List of Romania Fully Funded Scholarships 2027 Class of Admissions

Romania has quietly become one of the most accessible routes into European higher education for students outside the European Union. Between the central Ministry of Foreign Affairs scheme and a web of institution-level awards run by the country’s public universities, international candidates have a genuinely rare combination on the table: a fully funded EU degree, no IELTS or TOEFL requirement for most programmes, and an admissions landscape that welcomes applicants from more than a hundred countries across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

For prospective students weighing the soaring tuition of the United Kingdom, the tightened post-study work rules of the Netherlands and the lottery-style selection of German DAAD awards, Romania’s proposition is unusually straightforward. Tuition is waived. Accommodation is subsidized. A monthly stipend lands in the student’s account. And the country’s membership in the European Union means the final degree carries the same recognition as one earned in Paris, Vienna or Madrid.

The Flagship Program: Romanian Government Scholarships

At the centre of the international funding calendar sits the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Scholarships for non-EU citizens, the flagship Romania Scholarship programme administered under Government Decision No. 288/1993 and jointly run by Romania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Education and Research. It is a centralized state scheme rather than a university competition, which means applicants submit a single online file through the Study in Romania platform and indicate their preferred universities and fields, with final placement decided by the ministries based on available seats.

Roughly 85 fully funded places are awarded in each admissions cycle, drawing candidates from more than 120 countries. The programme’s diplomatic origins explain both its reach and its restrictions: it was designed to strengthen Romania’s cultural and academic ties with partner countries outside the European bloc, which is why EU citizens, stateless residents of Romania, members of diplomatic missions accredited to Bucharest and previous holders of the same scholarship cycle are all excluded from eligibility.

What the Scholarship Actually Covers?

The financial package is structured to eliminate the major barriers that keep students from studying in Europe. Tuition is fully waived for the entire duration of the chosen programme, whether that is a three-year Bachelor’s, a two-year Master’s or a doctoral programme of three to four years. Accommodation in university dormitories is subsidized within the limit allocated by the Ministry of Education. Recipients pay no registration, admission or language-testing fees, and the doctoral admission contest fee is also waived for PhD applicants.

A monthly stipend is paid in Romanian lei at indicative euro equivalents of roughly 65 euros for undergraduate students and those enrolled in the preparatory language year, 75 euros for Master’s candidates, and 85 euros for doctoral researchers. Medical cover for emergencies and endemic-epidemic illnesses is included, and scholarship holders receive the same local and domestic transport concessions as Romanian students on buses, trains, metros and river transport.

The stipends are modest by Western European standards, but so is Romania. Official guidance from the Study in Romania portal puts the average monthly student budget at roughly 600 euros, with dormitory rooms costing between 60 and 85 euros, and the country consistently ranks among the most affordable in the European Union. What the programme does not pay for is equally important to note: international airfare, transport from the Romanian border to the host city, food and personal expenses all remain the student’s responsibility.

Eligible Fields and One Major Exclusion

Romania’s public universities span architecture, visual arts, engineering, oil and gas, agricultural sciences, veterinary medicine, journalism, political and administrative sciences, education, social sciences and humanities, Romanian culture and civilization, and a broad range of technical disciplines. The notable and non-negotiable exclusion is the human medical cluster: Medicine, Dental Medicine and Pharmacy are explicitly not funded under the MFA scheme.

This is the reason several of Romania’s leading biomedical universities, including Carol Davila in Bucharest, the Craiova institution and Grigore T. Popa in Iasi, run their own separate international scholarships outside the central programme. For candidates pursuing a medical or pharmacy degree, the institutional route is the only route.

The Language Question!

At Bachelor’s and Master’s level, the programmes funded under the MFA scheme are delivered in Romanian, a deliberate policy choice aimed at promoting the language and culture among international students. Candidates who do not speak Romanian are entitled to a fully funded one-year preparatory course, at the end of which they must demonstrate at least a B1 level of competence before beginning the actual degree. Doctoral candidates enjoy greater flexibility and may, with the agreement of their host doctoral school, conduct their research and defend their thesis in English or another foreign language.

The absence of an IELTS or TOEFL requirement is one of the programme’s most distinctive features. Where English-taught doctoral routes are available, some universities accept a Medium of Instruction certificate from an applicant’s previous English-medium degree in place of a standardized test score.

Who Can Apply?

Eligibility is open to citizens of non-EU countries who hold strong academic records. The minimum threshold is a grade point average of at least 7 out of 10 under the Romanian scoring system, or the equivalent of a “Good” rating in the applicant’s own academic jurisdiction. There is no universal age cap, though universities tend to expect candidates to be at a stage of academic progression consistent with the programme they are applying for.

Doctoral applicants face one additional and strictly enforced requirement: before submitting the online file, they must secure the written agreement of a thesis supervisor who is a full member of the chosen doctoral school, and pass an admission interview. Without this prior agreement, the application is treated as incomplete and is not evaluated.

A Map of Scholarship Opportunities All Over Romania for International Students

Beyond the central MFA scheme, Romania’s public universities run their own institution-level awards, many of them open to international students from developing countries and many of them offered in parallel with the government programme.

The table below maps the major options on the table for international candidates, covering the government scheme, the country’s leading technical and comprehensive universities, and the specialised medical, cultural and research institutions that operate outside the MFA framework.

Note: Institution-level scholarship amounts and eligibility vary between universities. Candidates should verify current details directly with each university’s international office before applying.

Why Romania Is Having a Moment?

Romania’s rise as an international study destination has been driven by a quiet convergence of push and pull factors. Rising tuition in the United Kingdom, tighter work rules in several Western European countries and the premium pricing of Dutch and German English-taught master’s programmes have steadily pushed cost-conscious candidates eastward. Romania has answered with an EU degree at zero tuition, a cost of living that places the average monthly student budget at roughly 600 euros, and a scholarship programme that asks for academic competence rather than standardized test scores.

The trade-off is the language commitment at undergraduate and master’s level, which extends the total time commitment by a year for candidates who need the preparatory course. For doctoral candidates able to conduct research in English, and for applicants willing to learn Romanian as part of a longer EU career plan, the arithmetic is unusually favorable.

The Bottom Line!

Romania’s international scholarship ecosystem is not the richest on offer in Europe, but it is one of the most accessible. It asks for academic competence rather than test scores, it funds students from virtually any non-EU country, and it delivers a full EU-recognized degree at zero tuition cost across a wide network of public universities. For students who are willing to learn Romanian, or who are pursuing a doctorate that can be conducted in English, it represents one of the few remaining routes into fully funded European higher education without the gatekeeping of language certification or application fees.

Prospective candidates should begin assembling their academic documents and authorized translations early, confirm that their chosen field is not among the excluded medical disciplines under the MFA scheme, and apply exclusively through the official Study in Romania government portal for the central programme or through the relevant university international office for institution-level awards.