Theatre SPACEs Erasmus Mundus 2027 — Funded Arts Master's
Fully funded Master scholarship in Norway for International students 2026
A fully funded Erasmus Mundus master's in applied theatre across Norway, Ireland and Romania, with tuition waived for all. Apply by 1 December 2026.
Eligibility
- Bachelor's degree of at least 180 ECTS in a listed ISCED field, including education, arts and humanities, psychology, sociology, journalism and social work
- Minimum average grade equivalent to C, described as Good
- English proficiency according to the coordinator's standards
- Secondary school certificate required in addition to the degree
- No age limit and no work-experience requirement
- Applications through Søknadsweb, with documents uploaded separately afterwards
Theatre SPACEs is a two-year Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in socially engaged theatre practice, coordinated by Western Norway University of Applied Sciences in Bergen with Trinity College Dublin and the University of Arts in Târgu Mureș. It is one of the narrower programmes in the Erasmus catalogue because it starts from a field most funding bodies ignore: applied theatre, community performance and drama work with people rather than for them. The application portal opened on 1 October 2026 and closes on 1 December 2026 at 23:59 CET.
What it covers
Scholarship holders receive EUR 1,400 per month for 24 months, and the programme states plainly that both scholarship and self-financing students are exempt from tuition fees. That second sentence matters more than it looks. In many European joint masters a fee waiver and a stipend are separate awards and you have to be ranked highly enough to get both; here the fee exemption is general, so a scholarship offer is purely about the monthly payment and your own living budget.
Studying in three countries is compulsory rather than optional, and the sequence is fixed by the consortium rather than chosen by you. Norway, Ireland and Romania mean three different theatre traditions, three different funding environments for the arts, and three different labour markets for a theatre practitioner. The programme exists so that you can compare them, which means the comparative angle should be the reason you apply, not a side benefit you mention in passing.
Who can apply
The entry requirement is a bachelor's degree of at least 180 ECTS in one of a published list of ISCED fields, and the list is unusual in its breadth. It includes education, all of arts and humanities, political sciences and civics, psychology, sociology and cultural studies, journalism, and then a cluster of care and social professions — therapy and rehabilitation, care of elderly and disabled adults, childcare and youth services, and social work and counselling. Business, law or engineering degrees that do not map to those codes are the profiles most likely to be turned away, so check your own discipline against ISCED 2013 before you invest time in the application.
The grade requirement is a minimum average equivalent to C, described as "Good", and a proof of English proficiency according to the coordinator's standards. There is no stated age limit and no work-experience requirement, which is unusual for an applied programme and means final-year undergraduates can reasonably apply.
Run this self-check before you start. Does the ISCED code of my bachelor's appear on the programme's list, and can I quote the code? Can I document an average grade at or above the C equivalent under the Norwegian scale? Do I have an English test result that will still be valid on 1 December 2026? Can I obtain my secondary school certificate, my degree certificate, transcripts with the institution's grading scale explained, a passport copy and a CV? Can I write a motivational statement that names the three sites and says what I want to compare between them? And — this is the one that eliminates most applicants — can I explain what kind of theatre practice I actually do, with an example?
The documents list is longer than the equivalent for a humanities master's, because this is an arts programme with a practical core. The secondary school certificate is required in addition to the degree, which surprises graduates who assumed their bachelor's superseded it. Where transcripts do not carry an explanation of the grading scale, the committee cannot convert your average grade and will treat the requirement as unmet.
The deadline
Applications close on 1 December 2026 at 23:59 CET, and the programme is explicit that the portal then closes automatically, which means no late submission is possible under any circumstances. The timeline after that is indicative: invitations to oral interviews arrive in early March, interviews are held in the first half of March, results come in late March or early April, and successful candidates have one week to confirm and sign an agreement.
How to apply
You submit through the coordinator's own system, Søknadsweb, not through a general European portal. Register as a new international applicant, then select the admission named "Erasmus Mundus Joint Master" and choose Theatre SPACEs from the list, add it, and submit. Documents are uploaded afterwards, under the "My documents" tab, which is the step people miss — submitting the form does not put your files in the file.
https://www.theatre-spaces.eu/admission
Two procedural points are worth writing down. The large red application button only appears on the programme's page at the coordinator's website while the portal is open, so if you cannot see it, you are either too early or looking at a cached copy of the page. And because the one-week confirmation window after results is short, anyone who is travelling or offline in late March risks losing a place they have won.
Tips to win
The last round drew 1,074 applicants for 25 places, so roughly one in forty-three. At that ratio the committee is not looking for people who would benefit from the programme; it is looking for people who will change a practice after it. Write about a specific group you have worked with, what did not work, and what you would want to test across the three sites. A statement about a general love of theatre reads identically to a thousand others.
Use the interview to show that you understand the programme's political premise. Socially engaged theatre is a contested field, and the panel will know whether you have thought about the difference between theatre for a community and theatre with one. Naming a practitioner or a project you disagree with, and why, is stronger evidence of fit than listing ones you admire.
Common mistakes
Submitting the Søknadsweb form and assuming the documents went with it. Leaving out the secondary school certificate because the bachelor's felt sufficient. Presenting a transcript with no grading-scale explanation, which blocks the C-equivalent check. Treating the summer months as preparation time when interviews fall in March. And writing a motivational statement that could be sent to any performance master's in Europe.
An OEAC advisor can check your ISCED field against the published list and review the motivational statement before the 1 December deadline. Ask the advisory team for a review while there is still time to revise.
Other scholarships worth comparing on OEAC Network:
https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=81 https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=77 https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=51
An OEAC advisor can check your field against the published ISCED list and read your motivational statement before the deadline. Ask the advisory team for a review.
Last updated: 26 October 2026. Source: https://www.theatre-spaces.eu/admission
Photo: Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Always confirm the deadline and eligibility on the official page before you apply. Scholarship dates change between rounds, and this listing is a summary — the provider's own page is the authoritative source. OEAC Network lists scholarships for free and is not an agent for any university or funding body.
