What this page is. An explanation of what the phrase “fully funded” actually commits a funder to, and what it quietly does not. It publishes no award amounts, because award values are set by individual funders and change annually, and a figure copied from a listing site is exactly the kind of claim this site exists not to make. We earn nothing from where you apply, and we link no university, agent or recruiter. See our editorial policy and how education agents earn.
“Fully funded” is a marketing phrase before it is a category. No funding body is obliged to define it, and no two use it identically. What follows is the anatomy of an award: the six components a scholarship can cover, the order in which funders drop them, and the questions that turn a headline into a number you can plan against.
The six components of an award, and which ones go missing
Almost every scholarship in the world can be described as some subset of these six. Reading an award means identifying which subset it is.
- Tuition. The most commonly covered component and the least useful on its own, because in several countries tuition is the smallest part of the cost. An award covering tuition at a French public university covers a registration fee that is set nationally and is measured in hundreds of euros, not thousands.
- A living stipend. The component that decides whether an award is livable. Ask three things: the amount, the frequency, and whether it is indexed. A stipend fixed for the duration of a four year doctorate is a stipend that shrinks every year.
- Travel. Often one return flight, often only at the start and end, often reimbursed rather than advanced. Reimbursement matters: it means you pay first.
- Health cover. Sometimes included, sometimes assumed to be included and not, and in several systems compulsory for the visa regardless. An award that does not cover it has handed you a fixed cost you cannot decline.
- Fees other than tuition. Student services contributions, registration fees, examination fees, thesis submission fees. Individually small; collectively a month of stipend.
- Dependants. The component most often absent and least often asked about before acceptance. A stipend calibrated for one person is not a family income, and most systems require you to evidence funds for dependants separately.
Funders drop these in a fairly consistent order. Dependants go first, then fees other than tuition, then health cover, then travel. Tuition and stipend are the last to go, which is why an award with both is called “full” even when four of the six are missing.
Work out what an award actually covers
Answer each question from the award’s own terms, then reveal what the answer implies. Nothing here is stored or sent anywhere; it is a worksheet that works on paper too.
- Then it is a fee waiver, not a scholarship in the sense most applicants mean. Establish the funds threshold for the destination and assume you must evidence all of it yourself. In a country with statutory tuition, a fee waiver may be worth less than the flight.
- Assume it is not, and model the final year rather than the first. Ask the funder in writing. An unindexed multi year stipend is a declining real income, and the decline is largest in exactly the years when your costs are highest.
- Then you need the fare in cash before you fly, and you need it at a time when you are also paying a visa fee, a deposit and advance rent. Reimbursement is a cash flow problem disguised as a benefit.
- Check whether it is compulsory for your permission. In several systems it is, which converts an unmentioned component into an unavoidable cost. Price it for the full length of the permission, not for one year.
- Then the value of the award moves while you hold it, and you carry that risk, not the funder. Ask whether payments are converted at a fixed rate or at the prevailing rate on each payment date.
- This is the single most common cause of hardship among funded students. Count the weeks between arrival and first payment, and hold that many weeks of living costs plus the deposit and advance rent, separately from everything else.
- Read what happens if you fail them. Some awards convert to a debt; some bond you to a period of service; some simply stop. These are the terms that decide whether an award is a gift or a contract.
- Assume the award covers none of their costs and that the immigration authority will require separate evidence of funds for each of them. This is the component most likely to make a “fully funded” offer unaffordable.
Why an award does not remove the funds requirement
A scholarship and a visa funds test are answers to different questions. The funds test asks whether money will be available to you in the destination; the award is one possible answer, but only if it satisfies the authority’s rules about evidence.
Most authorities will accept an award letter, and most have conditions attached: the letter must be dated, name you, state the amount and the period, and come from the funder rather than from an intermediary. Where an award covers part of the cost, the shortfall must still be evidenced. And where the award is paid monthly, some systems treat it as income and others insist on an available balance, which is the distinction our proof of funds explained page sets out in full. The thresholds themselves, country by country with their publishers, are on what each government requires you to show and in the costs by country table.
Where the tuition component is worth the least
The value of a tuition waiver depends entirely on whether the state sets tuition. Where it does, the fee is small and published, so a waiver of it is small too. France publishes national registration fees for 2026 to 2027 of EUR 178 at licence level and EUR 255 at master level, plus a EUR 105 student life contribution, per Service-Public, read 5 August 2026. Where the state sets nothing, as in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, the fee is whatever the institution decides and a waiver can be the largest component by far.
The practical consequence: judge an award against the destination, not in isolation. A stipend only award in a statutory tuition country can be worth more than a tuition only award in the same country, and the reverse is true where fees are uncapped. Our by country comparison shows which is which.
Questions to ask the funder, in writing
- Which of the six components does the award cover, named individually?
- What is the stipend amount, how often is it paid, and is it indexed?
- What is the date of the first payment, relative to enrolment?
- Is travel advanced or reimbursed, and on what evidence?
- Is health cover included, and does it satisfy the visa requirement?
- What happens to the award if I interrupt, extend or change programme?
- Are there conditions of service, return or repayment?
- Will the funder issue a letter in the form the immigration authority requires?
Ask all eight before you accept, not after. A funder that answers slowly before you accept will not answer faster afterwards.
How an award interacts with everything else in your plan
An award is rarely the only moving part, and the interactions catch people more often than the terms do.
With tax
Whether a stipend is taxable depends on the country, on the legal character of the payment, and often on whether it is classified as a scholarship or as employment income. A doctoral position that looks like a scholarship in one country is an employment contract with a salary, pension contributions and payroll deductions in another. That distinction changes your net income substantially and it is decided by the destination’s tax authority, not by the funder. Ask what the payment is legally, not what it is called.
With other funding
Many awards prohibit or reduce on receipt of another award. Read the clause before you accept the first one, because accepting a small award early can disqualify you from a large one later, and the disqualification is rarely reversible. Where an award permits stacking, it usually caps the total, and the cap is expressed against the institution’s own cost of attendance rather than against your budget.
With the visa
An award letter is evidence, but only if it is in the form the authority wants. The common failure is a letter that states an annual value without stating the payment schedule, when the authority needs to see that money will be available across the period of the permission. Ask the funder for a letter that names you, states the amount, states the payment dates and states the period covered. Our proof of funds explained page sets out what each shape of test needs.
With the institution’s own billing
Where an award covers tuition, it is usually paid to the institution rather than to you, and the timing rarely matches the institution’s payment deadline. Confirm in writing that the institution knows about the award and will not treat you as late while it waits. Late payment charges are among the few costs on this whole subject that are genuinely avoidable and genuinely published.
What we could not source
- Award values. Set by individual funders, changed annually, and not published centrally by any authority. This page therefore states none.
- Success rates or application volumes. Very few funders publish them, and those that do define them differently.
- Living costs in any destination. No authority publishes one. The funds thresholds are the closest available and they are thresholds, not budgets.
Before you accept an award
Keep reading
On winning funding in the first place: how scholarships get won, where to find low competition awards and the deadline tracker. On the money tests: proof of funds explained, what each government requires you to show and the student loan calculator, for the part an award does not cover. On the visa: how to get a student visa and what the requirements actually are. On costs by destination: the by country comparison and where tuition is low or absent. On working alongside study: hour limits by country.
This page explains process and published figures. It is not immigration advice and it is not financial advice. Figures are published by the authorities named, on the dates stated, and authorities change them without notice.
