Scholarships to Study in Austria: OeAD, Ernst Mach and More

The most valuable scholarship in Austria is one you will not find in any scholarship database, because it is built into the system. Enrol as an EU citizen on a public bachelor’s or master’s degree in Vienna, Graz or Innsbruck, and the tuition line on your account reads about €25 a semester — the student-union fee, and nothing more. That single fact reshapes the funding question. Where an American or British applicant chases scholarships to claw back a fee in the tens of thousands, an EU student in Austria has no such fee to claw back, so the real work is paying for living. And for a non-EU student the decisive number is stranger still: not the tuition at all, but the bank balance the residence permit insists you prove.

Here is the bottom line. For EU, EEA and Swiss citizens, public-university tuition is just the ÖH fee of about €25.20 per semester — roughly €50 a year — so no scholarship is needed for fees; what you fund is living, around €11,400–€14,000 a year in Vienna (ÖH). Non-EU students pay €726.72 per semester (about €1,453 a year), modest by international standards, but face a residence-permit proof-of-funds gate of €722.58 a month if under 24, or €1,308.39 if 24 or over (OeAD). The named scholarships flow from the OeAD and its database grants.at: the Ernst Mach Grant at around €1,300 a month for research and study stays, the university-paid Leistungsstipendium of €750–€1,500, and Erasmus+ and CEEPUS for funded mobility. One caveat worth stating up front: Austria’s named-scholarship pot is smaller and more research-focused than Germany’s — but because tuition is near-zero for EU students, even a modest living-cost grant carries you a surprising distance, and for a non-EU student it earns its keep twice over by helping satisfy the permit.

Think of this as the money chapter of our complete guide to studying in Austria, which handles the universities, the open-admission model, the Aufnahmeverfahren, the MedAT and the residence permit in full. Here the subject is funding, end to end: why near-free EU tuition changes the whole question, what the OeAD and grants.at actually offer, the Ernst Mach family and exactly what each line pays for, the statutory university scholarships, mobility money for EU students, and the order in which to go after it. To set Austria beside the wider field, read our scholarships for European universities overview and, for the country next door, scholarships to study in Germany.

Scholarships and Funding in Austria, Key Numbers 2025/2026

Source: ÖH and university fee pages; OeAD / grants.at (Ernst Mach ~€1,300/month, the rate published for the FH line); Studienförderungsgesetz (Leistungs- and Förderungsstipendien); OeAD residence-permit proof-of-funds thresholds, 2025/26. Terms change yearly — confirm before applying.

For an EU student, the best scholarship is written into the law

Before you spend a weekend hunting named awards, understand the structural saving, because for an EU student it dwarfs everything else. At Austria’s public universities, an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen pays only the ÖH student-union fee of about €25.20 per semester — roughly €50 a year — within the standard duration of the degree plus two tolerance semesters. That exemption is fixed in the Austrian Universities Act (Universitätsgesetz 2002), not handed out by a selection committee; there is no application, no deadline and no renewal. Overshoot the window and a tuition fee of €363.36 per semester kicks in, but for a student who finishes on schedule, tuition barely registers as a line on the budget.

Set that against the alternatives. International undergraduates in the UK pay £24,000–£40,000 a year; at a US private university, $40,000–$80,000. An Austrian public degree costs an EU student almost nothing in tuition, so the money you actually need is for living: €11,400–€14,000 a year in Vienna, and noticeably less in Graz, Innsbruck, Linz or Salzburg. The scholarship question for an EU applicant is therefore not “how do I find €30,000 a year for fees” but “how do I cover a student’s rent, food and transport” — a much smaller problem, and one a single modest grant can take a real bite out of.

For a non-EU student the structural picture shifts in a way worth stating plainly. Tuition is real but small — €726.72 per semester, about €1,453 a year. The binding financial gate is not the fee; it is the residence permit’s proof of funds, which for 2026 requires showing about €722.58 a month if you are under 24 (roughly €8,670 for a year) or €1,308.39 a month if you are 24 or over, held in an accessible account for twelve months. That reframes which scholarships matter for non-EU applicants: a living-cost stipend is worth more than a tuition discount, because it both pays your way and helps you clear the permit. A grant that would barely register against US tuition can, in Austria, be the difference between satisfying the authorities and not.

The OeAD and grants.at — start here, not with a generic search

Austria’s public scholarship system runs through one body and one database, and using them is the single most efficient move you can make. The OeAD — Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation — is a non-profit owned by the Republic and financed mainly by the Federal Ministry of Women, Science and Research (BMFWF). It administers the country’s government and bilateral scholarships, the Ernst Mach family, and Austria’s participation in Erasmus+ and CEEPUS, and it is the first stop for any international applicant (OeAD grants overview).

The practical tool is grants.at, Austria’s official database of scholarships and research grants. It is searchable by country of origin, target group (undergraduate, graduate, PhD student, postdoc, researcher), field of study, grant type (whole-degree grants, semester or one-year grants, summer-course grants, research grants) and funding organisation. That last filter matters: the funders listed include not only the OeAD but the Scholarship Foundation of the Republic of Austria, the City of Vienna, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the Marshallplan-Jubiläumsstiftung, Fulbright and a long list of individual universities — Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck, JKU Linz, BOKU, Salzburg, the medical universities and more. Filtering by your own nationality and level strips out the awards you cannot win and surfaces the handful you can.

A word of realism. Unlike Germany, Austria has no single mega-funder on the scale of DAAD writing €992-a-month stipends to almost every country. The OeAD’s flagship Ernst Mach grants are powerful but targeted at research and study stays rather than full degrees, and much of the day-to-day funding for degree students sits in the statutory university scholarships below. Treat grants.at as the map, your level and nationality as the filter, and the named schemes in the next section as the destinations worth a serious application.

The Ernst Mach Grant — what it actually funds (and what it does not)

The OeAD’s best-known scholarship is the Ernst Mach Grant, named after the Austrian physicist and philosopher, and financed by the federal science ministry. Its monthly rate is around €1,300 — the figure published for the University of Applied Sciences line is €1,300 a month (OeAD / FH Salzburg) — which is generous against Austrian living costs. But the detail that trips up applicants is what it is for, so read this carefully before building a plan around it.

The Ernst Mach Grant – worldwide invites PhD students, postgraduates and postdocs from outside Austria to spend 1 to 9 months on a research stay, with a confirmed academic supervisor at an Austrian university. Applicants must be no older than 35, and the grant explicitly cannot finance a complete or partial regular bachelor’s, master’s or PhD programme — the OeAD states this plainly, because so many applicants assume otherwise. It is a visiting-scholar grant, not a degree scholarship. The deadline for the following academic year is 1 February, with results around early July (OeAD FAQ).

Around the worldwide line sit variants that change the picture for some applicants. The Ernst Mach Grant for an Austrian University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule) funds a 4-to-10-month study visit for bachelor’s (after at least four completed semesters) and master’s exchange students — again a stay, not a degree. The Ernst Mach – ASEA-UNINET line is the one that does fund full study: it offers full PhD grants of up to 36 months, postdoctoral stays and music-practice grants to applicants from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. And the Ernst Mach Follow-Up Grant, Franz Werfel Fellowship (German-language and Austrian literature) and Richard Plaschka Fellowship (Austrian history) serve specific academic niches. The takeaway: if you are a researcher who needs months in Austria, Ernst Mach is excellent; if you want a full degree funded, look to the ASEA-UNINET full-PhD route or a university award instead.

From the College Council desk. The single most common Austria mistake we see is a school-leaver pinning a three-year bachelor’s on “the Ernst Mach scholarship.” It does not work that way: Ernst Mach pays for visiting researchers, never for degree students, and an undergraduate who builds a plan around it loses a year discovering as much. For a non-EU undergraduate the real funding stack is modest tuition, a living-cost plan that clears the proof-of-funds gate, part-time work, and a university award if one exists. For a researcher, the order is reversed from what most applicants assume: secure the supervising professor first, then write the Ernst Mach application around that confirmed host. Find the institute and the name before you write a single line of the proposal.

And beyond — the university scholarships and mobility funding

For students pursuing an actual degree, the workhorse awards are the statutory university scholarships under the Studienförderungsgesetz (StudFG), paid by your own university rather than a central agency. The table leads with who each scheme is genuinely for, because in Austria fit and level — not a headline amount — decide whether an application is worth your time. Every figure is checked against the awarding body’s own material.

The most accessible is the Leistungsstipendium (performance scholarship): €750 to €1,500, a one-off merit award for outstanding results — typically a grade average of 2.0 or better — and, importantly, independent of income, so there is no means test. Each university runs its own annual call (StudFG §§57–61), and international students enrolled there can apply, usually once they have Austrian grades. Its companion, the Förderungsstipendium, is a project grant of €750 to €3,600 toward the material costs of a thesis or dissertation — travel, materials, conference fees — for scientific or artistic work. For EU students wanting a funded period rather than a full degree, Erasmus+ funds a 3–12-month study or traineeship stay at an Austrian partner university, and CEEPUS funds mobility specifically for Central and Eastern European students, often via a host-country living allowance. Beyond those, the Scholarship Foundation of the Republic of Austria, the City of Vienna, the FWF (for research) and individual universities run their own awards, all searchable on grants.at.

Read the table for fit, not for prestige. The OeAD’s Ernst Mach grants are the most generous and the most prestigious, but they fund research and study stays, so a degree-seeking undergraduate cannot lean on them. For that student, the realistic stack is the near-free EU tuition, a Leistungsstipendium once grades exist, Erasmus+ or CEEPUS for a funded period, and part-time work. The named scholarships top up a budget; they rarely build it from scratch.

How funding works by level — bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral

Austrian scholarships are not evenly spread across study levels, and knowing where the money sits saves wasted applications.

At bachelor’s level, the dedicated scholarship market is thinnest. The Ernst Mach grants do not fund a full undergraduate degree, and the statutory awards reward results you do not yet have on arrival. For an EU undergraduate, the funding “stack” is really the near-free tuition plus living costs covered by family and part-time work, with a Leistungsstipendium added once you have strong first-year grades. For a non-EU undergraduate, the same applies plus the proof-of-funds requirement — so the planning is about clearing €722.58–€1,308.39 a month, not winning a prize. EU and EEA students can work without restriction; non-EU students may work up to about 20 hours a week with an employment permit.

At master’s level, more opens up. The Ernst Mach FH line funds master’s exchange visits, Erasmus+ and CEEPUS are squarely aimed at this stage, and the Leistungsstipendium continues. A strong international master’s applicant realistically targets a funded mobility period plus a Leistungsstipendium, and — for the right nationality — an ASEA-UNINET route to a full programme.

At doctoral level, funding shifts from “scholarship” to “position” and “research stay.” Many Austrian PhD candidates are employed on a research contract attached to a chair, institute or an FWF-funded project, which pays more than any stipend and includes social insurance. Where a contract is not available, the Ernst Mach worldwide grant (around €1,300/month for up to 9 months) funds a research stay, and the ASEA-UNINET full-PhD line funds complete doctorates for eligible Southeast Asian applicants. For a doctorate, the first question is “is there a funded position or project in this research group” — and often the answer is yes.

Funding by Level at a Glance

Source: OeAD / grants.at; Studienförderungsgesetz; FWF and Austrian university doctoral-funding practice. EU public tuition is the ÖH fee within standard study time; non-EU tuition is €726.72/semester.

The order to chase funding — a practical sequence

The instinct is to start with the prize that has a name and a logo — and that instinct quietly costs people money, because the surest savings in Austria are the ones nobody competes for. Turn the order around. In our experience advising international applicants, the route to the lowest net cost moves from the saving you can simply decide to take to the one you have to win, in that order.

First, bank the near-free EU tuition. If you hold EU, EEA or Swiss citizenship, choosing a public university already reduces tuition to the ÖH fee — a larger, more certain saving than any scholarship, and a decision you make rather than win. Second, if you are a non-EU student, plan the proof of funds early: you must show €722.58 a month (under 24) or €1,308.39 a month (24 and over) for the residence permit, so build that into your budget and let any living-cost stipend pull weight on both fronts at once. Third, line up mobility funding that does not compete with a full-degree award: Erasmus+ if you are an EU student wanting a funded period, CEEPUS if you are from Central or Eastern Europe, and any home-country agency that funds study in Austria. Fourth, if you are a researcher, build an Ernst Mach application a year ahead, anchored to a confirmed Austrian supervisor — the worldwide line for a short stay, ASEA-UNINET for a full PhD if you qualify. Fifth, once enrolled, apply for the Leistungsstipendium after your first semester, when you have Austrian grades, and check your university’s own awards on grants.at.

Followed in that sequence, Austria rewards the organised far more than the lucky. The applicant who fixes the tuition position, budgets for the proof of funds, secures an Erasmus+ or CEEPUS place and then collects a Leistungsstipendium once the grades are in will, almost every time, come out cheaper than the one who poured every hour into a single headline grant and let the certain savings slip past.

Where the Money Actually Comes From

A realistic funding stack for an international student in Austria, 2025/26.

Source: indicative funding stack from OeAD / grants.at, the Studienförderungsgesetz, the FWF, the ÖH and the European Commission; amounts vary by scheme, level, nationality and year.

How College Council helps

Austrian funding favours the applicant who has read the fine print, and the fine print is where most people come unstuck: the largest saving is disguised as “near-free tuition” and never appears on a scholarship list, the famous Ernst Mach grant pays for research visits rather than degrees, and the line between an OeAD scheme, a statutory university scholarship and a mobility grant is precisely the distinction international families tend to miss. That is the work we do together — mapping which awards fit your nationality, level and field, whether a non-EU plan clears the proof-of-funds gate, and which Austrian research groups make an Ernst Mach application credible — drawing on the same university data that powers this guide. From the University of Vienna and TU Wien to WU Vienna, the University of Innsbruck, TU Graz, JKU Linz and BOKU, every Austrian public university sits in our Atlas, with programmes, location and admission data. Start by creating a free account on College Council and running your profile through our chances tool to see which Austrian programmes — and which funded alternatives across Europe — actually fit you.

On the testing side, the English-taught master’s programmes that anchor most funded routes into Austria run on a strong TOEFL or IELTS score, and that score also strengthens the academic case for the scholarship itself. Our TOEFL app delivers full TOEFL iBT practice tests with AI-graded speaking and writing feedback — the closest thing to a real mock exam you can do from home — and most students need eight to fourteen weeks to move a 70-ish baseline into the 88–95 band Austrian English-taught programmes expect. Many of our families apply to Austria alongside the US, where the SAT matters; our SAT app runs the full digital SAT with adaptive practice, so you prepare once and apply broadly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Summary — how to fund an Austrian degree

Austria is the rare destination where, for an EU student, the funding question has a reassuring answer: you almost never need a scholarship to cover fees, because public-university tuition is just the ÖH fee, about €50 a year. The real targets are living costs of €11,400–€14,000 a year in Vienna and — for non-EU students — the residence permit’s proof of funds of €722.58 to €1,308.39 a month. On named scholarships the country is smaller and more research-focused than Germany: the OeAD’s Ernst Mach grants (around €1,300/month) fund research and study stays rather than full degrees, the ASEA-UNINET line funds full PhDs for specific Southeast Asian countries, and the workhorse for degree students is the university-paid Leistungsstipendium of €750–€1,500, backed by Erasmus+ and CEEPUS for mobility.

The honest trade-offs are worth stating: there is no DAAD-scale funder, the headline Ernst Mach grant cannot pay for a full degree, and much of the day-to-day support sits in statutory university awards you can only win once you are enrolled. But because EU tuition is near-zero and living costs are moderate, the funding you do secure stretches further here than almost anywhere. Settle the tuition position first, plan the proof of funds if you are non-EU, line up Erasmus+ or CEEPUS, and build any Ernst Mach application around a confirmed supervisor a year ahead.

Next Steps

1. Bank the near-free EU tuition first — for an EU citizen, choosing a public university already cuts tuition to the ÖH fee; that decision beats any scholarship.
2. Plan the proof of funds if you are non-EU — €722.58–€1,308.39 a month for the permit; treat any living-cost stipend as doing double duty.
3. Line up mobility funding — Erasmus+ for EU students, CEEPUS for Central and Eastern Europe, plus any home-country agency that funds Austria.
4. Build an Ernst Mach application a year ahead if you are a researcher — anchored to a confirmed Austrian supervisor; ASEA-UNINET for a full PhD if you qualify.
5. Build a balanced shortlist — create a free College Council account and run your profile through our chances tool to see which funded Austrian and European options fit.

Read Also

• Study in Austria: complete guide for international students — the full hub: universities, admissions, costs, the MedAT and the residence permit
• Scholarships to study in Germany: DAAD and beyond — the larger neighbour’s far deeper funding system
• Scholarships for European universities — how Austria’s funding compares across the continent
• Study in the Netherlands: complete guide — the English-language alternative in the EU
• How to choose a university abroad — comparing systems before you commit

Sources and Methodology

Funding figures are drawn from the awarding bodies’ own materials and cross-checked against College Council’s Atlas dataset of Austrian higher-education institutions. We lead with the structural near-free-tuition saving because for an EU student it is worth more than any named scholarship, and we flag the non-EU proof-of-funds gate because it, not tuition, is the binding financial hurdle. The Ernst Mach monthly rate of €1,300 (the figure published for the University of Applied Sciences line, used here as the family’s indicative rate) and the grants’ restriction to research and study stays are stated by the OeAD and confirmed on an Austrian university scholarship page; scholarship amounts, place counts and deadlines change yearly and are administered through the OeAD, universities and the EU, so always confirm the current figure and open call on the awarding body’s official page for your intake year before applying.

1. OeAD — Grants and scholarships overview and grants.at (Austria’s official scholarship and research-grant database; searchable by nationality, target group, field, grant type and funder)
2. OeAD — Ernst Mach Grant — worldwide FAQ (PhD/postgrad/postdoc research stay of 1–9 months, age ≤35, supervisor required; explicitly not for a full degree; deadline 1 February)
3. OeAD — Scholarship programmes for 2026/2027 (Ernst Mach worldwide, FH, ASEA-UNINET full PhD up to 36 months, Follow-Up, Franz Werfel and Richard Plaschka fellowships, deadlines)
4. FH Salzburg / OeAD — Ernst Mach Scholarship (monthly grant rate €1,300; for a study/research stay of 4–10 months, not a complete bachelor’s or master’s degree)
5. Studienförderungsgesetz (StudFG §§57–61 Leistungsstipendium; §§63–67 Förderungsstipendium) — Leistungsstipendium (€750–€1,500, merit, no means test, paid by the university) and Förderungsstipendium (€750–€3,600 for thesis/dissertation material costs)
6. European Commission — Erasmus+ programme (funded 3–12-month study/traineeship mobility) and CEEPUS (Central European Exchange Programme for University Studies)
7. OeAD — Residence permit — student (proof of funds €722.58/month under 24, €1,308.39/month 24 and over; permit ~€218; health insurance ~€78.84/month, 2026)
8. Austrian Students’ Union (ÖH) — ÖH student-union fee (~€25.20 per semester; €363.36/semester on overrun; non-EU tuition €726.72/semester) and university fee pages
9. College Council — Atlas higher-education dataset (Austrian HEI identity, location and programme data; Wikidata-keyed canonical records) and internal advising experience with international applicant families