StudyDesk Scholarships
About the scholarship
The International Excellence Scholarships are UIC Barcelona’s flagship award for international students: a 20% reduction of tuition fees across all years of a bachelor’s degree. The programme is funded by the university’s own grant fund and is aimed at talented students with a clear vocation for one of UIC Barcelona’s degree programmes.
A word of caution before you read on: some third-party listing sites market this as a “fully funded” scholarship. It is not — the official university page states a 20% tuition-fee reduction, not a full ride. This article describes the award exactly as UIC Barcelona publishes it.
The current edition is open to international students entering for the 2027 intake; the previous call’s final resolution was announced at the end of May 2026 and is closed.
Eligibility
- Be an international student intending to study the entire bachelor’s degree programme at UIC Barcelona.
- Hold an average mark of 8 from the first year of upper secondary education (your marks are converted to the Spanish system by UIC’s Promotions and Admissions Department).
- Pass the UIC Barcelona specific entrance exam (taken online) and pass the university admission process.
- Once admitted, pay to reserve your place — this is a condition for qualifying for the grant.
- Meeting these requirements allows you to enter the call, but does not guarantee the award — the number of grants is limited and the final resolution rests solely with UIC Barcelona.
- Note: the grant cannot be applied to the bachelor’s degrees in Dentistry and Medicine.
Benefits
- 20% reduction of tuition fees for every year of the degree programme.
- Renewable annually: pass all subjects and reach an average mark of 7 to keep it in the following year.
- 15 hours per year of departmental tasks accompany the grant — these can be concentrated on specific activities or spread through the year.
- No financial requirements beyond admission: unlike some UIC grants, family income is not a criterion for this call.
Documents required
- Academic certificate for the school year equivalent to the first year of the baccalaureate (grades are converted to the Spanish system by UIC Barcelona).
- The documentation requested in the personal admission portal as part of the online admission application (programme-specific admission documents vary — check the portal for your degree).
- Payment proof for reserving your place once admitted.
How to apply
- Choose an eligible programmePick one of the listed bachelor’s degrees — Audiovisual Communication, Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations, Business Administration and Management, Law, Architecture, Humanities, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Bioengineering, Biomedicine, Psychology or Education. Dentistry and Medicine are excluded.
- Apply for admissionFill in the online application for admission and submit the requested documentation via the personal admission portal.
- Take the entrance examSit the UIC Barcelona specific exam, which is taken online. Three exam sittings are scheduled: November, January and April.
- Complete admissionPass the admission process and pay to reserve your place — this qualifies you for the grant call.
- Await the resolutionThe final resolution of the International Grants for Academic Excellence is announced by UIC Barcelona at the end of May.
FAQs
No. It covers 20% of the tuition fees across all years of the degree — a genuine but partial reduction. Third-party sites calling it “fully funded” are overstating the official offer.
The bachelor’s degrees in Dentistry and Medicine cannot receive this grant. Eligible programmes include Architecture, Law, Business, Nursing, Psychology, Biomedicine and others — the official list is on the university page.
There is no single published deadline. The grant follows the admission calendar: three entrance-exam sittings in November, January and April, with the final resolution announced at the end of May. Apply early in the cycle.
The official grant page does not state a language requirement; language demands come from the degree programme itself, so check the programme you apply to.
Meeting the academic, exam and admission requirements allows you to enter the call, but the number of grants is limited and awarding is not guaranteed — the final decision is UIC Barcelona’s alone.
Pass all subjects, achieve an average mark of 7, and complete the 15 hours per year of departmental tasks.
Verified 22 Oct 2026 via the official uic.es page "International Excellence Scholarships (International students)" (20% tuition-fee reduction across all years; edition offered to international students; average-of-8 requirement with Spanish-system conversion; UIC specific exam; admission + place reservation; Dentistry/Medicine excluded; eligible degree list; resolution at end of May; renewal: pass all subjects, average 7, 15 hours/year) and the official uic.es "Grants for degrees offered by UIC Barcelona" index ("up to 20%", no financial requirements, documentation: academic certificate, three exam sittings in Nov/Jan/Apr, contact admisiones@uic.es) + corroborating third-party trackers (globalscholarshipshub, scholarshipunion, thetechiest) on the programme details. Queue title "2026" was stale (that call resolved end of May 2026) and "fully funded" was an overstatement — the article is retitled for the 2027 intake and marketed as Partially Funded. No single application deadline is published; the article states this explicitly instead of inventing one.
