"Free master's" sounds too good to be true, and often it is — but not always. A few public university systems genuinely charge international students no tuition. Here's where it's real, and what "free" still costs.
Germany's public universities
The clearest case is Germany. Most public universities charge no tuition to international master's students in consecutive (research‑led) master's programmes — you pay only a semester contribution of roughly €150–370, which usually includes a local transport pass. On our university pages these show as "No tuition fee" rather than a blank — for example across German universities like LMU Munich, the Free University of Berlin, RWTH Aachen, Bonn and Göttingen.
One nuance: Bavaria's universities (and a few private ones like TUM) have introduced non‑EU tuition, so always confirm on the specific programme page — which is exactly what our verified data links to.
What "free" still costs
Tuition‑free does not mean cost‑free. You still budget for:
- Living costs — Germany's student visa requires you to prove roughly €11,900 a year in a blocked account.
- The semester contribution — small, but not zero.
- Health insurance and visa fees.
For most students this is still dramatically cheaper than the UK, US or Australia — the single largest line, tuition, disappears.
Beyond Germany
Nordic countries are tuition‑free for EU/EEA students but charge non‑EU students; a few scholarships (like the Swedish Institute or Finland's first‑year waivers) effectively restore "free" for selected international students. And many awards elsewhere are, in practice, tuition‑free because a scholarship covers the fee — the scholarship matcher finds those.
If keeping costs down is the priority, start with the verified tuition‑free universities on our destinations pages and pair them with a living‑cost scholarship.