TU Delft Excellence Scholarship 2027

TU Delft is the highest-ranked engineering university in the Netherlands, and the Justus & Louise van Effen Excellence Scholarship is the route it funds itself. Sixteen full scholarships are awarded across the university, two per faculty — which means the real competition is not against every applicant in the world, but against the other applicants to your own faculty. That single fact should shape how you apply.

WHAT THE SCHOLARSHIP COVERS

The van Effen award pays full tuition fees for the first year of a two-year TU Delft MSc programme, calculated at either the statutory fee or the institutional rate according to the nationality you register with, plus a contribution towards your living expenses. The second-year allowances continue only if you complete at least 48 of the 60 ECTS credits in your first year, so the award is a two-year commitment that you have to keep earning.

The funding comes from the legacy of Justus van Effen, who studied at TU Delft in the 1940s and believed that technological development would solve societal problems. That is not decoration: it is why the award is aimed at engineers and applied scientists, and why your application has to show more than a good transcript.

Two limits are worth knowing before you count on it. You cannot hold another full or partial scholarship at the same time, so a smaller external grant can actually cost you the full award. And the scholarship does not extend past the two-year programme, whatever happens to your study plan.

WHO CAN APPLY — AND THE SELF-CHECK THAT MATTERS

The award is for a two-year regular MSc, not a joint international programme, and not a part-time route. Beyond that, the sharpest filters are about your history rather than your grades.

Ask yourself:

Have you already started a master's at TU Delft? If yes, you are out — the scholarship exists for new, incoming students only.

Did you take your bachelor's degree at a Dutch university, or are you a TU Delft bachelor's student? Both are treated as domestic for this award and are not eligible.

Are you applying to a two-year regular MSc rather than an International Joint Education Programme? The joint programmes are excluded.

Is your English test ready to upload with the MSc application itself? TU Delft states that applicants who want to be considered for a scholarship are required to include their English language certificate with their MSc application before the scholarship deadline — this is not something you can add later.

Are you plausibly in the top 10% of your graduating class? You do not have to prove a rank, but it is the level the selection committees work at, and your file should read that way.

THE DEADLINE

The deadline is 1 December 2026 at 23:59 CET. Applications for the 2027 entry are open now.

The important nuance is that there is no separate scholarship application window. All documents must be submitted together with your MSc application — the university's own wording is that everything required must be submitted at once, and that after submission no additional documents can be uploaded. Missing the first deadline means the scholarship application is not reviewed at all, even if your MSc application is later accepted. Results go out by email by the end of March 2027, and only successful candidates are contacted.

HOW TO APPLY, AND WHAT TO HAVE READY

You complete the normal TU Delft MSc application, upload the scholarship form into it, and submit both before the deadline.

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/education/study-programme-orientation/practical-matters/scholarships

Your materials checklist:

A complete MSc application: degree certificates, transcripts and the programme's own admission documents. The TU Delft Scholarship Application Form, downloaded from the scholarships page and uploaded with the application. One reference letter, uploaded as a single PDF if you are combining more than one. The English language certificate, uploaded before the scholarship deadline. Your CV and motivation, in the form your programme requires. A clear statement of why you are an excellent candidate beyond your marks — the committees read this part to separate near-identical grade profiles.

Not sure your file is competitive? Take it to an OEAC advisor before you submit — a second reader on the research proposal is usually the difference between shortlisted and rejected.

OTHER FULLY FUNDED DUTCH MASTER'S ROUTES

Twente funds non-EEA master's students through its own scholarship scheme:

https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=44

Radboud's NL Scholarship is smaller but far less competitive:

https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=43

And Maastricht's High Potential Scholarship pays tuition, insurance and living costs:

https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=19

COMMON MISTAKES TO AVOID

Sending your English test after the deadline. It has to travel with the MSc application or the scholarship file is incomplete.

Starting a master's at TU Delft first and applying afterwards. The award is closed to you at that point.

Applying with a Dutch bachelor's and expecting international treatment. It is an explicit exclusion.

Accepting a partial external scholarship alongside it. Combining awards is not allowed, and the rules favour the van Effen award being the only funding you hold.

Rushing the MSc application to hit 1 December and leaving the scholarship form thin. Both are read, and the scholarship form is where the "beyond your grades" case is actually made.

Source — TU Delft scholarships: https://www.tudelft.nl/en/education/study-programme-orientation/practical-matters/scholarships

Photo: Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Delft_University_of_Technology_Aula_seen_from_the_southwest.jpg)

Last updated: 17 October 2026