UNIL Master’s Grants in Switzerland for Foreign Students

Objectives

The UNIL Master's Grants are designed to attract high-achieving international students to the University of Lausanne's graduate programs, supporting academic excellence and the internationalization of the university's student body. The program is built for foreign students who have demonstrated strong undergraduate academic performance and want to pursue a master's degree at UNIL in one of its core faculties — spanning law, humanities, education, social sciences, or natural sciences. It is not a research fellowship or a vocational award; it rewards academic merit and the ability to thrive in a Swiss francophone university environment.

Eligibility, plainly

In practice, this grant is open to non-Swiss students applying to most UNIL master's programs, with two notable hard exclusions: the School of Medicine and one additional unnamed master's program (likely the School of Business, HEC Lausanne, based on standard UNIL grant terms — applicants should verify this directly with UNIL). Candidates must meet UNIL's standard admission requirements for their chosen master's program, which typically includes a relevant bachelor's degree, French or English language proficiency depending on the program, and a competitive academic record. There is no publicly stated minimum GPA threshold in the information provided, but grant competitions at this level functionally favor applicants in the top tier of their graduating cohort. Applicants should confirm the current exclusion list and language requirements directly on the UNIL website before investing time in an application.

Requirements

What a strong applicant looks like

A competitive applicant holds a bachelor's degree closely aligned with their intended UNIL master's field — for example, a law graduate applying to UNIL's Faculty of Law and Criminal Justice, or a biology or chemistry graduate targeting a science master's. They have a transcript that places them in roughly the top 15–20% of their undergraduate program, with no significant gaps or failures in core subject areas. They are genuinely prepared to study in Switzerland's academic culture, meaning they can demonstrate French proficiency for French-taught programs or strong academic English for English-taught ones, and they have a clear, specific rationale for choosing UNIL over institutions in their home country or region. Applicants who have prior research experience, academic publications, or relevant extracurricular leadership in their field will stand out, but the baseline competitive bar is sustained academic excellence across the undergraduate record.