Everyone who goes abroad to an Arcada partner university is entitled to a mobility grant. If you go on exchange to one of Arcada's partner universities, you will receive a mobility grant via the mobility team. Exceptions include exchanges within the Nordplus program, where the grant is paid by the Nordplus network, and exchanges to Switzerland, where the receiving institution pays the grant.

Mobility grant for exchange studies

  • You can get only one of the grants depending on where you are going and what kind of agreement Arcada has with the partner institution. You can check the information in the partner institution database or contact international affairs.
  • The mobility grant is not taxable income. Therefore Kela, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, does not consider the mobility grant in their income monitoring for student financial aid.
  • When you go on exchange to a partner university, you don't need to pay any tuition fees to them.
  • If you, for some reason, do not fulfill your exchange as planned according to the Learning Agreement the grant or a part of it must be reimbursed.

ERASMUS+ grant - for exchange to an Erasmus+ partner

Erasmus+ grants can be awarded to the same person more than once, but the total scholarship period may not exceed 12 months per study level (e.g. Bachelor's level), counting both studies and traineeships.

Students who go on exchange through the Erasmus+ program will get an Erasmus+ grant. The Erasmus grant is paid in two installments 80% before your mobility and 20% after. The first installment is paid before the start of you exchange studies.

  • The amount of Erasmus+ grant depends on the host country and the length of your physical exchange period: 490/540€ per month during (16,33/18€ per day). In the academic year 2024-25 a new travel grant is introduced for Erasmus+ students. 
  • Attach your Learning Agreement signed by all three parts to your grant agreement
  • Read important information about Erasmus+ grants in the
    appendix "Erasmus - info about grants for studies abroad 2024-2025".

The grant agreement process

  1. Forward your acceptance letter to us (international@arcada.fi)
  2. You will receive an email from us with a link to the grant form (MoveON).
    • Fill in the form and submit it.
  3. We will send the grant agreement for digital signature.
    • Please read the grant agreement carefully before signing!

Erasmus top-up grants for students with fewer opportunities and for green travel

Erasmus+ additional top-up grant for students with fewer opportunities

The Erasmus+ programme supports also students with fewer opportunities to participate in a mobility period. Participants with fewer opportunities are entitled to a fixed-fee additional grant of 250€/month on top of the ordinary Erasmus+ mobility grant. Contact international@arcada.fi in case you are entitled to a top-up grant.
As of the academic year 2022-2023 in Finland the fewer opportunities category includes:

  • Social obstacles
    • students with families (student has an underaged child or children)
    • students who are family carers (student has an agreement of informal care with the municipality)
  • Disabilities
    • students with EU’s disability card or who have a right for the card
    • disabled students (at least moderate functional deficiency)
  • Health obstacles
    • students having severe and/or chronic health problems (at least moderate functional deficiency)
  • Migrant background
    • students who have received international protection (refugees, asylum seekers, students who have been granted international, subsidiary or temporary protection, or the student has a refugee’s passport)

Green mobility travel grant in Erasmus+

Starting from 2022, it is possible to get extra travel grant if a student chooses an environmental/low-emission mode of travel (for example bicycle, train, bus, carpooling, not however ferry) and the majority of traveled distance of the round trip or at least one direction of the trip is 100% green travel. 

If you go on exchange during the academic year 2024-25, all students will receive a travel grant. If you choose an environmental friendly mode of transportation, you will receive a higher travel grant. Additionally, up to 6 travel days can be added to your exchange period when you travel using green methods.

Read about a greener mobility (before, during, after) on the Green Erasmus portal .

Arcada grant - for exchange to a partner institution outside of Europe

Students who have been accepted for exchange in one of Arcada's partner institutions outside of Europe can get an Arcada grant.

The Arcada grant is 420 €/month and it is paid in total before the exchange period. You can scan and hand in your application through email. We do not need the original version of the document.

Nordplus grant - for exchange to a Nordplus partner institution

Students who will go on exchange through Nordplus network can apply for Nordplus grant. In most cases we also have Erasmus+ mobility agreements with our Nordplus partners and in that case you will receive the Erasmus+ grant.

  • The grant is 250€/month + a travel support of 330€.
  • Nordplus grant forms: Please contact the international coordinator for more information.

Swiss Mobility Grant

Switzerland does not participate in the Erasmus programme. Consequently, the Swiss government pays a mobility grant also for inbound exchange students and the grant is paid via the host university.
 

Special Needs and Inclusion support - Erasmus+ and Nordplus

You can apply for exchange even if you have special needs. You should contact the international coordinator at Arcada (international@arcada.fi) in good time before the application deadline so that we can start the arrangements as early as possible. To ensure that students with special needs can take full advantage of the Erasmus or Nordplus exchange, both programs offers extra funding for students with special needs. You may be entitled to extra funding if you have a disability, illness or other exceptional special needs that will cause extra costs during your exchange and which are not covered by other sources. You can find more information about the support for students with special needs on The Finnish National Board of Education's website .

Other external grants

Applying for grants and scholarships from outside Arcada requires your own initiative. Please check fyrk.fi or skr.fi (only in Swedish and Finnish). Engineering students can apply for a grant through Stipendiefonder from the Arcada Foundation (Arcada Foundation maintains Arcada UAS). Inquiries regarding scholarship applications should be directed to the organization from which you are applying for the scholarship.