NL Scholarship (formerly Holland Scholarship)
Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science with participating Dutch higher education institutions (administered via Nuffic / Study in NL)
A EUR 5,000 first-year scholarship for non-EEA students, Ghanaians included, starting a full-time bachelor's or master's at a participating Dutch institution. It is not a full-tuition award, and each institution sets its own closing date.
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Eligibility
- Who can apply
- All except Eu
- Education required
- Secondary completed
- Fields
- Any field of study
- Language
- The NL Scholarship page sets no central language requirement. Applicants must meet 'the specific requirements of the institution of your choice', which include that institution's language-of-instruction and English-test admission standards — Dutch institutions offer both English-taught and Dutch-taught programmes, so check the programme page for which applies and for the IELTS or TOEFL minimum.
- Also required
- Your nationality is non-EEA (the European Economic Area, not only the EU)
- You are applying for a full-time bachelor's or master's programme at one of the participating Dutch higher education institutions
- You meet the specific requirements of the institution of your choice, published on that institution's website
- You do not already have a degree from an education institution in the Netherlands
- The list of participating institutions changes every year — verify your institution is on the current list before applying
About this opportunity
The NL Scholarship, formerly known as the Holland Scholarship, is the Netherlands' national entry-point award for international students from outside the European Economic Area. It is financed by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science together with several Dutch research universities and universities of applied sciences, and it is worth EUR 5,000, received in the first year of study. The page is blunt about its limits: 'this is not a full-tuition scholarship', so treat it as a reduction on your first-year costs rather than a way to fund a Dutch degree outright, and build a realistic budget for the rest of the tuition and for living costs.
The eligibility rules are short. Your nationality must be non-EEA, which covers Ghanaian and other African applicants. You must be applying for a full-time bachelor's or master's programme at one of the participating Dutch higher education institutions, you must meet that institution's own requirements, and you must not already hold a degree from an education institution in the Netherlands. For the 2026-2027 year the scheme ran across eleven research universities — including Eindhoven University of Technology, Maastricht University, Radboud University, University of Groningen, University of Twente, Utrecht University, VU Amsterdam and Wageningen University & Research — plus twenty-four universities of applied sciences.
There is no national application form and no single national deadline. You apply to the institution, and the institution decides the closing date, the eligible fields of study and the selection. The list of participating universities changes every year, so check the current list on studyinnl.org and then read the scholarship page of the specific institution you want before you plan around a date you saw elsewhere.
- Level
- Undergraduate, Master's
- Where
- Netherlands
- Duration
- First year of study only
- Difficulty
- Medium · about 6 weeks to prepare
Funding
Partially funded
- tuition
'The scholarship amounts to EUR 5,000. You will receive this in the first year of your studies. Please note that this is not a full-tuition scholarship.' Living costs and the balance of tuition are the student's responsibility, and the award does not repeat in later years.
What you will need
- Other documents
The NL Scholarship page lists no central document requirements. Documents, the form and the deadline are all set by the Dutch institution you apply to, and at some institutions the scholarship is applied for alongside the admission application. Read that institution's scholarship page before assembling anything.
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