KTH Scholarship 2027 — Full Tuition Master's in Sweden

KTH's own scholarship is a tuition waiver, not a full ride, and the distinction decides whether it is useful to you. It covers the tuition fee for the first and second year of an eligible master's programme at Sweden's leading technical university. It does not cover rent, food, insurance or flights, and Stockholm is not a cheap city. What it does remove is the SEK 310,000-plus tuition bill that stops most non-European students before they start.

The mechanics are unforgiving in a way that is easy to miss: the scholarship only exists for programmes you ranked first. A KTH programme listed as your second, third or fourth choice cannot be funded, and there is no appeal.

WHAT THE SCHOLARSHIP COVERS

The award covers the full tuition fee at KTH for the first and second year, provided your first-year results are satisfactory. In practice that means the academic fee line goes to zero and everything else stays yours: accommodation in Stockholm, the student union fee, health insurance for non-EU students, residence permit costs and daily living.

It is worth reading the odds before you build a plan around it. KTH publishes them: in 2026, nine per cent of scholarship applicants who were admitted to a programme were nominated, 65 out of 718. That is not a reason to skip it — it is a reason to treat it as one route among several rather than the plan itself.

WHO CAN APPLY — AND THE SELF-CHECK THAT MATTERS

The first condition is fee status. You must be required to pay tuition fees, which in practice means citizenship outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland. Applicants who are exempt from fees cannot hold the award, because there is nothing to waive.

The second is ranking. KTH must be your first priority on universityadmissions.se, and you must have paid the application fee. The third is eligibility of the programme itself: two-year master's programmes with both years spent at KTH qualify, as do the joint master's programmes in Molecular Techniques in Life Science and in Biostatistics and Data Science, and the one-year master's in Architectural Lighting Design. Joint Erasmus+ and EIT programmes, and the joint programme in Computer Simulations for Science and Engineering, do not.

Ask yourself:

Are you liable for tuition fees at KTH?

Have you ranked KTH first on your national application, not second as a safe option?

Is your chosen programme on the eligible list rather than one of the excluded joint degrees?

Can you fund living costs in Stockholm independently, at roughly SEK 10,000 or more a month?

Can you explain, concretely, how the degree contributes to sustainable development in your field?

THE DEADLINE

The scholarship application opens on 1 December 2026 and closes on 15 January 2027. Results are announced on 1 April 2027. The programme application itself opens earlier, on 16 October 2026, and closes on the same 15 January date, with supporting documents due by 1 February.

That overlap is the practical trap. The programme application and the scholarship application have the same closing date, but the scholarship uses the documents you submitted for admission — so a thin admission file is a thin scholarship file. Nothing extra is uploaded for the scholarship, which means there is no second chance to improve your case.

HOW TO APPLY, AND WHAT TO HAVE READY

Two steps, in this order. First apply to the master's programme through universityadmissions.se and rank KTH first. Then, once the scholarship window opens, submit the scholarship form on KTH's page:

https://www.kth.se/en/2.985/integrated-product-design/2.25746/kth-scholarship-1.72827

What the assessment actually reads:

Your bachelor's grades, or the GPA equivalent in your system.

The ranking and standing of the university that awarded your degree — KTH states this is a criterion, which is uncomfortable but worth knowing.

Research experience, publications, relevant work experience and teaching experience.

Competition results, awards and substantive extracurricular activity.

Your motivation, specifically how a KTH master's will let you contribute to sustainable development.

There are no additional scholarship documents, so the CV, transcript and motivation you already submitted are the whole case.

SWEDISH AND EUROPEAN ALTERNATIVES

If you want a fully funded Swedish route rather than a tuition waiver, the Swedish Institute's global professionals scholarship covers living costs as well:

https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=35

If your goal is a doctorate rather than a master's, Umeå's PhD position in statistics is salaried employment rather than a scholarship:

https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=52

And if you are comparing engineering schools across Europe, TU Delft's excellence scholarship is the Dutch counterpart:

https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=56

COMMON MISTAKES TO AVOID

Ranking KTH second because you want a backup. A second-priority KTH application cannot be funded, so the backup costs you the scholarship.

Missing the 1 December opening and applying only in January. The window is six weeks, and the form is short — but the programme application behind it is not.

Assuming the award covers living costs. It does not, and a residence permit application requires you to show maintenance funds separately.

Applying to an excluded joint programme and expecting the KTH award. Erasmus+ and EIT programmes have their own funding routes.

Writing a sustainability paragraph that could be pasted into any application. Name the sector, the problem and the specific tools the programme teaches.

Not sure whether your file is competitive? Take it to an OEAC advisor before you submit — a second reader on the transcript and the motivation letter is usually what separates a shortlisted application from a complete one.

Source — KTH Scholarship, application dates and eligibility: https://www.kth.se/en/2.985/integrated-product-design/2.25746/kth-scholarship-1.72827

Photo: Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (File:KTH September 2014 15.jpg)

Last updated: 19 October 2026