Romanian Government Scholarship Guide 2027

The scholarship with the lowest stipend and the most hidden costs

Each year, Romania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) offers scholarships to citizens of non-EU countries who want to study at Romanian public universities. The programme has run since 1993 under Government Decision 288/1993. It covers tuition fees in full, offers a dormitory place where one is available, and pays a monthly stipend. It also waives registration, language-test and doctoral admission fees.

On paper, it sounds complete. In practice, the monthly stipend — €65 for bachelor's students and the preparatory year, €75 for master's, and €85 for PhD students, paid in Romanian lei — covers, by our estimate, roughly 10–20% of what you actually need to live in Romania. The rest comes out of your own pocket. The official site doesn't explain what €65 can and cannot buy in Bucharest or Cluj-Napoca. This guide does.

Then there is the language question. Bachelor's and master's programmes under this scholarship are taught in Romanian only. Students who don't already speak Romanian first attend a funded one-year preparatory course. The course is good, but completing an entire degree in a language you've studied for one year is genuinely challenging, and no official material acknowledges that.

PhD students have more flexibility: they can study in Romanian or in a foreign language set by the doctoral school. This is the one track where English is sometimes possible — but finding a supervisor and securing their written agreement before you apply is something you manage entirely on your own.

What almost every online guide gets wrong

Dozens of scholarship aggregator websites call the Romanian MFA scholarship "fully funded." That is technically inaccurate and practically misleading. The scholarship covers tuition and a dormitory room where space is available — but food, transport and personal expenses are entirely your responsibility. With a stipend of €65 a month, you would cover roughly two to three weeks of basic groceries (our estimate) in a mid-size Romanian city.

Three things nobody tells you

The stipend is €65

Most guides call this "fully funded." By our estimate, the €65/month stipend covers roughly 10–20% of actual living costs. Expect to need about €300–500 a month from your own resources on top of it.

The dormitory is not guaranteed

The scholarship funds a dormitory place "to the extent of available places," and you are expected to contact your host university about accommodation yourself. Some universities have enough space, others don't. Private rooms cost roughly €100–400 a month (our estimate), and that comes out of the €65 stipend.

PhD applicants must find their own supervisor

The application requires the written agreement of a doctoral tutor who is a member of your chosen Romanian doctoral school — but the MFA gives no help finding one. You need to contact professors directly and secure that letter before the deadline (31 March in the 2026 call).

Key facts at a glance

Romania has several university cities, and the cost of living varies meaningfully between them. Your choice of city affects how far your stipend — and your personal budget — will stretch.

The full cost-of-living breakdown is in the Benefits & Stipend guide.

The application runs only through the Study in Romania scholarship platform. You register, fill in your details, choose your universities in order of preference, upload every required document as a PDF, and submit. That's it — but the details matter.

1. 1
   Register on the platform

   Create an account at scholarships.studyinromania.gov.ro (in English or French). Results are announced by email; keep checking your inbox, spam folder and platform account rather than waiting passively.

2. 2
   Before mid-February 2027

   Prepare your documents in advance

   Study documents need an apostille (or legalisation) and authorised translations where they are not in English, French, Spanish or Romanian. A valid passport is required before you can apply. Get everything ready before the platform opens, expected around mid-February 2027 (exact date to be confirmed).

3. 3
   Choose your universities

   You choose Romanian public universities in order of preference (two in this guide’s understanding; the published rules don’t state a number, so check the form), using the platform's searchable list to filter by city, field and degree level. Research each one carefully — you cannot change anything after submission, and later requests to switch university or field are not considered.

4. 4
   Expected 31 March 2027 (TBC)

   Submit before the deadline and wait

   Once submitted, the application is locked. In the 2026 call, results were due around 15 July — about three and a half months after the 31 March deadline. Treat that date as a target: plan for the possibility that results arrive a few weeks later.

5. Usually 1 October 2027

   If selected: visa, enrolment, arrival

   You confirm acceptance within the stated term, contact your assigned university, apply for a long-stay (type D) study visa, and arrive before the academic year starts.

Explore the guide

Six sections that together cover every stage of the Romanian MFA Scholarship process. Eligibility is the right place to start — a few exclusions catch a surprising number of applicants off guard.