The honest summary: Dutch higher education is subsidised, so there are not many big scholarships, and the ones that exist are competitive. Erasmus University Rotterdam says this on its own scholarship page: getting a scholarship is not easy, chances are slim, and you should start looking six to twelve months ahead. Here is what is actually out there as of October 2026.

The NL Scholarship (formerly the Holland Scholarship)

Study in NL calls it a €5,000 contribution paid in the first year of your studies, for non-EEA students starting a full-time bachelor's or master's at a participating institution. You must not already have a degree from a Dutch institution. You apply through the institution, not centrally, and each sets its own deadline. The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science finances it together with the institutions, and Nuffic administers it. The 2026-2027 application opened on 1 November 2025.

University awards for non-EEA master's students

Most of the money sits with the universities. Each runs its own cycle, and these are the pages we checked. The dates below are as of October 2026 and move every year:

AwardWhat the official page saysDate on the page
Leiden Excellence Scholarship (LExS)Leiden: partial tuition, five levels from €10,000 to €19,000; about 25 awards a year1 December 2026
VU Fellowship ProgrammeVU Amsterdam: tuition waiver only; also applies you for the NL Scholarship1 February 2027
Maastricht NL-High PotentialMaastricht: 18 full scholarships with tuition waiver and monthly stipend1 February 2027
TU Delft van Effen ExcellenceTU Delft: tuition plus a living-expense contribution, two per faculty1 December 2026
TU/e Scholarship for ExcellenceTU/e: €7,500 a year for two years, selected master's programmes1 January 2027
University of Twente ScholarshipTwente: €3,000 to €22,000 for one year1 April 2027
Wageningen Excellence ProgrammeWageningen: tuition waiver for 24 months1 December 2026
Amsterdam Merit ScholarshipUniversity of Amsterdam: per-faculty awards for non-EU/EEA master's studentsDiffers by faculty

Read the notes carefully. The dates refer to different intake years depending on the institution, and only the institution's own page is authoritative.

Other routes

  • Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters. The Erasmus+ site describes full scholarships covering travel, visa and a living allowance for top-ranked students worldwide, with applications made directly to the programme and usually between October and January.
  • MENA Scholarship Programme. Short courses for professionals from several Middle East and North Africa countries, listed on Study in NL’s scholarship overview.
  • Fulbright. American students can apply for a Fulbright grant for the Netherlands through the U.S. Student Program.
  • Wageningen's Africa Scholarship Programme covers travel, living allowance, tuition, visa and health insurance for African citizens, per the Wageningen page.
  • Erasmus University Rotterdam also lists scholarships by nationality and school, such as COLFUTURO for Colombians and China Scholarship Council funding for Chinese PhD students.

What has ended

  • The Orange Knowledge Programme ended in 2024, and Study in NL says there are no new application rounds.
  • Utrecht says the Utrecht Excellence Scholarship will no longer be offered for programmes starting in 2026-2027. Existing recipients keep theirs.

We have left both out of our scholarship directory.

Three habits that help

  1. Apply for admission early, because most scholarship forms need your student number.
  2. Read what the award covers. Several cover only tuition, and you still have to show money for living costs for your residence permit (see the income requirement).
  3. Check the date on the page itself each cycle. We list deadlines as text, not as a fixed date, because they move.

Sources

Opened and checked on 5 October 2026. Figures that change from year to year are marked "as of October 2026"; check the source before you rely on them.