Scholarships in Norway for International Students 2026/2027

Norway still attracts international students for excellent reasons: strong public universities, teaching in English at master’s level, a safe and well-organised society, spectacular nature, and research groups that punch far above the country’s small population. What Norway no longer offers — and this guide will not pretend otherwise — is free tuition for everyone. Since autumn 2023, students from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland have had to pay tuition fees at Norwegian public universities. If you are reading older websites that promise free education in Norway for all international students, or a single fully funded Norwegian Government Scholarship open to everyone, you are reading out-of-date or misleading information.

This guide gives you the honest, current picture for the 2026/2027 cycle. It explains what tuition actually costs at the main universities, why there is no central government scholarship to apply for, and where real funding does exist: tuition exemptions for defined groups, the BI Presidential Scholarship at the private BI Norwegian Business School, Erasmus Mundus joint master’s scholarships, Fulbright grants for eligible countries, home-country scholarships, and — most importantly for researchers — salaried PhD positions that are advertised as jobs and are exempt from tuition. It also covers the living-cost amount you must document for a study permit, part-time work rules, documents, deadlines, selection advice, and the mistakes that waste applicants the most time.

The audience for this guide is students from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria, Indonesia and other non-EU/EEA countries who are considering a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree in Norway. Wherever a figure varies by university or programme, this guide gives the published range and tells you to check the programme page, because in Norway there is no single national tuition rate. You can compare destinations and funding routes in the StudyGraduate scholarships directory and explore study options in our study abroad section while you read.

Scholarships in Norway at a Glance

Use this table as your reality check before you read any further. Norway’s funding system is fragmented by design: each route below has a different funder, a different application, and a different definition of what it covers.

Two figures frame every budget in this guide. First, tuition: published non-EU/EEA fees at public universities for 2026/2027 range roughly from NOK 60,000 per year at the University of Stavanger to NOK 295,000 per year for some University of Oslo master’s programmes, with medicine and similarly expensive programmes higher still. Second, living costs: the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) requires non-EU/EEA students to document NOK 170,368 for the academic year 2026/2027, in addition to tuition. Both figures are explained in detail below, with sources.

Why Norway Changed: Tuition Fees Since 2023

For decades, Norway was famous as the country where public higher education was free for students of every nationality. The Norwegian parliament ended that policy, and tuition fees for degree students from outside the EU/EEA and Switzerland took effect from autumn 2023. Universities were initially required to charge fees that covered the full cost of the programme. A later change, applying from the 2026/2027 year, allows each institution to set its own fee level, but the fee must still be a real fee — it cannot be reduced to zero or to a symbolic amount for this group of students.

In practice this means three things for you. First, your budget must include tuition unless you fall into an exemption category, hold a scholarship that explicitly covers tuition, or are a PhD candidate. Second, fees differ sharply between universities and even between programmes at the same university, so comparing total cost across your shortlist is now one of the smartest things you can do — the gap between the cheapest and most expensive public option can be more than NOK 200,000 per year. Third, be sceptical of any agent or website still marketing Norway as free. That claim was true before 2023 and is now the single most common source of misinformation about studying in Norway.

Students from the EU/EEA and Switzerland, Norwegian citizens, and students with certain residence permits or family connections to Norway remain exempt from tuition at public institutions. Private institutions such as BI Norwegian Business School have always charged tuition to all students, Norwegian and international alike, which is precisely why BI runs a comparatively developed scholarship programme. All students, exempt or not, pay a small semester fee to the local student welfare organisation — roughly NOK 600 to NOK 1,000 per semester depending on the institution — which funds student services and gives access to student housing, health and sports facilities.

Eligibility: Who Can Get Funding in Norway?

There is no single eligibility list for Norway, because there is no single scholarship. Instead, check yourself against the requirements that recur across almost every route:

• Citizenship and tuition status. Your citizenship decides whether you pay tuition at all. If you are a citizen of a country outside the EU/EEA and Switzerland and you do not hold a qualifying residence status, assume you are liable for tuition and plan accordingly.
• Admission first. Almost every funding route in Norway is tied to admission. Exemptions are assessed as part of admission, Erasmus Mundus scholarships are awarded with admission to the joint programme, BI scholarships require admission to an eligible MSc, and PhD positions require you to win the vacancy. There is no stand-alone money you can secure before you have a study place.
• Academic record. Competitive routes set a high bar explicitly. The BI Presidential Scholarship, for example, requires a minimum overall grade of A on the ECTS scale or the equivalent top grade internationally. Norwegian master’s admission itself typically requires a bachelor’s degree with grades around a C average or better on the Norwegian scale in the relevant subject area, and many programmes expect more in practice because places are limited.
• English proficiency. English-taught programmes require documented English skills, commonly IELTS Academic around 6.5, TOEFL, PTE Academic or a recognised exemption based on previous education. Requirements differ by university and level, so check the exact list for your programme and prepare early using our test preparation guides.
• Country-specific requirements for admission. Norway assesses foreign qualifications through country lists that specify, for each country, what secondary and university education is recognised and whether additional study is required. Applicants from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria and Indonesia should check their country’s entry requirements on the university or national admissions pages before assuming a diploma is sufficient.
• Documented financing. Even scholarship holders must satisfy UDI’s financing documentation for the study permit unless their award demonstrably covers the required amount. Admission without documented financing does not lead to a residence permit.
• For PhD positions: a relevant master’s and research fit. Advertised PhD vacancies specify the master’s field, and often ask for a thesis, publications or method skills. You apply as an employee, with a CV, application letter and project description where requested.

If you are focused specifically on a master’s degree, read our companion guide to master’s scholarships in Norway for international students, which goes deeper on master’s deadlines, the Søknadsweb application window and programme-level funding.

What Does Funding in Norway Actually Cover?

Because Norwegian awards are usually tuition-focused, you must separate three costs that are often confused online: tuition, the semester fee, and living costs. A tuition waiver removes the first. It does not pay your rent in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Tromsø or Stavanger, and Norwegian living costs are among the highest in Europe.

The UDI living-cost requirement gives you the official minimum to plan around: NOK 170,368 for two semesters in 2026/2027, NOK 77,440 for the autumn semester 2026 only, and NOK 92,928 for the spring semester 2027 only. The University of Oslo publishes these figures on its page about documenting your finances, and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) confirms the same NOK 170,368 requirement on its documentation of financing page. The University of Bergen publishes the identical semester breakdown for exchange students on its study permit guidance page. This amount is separate from, and in addition to, tuition fees, and admitted students typically transfer it to a deposit account administered by the student welfare organisation before the permit is granted.

Against that benchmark, judge each award honestly. The BI Presidential Scholarship is unusually complete for Norway: full tuition for up to two years plus NOK 50,000 per semester in living stipend for international recipients, provided you complete full study progression of 30 ECTS per semester and maintain at least a B cumulative grade average. An Erasmus Mundus scholarship is set by its consortium and is designed to cover participation costs plus monthly living support during the joint programme, including mobility periods in more than one country. A salaried PhD position is different in kind: you are an employee with a salary, pension contributions and employee rights under Norwegian law, and no tuition is charged. By contrast, a partial arrangement — for example a home-country grant that covers only living costs — still leaves tuition to be paid in full, and UDI will expect to see documentation for both parts.

Part-time work can help at the margins but cannot fund a Norwegian degree. Students with a study permit may normally work up to 20 hours per week during the semester and full-time during holidays. Treat any earnings as support for daily expenses, never as the plan for tuition, and never present them to UDI as your documented financing.

Universities, Programmes and Fields

Norway’s main public universities each set their own fees, so the examples below — drawn from published 2026/2027 fee categories — show why programme-level checking matters. Always confirm the figure for your exact programme and intake on the university website, because categories change and a law change now lets institutions revise their levels.

Fields with the deepest English-taught master’s provision include engineering and technology, computer and data science, renewable energy and environmental sciences, marine and Arctic studies, global and public health, economics and business, and education. Bachelor’s programmes taught in English are much rarer at Norwegian public universities — most bachelor’s teaching is in Norwegian — so undergraduate applicants from outside Europe usually face both a language requirement in Norwegian and tuition. Doctoral education, by contrast, is conducted largely in English and is built around advertised, salaried vacancies in every field. You can weigh Norway against other destinations using our university rankings and the wider universities directory.

How to Apply: Step by Step

1. Decide your level and funding route first. If you need a master’s, your realistic funding doors are an exemption category, BI, Erasmus Mundus, a home-country scholarship, or self-funding with a carefully chosen lower-fee programme. If you have a strong master’s already, add salaried PhD vacancies to your search from the start.
2. Check your country’s admission requirements. Confirm that your secondary and university qualifications meet Norway’s country-specific requirements, and whether your university is recognised. Do this months before the portal opens.
3. Shortlist programmes by total cost, not headline prestige alone. Record tuition, the UDI living amount, semester fee, and application and permit fees for each option. A lower-fee programme at Stavanger or NMBU may be fundable when an Oslo programme is not.
4. Prepare English documentation. Book IELTS, TOEFL or PTE early enough for scores to reach the university by the deadline. Check whether your previous education gives an exemption — rules differ and are applied strictly.
5. Apply in Søknadsweb within the non-EU/EEA window. For most international master’s programmes, applicants from outside the EU/EEA apply in a window that typically runs from around 1 November to 1 December for the following autumn entry. Upload every required document by the deadline; Norwegian admissions are document-driven and incomplete files are not assessed.
6. Apply for programme-linked funding at the same time. For BI, submit the scholarship application together with admission, uploading your CV and a one-page scholarship letter in the scholarship section of the portal, by 1 March. For Erasmus Mundus, apply through the consortium’s own portal and calendar. Never assume admission automatically enters you for an award unless the programme page says so.
7. Document your financing. After an admission offer, arrange the tuition payment and the UDI living-cost documentation exactly as your university instructs — for UiO, transfers to the student welfare deposit account are due by 15 June for autumn entry, with UDI requiring documents by 1 July for timely processing. Dates differ by university, so follow your offer letter.
8. Apply for the study permit through UDI. Submit the permit application, admission letter, financing documentation, housing confirmation and passport documents, and pay the UDI fee. Scholarship selection does not replace this step.
9. Plan arrival. Apply for student housing through the welfare organisation as soon as you are admitted — queues in Oslo and Bergen are long — and register with the police after arrival as instructed.

Required Documents

• Passport, valid for your intended stay.
• Upper secondary school certificate and, for master’s applicants, bachelor’s degree diploma and full transcripts, with official translations where documents are not in English or a Scandinavian language.
• Documentation that you meet your country’s specific entry requirements, where the university asks for it.
• English proficiency results sent or uploaded as the university specifies.
• Curriculum vitae; motivation letter or statement of purpose where the programme requires one.
• For BI scholarships: CV and a maximum one-page scholarship application letter, combined as instructed in the portal.
• For PhD vacancies: master’s thesis information, publications list, project description and references as the vacancy notice specifies.
• Financing documentation: bank statements, sponsor letters, scholarship award letters, and deposit-account transfer confirmation for the study permit.
• Housing documentation for the permit application, as UDI requires.

Deadlines and Timeline

These are planning patterns from the most recent cycles, not promises for 2027. Norwegian universities publish the binding dates for each intake, and a 2027 date that has not yet been published must be treated as unconfirmed until it appears on the official page.

Selection Criteria and How to Improve Your Chances

Norwegian admission is unusually transparent: for most master’s programmes, applicants are ranked primarily on the grades of their qualifying degree against the programme’s academic requirements, with specific subject prerequisites enforced strictly. That means the most effective scholarship strategy in Norway is often unglamorous — choose programmes whose prerequisites you genuinely meet, where your bachelor’s specialisation matches, and where your grades are competitive, rather than applying to famous names with a weak fit.

For the competitive named awards, selection is explicitly merit-based. BI states that Presidential Scholarships are awarded on academic excellence, not financial need, and require an A-level overall grade. Erasmus Mundus consortia rank applicants on academic quality, motivation, and the coherence of the mobility plan, and they balance cohorts by country and gender. For PhD vacancies, the panel assesses research competence: thesis quality, relevant methods, publications where the field expects them, and how precisely your proposal fits the funded project. In all three cases, generic motivation letters hurt you. Write to the criteria, evidence every claim with a result, a grade, a publication or a supervised project, and ask referees who can describe your work in detail. Use the StudyGraduate student tools and study guides to keep deadlines and document versions organised across parallel applications.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Believing Norway is still free. This is the costliest mistake. Non-EU/EEA tuition has applied since autumn 2023.
• Searching for a Norwegian Government Scholarship portal. No central scheme open to all international students exists. Time spent on fake portals — some of which misuse official logos — is time lost from real applications.
• Assuming UiO or NTNU will waive your fee. Both state they do not offer tuition-covering scholarships for degree students. Budget without a waiver unless you hold an exemption in writing.
• Confusing tuition with total cost. Add tuition, NOK 170,368 in living-cost documentation for 2026/2027, semester fees, insurance and travel before you decide a programme is affordable.
• Missing the early non-EU/EEA window. The November–December application window closes almost nine months before studies start. Students who begin in January for autumn entry have usually already missed it.
• Applying for a PhD like a scholarship. Norwegian PhDs are jobs. There is no central form; you must find and win an advertised vacancy.
• Counting on part-time work to pay tuition. The 20-hour limit and Norwegian prices make this unrealistic, and UDI does not accept future earnings as financing.
• Paying an agent who guarantees funding. No agent can guarantee admission, a scholarship or a study permit in Norway.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is education in Norway free for international students in 2026/2027?

No, not for students from outside the EU/EEA and Switzerland. Since autumn 2023 they pay tuition at public universities, typically from around NOK 60,000 to NOK 295,000 per year depending on the university and programme, plus a small semester fee. EU/EEA and Swiss students, and PhD candidates, remain exempt from tuition.

Is there a Norwegian Government Scholarship I can apply for?

No central government scholarship open to all international students exists. The official Study in Norway information makes this clear. Real funding comes from exemption categories, individual programmes such as Erasmus Mundus, the private BI scholarship scheme, home-country scholarships, and salaried PhD positions.

How much money must I show for a Norwegian study permit?

For 2026/2027, UDI requires documentation of NOK 170,368 for a full academic year, in addition to tuition fees. The University of Oslo, NMBU and the University of Bergen all publish this figure. It is adjusted annually, so check the amount for your intake year.

Does the University of Oslo or NTNU offer scholarships?

Both state that they do not offer scholarships covering tuition for full degree students. Do not build a budget around a waiver from them. Your funding must come from an exemption, an external scholarship, a sponsor, your family, or — for doctoral level — a salaried position.

What is the most generous real scholarship in Norway?

For master’s students, the BI Presidential Scholarship is among the clearest and most generous: full tuition for up to two years plus NOK 50,000 per semester for international recipients, conditional on full progression and at least a B average. It requires an A-level overall grade and the deadline is 1 March. Erasmus Mundus scholarships can be similarly comprehensive for their specific joint programmes.

Are PhD studies in Norway free and funded?

PhD candidates pay no tuition, and most are employed as research fellows with a salary when they win an advertised vacancy. That is genuine funding, but it is competitive employment, not an entitlement: you need a relevant master’s degree and must be selected for a specific vacancy.

Can I work while studying in Norway?

Yes, within limits. A study permit normally allows up to 20 hours of work per week during the semester and full-time work during holidays. Earnings can support daily life but should never be your tuition plan or your UDI financing evidence.

When should I apply for a master’s in Norway?

Most non-EU/EEA applicants apply in Søknadsweb in a window that typically runs from 1 November to 1 December for the following autumn. Start research and English tests well before that window, and confirm the exact dates for your programme and intake on the university website.

Sources and Verification

The facts in this guide were checked against the following official sources at the time of writing:

• Study in Norway (studyinnorway.no), the official national portal — tuition for non-EU/EEA students since 2023 and the absence of a central government scholarship.
• University of Oslo — documenting your finances page, for the UDI amounts for 2026/2027 (NOK 170,368 per year; NOK 77,440 autumn; NOK 92,928 spring) and deposit deadlines.
• Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) — documentation of financing page, confirming the NOK 170,368 requirement for 2026/2027.
• University of Bergen — study permit and police registration guidance, confirming the same UDI semester amounts.
• BI Norwegian Business School — BI Presidential Scholarship terms: full tuition for up to two years, NOK 50,000 per semester stipend for international applicants, A-grade requirement, 1 March deadline and progression conditions.
• University tuition pages for UiO, NTNU, UiB, NMBU and the University of Stavanger, for published 2026/2027 fee categories.

Disclaimer: Scholarship and tuition details change yearly, so always confirm deadlines, amounts and eligibility on the official website before applying. StudyGraduate is an information portal, not an agency. We never promise selection, admission or visa approval, and no one can guarantee those outcomes.