Scholarships for Studying in Spain

Checked against official sources on 9 October 2026

Spain has no single scholarship for international students. Funding comes from several separate routes, and each one is tied to a nationality, a place of residence or a level of study. This page sets out the main routes open in 2026: who can apply, what each pays where an official page says so, when the call usually opens and where to apply. The figures come from the official pages linked in each section, checked in October 2026.

The main routes at a glance

Ministry of Education general grants

The general grants (becas de carácter general) of the Ministerio de Educación, Formación Profesional y Deportes are the largest public scheme in Spain. They cover bachelor's degrees (grado), official master's degrees and higher arts education, and a parallel call covers vocational training (FP) and other non-university studies. They do not cover doctorates, specialisation courses or a university's own non-official qualifications (títulos propios).

The general requirements decide who can apply:

• Spanish citizens and citizens of another EU member state. An EU citizen, or the family, must live permanently in Spain or show employment or self-employment in Spain to receive every component. Otherwise the grant covers tuition only.
• Non-EU citizens may qualify if they are under 18 or held a residence permit on 31 December 2025, the date used for the 2026-27 academic year.
• A study-stay authorisation is not enough. A student who enters Spain on a student visa therefore cannot receive the general grant.
• The applicant must not already hold a degree of the same or a higher level.

Academic conditions and limits on family income and assets also apply.

The grant is a sum of components. For university studies in 2026-27 the ministry lists a tuition grant for credits taken for the first time, €1,700 linked to family income, €2,700 for students who live away from the family home during the course, €50 to €125 for academic results, and a variable amount shared out by formula. At a private university the tuition grant covers only the price set by the region for the same degree at a public university.

Applications are made online in spring. For 2026-27 the period ran from 7 April to 19 May 2026, according to the ministry portal. The whole application goes through the ministry's electronic office, normally without uploading documents.

Regional grants: Catalonia

From 2026-27 students whose family home is in Catalonia no longer apply to the ministry. Under Royal Decree 261/2025 they apply for the general grant of the Generalitat de Catalunya, managed by the agency AGAUR. Its 2026-27 period ran from 7 April to 18 May. Students with a family home elsewhere who study at a Catalan university still apply to the ministry. Other regions publish their own aid, with their own residence rules.

Erasmus+ exchanges and Erasmus Mundus

An Erasmus+ study period is an exchange, not a full degree. The student stays enrolled at the home institution and spends 2 to 12 months at a partner institution in another country. Both institutions need an inter-institutional agreement. There is no central application form: students apply through the international or Erasmus+ office of their own institution.

Erasmus+ students pay no tuition, registration or examination fees at the host institution. The grant is a contribution to travel and living costs, not full funding. The 2026 Programme Guide places Spain in the group of countries with medium living costs. For long stays between EU and associated countries the monthly amount falls between €225 and €674, depending on the sending and the host country; each national agency and institution fixes the exact figure. Students who come to Spain from a partner university in most other regions of the world, Latin America included, receive €850 a month under the international strand of the programme. The post on Erasmus+ and other European programmes has more detail.

Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters work differently. They are full master's programmes run by at least 3 institutions from at least 3 countries, they last 1 to 2 academic years (60, 90 or 120 ECTS credits), and students from all over the world can apply. The best-ranked applicants can receive a full scholarship. The Programme Guide sets it at €1,400 a month for the whole programme, as a contribution to travel, visa, installation and subsistence costs. Programmes cannot charge scholarship holders tuition fees, and cannot charge anyone an application fee. No more than 10% of the scholarships of one programme go to candidates of the same nationality.

Students apply directly to the consortium that runs the programme, in most cases between October and January for courses that start the following academic year. The Erasmus Mundus Catalogue of the EU agency EACEA links to every programme. Some listed programmes no longer offer scholarships, the agency warns.

Fundación Carolina: Latin America and Portugal

Fundación Carolina is part of Spain's public cooperation system. Its postgraduate scholarships are for graduates who are nationals and residents of a Latin American country in the Ibero-American Community of Nations, or of Portugal, and who want to take a master's or a specialisation course in Spain. The 2026-27 call offered 736 scholarships, among them 228 for postgraduate study and 120 for doctorates and short postdoctoral stays.

The call usually opens in January. In 2026 postgraduate applications ran from 12 January to 2 March, and doctoral and short-stay applications closed on 9 April. Some points from the foundation's frequently asked questions:

• Scholarships exist only for the programmes published on the foundation's website. Admission to another programme does not give access to one.
• A candidate may apply to at most five postgraduate programmes and receives a scholarship for only one.
• There are two forms of support, scholarships and study aid, which split the cost differently between the foundation, the Spanish institution and the student.
• The foundation takes out medical insurance for scholarship holders for the length of the programme.

MAEC-AECID grants

The Spanish cooperation agency AECID publishes the Becas Cooperación Española MAEC-AECID. The call for citizens of countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia is the one that funds study in Spain. In 2026-27 it had three programmes: a master's programme, a programme for the master's degree of the Escuela Diplomática, and an Africa-Med master's programme.

These grants are narrow. The programmes described on the call page are for permanent civil servants and public employees of the listed countries. The grant consists of a monthly allowance and health insurance in Spain. Application windows are short: in 2026 the Escuela Diplomática programme was open from 21 May to 3 June and the Africa-Med programme from 2 to 15 July. Africa-Med applicants had to hold admission to the master's degree already and to prove their knowledge of Spanish.

Fulbright and other schemes of sending countries

US citizens can apply to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The Spain page of the programme lists 167 English Teaching Assistant awards, 12 open study and research awards and several master's awards, at the Universidad de Salamanca and at IE University. Applicants must be US citizens who hold a bachelor's degree by the start of the award and do not have a PhD. Students enrolled at a US college or university apply through that institution.

The benefits include a stipend based on the cost of living in the host country and health benefits. They differ in countries with a Fulbright Commission, as Spain has, so the Spanish commission's page of grants for US citizens is the place to check each call. In October 2026 the competition for 2027-28 had already closed.

Students and researchers in Germany can turn to the DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service, which lists more than 200 scholarship programmes for stays abroad. Some US scholarships for specific groups are listed on the page of African American scholarships.

Scholarships from Spanish universities

Most universities have their own grants, usually for master's students and usually as a reduction of tuition fees. They appear on the university's own website under "becas y ayudas" or "scholarships". The lists of universities in Spain and of all schools in Spain lead to each institution's site. Three examples from 2026:

• The Universidad Autónoma de Madrid offered 45 excellence scholarships for official master's degrees in 2026-27. Each one refunds 100% of the public first-enrolment price, up to 60 ECTS credits. Applications ran from 25 March to 15 September 2026, and applicants had to be enrolled already. Its grants page can be filtered by type of student, non-EU students included, and also lists regional calls.
• The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid runs a scholarship programme that covers a fixed amount of master's tuition fees. The same page lists outside funders by country, for example for Mexican students.
• IE University, a private university, states that its IE Awards may cover between 10% and 40% of master's tuition fees and take both merit and financial need into account.

Graduates from Latin America can also check the AUIP, an association of Ibero-American universities that publishes grants for master's degrees at member universities in Spain. The schemes on this page fund degree study; the Spanish language schools in the directory publish their own prices.

Before applying

• Check that the scholarship is real. Every scheme on this page is applied for on the funder's own website or electronic office. The Official State Gazette (BOE) keeps a page of the latest grants published by Spanish public bodies. Erasmus Mundus programmes cannot charge an application fee, and Fundación Carolina funds only the programmes it publishes itself.
• Check nationality and residence first. The ministry's rule on study-stay authorisations shows how much depends on them.
• Prepare documents early. Calls on this page ask for things such as proof of admission or enrolment, the academic record with its average grade, proof of language level and, for public employees, permission from the employer. Fundación Carolina sends a certificate of the award for the visa application at the Spanish consulate.
• Start a year ahead. For courses that begin in September or October, Erasmus Mundus calls close between October and January, Fundación Carolina between March and April, and the ministry's general grants in May.