Scholarships in Greece for International Students 2026/2027

Greece offers international students something no marketing slogan can improve on: at its public universities, a bachelor’s degree taught in Greek is tuition-free — for Greek students, EU students, and non-EU students alike. Around that remarkable fact sits a scholarship landscape that is real but limited, and this guide will describe it exactly as it is. If you are searching for scholarships in Greece for international students in 2026/2027 from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria, Indonesia, or anywhere else outside the European Union, you deserve the honest version before you spend money on translations, apostilles, and applications: Greece has one significant national scholarship scheme for foreign students, run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and tied to Greek-taught study; a national scholarships foundation, IKY, whose best-known offer for foreigners is a Greek language and culture course rather than a general degree scholarship; university-level fee waivers and small awards that help at the margins; and the European programmes — Erasmus+, Erasmus Mundus, and EU research funding — that for many students are the most realistic funded routes of all. What Greece does not have is a large, open, fully funded government scholarship for English-taught degrees. Any website that lists ten of them is inventing most of the list.

Why, then, do students keep choosing Greece? Because the underlying offer is strong even without a big scholarship. Public universities such as the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the National Technical University of Athens, the University of Patras, and the University of Crete charge nothing for Greek-taught undergraduate study and comparatively modest fees for many master’s programmes. The European Commission’s Study in Europe profile for Greece puts typical student living costs at €700 to €1,200 per month — lower in cities such as Patras, Ioannina, Heraklion, and Volos than in Athens — and Greek degrees follow the Bologna system, so they are recognised across Europe. Add more than 200 English-taught programmes listed by the official Study in Greece initiative for students who prefer English, and Greece becomes a destination where the smart funding strategy is often: use the free or low-fee structure itself as your “scholarship”, add the national or European award you genuinely qualify for, and budget the rest honestly. This guide walks through every real route, with eligibility, benefits, documents, timelines, and the traps — including the famous scholarship name that is not, in fact, open to most international applicants. Start your planning in the StudyGraduate scholarships directory, compare destinations in the study abroad section, browse institutions in the universities directory, and check the rankings section and StudyGraduate tools as you build your shortlist.

The Greek Funding Landscape, Without the Hype

Three structural facts explain almost everything about funding in Greece. First, the constitutionally rooted tradition of free public education means Greek-taught undergraduate programmes at public universities carry no tuition fees for any nationality; the exceptions are foreign-language (English-taught) programmes and the Hellenic Open University, which do charge fees. The money problem in Greece is therefore concentrated in two places: the fees of English-taught programmes, and living costs for everyone. Second, Greece’s national scholarship machinery is small and specialised. The State Scholarships Foundation (IKY), founded in 1951, is the national body for scholarships and is also Greece’s national agency for Erasmus+ — but its open calls for foreign degree students have been intermittent, and its standing offer most relevant to foreigners is support for courses in Modern Greek language and culture. Third, the one scheme designed specifically for foreign school-leavers and graduates — the Ministry of Foreign Affairs scholarship programme — is deliberately built around Greek language and culture: it funds a year of Greek to B2 level where needed, then a Greek-taught degree. Students willing to learn Greek unlock the strongest funding in the country. Students who are not must rely on low fees, university waivers, home-country funding, or European joint programmes. Neither path is wrong; confusing the two is what wastes application cycles.

Scholarships in Greece at a Glance

Notice what that table does not contain: a Greek equivalent of a big, central, fully funded scholarship for English-taught bachelor’s or master’s degrees. That absence is the most important fact in this article, and everything below follows from it. Your Greece plan should be built from the rows you actually qualify for — for most readers, that means the tuition-free Greek-taught route (with or without the MFA scholarship), a low-fee master’s with a possible fee exemption, or a European joint programme.

Eligibility in Detail

The tuition-free Greek-taught route. Admission of foreign students to Greek-taught undergraduate programmes runs through a central process administered by the Greek Ministry of Education for candidates who are not graduates of Greek or Cypriot schools. Places are allocated in defined categories, and enrolment requires certified Greek language proficiency — candidates admitted without the certificate have historically been allowed to enrol in the following academic year once they obtain it, and lose the place if they still do not have it. Documents must be translated into Greek and officially certified or apostilled. This route is demanding — a year of serious Greek study is a real commitment — but it is also the only route in Europe where a non-EU student can complete a full public bachelor’s degree paying no tuition at all, and it is the foundation on which the MFA scholarship is built.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs scholarships. In the 2026/2027 call, as summarised from the official call documentation, the MFA offered 50 scholarships to foreign citizens and expatriates permanently resident abroad for undergraduate and postgraduate study at Greek public universities, in Greek-taught, tuition-free programmes. The package included a monthly allowance (reported at the equivalent of about US$734 per month), free Greek language tuition, and free books, and it ran for a preparatory year of Greek to B2 level where needed and then for the standard duration of the degree, plus an allowance of extra years for undergraduates under the call’s terms. Applications were submitted to the Greek diplomatic mission in the applicant’s country within the call window, closing 27 July 2026, with up to three university choices; an annex to the call listed the eligible countries and the places allocated to each. Continuation depended on results — obtaining the Greek certificate within the year, then passing a rising share of each year’s courses (50%, then 60%, then 70% in the first three years, as reported for the last call). Postgraduate applicants needed to already hold a place on a Greek-taught, tuition-free master’s programme. Because the eligible-country list, the number of places, and the allowance are set fresh in each call, your first step for 2027/2028 is to ask the Greek embassy or consulate in your country whether your country is on that year’s list and when the call opens — do not assume last year’s annex includes you.

IKY. The State Scholarships Foundation (IKY) administers scholarships for Greek and foreign students under specific, separately announced programmes, manages bequest and endowment scholarships with narrow terms (many are tied to a particular region of origin, school, or field), and runs the Modern Greek language and culture course for foreign graduates — an eight-month course, usually October to May, at a Greek public university, for foreign nationals who hold a degree from a non-Greek university and do not live permanently in Greece. At the time of checking for this guide, IKY’s pages did not show an open general postgraduate scholarship competition for foreign degree students, and its language-course page did not state a stipend or deadline. The correct way to use IKY is to check its official site each cycle and apply only to calls that are actually open. IKY is also the Greek national agency for Erasmus+, which is where most of its day-to-day funding for mobility actually flows.

Onassis Foundation — read this before you plan around it. Scholarship listicles love the Onassis name, but the Foundation’s main annual programme is a programme for Hellenes: in recent calls it was open to Greek citizens, or to graduates of Greek universities who also hold a Greek high-school diploma and are legally resident in Greece, and it mainly funds postgraduate and doctoral study abroad (with a smaller Greece-based rate). Its separate fellowships for foreign scholars have not been announced every year — reporting on the 2026/2027 cycle noted no foreigners’ programme announced. Unless you meet the Greek-citizenship or Greek-education criteria, Onassis is not your route, and the same caution applies to other well-known Greek foundations (such as the A.G. Leventis Foundation), whose grants are typically tied to specific countries, fields, or partner universities. Check each foundation’s own current call; never budget around a foundation you have not confirmed you are eligible for.

English-taught programmes and university awards. Greece now lists more than 200 English-taught programmes through the official Study in Greece platform, including a small but growing set of English-taught bachelor’s degrees (several of them in medicine) and many master’s degrees. These programmes charge fees — the European Commission’s profile gives €5,000–€15,000 per year for non-EU bachelor’s programmes and €3,000–€7,000 per year for master’s programmes — and each university sets its own fee, waivers, and any merit or need-based awards. Some universities advertise programme-level scholarships or early-payment and merit reductions; these are real but modest, and they are always defined by the programme’s own page. A newer development to watch is the arrival of licensed branches of foreign universities in Greece from 2025/2026 onwards, which charge their own, substantially higher fees and run their own aid — a different market from the public system described here.

Benefits and Coverage: What You Actually Receive

On the tuition-free route, the benefit is the degree itself at zero tuition — worth, against the English-taught alternative, roughly €5,000 to €15,000 per year at bachelor’s level. Enrolled students who meet the criteria can also eat in university student restaurants (sisitio) free of charge, and everyone else pays very low subsidised prices; students receive significant public-transport discounts (for example the ATH.ENA card in Athens). What the route does not include is any living allowance: rent, food beyond the canteen, insurance, and travel are yours. On the MFA scholarship, the last call added a monthly allowance reported at about US$734 equivalent, free Greek tuition and books for the language year, on top of tuition-free study — a package that makes the Greek-taught route genuinely close to fully funded for a careful student outside Athens, provided the allowance figure in the new call is similar, which you must confirm. IKY’s language course funds the course place under the terms of its call; because the stipend was not stated on the page checked for this guide, treat any living support as unconfirmed until IKY publishes it. Master’s fee exemptions, where granted, remove the master’s fee entirely for the eligible student — a significant benefit on a €3,000–€7,000 programme — but they are decided after enrolment under income and merit conditions, so they can improve a budget, never underwrite an application. Erasmus Mundus remains the most complete package available in Greece: participation costs covered plus a monthly allowance across the joint programme’s countries. Erasmus+ mobility pays a grant towards an exchange period — for students coming to Greece from partner countries outside the EU programme area, the published 2026 Greek call table set the KA171 incoming rate at €850 per month, plus travel support under the programme’s distance bands — paid through your home institution under its own call.

Fees and Living Costs: Building the Real Budget

Two budget conclusions follow. A Greek-taught bachelor’s with the MFA scholarship is one of the lowest-cost quality degrees available anywhere in Europe; the same degree self-funded still costs only living expenses — roughly €8,400 to €14,400 per year on the Commission’s range, and less in a smaller city with canteen meals and a shared flat. An English-taught degree is a different financial product entirely: fees plus living costs can reach €20,000 or more per year in Athens, at which point Greece should be compared, line by line, with alternatives such as scholarships in Portugal for international students, where public international fees are often lower, and scholarships in Romania for international students, where a genuine fully funded government scholarship exists for non-EU students. Use the StudyGraduate tools to run those comparisons with your own rent and fee figures rather than trusting any article’s totals — including this one.

Programmes and Fields of Study

Greece’s 24 public universities cover the full academic range, with historic strengths that map neatly onto the country’s assets. Archaeology, classics, history, and philosophy are world-renowned at Athens, Thessaloniki, and Crete — fields where studying in Greece is itself an academic advantage. Medicine is the largest single draw for international students, taught in Greek on the free route and in English on fee-paying programmes at several universities; dentistry, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine follow similar patterns. Engineering and computer science centre on the National Technical University of Athens, the University of Patras, Aristotle University, and the Technical University of Crete. Maritime and shipping studies — Greece operates one of the world’s largest merchant fleets — are a distinctive strength at the University of Piraeus and the University of the Aegean. Tourism and hospitality management, Mediterranean agriculture and food science, marine sciences, renewable energy, and economics and business (Athens University of Economics and Business, University of Macedonia) complete the list of fields international applicants most often choose. Degrees follow the Bologna structure: bachelor’s degrees of 180–240 ECTS over three to four years, with engineering, dentistry, pharmacology, agronomy, and forestry running five years and medicine six; master’s degrees of one to two years; and doctorates of three or more years.

Field choice decides your funding more in Greece than almost anywhere else. Medicine in English is the most expensive route in the country and has no Greek scholarship attached to it; medicine in Greek is tuition-free but requires both the central admission route and high-level Greek. Maritime, archaeology, and Mediterranean studies attract the small programme-level awards and EU project funding that do exist. Doctoral study is typically funded, where it is funded, through research projects and EU actions such as Marie Skłodowska-Curie rather than through a national studentship scheme — if a PhD in Greece is your goal, your real application is to a supervisor and a funded project, not to a scholarship portal.

How to Apply, Step by Step

1. Choose your route first: Greek-taught or English-taught. This decision determines your fees, your funding options, and your document list. If you choose Greek-taught, commit to the language year honestly — B2-level Greek for academic study is achievable in a dedicated year, but it is the degree’s real entry requirement.
2. For the MFA scholarship, start at the Greek embassy or consulate in your country. Ask whether your country is on the current call’s eligible list, how many places it has, and what the submission deadline is (the 2026/2027 call closed on 27 July 2026). Prepare the file the mission specifies — the MFA route is a paper-and-mission route, not an online portal.
3. For undergraduate admission on the Greek-taught route, follow the Ministry of Education’s central process for foreign candidates: prepare your school-leaving certificate and transcripts, obtain the equivalence and eligibility documentation the process requires, translate everything into Greek with official certification or apostille, and submit within the ministry’s window. Arrange your Greek certificate of attainment in parallel — without it, enrolment waits a year.
4. For English-taught and master’s programmes, apply directly to the university programme through its own portal and calendar (many master’s calls run in spring, some with a second autumn round). Pay close attention to the programme’s own fee, waiver, and exemption information, and email the secretariat to confirm what applies to non-EU students.
5. Check IKY and the Study in Greece scholarships platform for open calls that match you — the language and culture course, bequest scholarships whose terms you happen to meet, and short-term or joint-programme funding. Apply only to calls that are open, with the documents each call lists.
6. Run the European track in parallel. Erasmus Mundus consortium applications typically open in October and close between December and January; Erasmus+ exchange applications go through your home university’s international office a semester or more ahead. Neither can be improvised at the last minute.
7. Prepare the visa file as soon as you have an admission or scholarship result. Non-EU students need a Type D student visa and then a residence permit: admission or scholarship letter, proof of financial means, health insurance, accommodation evidence, and officially translated and certified documents. The official Study in Greece initiative and the European Commission’s Greece profile both outline the current requirements — confirm the exact list with the consulate that will process you.

Required Documents

Greek applications are document-heavy, and the translation requirement is where most files fail. A complete Greek file typically includes: a valid passport; your school-leaving certificate or degree certificate and full transcripts, translated into Greek and officially certified, with apostille or consular validation as your country’s rules require; the certificate of equivalence of your diploma where the central process requires it; a certificate of attainment in Greek (for the Greek-taught route — plan the exam date backwards from enrolment); English language evidence for English-taught programmes (commonly IELTS or TOEFL at the level the programme sets); a curriculum vitae; a motivation letter or statement of purpose; two recommendation letters for postgraduate applications; a research proposal and evidence of a supervisor’s agreement for doctoral applications; proof of financial means, health insurance, and accommodation for the visa; and, for the MFA scholarship, the additional forms and declarations listed in the call, submitted through the diplomatic mission. Keep the originals, the Greek translations, and clean scans of everything in one dossier: Greek universities may ask for the physical documents after the electronic submission, and the consulate will ask for the same set again.

Deadlines and Timeline

For a 2027/2028 start, the working calendar looks like this: decide the route and start Greek (if applicable) in autumn 2026; submit Erasmus Mundus files by January 2027; apply to master’s programmes in spring 2027; complete translations and the central undergraduate file before summer; submit the MFA file by the mission’s July deadline if your country is listed; and hold August and September for the visa. Every date in that calendar moves except one: document preparation always takes longer than you expect.

Selection Criteria and How to Improve Your Chances

Because Greece has few scholarships, selection advice here is mostly about qualifying at all — and then about the grades and language evidence that every route shares. For the MFA scholarship, missions and the ministry select on academic record and file completeness within a small country quota: a strong, consistent transcript, a complete file submitted early in the window, and credible commitment to Greek-taught study are what separate selected candidates, and the scholarship’s own continuation rules (rising pass rates each year) tell you the ministry funds students it believes will finish. For the central undergraduate route, your converted school grades determine your ranking for places, so the equivalence and grade-conversion paperwork is not bureaucracy — it is the competition. For master’s admissions and fee exemptions, a first degree at or above 7.5 out of 10 (or its recognised equivalent) is the threshold that keeps recurring in Greek rules; a degree comfortably above it, plus relevant recommendations and a focused motivation letter, is the strongest file you can build. For Erasmus Mundus and EU project funding, selection is by academic merit and fit with the consortium’s theme, scored by international panels — programme-specific motivation, not generic enthusiasm, is what scores. And for every route, Greek itself is an advantage that compounds: even English-taught applicants with some Greek integrate faster, access more part-time work, and qualify for opportunities that never reach English-language noticeboards.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Believing listicles about “fully funded scholarships in Greece” for English-taught degrees. No such general scheme exists. The funded routes are the Greek-taught MFA scholarship, Erasmus Mundus, and exchange or research funding — each with specific conditions.
• Planning around the Onassis Foundation as a general international student. Its main programme is for Greek citizens or Greek-educated residents, mainly for study abroad. Unless you meet those criteria, it is not your funding.
• Assuming IKY runs a standing postgraduate scholarship for foreigners. IKY calls open and close per programme; at the time of checking, no open general postgraduate competition for foreign degree students was listed. Check the official site each cycle and apply only to live calls.
• Underestimating the Greek requirement on the free route. “Tuition-free” is real, but so is B2-level academic Greek. Students who treat the language year as a formality lose their place or their scholarship continuation.
• Skipping the translation and apostille budget. Sworn Greek translations and validations cost real money and time, and untranslated documents are the most common cause of failed Greek files.
• Applying for the MFA scholarship without checking the country annex. The eligible countries and quotas change each call. Confirm with the Greek mission in your country before preparing anything.
• Confusing English-taught fees with the free route. English-taught bachelor’s programmes charge €5,000–€15,000 per year for non-EU students. The free route is Greek-taught only.
• Ignoring smaller cities. Patras, Ioannina, Heraklion, Volos, and Komotini offer the same free tuition with materially lower rents than Athens — often a bigger saving than any small scholarship.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are scholarships in Greece fully funded for international students?

Only in specific cases. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs scholarship — tuition-free Greek-taught study plus a monthly allowance, free language tuition, and books in the last call — comes close for students from the countries listed in the call. Erasmus Mundus scholarships are fully funded for their joint master’s programmes. Beyond those, Greece’s offer is structural rather than scholarship-based: free Greek-taught tuition and low living costs, with students funding their own living expenses.

Is university in Greece really free for non-EU students?

For Greek-taught undergraduate programmes at public universities, yes — tuition is free for all nationalities, with foreign-language programmes and the Hellenic Open University as exceptions. Admission runs through the central process for foreign candidates and enrolment requires certified Greek proficiency. English-taught programmes charge fees: the European Commission gives €5,000–€15,000 per year for non-EU bachelor’s programmes and €3,000–€7,000 for master’s programmes.

What is the Greek MFA scholarship and who can apply?

It is the Greek government’s scholarship for foreign citizens, administered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through Greek diplomatic missions. The 2026/2027 call offered 50 scholarships for Greek-taught undergraduate and postgraduate study at public universities, with a monthly allowance reported at about US$734 equivalent, free Greek language tuition (including a preparatory year to B2 where needed), and free books. Only citizens of the countries listed in each call’s annex may apply, and applications go to the Greek mission in your country by the call deadline — 27 July 2026 in the last call. Confirm the new call’s list and dates with the mission.

What does IKY offer international students?

IKY, the State Scholarships Foundation, is Greece’s national scholarship body and its Erasmus+ national agency. For foreign students, its most consistently relevant offer is the eight-month Modern Greek language and culture course at a Greek public university, open to foreign graduates not permanently resident in Greece, plus any specific calls open in a given year and narrow bequest scholarships. It does not run a continuously open general degree scholarship for foreigners — check the official IKY website for live calls, stipends, and deadlines.

Can I study in Greece in English?

Yes. The official Study in Greece platform lists more than 200 English-taught programmes, including bachelor’s degrees (several in medicine), many master’s degrees, and joint programmes. These programmes charge tuition, set their own entry requirements (usually including English evidence such as IELTS or TOEFL), and run their own application calendars — mostly spring for master’s programmes. Browse the current catalogue on the Study in Greece platform and confirm fees on each programme’s page.

How much does it cost to live in Greece as a student?

The European Commission’s Study in Europe profile for Greece estimates €700–€1,200 per month including housing, food, transport, and personal expenses. Athens is at the top of the range; Patras, Ioannina, Heraklion, and other smaller university cities are noticeably cheaper. Eligible students eat free in university canteens and others pay subsidised prices, and students receive substantial public-transport discounts.

Can international students work in Greece while studying?

Yes, students may work while studying; non-EU/EEA students need a work permit for part-time employment, and those in employment gain access to public health insurance. Treat part-time earnings as a supplement — visa financial-means requirements must be met from your funding, not from hoped-for wages.

Do I need Greek to study in Greece?

Only for Greek-taught programmes — but that includes the entire tuition-free undergraduate route and the MFA scholarship. English-taught programmes require English evidence instead. Even on an English-taught programme, learning Greek substantially improves daily life, part-time work options, and access to the free and funded parts of the system, and the IKY language course exists precisely to build that skill.

Sources and Verification

This guide was checked against official sources at the time of writing: the European Commission’s Study in Europe country profile, Study in Greece – higher education institutions, tuition fees and application, for tuition ranges for non-EU students (€5,000–€15,000 bachelor’s; €3,000–€7,000 master’s), living costs of €700–€1,200 per month, the Bologna degree structure, Type D visa requirements, and the Study in Greece scholarships platform; the official Study in Greece portal article Studying in Greece: How to Benefit from European Scholarship Programs, for the roles of Erasmus+, IKY, and university-specific scholarships; and IKY’s own published material via the IKY English information brochure, including its Erasmus+ role and call tables. Details of the 2026/2027 Ministry of Foreign Affairs call (50 scholarships, allowance, 27 July 2026 deadline, eligible-country annex) are reported from the call as summarised in secondary coverage of the official announcement, because the call itself is distributed through diplomatic missions — verify every figure with the Greek embassy or consulate in your country before acting on it.

Disclaimer: Scholarship calls, fees, allowances, and eligibility lists change every cycle, and several Greek schemes are announced only through diplomatic missions or institutional notices. Always confirm deadlines, amounts, and your country’s eligibility on the official IKY, Study in Greece, ministry, and university websites — or directly with the Greek diplomatic mission in your country — before applying or paying anything. StudyGraduate is an information portal, not an agency or a university: nothing in this guide is a promise or guarantee of admission, scholarship selection, or visa approval.