Admission and application

Application fee

From the September 2023-2024 intake onwards, the University of Groningen charges a non-refundable application fee of 100 euros.

Please note: we can only start reviewing your file after this fee has been received on time.

Fee for multiple applications

In case you apply for more than one programme in one academic year, know that you only need to pay the fee once.

Exemptions

The application fee will not be waived except for very specific cases. These are:

• students who have refugee status in the Netherlands
• students who are applying for an Erasmus Mundus programme*
• students who are applying for a Double Degree programme and whose prior university has already evaluated their diploma. These students will be informed of this in their application instructions
• students who are applying on the basis of a Dutch diploma
• students who are applying on the basis of a VWO diploma from Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Saba, St. Eustatius or Surinam

If any of these exemption conditions apply to you, you will receive instructions on how to register your exemption in the email containing the payment link for other students, which you will receive within a few working days after you have applied in Studielink.

* Please note that the Erasmus Mundus progamme can decide whether they charge an application fee on the programme level. This will be communicated on the programme's website.

How to pay the application fee

After you have submitted your application via Studielink, you will receive an email with a payment link.

After paying the application fee, you will still need to complete your application in our Online Application System (OAS) before the deadline.

Deadline complete application

As soon as we have received your payment of the application fee, we will confirm its receipt by email to you and start processing your application. The deadline for completing your payment is the same as the application deadline for your programme. Please see the programme page on the website for this deadline, as these differ per programme.  After these dates we will no longer process incomplete or unpaid applications.

Processing time application

After we receive the application fee and your complete application in our Online Application System (OAS) it can take up to six to eight weeks before you receive a decision on your application. Please take this into account with regard to scholarship deadlines.

More information

Check the FAQ about application fee.

You will need to submit your application in both Studielink and the university's Online Application System (OAS) before the application deadline. You can find the deadline applicable to your programme of choice below:

We urge you to submit your application early and not to wait until close to the deadline.

An overview of the deadlines per Bachelor's degree programme can be found on the Application deadline Bachelor's degree page.

In order to be eligible for admission, the general end level of your previous education must be equivalent to pre-university education (VWO) in the Netherlands.

Please consult our list with international and country-specific qualifications that are VWO equivalent. Should your qualification not be listed, please know that you can still apply, as all applications are assessed on an individual basis.

Please consult the overview of the language requirements per faculty.

It is not a problem if you submit your application while you have not yet taken a language test or while your test scores are insufficient.

The above applies to both fixed-quota and regular programmes.

Exemption options

You are exempted from proving your proficiency in English if you apply on the basis of:

• a (to be obtained) upper secondary qualification obtained in one of the following countries: USA, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada (English speaking provinces/territories), Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines and meet our general end level requirements for that specific qualification;
• a (to be) completed Bachelor's programme in one of the following countries: USA, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada (English speaking provinces/territories), Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines;
• at least 3 (to be obtained) academic GCE A2-level certificates with grades A* to C from an accredited British examination board;
• an (to be obtained) International Baccalaureate diploma, with English as the medium of instruction;

• a (to be obtained) European Baccalaureate diploma from a European School or one of the Accredited European Schools and have (completed) English as an L1 or L2 subject;

• a (to be obtained) French Option Internationale du Baccalauréat (OIB) - British version;

• a (to be obtained) South African National Senior Certificate in combination with an IEB Advanced Programme Certificate in English (with minimum result 55% in case this is the only IEB AP certificate; otherwise with a passing grade) or in combination with an IEB Further Studies (Certificate) in English (with minimum result 55% in case this is the only IEB certificate; otherwise with a passing grade);
• (to be obtained) Singapore/Cambridge A-levels in at least 3 H2 and 1 H1 content* courses (of which at least 1 course in a contrasting discipline) together with either the course General Paper or Knowledge and Inquiry (5 courses in total).

The following faculties offer additional options for an exemption to the English requirement:

• the Faculty of Arts
• the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences
• the Faculty of Economics and Business
• the Faculty of Spatial Sciences

If you are applying to a programme at one of these faculties make sure to check the list below to see if an exemption applies.

In addition to the general end level requirements, the Bachelor's programmes of some faculties apply subject-specific requirements. In these cases, the Admissions Board also needs to determine whether you possess the required background knowledge in subjects relevant to the Bachelor's programme. Whether the programme of your choice applies subject-specific requirements can be found on our website with entry requirements per qualification/country and faculty.

Should you not meet the subject-specific requirements as specified on our website or as determined by the Admissions Board upon assessment of your application (on the basis of course descriptions, if applicable), you have the option to obtain one of our accepted certificates for the relevant subject(s).

Please consult the overview of the accepted certificates to lift a deficiency per faculty.

Studielink is the online application and registration service for universities in the Netherlands.

Important note: We have noticed that in some cases Microsoft email accounts are blocked from receiving emails from the University of Groningen. Therefore, we highly recommend registering an email address that is not related to Microsoft (please note that this includes providers such as hotmail, outlook, msn and live).

To do

1. Go to Studielink and create a Studielink account (if you have not already done so).
   • If you already have a Studielink account, please use your existing account and do not create a new one. This means that you will have the same student number for all your applications.
   • You can have up to 4 active applications in your Studielink account (including a maximum of 2 programmes with a fixed quota). Nationwide you can only apply for one Bachelor's programme in Medicine or Dentistry (Dutch taught).
   • You will receive an email with your Studielink login details within minutes after creating your Studielink account. Make sure to check your spam folder for this email as well.
2. Log in with your new account and change your password.
3. Fill out details about your previous education.
4. Select the programme you wish to apply to.
5. Submit the application by clicking the 'confirm' button.

If you need help during this step, please consult the instruction manuals for Studielink.

Application fee

From the September 2023-2024 intake onwards, the University of Groningen charges a non-refundable application fee of 100 euros.

Please note: we can only start reviewing your file after this fee has been received on time.

Fee for multiple applications

In case you apply for more than one programme in one academic year, know that you only need to pay the fee once.

Exemptions

The application fee will not be waived except for very specific cases. These are:

• students who have refugee status in the Netherlands
• students who are applying for an Erasmus Mundus programme*
• students who are applying for a Double Degree programme and whose prior university has already evaluated their diploma. These students will be informed of this in their application instructions
• students who are applying on the basis of a Dutch diploma
• students who are applying on the basis of a VWO diploma from Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Saba, St. Eustatius or Surinam

If any of these exemption conditions apply to you, you will receive instructions on how to register your exemption in the email containing the payment link for other students, which you will receive within a few working days after you have applied in Studielink.

* Please note that the Erasmus Mundus progamme can decide whether they charge an application fee on the programme level. This will be communicated on the programme's website.

How to pay the application fee

After you have submitted your application via Studielink, you will receive an email with a payment link.

After paying the application fee, you will still need to complete your application in our Online Application System (OAS) before the deadline.

Deadline complete application

As soon as we have received your payment of the application fee, we will confirm its receipt by email to you and start processing your application. The deadline for completing your payment is the same as the application deadline for your programme. Please see the programme page on the website for this deadline, as these differ per programme.  After these dates we will no longer process incomplete or unpaid applications.

Processing time application

After we receive the application fee and your complete application in our Online Application System (OAS) it can take up to six to eight weeks before you receive a decision on your application. Please take this into account with regard to scholarship deadlines.

More information

Check the FAQ about application fee.

After submitting your application in OAS, you will receive an automatically generated email from the system confirming this.

However, this does notmean that the application has been received by the Admissions Office yet.

You will receive an email from the Admissions Office confirming that we have received your application. One of the Admissions Officers will have screened your application to verify whether you have provided all the required documents and information for us to start processing your application for admission. Our confirmation email will inform you of this and should any documents be missing, we will indicate the documents/information that we will still need to receive.

To do

• If applicable, provide the Admissions Office with the missing documents.

Once we have received the required application documents we will send your application to the relevant Faculty's Admissions Board to be reviewed. This means they will decide whether you meet the entry requirements of the degree programme of your choice.

This assessment may take up to 6 weeks - or longer if your programme has an additional selection procedure in place.

As soon as the Admissions Board has decided on your application for admission, you will be notified of the decision.

The Admissions Board will come to one of the following 3 decisions:

• You are (provisionally) admitted.
  All conditions have been fulfilled but we might still need to receive certified documents.
• You are conditionally admitted.
  You will be admitted, provided that you meet certain conditions. You will find the conditions of your admission in your decision letter.
• You are not admitted.
  You are not admitted, because you do not meet the programme’s entry requirements. The reasons will be clearly stated in the decision letter.

When you receive your decision letter you will also receive our Admission Checklist and possibly additional information.

These documents contain very importantinformation on your enrolment with University of Groningen, deadlines, the (mandatory) matching procedure, the visa procedure, accommodation, etc.

To do

• Carefully read all the information that has been sent to you.

Additionally, you can also consult the website for admitted international students for more information. Please note: this website does not replace the Admission Checklist or any other documents you were sent along with your offer letter. You will still have to carefully read these documents.

The Admissions Office will ask you to inform them whether you accept your offer of (conditional) admission.

Please return the signed Confirmation of Participation form as soon as you are certain that you want to accept a place in the programme.

To do

• Sign the Confirmation of Participation form and return the signed digital copy to the Admissions Office by email.

If you need a visa or residence permit to study in the Netherlands you will need to follow the instructions sent to you by the university's Immigration Service Desk(ISD).

You will only receive those instructions after you have received a letter of (conditional or provisional) admissionfrom the Admissions Office. The ISD starts sending these instructions in May each year.

In order to complete the admission process you will need to submit certified copies of your diploma(s) and transcripts (and, if applicable, their official translations) and in some cases you will have to submit certified copies of your English test results.

In your letter of (conditional or provisional) admission you will find a list of the certified documents that the Admissions Office will need to receive from you.

Please carefully read our explanation of certified copies. If you completed your previous education in China, please read the information for Chinese admitted students.

To do

• Provide the requested certified copies to the Admissions Office.

When the Admissions Office receives your certified documents, they will be able to draft your decree of admission, which is the official legal statement based on which you can be registered as a student of the University of Groningen. The Admissions Office will send you your decree by email.
When you have received your decree of admission, you will have finished all the steps of the admission procedure that are handled by the Admissions Office.

When you receive your decree of admission, this does not mean that you are enrolled as a student. In order to finalise your enrolment you still have to take a few steps. For instance, you have to make sure that you pay your tuition fees in time and you will have to upload a passport photo for your student card.

To do

• Make sure you follow all the steps required for registration.