University of Twente Scholarship (UTS) 2027: €3,000 to €22,000 for Master’s Students, Eligibility and Deadline

The University of Twente Scholarship (UTS) is a merit award of €3,000 to €22,000 for one year, given to excellent non-EU/EEA students starting a master’s degree at the University of Twente (UT) in Enschede, the Netherlands. It is a partial scholarship. UT pays the money to you as a contribution to study costs, and you still have to cover the rest of your tuition and living costs yourself. On a two-year master’s you can get the same amount again in year two if your first-year results are good enough.

For September 2027 entry, the UTS application form opened on 15 October 2026 at 09:00 CET and closes on 1 April 2027 at 16:00. You must first apply to a qualifying master’s programme, receive a (conditional) admission letter and get a UT student number. Results come out in the first week of May 2027. Students from many African countries can also be considered for the Kipaji top-up through the same application, which I cover below.

University of Twente Scholarship at a glance

How much the University of Twente Scholarship pays, and what it does not cover

UT does not publish how it decides between €3,000 and €22,000. The amount is set per student, and the top of the range is close to a full year of tuition. That matters, because UT’s institutional tuition for non-EU/EEA master’s students in 2027-2028 runs from €18,720 a year (for programmes such as Business Administration) to €22,320 a year (for programmes such as Computer Science).

The university is clear that the UTS is “not a full scholarship”. The money is a compensation for study-related costs. You decide how to use it, and UT does not pay your tuition on your behalf. So if you win €10,000 on a €22,320 programme, you still owe the university the balance, plus rent, food, insurance and travel.

• Tuition gap: the institutional fee minus your award. On the cheapest programmes with the largest award, this can reach zero. On most awards it will not.
• Living costs: for a Dutch study residence permit, the IND asks students in higher education to show €1,130.77 a month (the 2026 figure; the IND revises it every January). Over 12 months that is about €13,570.
• Visa and residence permit fee, insurance, flights and housing deposits: none of these are listed as covered.

Before you apply, UT asks you to check the total cost of studying and living in the Netherlands and confirm you can pay what the scholarship leaves. A partial award only helps if the rest of your funding is in place.

Keeping the scholarship in year two

On a two-year master’s, UT can grant a second-year amount equal to your first-year award. To keep it, you need an average grade of 7 out of 10 and at least 50% of your European Credits by the end of the third quartile of your first year. Missing either condition ends the second-year payment.

University of Twente Scholarship eligibility

You must meet every one of these conditions:

1. Admission: you are admitted, or provisionally admitted, to a qualifying UT master’s programme starting in September 2027.
2. Student number: you already have a UT student number.
3. No earlier UT degree: you have not graduated from a UT bachelor’s or master’s programme.
4. Visa: you meet the conditions for a Dutch entry visa, if you need one.
5. English: Academic IELTS 6.5 overall with at least 6.0 for speaking, or TOEFL iBT 90 with at least 20 for speaking.
6. No Dutch study loan: you are not eligible for DUO student finance.
7. Grades: you are in the top 5% to 10% of your graduating class at your home university.
8. Nationality: you come from a country on UT’s list of eligible non-EU/EEA countries and territories.

Who is excluded

• Dutch nationals, EU/EEA students and current UT students.
• Non-EU students who pay the lower statutory fee, for example because a Dutch residence permit makes them eligible for it. If you become eligible for the statutory fee during your studies, you must tell the UT Scholarship Coordinator and the scholarship stops.
• Master’s programmes at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC). ITC has its own funding routes.
• Pre-master’s students, including those who later move into the master’s.
• Anyone who already holds another UT scholarship. UT gives only one scholarship per student.

Edge cases worth checking

The English rule needs care. The UTS page asks for an IELTS or TOEFL score. UT’s admission rules exempt some applicants from an English test (for example, those with a three-year degree studied in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Ireland or New Zealand). Whether a test-exempt student can still get the UTS without a score is not stated on the scholarship page, so write to the scholarship team before relying on an exemption. Our guide to scholarships in the Netherlands without IELTS lists each Dutch university’s exemption rules.

Dual nationals with an EU or EEA passport pay the EU fee and are therefore outside the UTS. If you already hold a master’s degree, nothing on the page bars you, but the class-rank test is applied to your graduating class, so your bachelor’s record still matters.

Qualifying master’s programmes

For 2027-2028, the UTS applies to 27 MSc programmes:

The grouping is mine, to make the list easier to scan. UT lists the programmes alphabetically.

The Kipaji Scholarship for African UTS applicants

Kipaji is a supplementary award of up to €12,000 that UT can add to a partial or full UTS. Like the UTS, it is paid to you as a contribution to study costs. You do not apply for it separately. You say in your UTS application motivation that you also want to be considered for Kipaji, and the faculty of your programme nominates candidates. UT says Kipaji applies to programmes starting in September 2027 and gives 1 April 2027 as the deadline, the same as the UTS.

To be considered you need a UTS, the nationality of one of the listed countries, and a bachelor’s degree from your home country or a neighbouring country. You also write a motivation on how your studies will raise the scientific level of your home country or support entrepreneurship there. The country list is: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, DR Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.

Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, Egypt and South Africa are not on that list. Students from those countries can still win the UTS itself.

University of Twente Scholarship deadline and key dates

How to apply for the University of Twente Scholarship

1. Pick a qualifying programme: check that your MSc is on the list of 27 and is not an ITC programme.
2. Apply for admission: submit your master’s application through UT’s admission process. The scholarship is separate, and UT needs to admit you either way.
3. Get your admission letter and student number: a conditional letter is enough. Keep the student number; the scholarship form asks for it.
4. Check your funding plan: add up the tuition for your programme and a year of living costs, then subtract €3,000 (the lowest award). If you cannot pay that gap, line up other funding now.
5. Write your motivation: answer the form’s questions about why you chose the programme and what you will do with it. Mention Kipaji here if you are eligible.
6. Prove your class rank: have evidence that you are in the top 5% to 10% of your class, such as a rank statement on your transcript or a letter from your department.
7. Submit the UTS form: before 1 April 2027, 16:00. Results arrive in the first week of May 2027.

The scholarship page does not list the exact upload documents. It points to the application form and a step-by-step infographic. Expect the form to ask for your student number, motivation and grade information, and read every field before you start.

Writing the UTS motivation

UT selects the “most promising” students, and the page stresses self-knowledge. The motivation is where you show it. A structure that works:

1. A specific problem you care about: one concrete issue from your work or studies, in two or three sentences.
2. Why this UT programme: name a course, research group or project at UT that connects to that problem. Generic praise of the Netherlands earns nothing.
3. Evidence you can do it: your class rank, a final-year project, a publication or a job result. Use numbers.
4. What you will do after: a realistic plan for the next five years, and for Kipaji applicants, how it helps your home country.

An opening that gets to the point might read: “In my final-year project I mapped flood damage to 140 farms in my district using free satellite images, and found that early-warning data reached fewer than one in five farmers. UT’s MSc Civil Engineering and Management would give me the water-management modelling I need to fix that.” Swap in your own facts. Selectors read hundreds of these, and a real detail is what they remember.

Common mistakes that cost applicants the UTS

• Waiting for admission until March, then missing the 1 April closing time because the student number came late.
• Applying with an IELTS speaking score below 6.0, even when the overall band is 6.5 or higher.
• Choosing an ITC programme and assuming the UTS applies.
• Treating the award as a tuition waiver and arriving without the money for the balance.
• Forgetting to mention Kipaji in the motivation, which is the only way to be considered for it.
• Claiming a class rank you cannot document.

What happens after you apply

UT announces results in the first week of May 2027. UT does not publish the number of awards on the scholarship page; Scholars4Dev puts it at about 50, which I could not confirm officially. If you win, start the visa process straight away: as a non-EU student UT applies for your entry visa and residence permit, and you will need to show the IND that your scholarship plus your own funds reach the required monthly amount. If you do not win, you still keep your admission, so you can defer, look for other funding or apply elsewhere.

Questions about the scholarship go to sgw-scholarships-ces@utwente.nl. For general study questions, UT’s Study Information Centre is on +31 (0)53 489 5489 and study@utwente.nl.

How the UTS compares with other Dutch master’s scholarships

The UTS has the latest deadline of the four, which makes it a good second application if you missed the January and February dates elsewhere. For the government-funded €5,000 NL Scholarship and what replaced the Orange Knowledge Programme, see our guide to Netherlands government scholarships.

Who should apply, and who should not

Apply if you finished near the top of your class, you have IELTS 6.5 or TOEFL 90 with the speaking minimum, and you can fund a year in Enschede with a partial award. Students from the Kipaji countries have a real chance of a larger package and should apply early.

I would not rely on the UTS alone if you need full funding, if your grades sit in the middle of your class, or if your chosen programme is at ITC. In those cases, put your effort into fully funded options first and keep the UTS as a backup.

FAQ about the University of Twente Scholarship

Is the University of Twente Scholarship fully funded?

No. It pays €3,000 to €22,000 for one year as a contribution to your costs, and you must pay any remaining tuition and all living costs yourself.

What is the University of Twente Scholarship deadline for 2027?

The deadline is 1 April 2027 at 16:00 Dutch time, for programmes starting in September 2027. You need your admission letter and student number before you can apply.

Can I get the UTS without IELTS?

The scholarship page asks for IELTS 6.5 (6.0 speaking) or TOEFL iBT 90 (20 speaking). If UT has exempted you from an English test for admission, confirm with the scholarship team before applying.

Can Nigerian or Ghanaian students get the Kipaji Scholarship?

No. Nigeria and Ghana are not on Kipaji’s country list, but students from both countries can still apply for the UTS itself.

Sources and updates

Award values, eligibility, exclusions, programme list, dates and contacts come from the University of Twente Scholarship page. Kipaji details come from UT’s Kipaji Scholarship page. Tuition figures come from UT’s master’s tuition fees page for 2027-2028, and the living cost figure from the IND required amounts page. The figure of about 50 awards comes from Scholars4Dev and is not on UT’s page. Information checked on 25 October 2026. I will update this post when UT changes its 2027 details.

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.