The ITC Faculty Early Bird Programme 2027 is a tuition fee waiver offered by the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. It gives selected students a 40% tuition fee waiver for every academic year of a two-year Master’s programme, and India is on the programme’s eligible country list.
The catch is the calendar: you must already hold an unconditional admission to one of the two participating Master’s programmes, apply for the waiver by 31 January 2027, and pay the remaining tuition fee by 1 March 2027. The university says late applications and late payments are not accepted.
ITC Early Bird Scholarship 2027 (University of Twente, Netherlands)
Quick facts2026-27
| Scholarship from | ITC Faculty (Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation), University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands. Award page: ITC Faculty Early Bird Programme. |
| Study level | Two-year Master’s programmes starting 1 September 2027: MSc Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, and MSc Spatial Systems & Society (MSc Spatial Engineering). |
| Who can apply | Students who are unconditionally admitted to one of those two programmes, are not eligible for Dutch study grants and loans, meet the Netherlands entry-visa conditions and are enrolling at Twente for the first time. India is on the eligible-country list. |
| What is covered | A 40% tuition fee waiver in each academic year – EUR 18,104 off a two-year tuition fee of EUR 45,260, leaving EUR 27,156 of tuition to pay. Insurance, residence permit and living costs are not covered. |
| Last date to apply | 31 January 2027 (one strict deadline). Selection results by 5 February 2027; the remaining tuition fee must be paid by 1 March 2027. |
| Official website | utwente.nl – ITC Faculty Early Bird Programme |
What the ITC Early Bird Programme is worth
This is a partial scholarship built around a fee waiver, not a full ride, and the university publishes the whole arithmetic on the award page. For the two-year Master’s the tuition fee is EUR 45,260; the 40% Early Bird waiver takes EUR 18,104 off that, so your own tuition contribution is EUR 27,156.
| MSc tuition fee (two years) | EUR 45,260 |
| Early Bird waiver (40%) | EUR 18,104 |
| Your tuition contribution | EUR 27,156 |
| Insurance (estimate) | EUR 1,400 |
| Residence permit | EUR 270 |
| Living allowance (estimate) | EUR 28,750 |
| Total cost of the degree | EUR 75,680 |
| Your total contribution after the waiver | EUR 57,576 |
Two cautions come straight from the page. First, the tuition fee and living allowance figures for the second academic year are estimates and are confirmed closer to the start of that year. Second, the waiver for year two is conditional: to keep it you must meet the academic requirements to continue into the next year of the programme. The waiver also covers nothing except tuition – you arrange and pay insurance, residence permit and living costs yourself.
Which Master’s programmes are covered
Only two ITC Master’s programmes take part in the Early Bird Programme, both two-year, English-taught degrees starting on 1 September 2027:
- MSc Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation – geospatial data acquisition, analysis and processing, with specialisations and electives across climate change, urban planning, food and water security, critical raw materials, land scarcity and disasters.
- MSc Spatial Systems & Society (MSc Spatial Engineering) – spatial data, urban planning and socio-economic analysis applied to complex societal problems.
A Master’s at another Twente faculty is not covered by this award. The general University of Twente Scholarship (UTS) is a different scheme, and its own rules explicitly exclude Master’s programmes at the ITC faculty – so for these two degrees the Early Bird route is the faculty’s own funding path.
Who is eligible for the ITC Early Bird Programme
The award page lists five conditions, and all of them apply at the same time:
- You have been unconditionally admitted to the MSc Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation or the MSc Spatial Systems & Society.
- You are not eligible for financial support under the Dutch system of study grants and loans – in practice that is the non-EU/EEA route, which is the route Indian students take.
- You meet the conditions for an entry visa for the Netherlands, where a visa is required.
- You are enrolling at the University of Twente for the first time.
- You confirm that you can pay the remaining tuition fee by 1 March 2027.
The award page also carries a country list for the programme, and India is on it, alongside Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and most other non-EU countries. The university does not publish a fixed number of awards – it says the programme is open to a limited number of eligible students – so the safe assumption is that selection is competitive and the committee decides after the deadline.
How to apply for the ITC Early Bird Scholarship
There are two separate steps, and the order matters: the scholarship form only opens to you once the admission is unconditional.
- Apply for the Master’s programme first. Use the University of Twente online application system from the programme page (Geo-Information Science or Spatial Systems & Society) and complete the admission file. You need an academic acceptance letter and an unconditional admission before the scholarship application is possible, so leave months, not weeks, for this step.
- Then submit the Early Bird application form through the Apply button on the award page (ITC Early Bird Programme) before 31 January 2027.
- The Early Bird selection committee reviews the applications only after the deadline closes, and selected candidates are informed by 5 February 2027 – within one week of the deadline.
- If you are selected, confirm that you can pay on time. ITC then issues an adjusted invoice showing the waived amount.
- Pay the remaining tuition fee into the ITC bank account before 1 March 2027. The university states plainly that no exceptions are made for late payments and that getting the money into the account on time is the awardee’s responsibility.
Questions about the programme or the process go to [email protected] (ITC) or [email protected] (Twente admissions).
Important dates for the ITC Early Bird Programme 2027
| Intake covered | Master’s programmes starting 1 September 2027 |
| Early Bird application deadline | 31 January 2027 (strict – late applications are not accepted) |
| Selection results | By 5 February 2027 |
| Payment deadline for the remaining tuition fee | 1 March 2027 (no late payments accepted) |
| Programme duration | 2 years |
| Number of awards | Not published – the page says a limited number of eligible students |
ITC Early Bird vs the University of Twente Scholarship
The two Twente awards are easy to mix up, and the difference matters because the UTS is explicitly not open to ITC Master’s programmes. The UTS is a cash award of EUR 3,000 to EUR 22,000 for one year across 27 other Master’s programmes, with a 15 October 2026 to 1 April 2027 window. The ITC Early Bird Programme is a 40% tuition waiver for two specific ITC degrees, with a 31 January 2027 deadline and a 1 March 2027 payment deadline.
Both are partial awards, and both require admission first. If you are applying to an ITC programme, the Early Bird waiver is the route to plan for; if you are applying elsewhere at Twente, look at the UTS guide and at the NL Scholarship (EUR 5,000 for the first year), which Twente lists as a separate award in its scholarship finder. The ITC Excellence Scholarship Programme on the same finder is closed for 2026 and its next round is expected in December, so it cannot be applied for right now.
31 January 2027. The University of Twente calls it one strict deadline and states that late applications are not accepted. Selected candidates are informed by 5 February 2027.
It is a 40% tuition fee waiver in each academic year. On the two-year tuition fee of EUR 45,260 the waiver is EUR 18,104, so your own tuition contribution is EUR 27,156. Insurance, residence permit and living costs are not covered.
Yes. India is on the eligible country list for the programme. You must be unconditionally admitted to the MSc Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation or the MSc Spatial Systems and Society, not be eligible for Dutch study grants and loans, and be enrolling at Twente for the first time.
Yes. The university’s own steps are: apply for the Master’s programme first, receive the academic acceptance letter and unconditional admission, and only then complete the Early Bird application form on the award page.
Yes, the waiver applies per academic year, but the second year is conditional: awardees must meet the academic requirements to continue in the programme. The second-year tuition and living allowance figures on the page are estimates that are confirmed closer to that year.
No. It only covers 40% of the tuition fee. The page shows a total cost of EUR 75,680 for the degree including insurance, residence permit and living allowances, with EUR 57,576 left as your own contribution after the waiver.
Not for an ITC Master’s programme – the UTS rules exclude Master’s programmes at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation. The UTS covers 27 other Twente Master’s programmes, with a separate 15 October 2026 to 1 April 2027 window.
Official links
- ITC Faculty Early Bird Programme – official award page
- MSc Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation – programme page
- MSc Spatial Systems & Society – programme page
- University of Twente scholarship finder – all awards and windows
- Scholarship questions: [email protected]; admissions: [email protected].
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