Holland Scholarship (Now NL Scholarship): Amount, Eligibility and How to Apply for 2027-28

A Quick Note on Timing

• The 2027-28 national application window has not been officially opened by Nuffic yet.
• The most recently completed cycle (2026-2027) opened 1 November 2025, with most deadlines falling between January and February 2026.
• Maastricht University has already confirmed its 2027-28 participating master’s programs open for applications from 1 October 2026.
• Based on this pattern, expect the broader 2027-28 window to open around October or November 2026.
• Start your university admission application early so you’re ready the moment your target university’s scholarship page goes live.
• Bookmark your shortlisted universities’ scholarship pages and check back from October 2026 onward for the confirmed date.

Is the Holland Scholarship Still Active for 2027-28?

• The Holland Scholarship is the Dutch government’s national scholarship for non-EEA international students pursuing a bachelor’s or master’s degree in the Netherlands.
• It was renamed the NL Scholarship in June 2023 by Nuffic, the Dutch body that oversees international education. Only the name changed, not the purpose or funding.
• It is jointly funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science together with participating Dutch universities.
• Both “Holland Scholarship” and “NL Scholarship” are still used interchangeably on university websites, which is why the older name keeps showing up in search results.
• Yes, it remains active for 2027-28. Universities that participated in 2026-2027 are generally expected to continue, subject to each institution’s own confirmation.

My insight: Students often assume a rebrand means a scholarship was quietly phased out. This one wasn’t. Two other Dutch scholarships genuinely did wind down around the same period: the Orange Knowledge Programme, and, at the national level, the Orange Tulip Scholarship’s centralised India coordination.

Holland Scholarship Amount: What You Actually Receive

The flat “€5,000” figure you’ll see everywhere is the baseline, not the ceiling, and it varies by both university and degree level. The clearest way to check what applies to you is by degree level, so that’s how the tables below are split.

Bachelor’s Applicants

Master’s Applicants

The practical takeaway: A master’s applicant at HAN should budget for €5,000, not €12,500. The higher figure only ever applies to HAN’s bachelor’s students.

My insight: Students frequently plan their entire budget around the €5,000 headline number and get an unpleasant surprise when their university offers a fraction of that, or considerably more. Always confirm the number on your target university’s own page, not a generic aggregator listing.

Holland Scholarship Eligibility for Indian Students

My insight: If you’re applying to more than one Dutch university, don’t assume the eligibility bar is identical everywhere. It’s common for a student to comfortably meet Groningen’s requirements and fall short of Wittenborg’s IELTS threshold, or the other way round. Check each university’s page individually before you invest time in an application.

If you’re specifically eyeing a master’s degree, our MS in Netherlands guide covers program-level admission requirements that sit alongside these scholarship criteria.

Which Universities Are Likely to Offer the Holland Scholarship in 2027-28?

The list below reflects the most recently confirmed roster, for 2026-2027, sourced from Study in NL, NL scholarship. Nuffic typically confirms the new list only once a cycle opens, so treat this as a strong starting point for shortlisting rather than a confirmed 2027-28 list until each university updates its own page.

Across all participating institutions combined, Nuffic awards roughly 2,112 Holland Scholarships (NL Scholarships) each academic year, spread across 47 institutions. No institution publishes an official acceptance rate, but selection numbers per faculty are small, often single digits to low dozens, which is why a strong motivation letter genuinely matters.

My insight: Don’t shortlist a university purely because it appeared on last year’s participation list. Confirm directly on the university’s current scholarship page before you build your 2027-28 timeline around it.

Our guide to top universities in the Netherlands is a useful starting point for comparing programs once you’ve narrowed your list.

Holland Scholarship Application Deadline for 2027-28

• If you’re targeting a September 2027 intake at a research university: Submit your program application well before October 2026, since the scholarship application only opens once you hold an admission offer.
• If you’re considering universities of applied sciences: You’ll likely have more time, but you still need a confirmed admission offer first.
• If your target university hasn’t published its 2027-28 date yet: Bookmark the page and check back from October 2026 onward.

Step-by-Step Process: How to Apply for the Holland Scholarship

There is no central Holland scholarship application form that covers every university. You apply directly through your chosen institution:

1. Apply for and secure admission to an eligible bachelor’s or master’s program first. Scholarship eligibility depends on holding a formal admission offer.
2. Log into the university’s own application system. At Utrecht, this happens inside your OSIRIS Application account, where you’ll find an “NL Scholarship” option linked to your program dashboard.
3. Complete the scholarship-specific form, which usually asks for a motivation letter, academic transcripts, and your admission letter.
4. Submit before the university’s specific deadline, and follow up if any document needs resubmission, since some universities, Radboud included, build in a document-correction window before the final deadline.

Documents you’ll typically need:

My insight: The motivation letter is where most Indian applicants underperform, not because their English is weak, but because they write generically about “wanting to study abroad” instead of connecting their specific background to the specific program. Once you’ve secured admission and a scholarship, the next practical step is usually your visa.

Check out our blog on the Netherlands student visa guide for more details on visas and eligibility for Indian students.

Holland Scholarship vs Other Dutch Scholarships

Note that Wittenborg explicitly states its Holland Scholarship cannot be combined with any other Wittenborg scholarship, so always check a university’s stacking rules before assuming you can add scholarships together.

What to Do If You Miss the Holland Scholarship Deadline?

Missing a deadline feels like the end of the road, but it usually isn’t. If your target university’s window has already closed, check first whether it runs a second round or a later intake, since quite a few universities of applied sciences do. If there’s genuinely nothing left this cycle, don’t write the scholarship off altogether. Cycles typically reopen 10 to 12 months later, so you have real time to put together a stronger application next round.

If you’re worried €5,000 won’t stretch far enough even once you get it, plenty of international students in the Netherlands lean on part-time work to close the gap, within whatever hours their visa allows.

Key Takeaways on Holland Scholarship

1. It’s still active, just renamed. The Holland Scholarship has been officially called the NL Scholarship since June 2023, and nothing about its eligibility or funding changed.
2. Dates aren’t fixed yet for 2027-28. Only Maastricht has confirmed its opening (1 October 2026); check your target university’s page from October 2026 onward rather than assuming last cycle’s exact dates will repeat.
3. It’s partial funding, not a free ride. The €5,000 baseline (Rs.5,48,750) covers only part of your first year, so budget the rest of your costs before committing to an intake.

Verified by: LeapScholar’s Netherlands counseling team, with hands-on experience guiding Indian students through Dutch university and scholarship applications.

Have questions about your Holland Scholarship application? Book a free session with a LeapScholar counselor.

Frequently Asked Questions About Holland Scholarship