Search for fully funded Belgium scholarships without IELTS 2027, and you’ll quickly hit a wall of near-identical listicles claiming the whole country simply doesn’t ask for the test. That’s not accurate, and believing it too literally is how applicants miss the eligibility fine print that actually matters. Belgium’s biggest scholarships, VLIR-UOS and ARES, are genuinely flexible on English testing — but they’re also restricted to specific published country lists, and if your nationality isn’t on either one, both programmes are simply closed to you regardless of your English documentation.

The country itself is split administratively between Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia-Brussels, and this split runs straight through its international student financial aid system — Flemish institutions like KU Leuven and Ghent University fall under VLIR-UOS’s umbrella, while French-speaking universities like the Université catholique de Louvain and the Université libre de Bruxelles are ARES territory instead. Understanding which side of that line your target university sits on, before you start comparing student visa proof of funds requirements or Belgium’s international student health insurance costs, saves you from applying to a scholarship you were never eligible for in the first place.

This guide breaks down exactly which Belgium scholarships for international students without IELTS genuinely exist for 2027, what each one requires in terms of an MOI letter or alternative English documentation, and — critically — who each scholarship is actually restricted to, so you’re not wasting a competitive application cycle on a programme closed to your nationality from the start.

The Eligibility Filter Nobody Mentions Upfront

Before reading a single scholarship description below, run this check on yourself: if you’re not from a country on VLIR-UOS’s or ARES’s published partner-country lists, skip straight past those two entries — they’re not open to general applicants, however generously they get described elsewhere. Master Mind and the university-specific scholarships further down this list are the ones genuinely open to any nationality.

The Scholarships

1. VLIR-UOS Scholarship
Full tuition coverage, a monthly living allowance, accommodation support, and airfare, for Master’s-level study at Flemish universities and university colleges.
🔗 vliruos.be/en/scholarships
This scholarship is restricted to nationals of a published list of roughly 31 partner countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America — check the current country list first, since applying without confirming your eligibility wastes the one application VLIR-UOS allows per cycle. For the programmes that do accept you, English proficiency generally accepts IELTS 6.5, an MOI letter from your prior institution, or an equivalent test, and registrars sometimes request the MOI letter during admission processing even when a test score is also on file.

2. ARES Scholarship (Académie de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur)
Roughly 220 scholarships annually — 150 for full Master’s degree programmes and 70 for short specialized training courses — covering tuition, a monthly stipend, and travel.
🔗 ares-ac.be
Like VLIR-UOS, this programme is restricted to applicants from a published list of developing partner countries, and it’s the French-speaking counterpart to VLIR-UOS — meaning your target programme’s language of instruction (French, not English) is what actually determines whether IELTS is relevant here at all.

3. Master Mind Scholarship
A grant of approximately €8,200, alongside accommodation support, medical insurance, and a tuition fee waiver, for Master’s study at Flemish and Brussels higher education institutions.
🔗 flandersinvestmentandtrade.com
This is the one genuinely open to any nationality worldwide, unlike VLIR-UOS and ARES above — selection is merit-based, typically expecting a GPA above 3.5, and English documentation follows whatever your host institution’s specific Master’s programme already requires for admission.

4. KU Leuven Global Minds Doctoral Scholarships
Full tuition, a monthly stipend of approximately €2,199, medical insurance, airfare, and a research allowance of roughly €310 per month, for PhD candidates from developing countries.
🔗 kuleuven.be/global/global-development/funding-possibilities
Designed to support collaborative research with scholars from partner countries, this programme’s published guidance explicitly states no separate English test score is required to apply — proficiency is assessed through the research proposal and supervisor-matching process instead.

5. KU Leuven Science@Leuven Scholarship
Tuition and living cost support for Master’s students entering KU Leuven’s science and engineering programmes.
🔗 kuleuven.be/scholarships
Applications for this one typically open around November and run through a mid-February deadline — check current admissions cycles directly, since KU Leuven revises its scholarship terms and available disciplines periodically.

6. Ghent University BOF Sandwich PhD Scholarship
Funding for a “sandwich” PhD structure, where candidates split their doctoral research time between Ghent University and an institution in a developing country.
🔗 ugent.be/en/research/funding/devcoop/bof
A genuinely distinctive funding model compared to a standard full-residency PhD scholarship — worth considering specifically if maintaining a research connection with your home country’s institution matters to your academic plans.

7. Ghent University Master Grant
Tuition fee support for admitted international Master’s students, alongside Ghent’s participation in VLIR-UOS and Master Mind funding.
🔗 ugent.be/en/study/tuitionfees/scholarships
Ghent’s own admissions cycle for Master’s programmes generally runs from October through an April deadline — later than several of the specific scholarship windows layered on top of it, so apply to the programme itself well before assuming a scholarship deadline is your only concern.

8. Université catholique de Louvain International Scholarships
Tuition support and stipends for admitted international students, with strong participation in the ARES scholarship framework given the university’s French-speaking programmes.
🔗 uclouvain.be/en/study/inscriptions/scholarships
Because most of Université catholique de Louvain’s degree programmes run in French, IELTS is frequently irrelevant here entirely — the more relevant proficiency documentation is a DELF or DALF French certificate, unless you’re specifically targeting one of the university’s English-taught tracks.

9. Université libre de Bruxelles International Scholarships
Merit and need-based funding for international students at this Brussels-based, French-speaking research university.
🔗 ulb.be/en/admissions/financing-your-studies
As with the Université catholique de Louvain, confirm your specific programme’s language of instruction before assuming IELTS applies — Université libre de Bruxelles does run a number of genuinely English-taught Master’s programmes alongside its French-medium majority.

10. Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees
A stipend of approximately €1,400 per month, full tuition, and a travel allowance, for joint Master’s degrees delivered across two or more European countries, with multiple consortia including Belgian partner universities.
🔗 eacea.ec.europa.eu/scholarships/erasmus-mundus-catalogue_en
Several consortia explicitly exempt applicants from English-speaking countries or graduates of English-medium institutions from a formal test — check the specific programme’s page in the catalogue, since this exemption isn’t guaranteed across every consortium that includes a Belgian partner.

Getting Your MOI Letter Right

If your route into any of the above runs through prior English-medium education rather than a fresh test, request your English Proficiency Certificate directly from your previous institution’s registrar, printed on headed and stamped paper confirming your degree was delivered wholly in English. Belgian registrars occasionally ask for this document during their own internal admission processing even when you’ve already submitted an IELTS score elsewhere, so it’s worth having ready regardless of which English-proficiency route you ultimately rely on.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need IELTS for VLIR-UOS or ARES if I’m not from an eligible partner country?
The English question becomes irrelevant at that point, because nationality eligibility is checked before language documentation — if your country isn’t on either published partner list, neither scholarship is open to you regardless of your test scores or MOI letter.

Is Master Mind harder to get into than VLIR-UOS or ARES?
Not necessarily harder, but differently competitive — Master Mind is open worldwide with roughly 30 scholarships awarded annually, so the applicant pool is broader, while VLIR-UOS and ARES draw from a narrower, nationality-restricted pool but still remain highly selective within it.

Does Belgium’s student visa process check my English proficiency separately?
No. Belgium’s long-stay student visa (Type D) process focuses on your certificate of enrollment, proof of sufficient financial means, and health insurance coverage — your English or French proficiency was already assessed and settled during university admission, well before the visa application stage.

Can I apply to both a Flemish scholarship and a French-speaking Belgian scholarship in the same cycle?
Generally yes, since VLIR-UOS and ARES operate as separate programmes tied to different institutions and languages of instruction — but most individual scholarship programmes, VLIR-UOS included, restrict you to submitting only one application within their own system per cycle.

What These Scholarships Typically Don’t Cover

Even the most generous of these programmes tend to leave gaps. Budget separately for Belgium’s long-stay visa financial proof requirement, mandatory health insurance if it isn’t already bundled into your specific award, and the genuinely significant cost-of-living difference between Brussels and smaller university cities like Ghent or Leuven. A service like Wise is worth using specifically for moving stipend payments or family-supported funds into a euro account without the markup a traditional international bank transfer typically carries.

Timing Worth Knowing

VLIR-UOS’s 2027-2028 call is expected to open around late October 2026, with individual programme deadlines spread between late November 2026 and late February 2027. ARES’s scholarship window typically opens in August and closes by mid-September — considerably earlier and tighter than VLIR-UOS, so don’t assume the two run on parallel timelines. Master Mind nominations at institutions like KU Leuven generally run from October through a mid-January deadline, while other Flemish universities’ own Master Mind cycles can stretch into February through April.

Before You Apply

  • Check the published partner-country list for VLIR-UOS and ARES before investing any time in either application
  • Request your MOI letter or English Proficiency Certificate from your previous institution’s registrar early, even if you’re also submitting a test score
  • Confirm whether your target programme at Université catholique de Louvain or Université libre de Bruxelles actually runs in English or French, since this determines which language test is relevant at all
  • Note that ARES’s application window closes considerably earlier than VLIR-UOS’s — don’t assume a shared deadline
  • Budget separately for Belgium’s long-stay visa financial requirement and health insurance, since not every scholarship bundles these in automatically
  • Re-verify every scholarship’s current deadline and eligible country list directly on the official link before applying, since these are updated annually
Scholarships Without IELTS