Hungarian Government

Stipendium Hungaricum is the Hungarian government's scholarship for international students, run by the Tempus Public Foundation. In 2025 it received 80,000 applications and awarded more than 4,500 scholarships at about 30 Hungarian universities.

The scholarship has two programmes on ForsaEdu, each with its own page of criteria, documents and benefits: General Medicine, and bachelor's, master's and PhD. This guide covers what they share: who can apply, the timeline, the selection rounds, documents and common mistakes.

What the scholarship gives

The scholarship does not cover all living costs. The stipend is only a contribution and airfare is not paid, so plan for extra income, especially in Budapest.

Who can apply

You must be a citizen of a Sending Partner country that nominates its students. In the 2026/2027 cycle the Arab Sending Partners were:

Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq (and the Kurdistan Region), Yemen, Oman, Bahrain and the UAE.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Mauritania were not on the list, and the list may change in the 2027/2028 call.

You cannot apply if you:

• are under 18 on 31 August of the year you start.
• hold Hungarian citizenship, or refugee, temporary-protection or asylum-seeker status.
• apply through a country that is not your country of citizenship.
• already had the scholarship at the same level or lower.

Apply twice: to Tempus and to your country

This is the point applicants miss most:

1. The online application on the Tempus platform (apply.stipendiumhungaricum.hu) before the deadline.
2. The application to your country's Sending Partner (usually the higher education ministry), which has its own dates and requirements and may ask for paper copies.

Without your country's nomination, your application is not considered. Check your Sending Partner's page on the scholarship website early.

Timeline

Example from the 2026/2027 cycle:

The cycle repeats the same way. The 2027/2028 call is expected to open in November 2026 and close in mid-January 2027.

Choosing two programmes: the order matters

• You can choose two programmes only, in order, at one or two universities.
• Your first choice is examined first, and your chances are higher there.
• Programmes and their order cannot be changed after the deadline.
• Medicine: most universities fill their places from applicants who chose it first, so don't list it as a second choice.
• STEM+ fields get priority: sciences, engineering, mathematics, agriculture and health sciences.

Selection rounds

1. Technical check (Tempus): age, citizenship and complete documents.
2. Your country's nomination: the Sending Partner picks its candidates by its own criteria.
3. University exam: a test or interview scored out of 100, with a minimum of 56 points.
4. Allocation: Tempus combines the university score, the nomination rank, programme capacity and your order of choices.

Documents

• Motivation letter: at least one page, Times New Roman 12, in the language of the programme.
• PhD: a research plan of at least two pages, checked for plagiarism; a recommendation letter from an academic with a scientific degree; and sometimes a supervisor's statement from the Hungarian university. Contact the university and check doktori.hu before applying.
• Certificates and transcripts, with a translation into the programme's language if they are not in it.
• Language proof at the level the university sets, or proof that your previous studies were in the programme's language.
• Each file 4 MB at most.
• The medical certificate is not uploaded; winners bring it to Hungary.

If you are in your final year or waiting for a language result, upload a signed declaration before the deadline, then the document before 1 August.

For the motivation letter and references, read the recommendation letters guide and Motivation letter for DAAD scholarships; the same principles apply.

After you win

• The Hungarian language course is compulsory in the first year for bachelor's and master's students. Skip it and the stipend is not paid; fail its exam and the stipend drops to HUF 30,000.
• You must earn at least 18 credits on average over your last two semesters, or the scholarship may end.
• Start the visa straight away: it can take 30 days, and scholarship holders pay no fees.
• If you accept and then don't travel without telling Tempus before 15 October, you are barred from applying for the next three rounds.

Mistakes that sink an application

• Saving the application without clicking Submit.
• Applying to Tempus only, not to your country's Sending Partner.
• Mixing up full degree and partial (exchange) study, or study levels.
• An e-mail address you don't check. Gmail is recommended; Tempus letters often land in spam on Hotmail and Yahoo.
• Paying an agency: applying is free and done directly with Tempus and your country.