Most guides to studying abroad “without IELTS” walk you university by university, because each school runs its own rulebook. Sweden works differently, and it’s worth understanding why before you look at a single scholarship.

Every Swedish university — Lund, KTH, Uppsala, all of them — pulls its English-language rules from the same source: universityadmissions.se, the country’s centralized national application portal. That single page, not each individual institution, decides what counts as proof of English proficiency across the entire country. And its policy is more specific than most people expect: a plain MOI letter from your school “will not be sufficient,” except in one case — if you completed the equivalent of 60 ECTS credits with English as the language of instruction in a country on the portal’s approved list. Miss that specific condition, and you’re back to submitting IELTS, TOEFL, or another recognized test.

This matters because it means the “waiver” in Sweden isn’t a generous courtesy handed out by whichever university you happen to apply to. It’s a fixed, national rule, and it applies the same way whether you’re aiming for a business degree in Stockholm or an engineering program in Gothenburg.

So Where Does “Without IELTS” Actually Apply?

Two genuine routes exist. First, the country-of-prior-study exemption described above — if it applies to you, no test of any kind is needed. Second, for the flagship Swedish Institute Scholarships, English proficiency is verified once, at the university admission stage, using whatever the national portal accepts — meaning the scholarship itself never adds a second, separate English test on top.

Before diving into individual scholarships, it’s worth getting your study in Sweden financial aid picture straight — a tuition scholarship is only part of the cost; you’ll still need proof of funds and health insurance for your residence permit, which Section 4 covers.

Section Two: The Language Rule Behind the Residence Permit

People sometimes assume Swedish immigration authorities run their own English check for the residence permit. They don’t. The Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) cares about your university admission letter, your proof of sufficient funds, and your health insurance — the English requirement was already settled back at the university admissions stage, long before immigration paperwork enters the picture.

How to check if you qualify for the exemption:

  1. Go to universityadmissions.se’s English language requirements page and find the list of qualifying countries and institutions
  2. Confirm your prior degree (or 60 ECTS worth of it) was taught in English at a qualifying institution
  3. If you don’t qualify, plan for IELTS Academic, IELTS Online, IELTS UKVI (Academic), or IELTS One Skill Retake — note that IELTS General Training and IELTS Indicator are not accepted
  4. TOEFL is accepted university-wide as an alternative

The Scholarships

1. Swedish Institute Scholarships for Global Professionals (SISGP)
Full tuition, a monthly stipend of SEK 12,000, a travel grant, and insurance, for one- or two-year English-taught master’s programs. Open to citizens of 34 eligible countries with at least 3,000 hours of professional experience.
🔗 si.se/en/apply/scholarships/swedish-institute-scholarships-for-global-professionals
The scholarship doesn’t run its own English test — it simply requires that you meet whatever proficiency standard your chosen university has already set through universityadmissions.se. So if your prior education qualifies you for the national exemption, that clearance carries straight through to your SISGP application without a second check.

2. KTH Royal Institute of Technology Scholarship
Full tuition waiver for one- or two-year master’s programs at Sweden’s largest technical university, awarded automatically alongside your admission — no separate scholarship form.
🔗 kth.se/en/education/scholarships
KTH states its English requirement as “studies equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary level,” which is exactly the standard the national portal assesses — meaning a qualifying country-of-study exemption clears you here just as it would anywhere else in Sweden.

3. Lund University Global Scholarship
Merit-based, covering 25% to 100% of tuition for bachelor’s or master’s studies, at one of Scandinavia’s oldest and most internationally ranked universities.
🔗 lunduniversity.lu.se/study/admission-degree-studies/scholarships-and-awards/lund-university-global-scholarship
Lund’s own English-requirements page is refreshingly direct about pointing applicants back to the national portal rather than inventing its own rules — “there are several ways to prove your English language proficiency, check which proof is accepted at the University Admissions in Sweden website” is essentially an instruction to use the same exemption everyone else does.

4. Chalmers University of Technology Adlerbert Scholarship
A full tuition fee waiver funded by the Adlerbert Foundations, open to citizens of 143 eligible countries pursuing a master’s degree in engineering, science, or architecture.
🔗 chalmers.se/en/education/application-and-admission/scholarships-for-fee-paying-students
Chalmers phrases its requirement almost identically to KTH’s — proficiency “equivalent to English 6,” demonstrated through upper-secondary studies, university studies, or a test — reinforcing that this is genuinely a shared national standard rather than something that varies wildly campus to campus.

5. Uppsala University Global Scholarships
Covers full tuition for a master’s program at one of Scandinavia’s oldest universities, with sibling programs (the Anders Wall Scholarship for African citizens, and the King Carl Gustaf Scholarship for students from conflict-affected countries) running alongside it.
🔗 uu.se/en/study/masters-studies/scholarships
Because Uppsala draws its academic-merit assessment from the same documents you already submitted to universityadmissions.se, a scholarship applicant’s English exemption status is inherited automatically rather than reassessed from scratch.

6. Stockholm University Scholarship Scheme
Full tuition fee coverage for especially qualified master’s students, plus the separate Stockholm Trio Scholarship for joint programs run with KTH and Karolinska Institutet.
🔗 su.se/english/education/how-to-apply/costs-fees-and-scholarships/scholarships
Selection priority goes to students who listed Stockholm University as their first choice on universityadmissions.se — the same portal, again, handling the language verification well before the scholarship committee even reviews your file.

7. University of Gothenburg Axel Adler Scholarship
A tuition fee waiver open to students of any nationality, provided Gothenburg is your first-choice university, with 122 current recipients across the program.
🔗 gu.se/en/news/scholarship-opportunities-in-sweden-for-international-students-2026
Gothenburg additionally hosts several SISGP-eligible programs and a dedicated SI Scholarship for Women in STEM track, giving applicants layered funding options that all defer to the same national English-proficiency baseline.

8. Karolinska Institutet Global Master’s Scholarship
Around 10 tuition-fee scholarships awarded annually across all of KI’s Global Master’s programs, alongside SISGP and the SI Pioneering Women in STEM scholarship, which alone brought 18 KI awardees in 2025.
🔗 education.ki.se/bachelors-masters-studies/scholarships
KI is one of the few institutions on this list that layers three separate funding tracks over the same admission pool, but every one of them still traces back to the language proof you submitted at the national portal stage.

9. Umeå University Scholarship
A full or partial tuition-fee waiver for high-achieving non-EU/EEA students admitted to a master’s program, chosen as first priority, plus a design-specific scholarship funded by Umeå municipality.
🔗 umu.se/en/education/application-and-admission/scholarships
Selection is academic-merit-based and automatically triggered by your programme application — there’s no separate English test for the scholarship beyond what your admission already required.

10. Linköping University Scholarships
Tuition-fee reductions for non-EU/EEA master’s students, following the same admission-linked scholarship structure common across Sweden’s mid-sized research universities.
🔗 liu.se
As with the other institutions here, confirm your specific program’s participation and current scholarship terms directly on LiU’s own admissions pages, since Sweden’s smaller universities update their scholarship offerings more frequently than the flagship schools.

Getting Your Application in Order

Because the exemption in Sweden hinges on documented prior study rather than a simple letter, start by pulling your own academic history apart: how many credits, in what country, taught in what language? If you can’t clearly answer that in a way that matches universityadmissions.se’s published list, budget time and money for an IELTS Academic sitting rather than assuming a workaround exists.

Deadlines cluster tightly: most bachelor’s and master’s applications close January 15 for autumn intake, with SISGP’s own scholarship window opening shortly after in February. Miss the January admissions deadline, and no scholarship — however generous — can rescue that application cycle.

And once the scholarship question is settled, don’t forget the costs it won’t touch: Sweden’s residence permit requires proof of roughly SEK 10,000+ per month in living funds, plus health insurance for the full length of your stay. A service like Wise can help you move that money across borders without the markup a traditional bank applies.

Two Quick Questions People Actually Ask

Does the Swedish Migration Agency check my English separately when I apply for a residence permit?
No. By the time you’re applying for the permit, your university has already confirmed you meet the English requirement as part of admission. The Migration Agency’s job is proof of funds, insurance, and your acceptance letter — not a second language check.

If I don’t qualify for the country exemption, is there a cheaper alternative to IELTS?
TOEFL is accepted everywhere IELTS is in the Swedish system, and it’s sometimes faster to schedule depending on your location. Beyond that, Sweden doesn’t currently recognize Duolingo or a simple MOI letter as a substitute outside the specific 60-ECTS exemption — so if the exemption doesn’t apply to you, plan for a standardized test rather than hoping for a workaround.

Before You Apply: A Short Checklist

  • Check whether your prior education (specifically, 60+ ECTS credits taught in English from a qualifying country) meets universityadmissions.se’s exemption criteria
  • If it doesn’t, register for IELTS Academic or TOEFL well ahead of the January 15 documentation deadline
  • Apply to your program first — every scholarship on this list is either automatic or requires an existing admission
  • Rank your target university as first choice wherever the scholarship requires it (Lund, Uppsala, Umeå, and Stockholm all mention this explicitly)
  • Budget separately for Sweden’s residence permit funds requirement and health insurance
  • Confirm current deadlines directly on each university’s page, since Sweden’s smaller institutions revise scholarship terms yearly

One Honest Caveat

Sweden’s system is stricter about “without IELTS” than several other countries covered in this series. A letter from your school stating your education was in English is, on its own, explicitly not sufficient here — the exemption only applies if your prior study meets the specific credit-and-country criteria published by universityadmissions.se. If you’re not sure whether you qualify, the safest move is to check the portal’s own country list directly rather than assuming a general MOI letter will be accepted, since it won’t be outside that narrow condition.

Scholarships Without IELTS