Financing your studies in Spain

Higher education in Spain: how it works

Spain has state (public) and private universities. Some are entirely online, and a growing number let you take at least part of a degree online. Studies follow the three cycles of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA): Bachelor, Master and Doctorate. Because Spain follows this structure and uses ECTS credits, your degree is recognised across all 49 EHEA countries. The structure is set out in Real Decreto 861/2010 and Real Decreto 1393/2007.

Official degrees are issued by the education ministry, registered in the RUCT (Registro de Universidades, Centros y Titulos) and recognised across the EHEA. Many universities also offer a „titulo propio” - a non-official degree, recognised only by the university that issues it and not registered in the RUCT. A titulo propio does not qualify you for the public sector or for doctoral admission, and it usually carries no formal recognition abroad. Non-official doctorate degrees are not permitted. Many universities also offer unofficial Master’s degrees (Maestrias), which are widely recognised because they offer specialised practical training. MBA degrees are also offered and are well regarded. Official Master’s degrees are accredited by ANECA (Agencia Nacional de Evaluacion de la Calidad y Acreditacion), part of the education ministry.

The number of public universities has changed little since 1998, but around 26 new private institutions have opened, often online or specialised. Since October 2025, Real Decreto 905/2025 has tightened the rules for founding a private university: it must run at least 10 official Bachelor programmes, 6 Master programmes and 3 Doctorate programmes across three different fields, enrol at least 4,500 students over six years, invest at least 5 % in research and development, and have half its teaching staff holding a doctorate.

Bachelor degree (Grado) - undergraduate studies

• You can take a Grado in Arts and Humanities, Experimental Sciences, Health Sciences, Social Sciences, Law, and Engineering and Architecture.
• A Grado normally takes four years and 240 credits to complete (60 credits per year).
• An external placement and a compulsory end-of-degree project (Trabajo Fin de Grado, TFG) are typical parts of the Grado.

University Master degree (Master oficial) - graduate studies

• A Master takes one or two years and 60 to 120 credits.
• A thesis is not always compulsory, but where it is you must prepare and defend it. The Master is regulated in RD 56/2005.
• At this level you are prepared for research, academic work or the professions.

Doctoral degree (Doctorado) - postgraduate studies

• A doctorate normally takes four years full-time, or up to seven years part-time. It is regulated in RD 99/2011.
• You carry out research and prepare a doctoral thesis. The thesis must be original and defended in public.
• Defending the thesis costs about 130 to 180 € depending on the region (for example 130 € in Andalusia).
• There is also the European Doctorate, which requires you to spend at least three months outside Spain studying or doing research. Part of the thesis must be written in a European language other than Spanish, and non-Spanish expert doctors must contribute at both the consultation and the thesis-presentation stage.

Admission procedures

Spanish students first complete the Bachillerato (two years). Passing it lets you sit the university entrance examination, called the Selectividad and known regionally as EBAU, EvAU, PEvAU or PAU. It has two phases: an access phase and an admission phase to improve your mark. If you come from another EU country, you gain entry on the same criteria used in your home country, you pay the same tuition fees, and you need no visa - but you must register for a NIE (Numero de Identidad de Extranjero). Non-EU students need a student visa from a Spanish consulate and a residence permit after arrival.

If you completed secondary studies outside the EU, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein or China, you must have your secondary education certificate officially recognised. The requirements vary, but allow six months for official approval. You apply for accreditation (homologacion) to the Subdireccion General de Titulos y Reconocimiento de Cualificaciones. Students from the EU do not need their secondary or undergraduate qualifications accredited.

To have a foreign degree recognised (homologacion), the legal deadline is six months, though in practice it takes around 4.5 months. The fee is 166.50 € and the process is governed by RD 889/2022. Foreign doctoral degrees go through an equivalence procedure requiring at least two assessors, governed by RD 967/2014.

Recently added funding for your studies in Spain

See more

Cost of your studies

Tuition fees

Public universities charge per ECTS credit. Fees are set by each autonomous region within a national price framework, so they vary across the country. Only official degrees fall under the price limit; a university’s own titulo propio degrees have no cap.

For EU/EEA students, a public Bachelor costs roughly 12 to 30 € per credit, or about 720 to 1,800 € a year. Non-EU students pay more, roughly 45 to 150 € per credit, or about 2,700 to 9,000 € a year. Across all international students, public-university fees span roughly 700 to 8,500 € a year, with EU students paying less. As an example of regional variation, in Catalonia for 2025/2026 a Bachelor in band 1 gets an 80 % reduction to 4.08 € per credit, band 2 a 70 % reduction to 6.13 € per credit, and a Master’s first enrolment costs 17.69 € per credit.

Private universities set their own fees. A private Bachelor typically costs 9,000 to 25,000 € a year (some start around 2,400 €), a Master 10,000 to 30,000 € a year, and an MBA up to 100,000 €. IE University, for example, charges 26,500 to 29,500 € for a Bachelor and 30,000 to 90,000 € for a Master. Fees at private universities depend on the university and the type of degree, and may also be linked to academic performance.

Cost of living

The cost of living varies from city to city, and Madrid and Barcelona are the most expensive. Budget roughly 700 to 1,200 € a month for living costs, or 1,400 to 2,400 € a month once everything is counted in. Rents in Madrid and Barcelona run about 10 to 20 % cheaper than in Berlin or Paris.

Accommodation is your biggest single cost. In Madrid, a room in a shared flat runs from 250 to 800 € a month depending on the source, a student residence 700 to 1,200 € a month, and living alone 1,000 to 1,500 € a month. Across Spain, a one-bedroom flat averages around 950 € a month, in a range of 750 to 1,500 € depending on the city. Under the 2026 housing law, when a flat is let room by room the total of the room prices may not exceed the legal cap for the whole flat.

Food can be relatively cheap: budget 150 to 250 € a month for groceries. Broadband costs around 28.61 € a month, a cinema ticket 8 to 12 €, a cafe con leche 1.20 to 1.80 €, and a beer in a bar 2 to 3 €.

Transport

From around 19 January 2026, a national transport pass costs 60 € a month for adults and 30 € a month if you are under 26, giving unlimited travel on Renfe Cercanias/Rodalies, Media Distancia and state-run long-distance buses. In Barcelona, the T-usual pass for one zone costs 42.50 € a month, and the T-jove (under 30) costs 80 € per quarter, about 26.70 € a month.

Funding for a semester or year abroad

See more

Financing your studies

State grants (Becas MEC)

The main grants come from the education ministry (Becas MEC), awarded on a combination of financial need and academic performance. They cover books and materials, meals, cost of living in residence, transport and other study-related costs, and recipients also have their tuition fees waived. There are no tax exemptions for students or their parents in the Spanish tax system, and no family allowances for students. You apply through ministry offices or as part of your university application.

For the 2025/2026 course, the grant is built from several components:

• Beca basica: 300 € (350 € for basic-level vocational training, ciclos formativos de grado basico).
• Fixed amount by family income (cuantia fija por renta familiar): 1,700 €.
• Fixed amount for living away from the family home (cuantia fija por residencia): 2,700 €.
• Variable amount (cuantia variable): a minimum of 60 €, with the final figure set by family income and academic performance under an official formula (RD 1721/2007, Art. 9.2).
• Amount for island/overseas travel to the place of study (cuantia por insularidad): 442 to 937 €.
• Academic excellence grant (beca excelencia academica): up to 125 €.

For the 2026/2027 course, Real Decreto 179/2026 of 11 March 2026 sets the income and asset thresholds and the amounts. Asset thresholds were raised by around 10 % on average; income thresholds were not. Part-time university students (48 to 59 credits) receive a pro-rata beca de renta and beca de residencia (350 € each). The application window runs from 19 May to 10 September. New for 2026/2027: if your family home is in Catalonia, you now apply to the Generalitat de Catalunya, which has taken over responsibility.

To be eligible you must be Spanish or an EU citizen. EU citizens need permanent residence or employment in Spain for the full grant; otherwise you only get the tuition-fee amount. Non-EU students qualify only if they are under 18 or hold a residence permit (cut-off 31 December 2024). Students from outside the EU are otherwise not eligible for government grants.

Grants also come with fee exemptions, but under the austerity measures in place since 2013 all students must pay 15 to 25 % of the real total cost of their studies, depending on their circumstances. So a grant no longer covers your fees in full, and even with a grant you must make a significant financial contribution. Under the emergency legislation, grants cannot cover more than 75 % of the costs of studies.

Some grants are also offered by regional and local governments. Regional becas exist - for example, Aragon’s „Becas salario” and Cantabria’s regional programme. Automatic fee exemptions apply to low-income households, families with the „familia numerosa” status, students with a disability of 33 % or more, and victims of gender-based violence - the exemption applies automatically when you qualify.

Scholarships

Several scholarships target Master and Doctoral students. Examples in Spain include:

• MAEC-AECID: the Spanish government’s main programme for citizens of developing countries. It covers full tuition plus a monthly allowance of about 600 to 2,200 €, with around 250 scholarships a year.
• La Caixa Foundation: 100 postgraduate fellowships a year, worth up to 18,000 € each.
• Fundacion Carolina: around 736 scholarships.
• Becas Santander: over 30,000 awards a year worldwide.
• BBVA Foundation: around 50 doctoral scholarships worth up to 35,000 € a year.

There are grant programmes for Spanish and non-Spanish students living inside or outside Spain, though perhaps fewer than in many other European countries.

Erasmus+

If you come to Spain on an Erasmus+ exchange, you can receive a monthly mobility grant from the European Commission. Spain sits in Erasmus+ country group 2, so a study placement pays around 420 to 540 € a month. Erasmus+ funds Bachelor, Master and Doctoral students for 2 to 12 months per study cycle, and its grants can be combined with EU, state and autonomous-region support. Full rates, top-ups and country groups are set out in the dedicated Erasmus+ guide.

Student loans

There are no government-guaranteed student loans or other centralised loan systems in Spain. There is one state loan scheme, the Prestamo Renta Universidad, and it is only for Master’s students.

Under this scheme the maximum loan is 28,800 € for a 120-credit Master’s taken in Spain (up to 240 € per credit), rising to 34,800 € at a foreign university in the EHEA or in the USA or Canada (up to 290 € per credit). On average around 3,947 € is paid out, with an initial payment of up to 6,000 € plus up to 800 € a month for the official duration of the studies. To qualify, you must complete your studies in no more than 21 months. The loan is interest-free and repayment begins two years after you apply; you repay over a 15-year period, but only once your income passes a set threshold (reported at over 22,000 € a year, though this figure comes from a single secondary source and should be checked). Under an earlier version of the scheme the maximum loan was 22,800 €.

Several private universities have partnership agreements with banks to provide private student loans, mainly for higher degrees. Spain has no state-guaranteed student loans for undergraduates - only private bank loans, often through university-bank partnerships. Examples include:

• ESADE with Caja de Ingenieros: up to 100 % of tuition fees, with an EU guarantor required.
• imagin (CaixaBank/Sabadell): up to 30,000 €, no guarantor, repayment starting one year after you finish.
• Banco Santander: Prestamo Matricula and Total Carrera.
• MicroBank (Skills & Education Loan): for study in Spain and the EU-27.
• Caixa d’Enginyers.

To take out a private loan you must be resident in Spain for tax purposes. You will often need a guarantor, typically a parent, who in any case must have been permanently resident in Spain for several years. Loans linked to enrolment at a specific school - usually a private one - may be open to international students, but interest rates are higher than for Spanish residents and the cap on the total amount may not be enough to cover all your costs. In the Comunidad de Madrid you can claim an IRPF income-tax deduction on the interest you pay on a student loan (for a Grado, Master or doctorate).

Student jobs

If you are from the EU, or a foreign student with a valid student visa, you can work to help fund your studies. Under the student-visa reform, you may work up to 30 hours a week without a separate procedure, and the visa now covers the full length of your programme. Part-time work pays around 300 to 800 € a month; the minimum wage is 1,221 € a month across 14 payments, about 17,094 € a year. (Sources differ on the weekly limit, 20 versus 30 hours - check the current figure at an official visa source before you rely on it.)