Financial matters

All candidates who are strong enough to be accepted into our program will receive full funding in the preparatory phase. Currently, we are able to award a scholarship amounting to 992 euros monthly for up to 18 months, which covers the reasonable cost of living in the Saarbrücken area. Additional income can be earned as a student TA or RA subject to certain restrictions. Many opportunities are available at the University and its cooperating research institutions.
There are no actual tuition fees at Saarland University. Nominal semester fees of about 350 euros per semester must be paid by all students. The student ID card provides many benefits, including free public transportation.

Funding for doctoral candidates in the dissertation phase must generally be provided via the advisor’s research group. Typically, full researcher positions (with or without teaching obligations) are available from university or external research funding. Some of the research institutes also offer doctoral fellowships. In addition, external fellowships can be applied for, e.g. some of our PhD candidates receive stipends from German public foundations or sponsored by Microsoft or Google.

Candidates from abroad with scholarships from their home country or from DAAD must still apply for admission to the Graduate School. It is useful to get the endorsement of a specific faculty member first.