Living costs, not tuition, and the amount depends on the degree level
Living costs, not tuition, is what this covers, and the amount depends on whether you’re studying for a master’s or a doctorate. International master’s students currently receive 934 euros a month, with possible supplements. International doctoral candidates receive a higher base of 1,400 euros a month, plus a 100 euro mobility allowance and a 20 euro flat-rate supplement. Nothing here pays your tuition or your flight to Germany, so you still need a separate plan for both.
One of several distinct Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung scholarship tracks
This is one of several separate scholarship programmes the Foundation runs side by side, and you can only apply to one: a domestic-students track for those eligible for BAföG, a “Lux like” track aimed at applicants without an academic background who are about to start their first degree, and this international-students track, funded specifically by Germany’s Federal Foreign Office rather than the domestic BAföG-linked funding body. Make sure you’re applying to the right one before you start, since the eligibility rules genuinely don’t overlap. Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung is one of several German political foundations running near-identical international scholarship schemes with different political affiliations; the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung runs a comparable programme worth checking if your eligibility or interests point a different direction.
Eligibility has real teeth
Eligibility has real teeth. You must not be eligible for BAföG, Germany’s own domestic student support, which effectively means this is aimed at students who arrived in Germany relatively recently rather than those who have lived there for years. That is reinforced by an explicit 15-month cap: you must not have been in Germany for more than 15 months at the time you apply, unless you already completed a bachelor’s degree there or are on a university preparation course. German language ability is non-negotiable too, B2 level with proof, which rules out anyone still working toward conversational fluency.
Direct application, no nominating body, and the language trap
There is no nominating body and no third party in the process. The Foundation calls this the principle of direct application, and you apply straight through its own portal. The one real trap is language: the application itself and the required documents are in German only. The Foundation’s English pages exist and render more cleanly than on the last check, but the fuller detail, including the exact funding amounts, still sits only on the German pages, so treat those as the ones that actually govern your application.
A dated round, with two-factor authentication now required on the portal
The most recent round was dated precisely: it opened 20 August 2026 and closed on 1 October 2026 at 23:59, for study starting in the summer semester of 2027. The Foundation’s page still shows those dates with no banner marking the round as closed, and gives no date for the next round. The Foundation is explicit that nothing can be added to an application once the portal closes, so when the next round opens, assemble every document before you start rather than assuming you can submit supporting material afterward. New this round: the Foundation introduced two-factor authentication on its application portal from 19 August 2026, so first-time applicants will need an authenticator app on their phone to log in at all, on top of the usual password. Expect a first response on your application from around early December 2026, by email.