Radboud University NL Scholarship 2027 (Netherlands) — €5,000 for Non-EEA Master's Students

The NL Scholarship is the Dutch government's own international scholarship brand — it was called the Holland Scholarship until recently — and the Radboud University NL Scholarship 2027 is one of the clearest versions of it, with 26 awards available for the 2027-2028 academic year. If you are a non-EEA student looking at a one-year Master's in the Netherlands, this is the funding route to understand first.

WHAT THE AWARD COVERS, AND WHAT IT DOES NOT

The scholarship is €5,000, paid in the first year of your studies, and it can only be received once in a lifetime. It is co-financed by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and by Radboud University. Read the university's own wording carefully: it is not a full scholarship, and it does not cover the costs of living and studying in the Netherlands. Treat it as a substantial contribution towards your first year, not as a funding plan.

The 26 places for 2027-2028 are distributed by faculty: two in Arts, two in Law, five in the Nijmegen School of Management, one in Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, nine in Science and seven in Social Sciences. That distribution is worth studying before you choose a programme — the Science faculty alone holds more than a third of the awards.

There is also a structural catch that decides whether you can receive this at all. The NL Scholarship at Radboud is always combined with the Radboud Scholarship Programme. You must apply for both, and you can be awarded both, or only the Radboud Scholarship — but you cannot be awarded the NL Scholarship on its own.

THE TWO DEADLINES, NOT ONE

Your application must be submitted in the online OSIRIS Application system by 31 January 2027, 23:59 CET at the latest. But that is only the first gate. Your file is then checked by Student Admissions and sent back to you for the handling fee and for any documents that are incorrect, illegible or missing. Your application must be complete by 14 February 2027, 23:59 CET.

Incomplete applications are not considered for scholarship selection at all. The university also recommends submitting your proof of English proficiency before the 14 February date. Decisions are communicated around mid-April 2027.

Eligibility is also strictly non-EEA. Dutch and EU/EEA nationals are not in the frame, and neither is anyone eligible for the lower EU/EEA tuition fee for another reason — possession of a Dutch residence permit that qualifies you for the statutory fee rules you out.

IS THIS YOU? FOUR QUESTIONS

Have you had no prior education in the Netherlands? Even a previous exchange counts against you unless it was part of a Bachelor's degree obtained outside the Netherlands. Do you hold a non-EEA passport and no route to the EU/EEA fee level? Have you already identified which of the six participating faculties your programme sits in, and does that faculty hold enough of the 26 places to make it realistic? And are you prepared to fund the remaining tuition and living costs yourself, because €5,000 will not do it?

Note also that Erasmus Mundus Master's programmes and joint-degree Master's programmes are excluded from NL Scholarship eligibility at Radboud, even though they are English-taught.

HOW TO APPLY

Start with the Master's programme admission, because the scholarship is not a parallel application you can submit into a vacuum. Applying for a Master's programme at Radboud runs through Studielink and then OSIRIS Online Application. During that application you indicate that you wish to apply for an NL Scholarship, and you must also apply for the Radboud Scholarship Programme.

Your materials checklist: a Bachelor's diploma or a certified graduation statement; a certified transcript with courses, grades and GPA, carrying the institution's stamp or signature and contact details; a motivation letter; a curriculum vitae; proof of English proficiency; and the handling fee payment.

Selection weighs academic excellence — grades, test scores, publications, the relevance of your previous degree and the ranking of the university where you obtained it — alongside ambition, judged from your motivation letter, achievements and extracurricular activity. Faculty selection committees consider applicants individually.

https://www.ru.nl/en/education/scholarships/nl-scholarship-for-prospective-students

Talk it through with an OEAC advisor before you submit — a second pair of eyes on the research proposal is usually the difference between shortlisted and rejected.

OTHER EUROPEAN MASTER'S AWARDS TO COMPARE

The Netherlands has a second, larger award at Maastricht that covers considerably more than the NL Scholarship:

https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=19

Belgium's Science@Leuven Scholarship pays €12,000 a year toward a Master's at KU Leuven:

https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=24

And the University of Helsinki's award sits at the tuition-waiver end of the spectrum, at 50 or 100 per cent:

https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=26

COMMON MISTAKES

Applying for the NL Scholarship without the Radboud Scholarship Programme. They are linked, and the pairing is not optional.

Assuming admission to the Master's programme means you will be considered for funding. Admission and scholarship selection are explicitly separate processes.

Missing the 14 February completeness date because you submitted on 31 January and assumed the job was done.

Underestimating the total cost. €5,000 against a non-EU institutional fee of roughly €25,000 a year is a contribution, not a solution — and Dutch visa rules require you to show you can cover the rest.

Applying to a joint-degree or Erasmus Mundus programme and expecting eligibility. Those are excluded.

Finally, a scheduling note: the university also runs scholarship Q&A sessions, and the scholarship office can be reached at scholarships@ru.nl for questions — though never for applications.

Source — NL Scholarship programme, Study in NL: https://www.studyinnl.org/finances/nl-scholarship

Photo: Roger Veringmeier, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Erasmusgebouw_Erasmusplein_1_Radboud_Universiteit_Nijmegen_gezien_vanaf_Heyendaalseweg.jpg)

Last updated: 12 October 2026