration of the programme — 12, 24 or 36 months — and that allowance is designed to cover living costs, board and lodging, health insurance, installation costs and the tuition fee. Depending on the institution, tuition, insurance or accommodation may be paid directly by the university and deducted, so the amount reaching your bank account can be lower than €1,400; ask your programme exactly how it administers the allowance before you sign a lease. On top of the allowance you receive one economy return flight between your country of residence and Belgium (students on three-year professional bachelor’s programmes receive an additional round trip), and VLIR-UOS reimburses certain application-side costs such as document legalisation and visa fees under its framework rules. There are no partial scholarships and no extensions: the award lasts exactly as long as the programme’s standard duration.

ARES pays cost items rather than one all-in grant for degree programmes: international travel, a subsistence (living) allowance for the study period, tuition and registration fees for specialised bachelor’s and master’s programmes, visa-related costs for those degree programmes, and insurance; continuing-training awards add indirect mission expenses and use their own daily or monthly allowance scales for short stays. Because ARES publishes its financial conditions inside each call’s applicant guide, treat any single monthly figure quoted on third-party sites with caution and work from the guide for your programme type and cycle.

Whichever route you take, use the planning tools in our student tools section — especially a budget planner and cost-of-living comparison — to test whether the grant actually covers a realistic month in Leuven, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels or Liège once rent, deposits, insurance and winter costs are included.

Programmes and Fields of Study

Your programme choice is not free-standing: for VLIR-UOS and ARES, only programmes on the official eligible list can carry a scholarship at all.

For VLIR-UOS ICP Connect, the 2026–2027 call covered 20 English-taught programmes at five Flemish universities and two university colleges — thirteen two-year initial masters, five one-year advanced masters and, newly, two three-year professional bachelor’s degrees (Hotel Management and Applied Computer Science). Long-standing ICP fields include water resources engineering, food technology, aquaculture, epidemiology, statistics and data science, marine and lacustrine science and management, rural development, agro- and environmental nematology, sustainable development, transportation sciences with a road-safety focus, nutrition and food systems, and on the advanced side, development evaluation and management, governance and development, globalisation and development, human settlements, and cultural anthropology and development studies, hosted at institutions including KU Leuven, Ghent University, the University of Antwerp, Hasselt University and VUB. The list is republished for each cycle — programmes join and leave — so never build a plan around a programme you saw in an old article, including this one, without checking the current VLIR-UOS list.

For ARES, eligible programmes sit at French-speaking institutions in Wallonia and Brussels — universities such as UCLouvain, ULB, the University of Liège, UMons and the University of Namur — and cluster around development priorities: public health, microfinance, environmental science and management, food science and technology, aquaculture and animal production, transport and logistics, human rights, development economics and related fields, plus short continuing-training courses for professionals. For Master Mind, by contrast, almost any regular master’s programme at a participating Flemish institution can be eligible (preparatory, bridging and distance programmes are excluded), which is why Master Mind suits students in fields — engineering, computer science, business, law, sciences, arts — that the development lists do not cover.

If Belgium is one option among several in Europe, compare it directly with our guides to scholarships in Russia and scholarships in the Czech Republic, which take a very different approach to funding — government quotas and country lists rather than community-level programmes.

How to Apply, Step by Step

Master Mind route

1. Choose a participating Flemish institution and master’s programme, and check that institution’s own Master Mind page for its internal deadline and any nationality exclusions.
2. Apply for academic admission well before the institution’s deadline — for many universities this falls between January and 1 April for a September start (Ghent University, for example, required the admission application by 1 April for Master Mind consideration).
3. Be preselected. Programme coordinators and the institution’s international office screen admitted students and nominate a shortlist; you cannot nominate yourself.
4. Complete the Mobility-Online application if you are preselected: passport photo, passport or ID, CV including your GPA, transcripts (with certified translation if not in Dutch, French, German or English), English test results or an exemption letter, a motivation letter in English, two reference letters in English, and diploma copies.
5. The institution validates and submits your file to the Flemish selection process before the final deadline in late April; the Flemish selection committee makes the final decision.

VLIR-UOS route

1. Check the country list first. If your nationality and residence are not on the current VLIR-UOS list, stop — no programme application can change that.
2. Pick one eligible programme from the current ICP Connect list and read its own admission page; deadlines differ by programme (in the 2026–2027 cycle most fell on 1 February, some in late January or late February, and one as early as the end of November).
3. Apply through the university’s portal and indicate that you are applying for the ICP Connect scholarship in the same application — there is no separate VLIR-UOS form.
4. Write the development case. Selection weighs motivation, professional background and the likelihood that you will transfer the knowledge back home; generic motivation letters fail here.
5. Wait for the programme’s decision. Programmes announce selected and reserve-list candidates, with VLIR-UOS notifying outcomes by around mid-May in recent cycles.

ARES route

1. Confirm partner-country status, residence, work history and degree timing against the current call — including the two-year professional experience rule.
2. Choose exactly one programme from the ARES catalogue for that call.
3. Create an account on the GIRAF platform and complete the application under the international training call; paper and email applications are not accepted.
4. Submit before the call deadline — the most recent call for 2027–2028 entry opened on 3 August 2026 and closed at noon Belgian time on 18 September 2026, with results communicated by around June of the following year. Confirm the dates for your cycle on the official ARES site.

Required Documents

Across the three systems you will need the same core file, prepared earlier than you think because certified translations and legalisation take weeks in many countries: a valid passport or national ID; degree certificates and full transcripts, with certified translations if they are not in the language accepted by the programme; a CV that states your GPA clearly; proof of English (or French, for ARES) proficiency at the level the scholarship — not just the programme — requires; a motivation letter written for the specific programme and funding logic; and two reference letters. ARES additionally requires evidence of your professional experience and employment in a partner country, and VLIR-UOS programmes may ask for employer statements or proof of residence. Keep scanned copies at the quality and file size each portal specifies, and never submit a document you cannot later produce as an original or legalised copy at enrolment or visa stage.

Deadlines and Timeline

Read this table as pattern, not promise: each programme publishes its own calendar per cycle, and the ARES and VLIR-UOS windows in particular have shifted between years. Build your own deadline tracker twelve months before you want to start, and work backwards to translation, legalisation and language-test dates.

Selection Criteria and How to Improve Your Chances

All three systems reward the same underlying thing — a coherent story — but they define it differently. Master Mind is an academic merit contest filtered by institutions: a GPA at or above the 3.5/4.0 benchmark, English scores comfortably above the programme minimum, and a file strong enough that a programme coordinator will spend one of a limited number of nominations on you. The practical lever is your admission application itself: apply early, to a programme that genuinely fits your record, and make your excellence legible — ranked transcripts, awards, research output and references that say specific things. VLIR-UOS selects for development impact: selectors look for motivation that connects the programme’s content to a concrete problem at home, professional experience in government, higher education or civil society, and a credible plan to transfer knowledge after graduation; regional balance and gender balance are also applied in selection. ARES similarly weighs the quality of your academic and professional record and the development relevance of the training for your work in a partner country. In all three, a focused one-page argument — this programme, this problem, this plan — beats a long list of unrelated achievements.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Applying to the wrong system. A Bangladeshi applicant preparing a VLIR-UOS application, or a fresh graduate preparing ARES without the required two years of professional experience, wastes a full cycle. Check country lists and experience rules first.
• Trying to apply for Master Mind directly. There is no direct application; if you miss the host institution’s admission deadline, you are out before selection begins.
• Using last year’s programme list or deadline. ICP and ARES catalogues are republished each cycle, and deadlines move.
• Under-budgeting Master Mind. The €10,225 grant is your living budget, not a bonus on top of free housing and insurance; plan rent and insurance from it.
• Combining forbidden funding. Master Mind cannot be combined with Erasmus Mundus, Erasmus+, another Flemish government scholarship, BAEF or Fulbright support.
• Paying an agent who claims an ARES or VLIR-UOS fee. Applications are free; ARES explicitly warns against anyone charging in its name.
• One application, two programmes. Both VLIR-UOS and ARES allow only one programme application per call — choose deliberately.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can students from Bangladesh, India or Pakistan apply for scholarships in Belgium?

Yes — through Master Mind, which is open to almost all nationalities via institutional nomination, and through university and doctoral funding. They are not on the VLIR-UOS scholarship country list, and for ARES only Nepal among South Asian countries appears on the recent partner list, so applicants from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan should not build a plan around those two systems.

How much is the Master Mind Scholarship worth in 2026/2027?

A maximum grant of €10,225 per academic year, plus tuition reduced to €136.50 for 2026–2027 (the rate paid by a Flemish student receiving a study grant). The 2025–2026 figures were €10,000 and €136.50–€139.40 depending on the institution’s published rate. Amounts are reviewed between calls, so confirm on the official Study in Flanders / VLUHR call.

Is VLIR-UOS really fully funded?

It is the most complete package of the three: a €1,400 monthly all-in allowance for the full programme duration (12, 24 or 36 months) covering tuition, living costs, insurance and installation, plus an economy return flight. Note that the institution may deduct tuition, insurance or housing from the allowance, so your net monthly payment can be lower — ask your programme how it pays.

Do I need to speak Dutch or French to study in Belgium on a scholarship?

For VLIR-UOS and most Master Mind programmes, no — they are English-taught, though English score requirements can be high. For ARES, most programmes are taught in French and you must show good command of the language of instruction; basic French also helps daily life in Wallonia-Brussels.

Can I apply for Master Mind and VLIR-UOS at the same time?

You can pursue admission at institutions for both routes, but you cannot hold Master Mind together with several other funding sources, and each system has its own one-application and combination rules. In practice your eligibility will usually point you to one system: VLIR-UOS is country-list based, Master Mind is open and merit based.

When should I start preparing for the 2027 intake?

At least a year ahead. ARES’s most recent call closed in September 2026 for 2027 entry, VLIR-UOS deadlines cluster around 1 February 2027, and Master Mind requires admission applications by roughly January–April 2027 depending on the institution. Language tests, translations and legalisations should be done in autumn 2026.

Are there scholarships in Belgium for bachelor’s students?

Options are limited. VLIR-UOS added two three-year professional bachelor’s programmes (Hotel Management and Applied Computer Science) to its eligible list for 2026–2027 for applicants from its scholarship countries, and ARES funds one-year specialised bachelor’s degrees for experienced professionals from partner countries. There is no large open Belgian government scholarship for a first bachelor’s degree.

Can PhD students get funding in Belgium?

Yes, but mainly through universities rather than the three systems above: doctoral scholarships and salaried research positions advertised by universities and faculties year-round. Treat a PhD search as a job search — follow vacancy pages of KU Leuven, Ghent, Antwerp, UCLouvain and ULB and apply with a research-focused CV.

Sources & Verification

This guide was compiled from official sources, checked in October 2026: the Master Mind call and modalities published by VLUHR (Vlaamse Universiteiten en Hogescholen Raad) for Study in Flanders, including the €10,225 maximum grant and €136.50 reduced tuition rate for 2026–2027 (VLUHR Master Mind Scholarships); Ghent University’s Master Mind page, including its estimate of around 30 awards across Flanders and its 1 April admission deadline (Ghent University — Master Mind overview); Vrije Universiteit Brussel’s Master Mind page, including the €10,020 figure it published for 2025–2026 and its higher English-language thresholds (VUB — Master Mind Scholarship programme); the VLIR-UOS scholarship framework and ICP Connect programme information published by VLIR-UOS; and the ARES international training scholarship call and applicant guidance published by ARES. Where official bodies publish slightly different figures for different cycles, this article states the cycle each figure belongs to.

Disclaimer: Scholarship amounts, country lists, programme lists and deadlines change every cycle. Always confirm the details for your intake on the official programme website before applying or making financial decisions. StudyGraduate is an information portal, not an agency or a university, and nothing in this article is a promise of selection, admission or visa approval.