KTH Scholarship 2027 in Sweden: Full Tuition Waiver, Eligibility and Deadline

The KTH Scholarship is a full tuition waiver from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, for fee-paying students on a master’s programme. It pays the tuition for both years of a two-year programme, as long as your first-year results are satisfactory, but it does not pay living costs. It is very competitive: in 2026, 65 of the 718 admitted applicants who applied for it were nominated, about 9%.

For master’s study starting in August 2027, the Deadline is 15 January 2027 (midnight CET). That is the same day your programme application is due on universityadmissions.se, and the KTH programme must be your first priority. The scholarship form opens on 1 December 2026, your documents and the SEK 900 application fee are due by 1 February 2027, and results come out on 1 April 2027.

KTH Scholarship at a glance

What the KTH Scholarship covers, and what it does not

KTH tuition is high for students from outside Europe. To give you a sense of scale, the Machine Learning master’s page lists a full programme fee of SEK 385,000 for non-EU/EEA/Swiss citizens, charged in advance each semester. The KTH Scholarship wipes that out completely. You pay nothing in tuition for the first year, and the second year is covered too if your first-year results are satisfactory.

There is no stipend. You must fund rent, food, transport and everything else yourself. When you apply for a Swedish residence permit, the Swedish Migration Agency checks that you can support yourself: for applications made in 2026, the maintenance requirement was SEK 10,656 a month. The figure for 2027 applications may be a little higher, so check the Migration Agency site when you apply. A tuition waiver does not remove that requirement.

KTH Scholarship eligibility

• You must pay tuition fees: the scholarship is for fee-paying students as defined by University Admissions in Sweden. That generally means citizens of countries outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, with some exceptions (for example, some holders of Swedish residence permits do not pay).
• First priority only: the KTH programme must be ranked first in your application, and you must have paid the application fee. KTH says it cannot consider you for a second, third or fourth choice.
• An eligible programme: all two-year KTH master’s programmes qualify, plus the joint programmes in Molecular Techniques in Life Science and in Biostatistics and Data Science, and the one-year Architectural Lighting Design master’s.
• Admission requirements met: scholarship assessment runs alongside admission, and only applicants who meet the programme’s entry requirements are considered. Applicants with conditional eligibility (still finishing a degree) can apply.

Programmes that cannot get the KTH Scholarship

Joint Erasmus+ and EIT programmes (such as EIT Digital and EIT InnoEnergy) and the joint programme Computer Simulations for Science and Engineering are excluded. Some of these can apply instead for the KTH Joint Programme Scholarship, which pays tuition for the semesters you spend at KTH and has its own application window in April.

Edge cases

• Nationality: KTH sets no list of countries. Any fee-paying student can apply.
• Indian applicants: Indian citizens with an Indian undergraduate degree can also be considered for the KTH India Scholarship, which adds a living allowance for ten months a year. Only a handful are given; KTH listed one for 2024. You can apply for both.
• Second choices: if you rank Chalmers or another university first and KTH second, you lose your chance at the KTH Scholarship even if you are admitted to KTH.
• Current KTH students: the separate KTH One-Year Scholarship can cover the second-year tuition for students already on a KTH master’s.

How KTH selects scholarship holders

KTH says selection is mainly about academic excellence and your drive to contribute to sustainable development. The official page lists these criteria:

You cannot change your grades or your university’s ranking now. You can still work on the last two rows, so put your effort there.

How to apply for the KTH Scholarship, step by step

1. Choose your programme: KTH lists about 60 master’s programmes. Check the general and programme-specific entry requirements, and confirm the programme is eligible for the scholarship.
2. Apply on universityadmissions.se: the round for 2027 opened on 16 October 2026. You can list up to four programmes; put KTH first. Submit by 15 January 2027.
3. Fill in the scholarship form: when it opens on 1 December 2026, use the “Apply now” button on the KTH Scholarship page. This is separate from University Admissions, and it closes on 15 January 2027.
4. Write your sustainability motivation: the form asks how you intend to contribute to sustainable development with a KTH degree. Draft it offline first.
5. Upload your documents: transcripts, degree certificate, proof of English and any programme-specific items go to universityadmissions.se by 1 February 2027. KTH uses these to judge the scholarship, so it asks for no extra documents.
6. Pay the SEK 900 application fee: also by 1 February 2027. There is no fee waiver. An unpaid fee means no assessment, and no scholarship.
7. Check results on 1 April 2027: admission results appear in your University Admissions account, and scholarship nominees are told by KTH.

Writing the KTH sustainability motivation

Because KTH relies on your existing documents, this short motivation is the only piece of writing written just for the scholarship. KTH gives no word limit on the page, so keep it tight and specific. Use this structure:

1. Pick one or two SDGs: for example clean energy (SDG 7) or sustainable cities (SDG 11). Naming all 17 says nothing.
2. Show what you have already done: a project, internship, research paper or community effort, with a result you can state.
3. Link it to the programme: name courses, a track or a research group at KTH that will give you the skills you lack.
4. State your plan: where you want to apply this after graduation, in a sector or region you name.

A short example opening: “In my final-year project I built a sensor network that cut water losses in a campus pipe system by 18%. A KTH master’s in water and environmental engineering would teach me to design that kind of fix at city scale.”

Common mistakes

• Ranking KTH second or lower.
• Applying to an excluded joint or EIT programme and expecting the KTH Scholarship.
• Forgetting the separate scholarship form after applying on universityadmissions.se.
• Paying the SEK 900 fee late, or not at all.
• Uploading documents that do not meet University Admissions’ country rules (for example, transcripts that must be sent directly by your university).
• Writing a sustainability motivation with no evidence of anything you have done.

After you apply: results and next steps

Admission and scholarship assessment run in parallel between February and March. On 1 April 2027 you see your admission result. You do not have to reply to a University Admissions offer, but if you are nominated for the scholarship, follow KTH’s instructions to accept it and arrange your residence permit.

Once you hold the scholarship, the first year is safe. Your second year depends on satisfactory first-year results, so stay on top of your credits. KTH’s page does not set an exact credit threshold, so ask the scholarship team what counts as satisfactory when you accept.

Costs the KTH Scholarship does not cover

• Living costs: budget at least the Migration Agency maintenance level (SEK 10,656 a month for 2026 applications).
• Residence permit application fee and any document legalisation.
• Flights to Stockholm.
• Housing deposits and furniture.
• The SEK 900 application fee, paid before you know the result.

KTH Scholarship compared with similar awards

Sweden’s other big route is the Swedish Institute scholarship, which KTH notes is for students from targeted countries. For more options by country, read our guide to scholarships in Europe for international students.

Who should apply, and who should not

Apply if you are fee-paying, near the top of your class at a well-regarded university, set on KTH as your first choice, and able to show real work linked to sustainability. Engineers, computer scientists and architects with a project or publication to point to have the best odds.

Think twice if you cannot fund your own living costs, because the waiver gives you no cash. Also skip it if KTH is not your true first choice: ranking it first just for the scholarship can cost you a place at the university you actually prefer.

FAQs

Is the KTH Scholarship fully funded?

No. It covers 100% of tuition for up to two years but pays nothing towards living costs, which you must show you can cover for your residence permit.

Can I get the KTH Scholarship if KTH is my second choice?

No. KTH only considers applicants whose KTH programme is ranked first on universityadmissions.se and who have paid the application fee.

When is the KTH Scholarship deadline for 2027?

The Deadline is 15 January 2027 (midnight CET), the same as the programme application. Documents and the SEK 900 fee are due by 1 February 2027, and results come on 1 April 2027.

How many students get the KTH Scholarship?

KTH does not fix a number. In 2026, 65 of the 718 admitted applicants who applied were nominated, which is about 9%.

Sources and updates

I started from Scholars4Dev’s KTH Scholarships article and checked each fact against KTH’s official KTH Scholarship page (2026 nomination figures, eligible and excluded programmes, selection criteria, 1 December 2026 to 15 January 2027 window, 1 April 2027 results), KTH’s scholarship overview, the KTH Joint Programme and KTH India Scholarship pages, and KTH’s how to apply page (16 October opening, four programme choices, 1 February documents and SEK 900 fee). The SEK 385,000 fee example is from KTH’s Machine Learning fees page. The maintenance figure is from the Swedish Migration Agency. Scholars4Dev quotes 2025 nomination figures (65 of 803); KTH’s page now gives the 2026 figures used here. KTH does not state a credit threshold for year two, a word limit for the motivation, or the 2027 KTH India award count. Checked 25 October 2026.

Jude Chinecherem

I am Jude Chinecherem, a final-year MBBS student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I know what it feels like to want an education your family cannot afford. When my parents could not pay for my schooling, I had to learn how to find scholarships and work the system out on my own, with nobody to guide me. I came out the other side, and now I share everything I learned so the next student does not have to figure it out alone. This is the advice I wish someone had given me back then.