CSN: student finance for Swedish students

CSN is a Swedish government agency that provides grants and loans to Swedish students who study abroad at approved schools and courses. Here you can learn who can get CSN, how much money you can get, and how to apply.

CSN amounts for Swedish students CSN-calculator

Who can apply for CSN-funding?

How to apply for and receive funds from CSN?

Help with CSN for students (in Swedish)

How much money can you get?

CSN consists of a small grant and several optional loans. The amount of money a student can get depends on how many weeks they study. Below you will find the weekly CSN-amounts. Set the course length to calculate the amount for a fixed number of weeks. Please note that students don't get money during holidays, only weeks during the regular semester counts.

This is an estimate based on the latest CSN-amounts and the data you put in. We can never guarantee the exact amount that a student receives or if their application is approved. Exchange rates change daily.

Who can apply for CSN-funding?

There are a few exceptions but these are the general requirements for students from Sweden to be eligible for CSN-funding at schools abroad:

• School and course: the school and the course you attend must be approved by CSN. Schools that are approved by the Ministry of Education in the country of study are generally also approved by CSN. Language schools gain approval through national or international quality organizations (such as English UK, Istituto Cervantes, Eaquals, IALC, IH etc). You have reached this page by pressing a CSN-button on a school page which should mean that the school is approved by CSN. The information on the page is tailored to this school.
• Course length: courses within the EU have to be at least 3 weeks long to be eligible for CSN. Students can get CSN for a maximum of 240 weeks for higher education (undergraduate and graduate studies) and a maximum of 80 weeks for language courses (without ECTS) and high school level programs.
• Citizenship: you are a Swedish citizen who has lived in Sweden for at least two consecutive years out of the last five years, or studied abroad with CSN at this time.
• Age: there is no minimum age for undergraduate level and above, students are eligible for CSN if they are accepted at an approved university. For courses that CSN classify as high school level (including language courses that don’t give university credits/ECTS) students can get CSN from July 1 the year they turn 20 (regardless of when in the year they are born). The number of weeks you can take loans declines yearly when you turn 51 and you can no longer get CSN from the year you turn 61.

How to apply for and receive funds from CSN?

To apply for CSN-funding a student must first be accepted to a school abroad. Once they have received a confirmation of enrolment with supporting documents (stating their name, date of birth, the chosen course and credits, semester dates, and tuition fees) they can apply at CSN’s website.

The student's application will normally be approved by CSN if the conditions above are met, the requested documents are submitted, and the student doesn’t have any previous issues with CSN. However, CSN can change their rules without notifying us and approved schools will be reevaluated after a couple of years.

CSN will pay the grants and loans directly to the students. The first payment is done at the earliest 2-3 weeks before the course starts. Students usually receive the tuition fee loan for one semester at a time and the other grants and loans on a monthly basis.

Once a CSN-application has been approved they will get a document in English stating the amounts they will get and when they will get them. If a student needs to show proof of finance before they can get accepted to a school they can apply for this on CSN's form 5514.

Help with CSN for students (in Swedish)

At Utlandsstudier.se students can find free help and more info about CSN. Students can also read more in Swedish on CSN’s official website.

Help for international schools

If your school has not had Swedish CSN students before CSN will test your school once the first student applies. DreamStudies has more than 20 years experience of working with CSN, we can help your school and your students with CSN questions. We can also help your school with marketing and recruitment offline in Scandinavia and online worldwide. Read more on our partnership page. You can also read more on CSN's official page for foreign schools.

You might also be interested in our article on How to convert Swedish Grades to GPA.