I need to flag something important before writing this one, rather than force a “10 best” list that

Most “Norway scholarships” lists online are recycled from a version of Norway that no longer quite exists — one where public universities were tuition-free for everyone and government scholarships were abundant. Neither is fully true anymore, and it’s worth understanding the actual 2027 landscape before you build an application strategy around outdated assumptions.

What Changed, and Why It Matters Here

Since autumn 2023, Norway’s public universities charge tuition to students from outside the EU/EEA and Switzerland — the “study for free” reputation now applies only to European applicants. At the same time, the government’s own scholarship pipeline has contracted: the old Quota Scheme is gone, and NORPART, its successor, is being wound down, with Norway’s government having proposed ending its funding and no new partnership calls expected. Existing NORPART-funded projects will finish out, but you were never able to apply to NORPART directly anyway — access only ever ran through a partner university’s existing agreement with a Norwegian institution.

The practical result: most public universities in Norway now state plainly, on their own admissions pages, that they don’t run scholarship programs for international students. That’s genuinely unusual compared to the other 19 countries in this series, and it changes what an honest “without IELTS” guide can promise you.

Where the Real Money Is

Private institutions, particularly BI Norwegian Business School, are the exception. BI runs several named, currently active scholarships. Beyond that, Erasmus Mundus funds joint degrees that include Norwegian partner universities, and if you’re aiming for a PhD, Norway’s actual funding mechanism there isn’t a “scholarship” in the traditional sense at all — more on that below.

1. BI International Baccalaureate Scholarship

Covers 100% of tuition for up to three years, reserved for IB diploma holders with a minimum of 33 points.
🔗 bi.no/en/programmes-and-individual-courses/scholarships
An English test (IELTS, TOEFL, or an accepted equivalent) is compulsory for every applicant here, Norwegian or international — this one doesn’t offer an MOI-style workaround, so budget for a standard test if you’re pursuing it.

2. BI Bachelor International Scholarship

Covers 50% of tuition for up to three years, awarded on academic merit rather than financial need to students with an international education background.
🔗 bi.no/en/programmes-and-individual-courses/scholarships/bachelor-international-scholarship
BI is explicit that this is assessed purely on transcripts and application letters — no separate scholarship-specific English test beyond what your bachelor’s admission already required.

3. BI Master International Scholarship

Full tuition coverage for up to two years (sometimes one year), for non-resident international candidates with a minimum GPA of 4.0 on the ECTS scale admitted to an MSc programme.
🔗 bi.no/en/programmes-and-individual-courses/scholarships/master-of-science-international-scholarship
Eligible applicants for this scholarship are automatically also considered for the BI Presidential Scholarship below, so one application effectively covers both.

4. BI Presidential Scholarship

Full tuition for up to two years, plus a living stipend of NOK 50,000 per semester — currently BI’s most generous international master’s award.
🔗 bi.no/en/study-at-bi
Note that anyone already eligible for a Lånekassen student loan in Norway (for example, holders of a 180-ECTS bachelor’s from a Norwegian institution) is treated as a domestic applicant for scholarship purposes, not an international one — check which category you actually fall into before assuming this applies to you.

5. NORPART (Norwegian Partnership Programme for Global Academic Cooperation)

Where still active, covers tuition, travel, and a living allowance for master’s or PhD students at partner institutions in countries including Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania.
🔗 diku.no
You cannot apply to NORPART directly under any circumstances — access has always run exclusively through your home institution’s existing partnership with a Norwegian university, and with the program winding down, check with your institution’s international office whether an active project still exists before building any plan around this one.

6. Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees (EMJMD)

€1,400/month stipend, tuition, and travel allowance, for joint master’s degrees delivered across 2+ European countries, some including Norwegian partner universities.
🔗 eacea.ec.europa.eu/scholarships/erasmus-mundus-catalogue_en
Several EMJMD consortia explicitly exempt applicants from English-speaking countries or graduates of English-medium institutions from a formal test — but this exemption is set consortium by consortium, so check the specific program’s page in the catalogue rather than assuming it applies universally.

7. Funded PhD Positions (Stipendiat Roles) — Not a Scholarship, But Norway’s Real PhD Funding Route

Full salary (not a stipend — an actual Norwegian public-sector wage), pension contributions, and paid holiday, for a fixed-term employment contract of typically 3–4 years.
🔗 Search directly on jobbnorge.no or your target university’s own vacancies page
This is worth understanding clearly: in Norway, PhD funding almost always works through hiring the candidate as a university employee (“stipendiat”), not through a scholarship application. That means the English requirement is set through the standard job-recruitment process — a CV, cover letter, and interview — rather than a scholarship committee, and an MOI letter or prior English-medium degree is generally sufficient context for the hiring department to judge your proficiency directly, without a separate IELTS mandate.

On the English Requirement Specifically

Where genuine flexibility exists in this list — mainly BI’s Bachelor and Master International Scholarships, and PhD hiring — it comes from the same source as everywhere else in this series: a transcript or letter proving your prior education was delivered in English, submitted at the admission or hiring stage rather than as a separate test. Where it doesn’t exist (the BI IB Scholarship specifically), don’t assume otherwise — the school states plainly that a test is compulsory for all applicants.

What This Means for Your Application Timeline

BI’s scholarship applications are submitted alongside your admission application, with rounds typically closing in the January–March window depending on intake. NORPART’s institutional project calls, when they run, have closed around mid-October historically — but confirm with your home institution whether anything is currently active, since new calls are not expected. Erasmus Mundus follows its own EU-wide calendar, generally with January deadlines for the following autumn’s intake.

Whichever route applies to you, budget for what none of these fully cover: Norway’s residence permit requires proof of roughly NOK 137,907 per year (a figure UDI updates annually) in living funds, plus mandatory health coverage. A service like Wise is worth using to move that money without a heavy bank markup.

Two Honest Questions

Is it true Norway doesn’t require IELTS at all?
No — that’s an oversimplification you’ll see repeated across a lot of scholarship-aggregator sites. Some institutions and hiring processes accept an MOI letter or prior English-medium degree in place of a test; others, like BI’s IB Scholarship, state a test is compulsory for everyone. It varies by exactly which route you’re pursuing, not by “Norway” as a blanket rule.

If most public universities don’t offer scholarships, how do international students actually afford tuition there now?
Largely through PhD employment (which pays a salary rather than requiring funding), private-institution scholarships like BI’s, EU-level programs like Erasmus Mundus, or simply paying tuition directly — which is a real, if unwelcome, answer for many prospective bachelor’s and master’s applicants since 2023.

Before You Apply

  • Confirm which category you actually fall into for tuition purposes: EU/EEA/Swiss (free), or non-EU/EEA (tuition-paying)
  • Don’t build a plan around the Quota Scheme or assume NORPART is open to you directly — verify with your home institution first
  • If you’re aiming for a PhD, search active positions directly rather than looking for a “PhD scholarship” application form
  • Confirm which BI scholarship requires a standard English test versus which will accept your prior academic transcript
  • Budget for Norway’s residence permit funds requirement and health insurance separately from any scholarship
  • Re-verify everything directly on each institution’s page — this is a fast-moving, currently-shrinking funding landscape, more so than any other country in this series

Scholarships Without IELTS