SverigeStart
Studying
Moving to Sweden or just arrived? SverigeStart explains Swedish bureaucracy, work, taxes, housing, healthcare and daily life in plain language — with an AI assistant that explains important documents and gives clear, source-based answers.
Updated: 2026-07-31
SverigeStart brings information from many official Swedish sources together in one place, and we work to keep it up to date. Even so, rules, rates and amounts can change at any time, and we cannot guarantee that a page here always matches the authority's latest wording. Always confirm with the responsible authority before you act. We give general information, not professional advice on legal, tax, immigration or medical matters, and we take no responsibility for differences between this page and the official source, or for decisions taken on the basis of it.
Getting in & what it costs
Whether university in Sweden costs you anything at all depends entirely on your citizenship — EU/EEA/Swiss citizens pay nothing, while everyone else pays real tuition, so it's worth knowing which category you're in before you apply.
- Public universities are tuition-free for EU/EEA and Swiss citizens. Non-EU/EEA/Swiss students pay roughly 80,000–320,000 kr/year depending on the programme (humanities/social science ~90,000 kr, sciences ~140,000 kr and up), plus a 900 kr application fee — exchange students and doctoral (PhD) students are exempt from both fees regardless of citizenship.
- Apply through the national portal universityadmissions.se (also known as antagning.se) — deadlines are typically mid-January for autumn intake.
- Many master's programmes are taught fully in English.
Student life & money
Even with free tuition, studying in Sweden costs real money to live on — and the state study-finance system that helps Swedish students with this mostly doesn't apply if you're not from the EU/EEA, so budget accordingly.
- CSN (the state study-finance agency) offers grants/loans mainly to Swedish and some EU/EEA students — non-EU students generally don't qualify and should budget independently (roughly 8,000–12,000 kr/month living costs).
- Student housing queues (SSSB in Stockholm, AF Bostäder in Lund, Studentbostäder in Gothenburg, etc.) should be joined the moment you're admitted — they fill up fast.
- A studentkår (student union) membership usually unlocks discounts on transport, food and events — always ask "studentrabatt?".