Schwedische Institut Stockholm - Stipendien für Studierende der schwedischen Sprache

What you get

You get a free place on a roughly three-week summer course in Swedish. It is held at a Swedish folkhögskola, a residential adult-education college. The scholarship covers the course and your accommodation at the school, where you live alongside students from around the world. Each day brings about three hours of Swedish lessons in small groups of up to 15 people, plus excursions, study visits and cultural activities. If you need a visa and apply for it at a Swedish embassy or consulate, you get it free of charge. The courses are run by the Svenska institutet (Swedish Institute), a Swedish government agency that supports the teaching of Swedish at universities abroad.

Who can apply

• What you study: You study Swedish as a foreign language at a university.
• Where you study: Your university is outside Sweden and appears on the Swedish Institute's official list of institutions that teach Swedish (currently around 193 to 197 institutions in about 35 countries).
• Language level: You meet the level the course requires, between A2 and B2/C1 on the European scale, depending on which course you pick.
• Field of study: Any main subject is fine, as long as you take Swedish alongside it.
• Nationality: All nationalities can apply.

How to apply

You apply directly to the course organiser using their application form by the end of March. The online distance course has a later deadline of 15 May. At the same time, your Swedish teacher at your home university sends the organiser a certificate of your language level and a ranked list of the students the institution wants to nominate. Each university may nominate up to five students, and you should apply to only one course. Admission and rejection letters go out in early May.

How realistic are your chances?

The award is cut narrowly: you must study Swedish at a listed university abroad, so the pool is small and specific. Your teacher's ranking matters most, since each university nominates at most five students. A strong standing on your home university's list is the real deciding factor. If your teacher ranks you highly and your language level fits the course, your prospects are good.