Scholarships in Romania for International Students 2026/2027

Romania is one of the very few European Union countries that still runs a genuine, open, fully funded government scholarship for degree study — and it is aimed precisely at students from outside the EU. Every year, the Government of Romania, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), offers scholarships to citizens of non-EU countries for bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral study at accredited Romanian public universities. The scholarship covers tuition in full, finances accommodation in student dormitories, pays a monthly stipend, and even funds a preparatory year of Romanian language study for students who do not yet speak Romanian. For applicants from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria, Indonesia, and other non-EU countries searching for scholarships in Romania for international students in 2026/2027, this programme — alongside the fully funded Transilvania Academica Scholarship at Transilvania University of Brașov and a set of university merit and performance scholarships — makes Romania one of the most financially realistic destinations in Europe.

It is also a programme with conditions that must be understood before you apply, because they shape the whole experience. Bachelor’s and master’s studies under the MFA scholarship are taught in Romanian only — that is why the preparatory year exists — while doctoral candidates may study in Romanian or in a foreign language set by their doctoral school. The monthly stipend is modest by design: €65 per month for undergraduates, €75 for master’s students, and €85 for doctoral students, paid in Romanian lei. And the scholarship is explicitly not awarded in Medicine, Dental Medicine, or Pharmacy — a fact that matters enormously in a country famous for affordable medical degrees, and one that agents marketing “free MBBS in Romania” routinely omit. This guide gives you the complete, verified picture: eligibility, exact benefits, the preparatory year, the application platform and calendar (the 2026 enrolment period ran from 16 February to 31 March 2026, with results around 15 July 2026), required documents, the Transilvania Academica alternative that does allow English-taught study, self-funded costs for comparison, selection tips, and the mistakes that disqualify otherwise strong files. Plan alongside this guide in the StudyGraduate scholarships directory, compare destinations in the study abroad section, browse institutions in the universities directory, and model your budget with the StudyGraduate tools.

Why Romania Works Financially — With or Without a Scholarship

Romania combines three advantages that rarely coexist. It is an EU member state, so its degrees follow the Bologna structure and are recognised across Europe. Its public universities — the University of Bucharest, Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași, the University of Timișoara in the west, Politehnica Bucharest and Politehnica Timișoara for engineering, and strong regional universities in Brașov, Craiova, Constanța, Sibiu, and Oradea — teach a full range of programmes, many of them in English, French, or German as well as Romanian. And its living costs are among the lowest in the EU: students outside Bucharest commonly live on a few hundred euros a month, dormitory accommodation is inexpensive, and local transport comes with deep student discounts. The MFA scholarship is layered on top of that low-cost base, which is why a stipend of €65–€85 a month — small in absolute terms — is workable in Romania in a way it would not be in Western Europe, provided your tuition and dormitory place are covered, as they are under the scholarship. The sections below take the MFA programme apart piece by piece, then cover the university-level alternatives.

Scholarships in Romania at a Glance

The MFA scholarship is the centrepiece, and it has run since 1993 under Government Decision No. 288/1993, administered by the MFA together with the Ministry of Education and Research as a competition of files. Recent cycles have been run entirely online: applications are submitted only through the Study in Romania platform, and files sent to ministry registries, staff email addresses, or diplomatic missions are not taken into consideration — a change from older cycles that many out-of-date guides still describe incorrectly. The next sections give the eligibility rules exactly as published, including the exclusions.

Eligibility for the MFA Scholarship

To apply for the Romanian Government MFA Scholarship you must, under the published programme rules: be a foreign citizen from a country outside the European Union; present study documents issued by accredited or recognised educational institutions in your country; have good academic results — an average of the years of study of at least 7, corresponding to the Romanian scoring system, or “Good” where your system uses grades of that type; comply with the enrolment calendar and the application methodology; and, if selected, present a medical certificate at enrolment stating that you are fit for study and free of contagious diseases, with an authorised translation where needed. Certain categories are excluded: Romanian citizens and members of the Romanian historical communities under the programme’s terms, persons who have requested or obtained a form of protection in Romania, stateless persons whose residence in Romania is officially recognised, and members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Bucharest and their families cannot apply. You also cannot hold another Romanian state scholarship for the same study cycle.

Two programme rules deserve to be read twice. First, scholarships are not awarded in Medicine, Dental Medicine, or Pharmacy. This is stated prominently in the official programme information. Romania remains a popular self-funded destination for medical study, and some Romanian universities offer their own arrangements, but the MFA scholarship will not fund an MBBS, dentistry, or pharmacy degree, and no agent can change that. Second, the language rule: to promote the Romanian language and culture, bachelor’s and master’s programmes under this scholarship are carried out only in Romanian. Doctoral scholarship holders may opt for Romanian or for a foreign language established by the doctoral school. Age guidance appears in many summaries of the programme (commonly under 35 for bachelor’s and master’s and under 45 for doctoral study); treat it as guidance to verify against the current call text rather than as a settled rule, because the binding conditions are those published for the cycle you apply in. Doctoral applicants face one additional, decisive requirement: before applying, you must obtain the written agreement of a doctoral tutor (supervisor) and pass the admission process of the doctoral school — an MFA application without a supervisor’s agreement behind it cannot succeed at the doctoral level.

Transilvania Academica Scholarship eligibility is different in instructive ways. Under Transilvania University of Brașov’s scholarship regulation, TAS may be awarded, based on competition, to the best-performing international students from countries that are not members of the EU or EEA, across bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral cycles, and continuation is conditional on passing all of the current year’s exams. Because TAS attaches to Transilvania University’s own programmes — including English-taught ones — it is the main Romanian route for a non-EU student who wants a fully funded degree taught in English, and it is correspondingly competitive: selection is based on the quality of your submitted documents as assessed by the university’s board.

University scholarships for enrolled students follow each university’s own regulation within the national framework: merit scholarships for the highest averages, scientific-performance scholarships for research achievement, and social scholarships for students in financial difficulty, alongside special categories in some regulations (for example scholarships for Romanian students from abroad or for specific institutional programmes). Foreign students already studying in Romania — including MFA holders in some schemes and self-funded students who complete at least a year with a minimum average (a threshold of 7.00 appears in university rules for certain state scholarship categories) — may qualify for some of these, so ask your faculty’s secretariat what an enrolled international student can apply for. Erasmus Mundus and Erasmus+ follow their own programme rules and are open as described in the table above.

Benefits: Exactly What the MFA Scholarship Pays

The scholarship obtained, including the preparatory year where applicable, consists of the following published benefits. Tuition is covered in full for the standard duration of the programme: three to six years for a bachelor’s degree depending on the field, one and a half to two years for a master’s, and three to five years (four years in current programme summaries) for a doctorate, ending with the dissertation or thesis defence. The scholarship also exempts holders from registration fees, Romanian language proficiency test fees, doctoral admission competition fees, and similar programme charges listed in the rules. Accommodation is financed through the budget of the Ministry of Education and Research in student dormitories, free of charge subject to availability and within the limits of the sums allocated — in practice, a dormitory place is part of the package, allocated through your university. The monthly stipend, paid in Romanian lei, is the equivalent of €65 per month for undergraduate students, €75 per month for master’s and specialisation students, and €85 per month for doctoral students. Holders are also entitled to medical assistance in emergencies and for diseases with epidemic or endemic potential under the applicable legislation, and to local transport facilities under the same conditions as Romanian students — which in practice means substantial student discounts on city transport and rail.

The programme information is equally explicit about what is not covered: food, international transport to and from Romania, and local transport beyond the student facilities are the candidate’s own responsibility, and you must be prepared to support personally any additional expenses beyond the scholarship. This is where honest budgeting matters. The stipend is a contribution, not a full living allowance: with tuition at zero and a dormitory place financed, your remaining costs are food, transport, phone, study materials, and personal spending. Students in university cities such as Iași, Timișoara, Cluj-Napoca, or Brașov commonly spend a few hundred euros a month in total; Bucharest costs more. A realistic plan therefore pairs the scholarship with family support or savings of roughly €150–€300 per month on top of the stipend — far less than self-funding anywhere in Western Europe, but not zero. Any source that presents the MFA scholarship as covering “everything including flights and food” is misdescribing the official benefits.

Transilvania Academica, for comparison, includes coverage of tuition fees including admission and study-completion fees, free accommodation in the university’s dormitories throughout the academic year (twelve months), a monthly subsistence allowance — 800 lei per month in the 2026 cycle, with the amount established for each academic year by the university’s Executive Board — and reimbursement of residence-permit costs on documented request. Travel expenses are borne by the candidate. The regulation also allows TAS holders, on request, to receive scholarship amounts in advance where needed to produce the proof of means required for the residence permit — a practical detail that solves a problem many scholarship holders elsewhere face at the visa stage.

The Romanian Language Preparatory Year

For most MFA applicants, the scholarship begins not with the degree but with a one-year preparatory course in Romanian language, granted before the actual university studies and covered by the scholarship on the same terms. The year is spent at a Romanian university building academic Romanian to the level your degree requires, and it is the mechanism that makes the Romanian-taught rule fair: you are not expected to arrive fluent, you are expected to arrive ready to learn. Three categories of applicant are exempt from the preparatory year: those who present Romanian study documents (diplomas, certificates, or school records attesting at least three consecutive years of study in Romanian in the Romanian system); those who pass the Romanian language test organised for university enrolment; and those who present a Romanian language competence certificate of at least level B1. Doctoral candidates who choose a foreign language set by their doctoral school do not take the preparatory year.

Treat the preparatory year as an asset rather than a delay. It gives you a funded year to settle in Romania, learn the language your lectures, exams, and daily life will run on, and build the social network that carries students through a degree. It also carries a serious obligation: a bachelor’s or master’s degree completed entirely in Romanian, on the basis of one preparatory year, is genuinely demanding, and students who coast through the language year pay for it in every subsequent semester. Graduates of this route consistently report that the language, not the subject, was the hardest part — and also that it became their greatest employability asset, opening Romanian and EU careers that English-only graduates cannot access in the same way. If you are unwilling to study in Romanian, the honest alternatives are TAS at Brașov, an Erasmus Mundus programme, or a self-funded English-taught degree — not an MFA application with fingers crossed.

Programmes and Fields of Study

Within the exclusion of Medicine, Dental Medicine, and Pharmacy, the MFA scholarship is open across the fields offered by accredited Romanian public institutions: engineering and computer science (Politehnica Bucharest, Politehnica Timișoara, the technical universities of Cluj-Napoca and Iași), mathematics and natural sciences, economics, business, and finance (Bucharest University of Economic Studies and the big comprehensive universities), law and political science, humanities, history, philology and languages, social sciences, psychology and education sciences, architecture and urban planning (Ion Mincu University in Bucharest), agriculture and veterinary-adjacent sciences outside the excluded clinical fields, arts, music, and theatre at the specialist universities, and doctoral research across all of these. Degree durations follow the Romanian structure: bachelor’s programmes of three to six years depending on the field (six for architecture and similarly regulated long cycles), master’s programmes of one and a half to two years ending with a dissertation, and doctorates of three to five years ending with the public defence of the thesis.

Two field-level warnings protect your application. First, regulated and long-cycle fields have their own admission calendars and sometimes entrance examinations at university level — an MFA file does not override a faculty’s admission requirements, so confirm your chosen programme’s entry conditions with the university as well as with the platform. Second, doctoral applicants must align three things that bachelor’s applicants do not: a research topic, a named doctoral tutor who has agreed in writing to supervise it, and a doctoral school willing to admit them. Start that conversation months before the platform opens, in the autumn, with a concise research proposal and your academic record attached.

How to Apply for the MFA Scholarship, Step by Step

1. Prepare before the platform opens. The enrolment period for the 2026 cycle began on 16 February 2026 and the deadline for submitting applications was 31 March 2026; expect a similar February–March window for the 2027 cycle and confirm the exact dates on the official platform. Everything in your file should be ready before the window opens, because the platform period is short and corrections after submission are limited — in the 2026 cycle, the submitted application could not be changed afterwards.
2. Go to the official platform only. Access the Study in Romania platform at studyinromania.gov.ro via the “Apply for MFA scholarships” button, or directly at scholarships.studyinromania.gov.ro. Applications sent to MFA or Ministry of Education registry offices, to staff email addresses, or to diplomatic missions are not taken into consideration. You may submit only one application — accuracy matters more than speed.
3. Create your account and complete the application form with your personal data, study history, and programme choices, exactly as the platform requests. Choose your study programme and university preferences carefully: later requests to change university or field are not considered.
4. Upload each required document separately, in PDF format, following the platform’s instructions for each field of the form. Documents in languages other than English, French, Spanish, or Romanian must be accompanied by an authorised translation into one of those languages, as the methodology specifies.
5. Doctoral applicants: upload the tutor’s written agreement and the doctoral school’s admission evidence as the methodology requires, in addition to the standard file.
6. Submit before the deadline and keep your confirmation. Results in the 2026 cycle were announced by email around 15 July 2026. Between submission and July there is nothing to chase — but keep your email monitored and your documents folder intact.
7. If selected, complete enrolment formalities: confirm acceptance within the stated term, contact your assigned university, present the medical certificate and original documents at enrolment, and apply for a long-stay (Type D) study visa at the Romanian diplomatic mission in your country with your scholarship letter in the file.
8. For TAS, apply separately through Transilvania University’s scholarship platform (tas.unitbv.ro) in its own window — recent cycles ran from February to late April — with a complete file in English. The two competitions are independent; applying to both is allowed and sensible if Brașov suits your field.

Required Documents

The MFA application file, as described in the programme’s application process, centres on: copies of your diplomas (school-leaving diploma for bachelor’s entry, bachelor’s degree for master’s entry, master’s degree for doctoral entry) and transcripts for your completed studies, issued by accredited or recognised institutions; your birth certificate; a copy of your passport; and a curriculum vitae. Doctoral applicants add the research proposal and the doctoral tutor’s written agreement. Documents must be uploaded as separate PDFs exactly as the platform’s fields specify, and any document not in English, French, Spanish, or Romanian needs an authorised translation into one of those languages. At enrolment — not application — selected candidates additionally present a medical certificate attesting fitness for study and absence of contagious diseases, with an authorised translation if needed, plus the originals of the documents in the file. Practical rules that protect applications: scan originals in colour, name files exactly as the portal asks, check that every transcript page is present, and verify that names and dates of birth are spelled identically across your passport, diplomas, and translations — mismatches are a leading cause of verification delays in this programme. TAS requires a similar academic file in English through its own platform; check its current call for the exact list, including any motivation or recommendation elements.

Deadlines and Timeline

Working backwards from a February platform opening gives you the real preparation calendar: supervisor contact and document gathering in autumn, legalisations and translations in December and January, and a finished, checked file ready to upload in the first week the platform opens. Students who start when the platform opens are the students who miss the deadline.

Self-Funded Study in Romania: The Comparison You Should Still Make

Because the MFA scholarship excludes medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy — the fields many readers most want — and because not every strong applicant will be selected, price the self-funded route before you decide Romania is out of reach. Non-EU tuition at Romanian public universities is set per university and programme and is, by European standards, low: many bachelor’s and master’s programmes in fields such as engineering, computer science, economics, and humanities are priced in the low thousands of euros per year, with English-taught and regulated programmes (and medical degrees in particular) priced higher — always confirm the exact figure on your university’s page for foreign students, because fees are revised and differ sharply by field. Add dormitory or shared-flat rent, food, and transport in a university city, and a self-funded year in Romania still commonly totals less than a single semester’s tuition in the United Kingdom or the United States. Two further options soften the self-funded route: enrolled students with strong results can win university merit and performance scholarships under their institution’s regulation, and EU-level programmes (Erasmus Mundus for master’s study, Erasmus+ for exchanges) remain open in parallel. Compare that total honestly with scholarships in Portugal for international students, where partial awards sit on top of similar low public fees, and with scholarships in Greece for international students, where the Greek-taught route is tuition-free — and use the StudyGraduate tools and the rankings section to compare the full picture, not just the headline scholarship.

Selection Criteria and How to Improve Your Chances

The MFA programme describes itself as a competition of files, assessed under the regulations in force by the MFA together with the Ministry of Education and Research. In practice that means your grades and your paperwork are the competition. The published minimum — an average of at least 7 out of 10, or “Good” — is an eligibility floor, not a competitive score: selected candidates typically present averages comfortably above the floor, with consistency across years mattering more than a single strong year. Beyond grades, four things measurably improve a file. First, completeness and form: every document present, in the right field, in the right format, with translations where required — in file competitions, incomplete files are eliminated before merit is ever compared. Second, programme fit and realism: choices that match your prior studies and the universities’ actual offers read as serious; scattered choices read as speculative. Third, for doctoral applicants, the supervisor relationship: a tutor who has agreed in writing, at a doctoral school that has run its admission process, converts your file from a hope into a placement. Fourth, language readiness: while the preparatory year exists precisely for non-speakers, any evidence of Romanian study — or of serious language learning generally — supports the credibility of a plan that requires you to complete a degree in Romanian. For TAS, selection is explicitly a competition among the best-performing international applicants judged on document quality, so the same advice applies with the volume turned up: present the strongest, cleanest academic file you can, and remember that continuation depends on passing all of each year’s exams — Brașov funds finishers.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Applying for Medicine, Dentistry, or Pharmacy. The MFA scholarship is not awarded in these fields, in bold print in the official programme information. Medical hopefuls must plan the self-funded route or another country — no exceptions exist.
• Sending the file anywhere except the platform. Applications posted or emailed to the MFA, the Ministry of Education, or diplomatic missions are not taken into consideration. The only route is the Study in Romania platform’s MFA application.
• Missing the short window. The 2026 cycle ran 16 February to 31 March. A file started in March is usually a failed file: diplomas, transcripts, and translations must be ready before the platform opens.
• Assuming the stipend covers everything. €65/€75/€85 per month plus tuition and dormitory financing is generous in context, but food, flights, and all other expenses are yours. Arrive with supplementary funds.
• Ignoring the Romanian-taught rule. Bachelor’s and master’s degrees under the scholarship are taught in Romanian. If you are not willing to complete the preparatory year and then study in Romanian, apply for TAS or another route instead.
• Doctoral applications without a tutor. No written supervisor agreement and doctoral-school admission, no scholarship — secure both before the platform opens.
• Document mismatches. Names or birth dates spelled differently across passport, diplomas, and translations trigger verification problems. Harmonise every document before uploading.
• Applying twice or editing after submission. Only one application is permitted and submitted files cannot be changed. Check the complete file twice before you press submit.
• Paying an agent for “guaranteed” MFA selection. The application is free and file-based; no intermediary can influence a ministerial file competition, and guarantees of selection are a reliable sign of a scam.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Romanian MFA scholarship fully funded?

It covers the core academic costs in full: tuition for the standard programme duration, financing of dormitory accommodation, fee exemptions listed in the rules, emergency medical assistance, and a monthly stipend in lei equivalent to €65 (bachelor’s), €75 (master’s), or €85 (PhD). It does not cover food, international or local transport, or personal expenses, so holders still need supplementary funds — but with tuition and housing covered in a low-cost country, the remaining budget is modest by European standards.

Who is eligible for scholarships in Romania?

For the MFA scholarship: citizens of non-EU countries with study documents from accredited or recognised institutions and good academic results — an average of at least 7 out of 10 or “Good”. Romanian citizens, persons with a form of protection in Romania, recognised stateless residents, and diplomatic staff and their families are excluded, as is anyone already holding a Romanian state scholarship for the same cycle. The Transilvania Academica Scholarship is open to top-performing non-EU/EEA students at all levels.

Does the Romania scholarship cover MBBS or dentistry?

No. The official programme information states that scholarships are not awarded in Medicine, Dental Medicine, or Pharmacy. Students who want to study medicine in Romania must apply as self-funded students directly to a university (Romanian medical universities admit many international students this way) and budget for the fees those programmes charge.

Do I need to speak Romanian or take IELTS?

For the MFA scholarship, no Romanian is required at application and no IELTS is involved: bachelor’s and master’s students who do not speak Romanian receive a funded preparatory year, unless they qualify for exemption (Romanian study documents showing at least three years of study in Romanian, passing the university’s Romanian test, or a Romanian certificate of at least B1). The degree itself is then taught in Romanian. Doctoral students may study in a foreign language set by the doctoral school. TAS and self-funded English-taught programmes set their own English requirements.

When are the MFA scholarship deadlines for 2026/2027 and the next cycle?

In the published 2026 cycle, the enrolment period began on 16 February 2026 and applications closed on 31 March 2026, with results announced by email around 15 July 2026. The next cycle is expected to follow a similar February–March pattern, but the binding dates are those published on scholarships.studyinromania.gov.ro for that cycle — check the platform from January onwards and have your file ready before it opens.

How and where do I apply?

Only online, through the Study in Romania platform: go to studyinromania.gov.ro and use the “Apply for MFA scholarships” button, or go directly to scholarships.studyinromania.gov.ro. Create an account, complete the form, upload each document separately in PDF, and submit before the deadline. Applications sent to ministry offices, staff emails, or embassies are not considered, and only one application per candidate is accepted.

What is the Transilvania Academica Scholarship?

It is Transilvania University of Brașov’s own fully funded competition for the best-performing international students from non-EU/EEA countries, across bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral study. Under the university’s regulation it covers tuition including admission and completion fees, free dormitory accommodation for twelve months a year, a monthly allowance (800 lei in the 2026 cycle, set annually by the Executive Board), and reimbursement of residence-permit costs; travel is the candidate’s own expense. Unlike the MFA scholarship, it attaches to Brașov’s programmes including English-taught ones, and continuation requires passing all of each year’s exams. Apply through tas.unitbv.ro in its February–April window.

Can I work in Romania while studying on the scholarship?

International students in Romania may work under the conditions of their residence status and Romanian law, and many students take part-time work after settling in. Scholarship holders should check any programme conditions that apply to them and must keep their studies — the basis of the scholarship and, for TAS, of its continuation — as the priority. Never build the budget your visa depends on around expected part-time earnings.

Sources and Verification

The MFA scholarship facts in this guide — eligibility, the €65/€75/€85 monthly stipends in lei, full tuition and dormitory financing, the exclusion of Medicine, Dental Medicine and Pharmacy, the Romanian-taught rule and preparatory year with its three exemptions, the platform-only application route, and the 2026 calendar (16 February to 31 March, results around 15 July) — were checked against the official programme information published by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Study in Romania platform at studyinromania.gov.ro and the application portal scholarships.studyinromania.gov.ro, as reproduced in the programme’s official information document for the 2026 cycle. Transilvania Academica details were checked against Transilvania University of Brașov’s scholarship regulation, Regulations on the granting of scholarships (English version), which sets out TAS eligibility for non-EU/EEA students, its coverage of tuition, dormitory accommodation and a monthly allowance, and the pass-all-exams continuation condition; the 800 lei monthly figure is the amount reported for the 2026 TAS cycle and is set annually by the university, so confirm the current cycle’s amount at tas.unitbv.ro.

Disclaimer: Scholarship amounts, dates, and rules change every cycle. Always confirm the current call, amounts, and deadlines on the official Study in Romania platform, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, and the relevant university website before applying or paying anything — and never pay an intermediary for access to a free government application. 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.