Student grants and loans for studies in Sweden

The loan you must pay back. You can choose to apply solely for the grant, if you do not want to take out a loan. The loan has a low interest rate and does not require any security, and you are able to repay it over a long period. In 2024, the interest rate is 1,23 percent.

Size of grants and loans you can receive

The size of the grants and student loans you can receive depends e.g. on

• your rate of study (full-time or part-time)
• the number of weeks you are studying for
• the size of your income.

Other grants and loans that you can apply for

Some students can receive more grants or borrow more money.

• If you have custody of children under the age of 18, you can apply for extra child allowance.
• If you have worked in the past and received a certain minimum income, you can apply for a supplementary loan. You can receive this as of the year you turn 25.
• If you are studying at compulsory or upper secondary level and satisfy certain conditions, you may receive an increased grant element in your student aid. You can also receive this if you are studying on a complementary educational programme leading to a subject teacher’s degree. When you apply for student grants and loans, CSN checks whether you are entitled to the increased grant, so you do not need to apply for it.
• If you have additional costs associated with your studies, you can in certain cases apply for an additional loan. For example, you may have costs for double housing or for certain trips.

Requirements and conditions

Various requirements and conditions must be satisfied in order for you to be entitled to student aid.

• The education you will be attending must grant the entitlement to student finance.
• You must be registered on your courses.
• Your studies must be at least 50 percent of full-time and must last for at least three weeks.
• You must be below the age of 60. The entitlement to borrow decreases from the year you turn 51.
• You may not receive certain other benefits at the same time as receiving student grants and loans, such as activity support, sickness benefit and introduction benefit.
• You can only receive student grants and loans for a limited amount of time. The length of time depends on the education level for which you are studying:
  • University college, university or some other post-secondary education: a maximum of 240 weeks
  • Upper secondary level: a maximum of 80 or 120 weeks, depending on your previous education
  • Compulsory school level: a maximum of 40, 80 or 100 weeks, depending on your previous education and what you are studying.
• If you have previously studied with student grants and loans or an education entry grant, you must have satisfied the requirements as regards credits in order to receive new student grants and loans. The requirements regarding credits vary depending on which course you are studying.
• If you have unpaid annual fees or demands for more than one period, you may not receive student grants and loan. Contact CSN for more information.
• If you are going to study abroad, special rules apply.

Income limit

When you are studying and receiving student finance, you can simultaneously have other income up to a certain amount without affecting your student finance. This is called the income limit.

The income you need to report when applying for student finance is taxable income from employment, business activity, and capital. This can include, for example:

• Salary
• Unemployment benefits
• Income from the sale of property
• Dividend payments

Read more about the income limit (only in Swedish)

The right to Swedish student finance for foreign citizens

If you are a foreign citizen, you also need to satisfy special conditions in order to be entitled to Swedish student finance. If you have a permanent residence permit and live in Sweden, you will usually be entitled to Swedish student finance.

If you have received a temporary residence permit from the Swedish Migration Agency because you have refugee status or similar, you are also usually entitled to Swedish student finance.

In addition, different rules apply depending on whether you are a citizen of a country within or outside the EU/EEA or Switzerland.

Swedish student finance for studies in Sweden, for foreign nationals

How does Brexit affect my student finance?

Information for persons arriving to Sweden from Ukraine

People from Ukraine who have received a residence permit with the support of the EU's Temporary Protection Directive and who have registered (folkbokförd) in Sweden are not entitled to Swedish study support through that alone.

Ukrainian citizens who apply for asylum and are granted refugee status in Sweden may be entitled to Swedish student aid for studies.

The government has proposed a change in the law concerning the right to study allowance and student grants and loans for Ukrainian citizens. The proposal means that citizens of Ukraine who hold a residence permit under the Temporary Protection Directive, and who have had this residence permit for at least 12 months, will be entitled to study allowance and student grants and loans.

No decision has yet been made regarding the proposed law change, but if it is approved, the new law will take effect on January 1, 2026.

CSN cannot make any decisions based on the amended law until it enters into force. We will also not be able to pay out study allowance or student grants and loans retroactively unless another condition is met, such as special reasons.

Application, study assurance and payment

To apply for study support, this is what you will need to do:

1. Prepare your application. Find out your study times, consider how much you need to borrow and calculate your income over your study period.
2. Submit an application in Mina sidor (My Pages). Log in with e-ID, which is the fastest method.
3. When you receive your decision from CSN, make sure everything is correct. If anything is wrong, contact CSN.
4. If you have not previously received student finance or if more than a year has passed since you last received such finance, you should register your bank account details with Swedbank’s account register. We can then pay the money out directly to your account. Your account can be in any Swedish bank.
5. In conjunction with the start of the semester – submit a study assurance to CSN in which you certify that you are going to be studying as stated in the decision. You can normally submit your study assurance in Mina sidor or in CSN’s app.
6. Register for your courses. You can do this at your school.

You will receive the first payment for the semester at the time when you start studying. You will then receive the payment on the 25th of the month, in advance for each month you are studying. If this is a weekend or a public holiday, you will receive the funds on the last weekday before this date.

You can see your payments in Mina sidor. You will normally receive student grants and loans for four weeks each time you receive a payment from CSN.

Provide notification if you become ill or if anything changes

If anything happens or changes during your period of study, it is important for you to provide notification of the change so that you receive the right amount. Changes might include you e.g.

• interrupting your studies
• studying for fewer credits than you had planned
• selling a property and receiving income above the free amount.

If you are a foreign citizen, you also have to notify CSN in the event e.g. of any changes to your residence permit, or in the event you or a person you are related to should stop working or have a reduction in working hours.

You can submit a change notification in Mina sidor or contact us in some other way. If you fail to report changes and this results in you being paid more than you are entitled to, you will have to pay the additional funds back. We will check the information you have provided to CSN with the school’s data.

If you or your child becomes ill

It is also important to submit notification if you become ill or if you need to be at home to care for a sick child. In this situation, you may keep your student grants and loans without these weeks being counted as having been used, and requirement regarding awarded credits is also reduced. Report illness to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) and care of a child to CSN.

Repaying the student loan

If you choose to borrow money from CSN, you will have to repay the loan. You will receive a payment plan when it is time to start making repayments.

If this is the first time you have taken out a student loan, you will start repaying the loan at the earliest six months after receiving the student aid. If you have studied before and start studying again, you will not receive any such grace period.

The amount you have to pay each year depends e.g. on

• how much you have borrowed
• the length of time you are going to be repaying your loan
• the interest rate.

You can take a maximum of 25 years to repay your loan, and it must be fully repaid by the time you turn 64. You will usually pay a little less at the beginning and more at the end. Of course, you can repay the loan faster if you want.

If you are experiencing difficulty with your repayments, for example because your income decreases, you can apply to pay back less for a certain period of time. CSN will then assess your application and determine whether you are entitled to pay less.

Remember to make sure that CSN always has your correct address details. This is a requirement.

Repaying the student loan

If you have received a demand

If you have received money from CSN that you were not entitled to, you have to pay it back. In this case, you will receive a demand.

If you have received a demand

Appealing against a decision by CSN

If you believe that CSN has reached an incorrect decision, you can appeal against it. CSN must be in receipt of your appeal within three weeks from the date on which you were notified the decision.

How to appeal against a decision