Leiden Excellence Scholarship (LExS) 2027-28, Netherlands

What Is the Leiden University Excellence Scholarship (LExS)?

The Leiden University Excellence Scholarship (LExS) 2027-28 is a merit-based tuition-fee reduction of €10,000 to €19,000 for outstanding international students starting a full-time Master's degree at Leiden University in the Netherlands in September 2027. It is not a full scholarship: it cuts your tuition bill, but you still pay your own living costs, travel, insurance and visa expenses. Applications close on 1 December 2026.

Status, checked 7 November 2026: the scholarship page is live on Leiden University's official website and the application portal is open now. Studielink opened on 1 October 2026. There is no separate LExS application form — you apply for your Master's programme first, then opt into LExS inside the same application.

How Much Is LExS Worth? Five Fixed Levels, Nothing Negotiable

Leiden does not award a percentage or a range you can bargain over. There are five fixed levels, and the faculty decides which one you get:

Award level	Tuition-fee reduction
Level 1	€10,000
Level 2	€15,000
Level 3	€17,500
Level 4	€18,500
Level 5	€19,000

The award lasts for the full duration of your Master's programme, and the amount is final — Leiden states plainly that it is non-negotiable. What makes the top level so valuable is the size of the bill it attacks: international Master's tuition in the Netherlands is steep, and €19,000 off it changes the maths of the whole degree. But keep the proportion honest. Even at the highest level, LExS leaves you to fund rent, food, health insurance, flights and the visa proof-of-funds requirement yourself. Leiden is explicit that recipients must still show proof of sufficient funds for their residence permit. If you were hoping for a package that covers everything, this is not it — and no honest guide should pretend otherwise.

One more number to sit with: Leiden awards only around 25 LExS scholarships a year, against more than 1,000 applicants. That is roughly a 1-in-40 hit rate. It is worth applying — the application costs you a 500-word letter on top of work you are doing anyway — but it is not a plan you should bet your whole September on.

Who Can Apply? The Nationality Rule, and the Two Exceptions

The core rule is simple. You must hold a passport from a country outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and outside the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and you must not be eligible for Dutch government student finance. In practice that covers most of the world — Asia, Africa, the Americas, the Middle East — and since Brexit it covers the United Kingdom too. One Brexit footnote matters: UK applicants who were already living in the Netherlands and registered in a Dutch municipality before 1 January 2021 fall under the old arrangement and are not eligible on this route.

Two programmes break the nationality rule entirely, and this is the detail that catches strong applicants out. If you are applying for an Advanced LLM programme or for the MSc in International Relations and Diplomacy, you can apply for LExS regardless of your nationality — including EU/EEA nationals. If you are an EU student eyeing one of those two programmes, LExS is open to you. For every other Master's programme, the non-EEA/non-EFTA rule stands.

Beyond nationality, Leiden looks for academic excellence — roughly the top 10% of your previous programme. The good news is that you do not have to prove a ranking: Leiden asks for excellent results and judges them itself, so you are not disqualified because your university never published a class rank. You must also be applying for a full-time Master's programme starting in September 2027.

Who Cannot Apply? The Exclusions People Miss

More applications fail on the exclusions than on grades, so read this list before you spend a weekend on the motivation letter:

Leiden Law School's non-advanced programmes: the standard LLM and the MSc programmes at Leiden Law School are excluded. Only the Advanced LLM programmes qualify.
February-start programmes: LExS is for September 2027 starts only. If your programme begins in February, you are out.
Second Leiden Master's: you cannot hold a LExS award if you already hold a Master's degree from Leiden — unless a previous Master's is mandatory for the programme you are applying to, as with some Advanced LLM tracks.
Already fully funded elsewhere: you cannot combine LExS with another full external scholarship. If you win a full-ride award from another body, LExS steps aside.

There is no age limit and no restriction by field of study beyond the programme exclusions above. Leiden's faculties run their own nomination, so the competition you face is inside your faculty, not against every applicant worldwide.

How Do You Apply? Admission First, Scholarship Second

There is no separate scholarship form and no separate deadline to juggle. The scholarship rides on your Master's application, and the order matters:

Step	What to do	When
1. Apply in Studielink	Start your application for a full-time Master's programme starting September 2027 through Studielink, Leiden's national application system	Open since 1 October 2026
2. Complete the Leiden application	Finish your application in Leiden's own online portal (uSis), including all required documents	Before 1 December 2026
3. Opt into LExS	After submitting your admission application, select LExS in the Scholarships section and upload a motivation letter (PDF, maximum 500 words)	Before 1 December 2026
4. Pay the application fee	€100, non-refundable, paid with the Master's application. It covers up to three programmes or specialisations in the same academic year	With your application
5. Faculty nomination	Faculties nominate their candidates within 10 weeks of the deadline	December 2026 – February 2027
6. Decision	All applicants are notified of the outcome	Before the end of March 2027

Two practical warnings. First, Leiden itself notes that creating and submitting an admission application can take up to three working days — the portal is not a five-minute job, and a 1 December deadline means you should be inside the system well before the last week of November. Second, the €100 application fee applies to all applicants with an international degree, scholarship or no scholarship, and it does not come back if you are not admitted. That is the real cost of trying: €100 plus a 500-word letter. Compared with the €10,000 to €19,000 on the table, it is a fair trade — but go in knowing it.

LExS vs a Fully Funded Scholarship — An Honest Comparison

Students often apply to LExS and to full-ride awards in the same season, so here is how it stacks up against two fully funded European options we have covered on this blog:

	Leiden LExS (this article)	SI Scholarship for Global Professionals, Sweden	TU Delft Excellence Scholarship, Netherlands
What it pays	€10,000–€19,000 off tuition only	Full tuition + monthly living allowance	Full tuition + living-cost contribution
Living costs	Not covered — you fund them	Covered	Partly covered
Deadline	1 December 2026	Master's application by 15 January 2027; SI portal 8–24 February 2027	1 December 2026
Separate scholarship form?	No — opt in during admission	Yes — separate SI portal	No — opt in during admission
Application fee	€100 (admission)	SEK 900 (University Admissions)	€100 (admission)
How many awards	~25 per year	~300 per year	Varies by faculty

The comparison makes the strategy obvious: apply to LExS if Leiden is genuinely your first-choice university, and apply to the full-ride options in parallel if you need living costs covered. The SI Scholarship and TU Delft guides are linked below. One caution on timing: LExS and TU Delft share the same 1 December 2026 deadline, so if both are on your list, run the two applications together rather than one after the other.

The Honest Trade-Offs

Three things to weigh before you apply. First, the money gap: even the top €19,000 award leaves living costs in one of Europe's pricier countries entirely on you, and the Dutch residence permit requires proof of funds, so budget the full year honestly before you accept. Second, the odds: around 25 awards from more than 1,000 applicants means most excellent candidates still miss out — apply, but keep other options warm. Third, the deadline is unforgiving in a quiet way: 1 December sounds far away in early November, and then the admission paperwork, the transcripts, the references and the 500-word letter all land in the same fortnight. Start the Studielink application this week, not in the last week of November.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Leiden University Excellence Scholarship fully funded?

No. LExS is a partial scholarship: it reduces your tuition fee by €10,000 to €19,000. Living costs, travel, health insurance and visa costs are not covered, and you must show proof of sufficient funds for your Dutch residence permit.

What is the deadline for LExS 2027?

1 December 2026, for Master's programmes starting in September 2027. The official page states the date without a time of day, so treat it as end of day and submit well before then — Leiden notes the application itself can take up to three working days.

Do I need to apply separately for the scholarship?

No. You apply for admission to your Master's programme through Studielink and Leiden's uSis portal, then select LExS in the Scholarships section and upload a motivation letter of no more than 500 words as a PDF.

Is there an application fee?

Yes. All applicants with an international degree pay a €100 non-refundable application fee with their Master's application. It covers up to three programmes or specialisations in the same academic year. There is no separate LExS fee.

Can UK students apply?

Yes. Since Brexit, UK passport holders count as non-EEA applicants for LExS — except those who were already living in the Netherlands and registered in a Dutch municipality before 1 January 2021.

Can I apply if I am from the EU?

Only for the Advanced LLM programmes or the MSc in International Relations and Diplomacy, which are open to all nationalities. For every other Master's programme, LExS is for non-EEA/non-EFTA passport holders only.

When will I hear back?

Faculties nominate candidates within 10 weeks of the deadline, and all applicants are notified before the end of March 2027.

Conclusion

LExS is not the biggest scholarship in Europe, and it does not pretend to be. What it is, is a serious tuition cut — up to €19,000 — at a university that rarely discounts anything, awarded on merit alone, with no separate form to fill in and no interview to survive. If Leiden is where you want your Master's, the only real cost of trying is a €100 application fee and a 500-word letter. The deadline is 1 December 2026. Start the application now, while there is still time to do it properly.

Apply on the Official Website: Leiden University Excellence Scholarship (LExS) — official page. Check your programme's own admission requirements on the same site before you apply.

By Kashan Ajmeri, Opportunity Wave — 7 November 2026. Sources: Leiden University, official LExS scholarship page (universiteitleiden.nl) and Studielink application guidance, checked 7 November 2026. All figures, deadlines and eligibility rules in this article come from the official page; verify your programme's requirements on the official site before applying.