Scholarships to Study in Netherlands for Indians (2026)

Scholarships to study in the Netherlands are real, but for an Indian student they work differently from what most guides suggest. There is no broad need-based aid for students from outside Europe. The awards that do exist, from the 5,000 euro Holland Scholarship to a full Erasmus Mundus scholarship, are merit-based, mostly partial, and far from guaranteed. So the honest plan starts from self funding or an education loan, with a scholarship treated as a bonus on top. And the one move that decides whether you can win any of them is applying to your programme early, because nearly every Dutch scholarship needs you to be admitted first. This page maps every fund an Indian applicant can realistically target for a 2026 or 2027 start, what each one pays, and how it counts toward the proof of money your Dutch student visa demands.

What is the honest funding reality for Indian students in the Netherlands?

Most Indian students in the Netherlands pay their own way, through family savings or an education loan, and treat any scholarship as a partial top-up. The Dutch system has no large need-based grant for non-EU students, so awards go on academic merit, not on how much help you need. That is the opposite of what a hopeful applicant assumes, and it shapes every decision below.

A non-EU master’s at TU Delft costs 25,633 euros for 2026-2027, and master’s fees at the University of Amsterdam run from about 18,810 to over 22,500 euros a year. On top of tuition you need living money, which Study in NL puts at 1,000 to 1,500 euros a month. Against that, the flagship national award pays a one-off 5,000 euros, roughly a fifth of a single year’s tuition at Delft.

Fully funded routes do exist, and this page covers them, but they carry low single-digit selection odds. A budget that assumes you win one is not a budget.

Which scholarships can an Indian student actually get in the Netherlands?

Three funding frameworks matter most for Indian applicants, and they sit at very different levels. The national Holland Scholarship is a small one-off grant. The Orange Tulip Scholarship was the India-specific option, but it has been discontinued. The Erasmus Mundus scholarship is the fully funded route, tied to specific joint programmes rather than any Dutch degree. The table sets them side by side, including how each one interacts with the proof of funds the Dutch immigration service asks for.

The three drill-down sections below take each fund in turn, starting with the one almost every other guide still gets wrong.

Is the Orange Tulip Scholarship still available for Indian students?

No. As of 2026 there is no live official Orange Tulip Scholarship for Indian students, even though most consultancy pages still list it as open. The scheme was run by Nuffic Neso India and reportedly closed in 2024. Its old pages now redirect and return errors, and the official Study in NL scholarships list names only the MENA Scholarship Programme, Erasmus+, and the NL Scholarship. Orange Tulip is not on it.

This matters because Orange Tulip was genuinely valuable when it ran. It was one of the few awards restricted to Indian nationals, so you competed only against other Indian applicants rather than the whole world, and some universities offered full tuition through it. That India-specific angle is exactly why it is still repeated across blogs that have not checked. If you have read that Orange Tulip is your best shot, that advice is out of date, so confirm the current position with Nuffic before you spend any time on it.

How much is the Holland Scholarship, and who can get it?

The Holland Scholarship, now called the NL Scholarship, is a one-off grant of 5,000 euros paid in your first year, and Study in NL is blunt that it is not a full-tuition scholarship. It is funded by the Dutch education ministry with the universities, and Nuffic grants about 2,112 of them a year across dozens of institutions, though the participating list changes each cycle. To qualify you hold a non-EEA passport, hold no earlier Dutch degree, and are admitted to a full-time bachelor’s or master’s at a participating university.

There is no single national form. Each university runs the award inside its own admission process, and the deadlines are early. Radboud University, for one, offers a maximum of 12 NL Scholarships for 2026-2027, always paired with its own Radboud Scholarship Programme, and asks you to submit through its OSIRIS system by 31 January 2026 and complete the file by 14 February 2026. The grant is paid once and only in the first year, so it eases your opening costs without changing the overall size of the budget you have to prepare.

What does an Erasmus Mundus scholarship cover, and how do you apply?

An Erasmus Mundus scholarship is the fully funded route, and it is the most generous award an Indian student can win for study that includes the Netherlands. It is attached to Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters, which are single degrees taught by a group of universities across two or more countries, so it does not apply to an ordinary master’s at one Dutch university. The European Union funds it, not the Dutch state.

The package is comprehensive. The official Erasmus+ programme states that scholarships cover your participation costs and contribute to travel, visa, and a living allowance, and the Erasmus+ Programme Guide sets that allowance at 1,400 euros a month for the full length of the course, up to 24 months. You need a bachelor’s degree, or to be in your final year, and you apply directly to the consortium that runs your chosen joint master’s, between October and January for the following year. Selection is worldwide, with far more strong applicants than places, so even a good Indian profile treats it as one bet among several rather than a certainty.

Which university merit scholarships should Indian students target?

Beyond the national and EU schemes, individual Dutch universities run their own merit awards for non-EU students, and these are where a strong Indian record has the best chance of real money. They cluster at the leading Dutch universities, they reward high grades, and most are for master’s programmes rather than bachelor’s. The table lists the main ones with what they pay and when they close.

Maastricht’s NL-High Potential award gives just 21 full scholarships a year for its whole master’s intake, and TU Delft’s van Effen scholarship a minimum of 16. The grade bars are equally firm, with the VU Fellowship Programme and Amsterdam law scholarships both wanting a Dutch 8.0, which is a high first-class Indian profile. Note too that a tuition-only award like VUFP still leaves your entire living cost to prove, a point that matters for your visa below.

Why must you apply to your programme before you can win a scholarship?

Because almost every Dutch scholarship requires that you are already admitted, or at least have a live application, before it will consider you. There is no separate window where you apply for the money on its own. Miss the admission deadline and you are locked out of the funding regardless of how strong your marks are, and this is where well-qualified Indian students most often lose out.

TU Delft’s excellence award needs a complete MSc application by 1 December 2025. Maastricht, VU Amsterdam, and Radboud all want scholarship files in by early February 2026, and the University of Amsterdam by 15 January 2026. Every one of those sits months before a September start, so the real first step is to choose your university and apply through Studielink in the autumn, well ahead of when funding feels urgent. These 2026-2027 dates have now passed, but the pattern repeats each cycle, and Twente’s next round, for a September 2027 start, opens on 15 October 2026.

Applying in autumn also leaves time to fix a missing document before the cut-off, which is often what separates a complete scholarship file from one set aside as incomplete.

How do scholarships count toward the IND proof of funds for your visa?

A scholarship can serve as part or all of your visa proof, but only if it is documented and large enough, and most awards are not. For a Dutch student visa, the Immigration and Naturalisation Service, or IND, sets a required amount you must show for living costs. For 2026 that figure is 1,130.77 euros a month, which the university confirms to the IND for your whole stay.

Your university, acting as the recognised sponsor, submits this for you and applies for the permit, which runs three months longer than your course. A scholarship letter is one accepted way to prove the money, and the IND says the scholarship declaration must state the granting institution, the amount, and the start and end dates. How far it gets you then depends on the award’s shape. A full award like Erasmus Mundus, whose 1,400 euro monthly allowance clears the 1,130.77 threshold, covers the whole requirement on its own. A tuition-only or one-off award cannot, because a waived fee removes tuition from the sum but the monthly living amount stays. If your annual living requirement is about 13,569 euros, a 5,000 euro grant leaves most of it for you to show through savings, a sponsor, or a loan.

Timing adds a catch of its own. Scholarship results often land after the point where you must prove your funds, so an award you are still hoping for cannot serve as your visa evidence. You show the money from your own resources, and rework the plan only if a scholarship later comes through.

Sources

• Study in NL, NL Scholarship, cost of living, and scholarships list, studyinnl.org
• Nuffic, NL Scholarship overview, nuffic.nl
• Radboud University, NL Scholarship and RSP deadlines, ru.nl
• Erasmus+, Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters and Programme Guide, erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu
• Maastricht University, NL-High Potential Scholarship, maastrichtuniversity.nl
• TU Delft, Justus & Louise van Effen Excellence Scholarship and tuition fees, tudelft.nl
• University of Twente, University of Twente Scholarship, utwente.nl
• VU Amsterdam, VU Fellowship Programme, vu.nl
• University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Excellence and Merit Scholarships and tuition fees, uva.nl
• IND, required amounts 2026, student residence permit, and income requirements, ind.nl

Related reading. This page sits under our guide to studying in the Netherlands for Indian students, and you can find more country guides in our study abroad articles hub.