Erasmus Mundus MAPP Scholarship 2027: Fully Funded Master in Public Policy in Europe

Last verified: 2 September 2026

The Erasmus Mundus Master in Public Policy, known everywhere as Mundus MAPP, is a two year joint master degree run by four European universities and supported by the European Commission. You study in two countries, choosing one of four tracks that pair Central European University in Vienna, the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals in Barcelona and the University of York. You graduate with a Master of Arts in Public Policy, a joint diploma supplement and an internship already on your record.

The money side works like this. Tuition is €13,000 a year, so €26,000 across the programme. A limited number of Erasmus Mundus scholarships remove that bill completely and add €1,400 a month, up to €33,600 over 24 months, plus health insurance. One institutional scholarship carrying a 50% tuition waiver is offered per track. Everyone else self funds, so it is worth reading the funding section closely rather than stopping at the words fully funded.

To apply you need a bachelor degree of at least three years, preferably in the social sciences, proof of English, a statement of purpose, references, a CV and transcripts. Everything goes through Central European University alone, and the application fee is waived for Mundus MAPP applicants, so trying costs you nothing. Applications for the 2027 intake open on 7 September 2026, and the scholarship is decided in the earliest deadline round, which is the single date that matters most.

One warning before you go further. The official admissions calendar still displays last cycle’s dates at the time of this check, and the deadline circulating on other websites is not confirmed on the official page, so this guide shows you exactly how to pin the real date down.

Below you will find the four tracks explained, the full eligibility checklist, the application steps in order, the dates situation in detail, what the funding truly covers and what it does not, how to make your file competitive, the mistakes that sink applications, and answers to the questions applicants usually ask after reading everything else.

What Mundus MAPP actually is

Mundus MAPP is a joint Erasmus Mundus master degree in public policy. You do not stay in one place for two years. You study at two partner universities in two different countries, and the combination you pick shapes the kind of policy specialist you become.

The four consortium members are:

• Central European University Private University in Vienna, Austria
• the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam, based in The Hague, Netherlands
• the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals in Barcelona, Spain
• the University of York in the United Kingdom

The programme runs for 24 months and carries 120 credits. Graduates receive a Master of Arts in Public Policy together with a joint Mundus MAPP diploma supplement and certificates from the institutions on their track.

A few numbers from the consortium give you a sense of the environment. The student body is drawn from around 80 countries. Every student takes part in a practice component, which covers internships with international organisations, government bodies and NGOs, along with field trips and policy labs. The consortium reports that 94% of graduates were employed within six months of finishing.

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Four tracks, and why the choice matters more than people think

You apply to one track, not to the programme in general. Each track pairs two universities and points at a different slice of the policy world. Choosing badly is one of the quietest ways to weaken an application, because the selection panel reads your statement of purpose against the track you named.

Global Public Policy: Vienna and Barcelona

Delivered by CEU and IBEI. The focus sits on international and global policy processes, international organisations, and the regimes that govern policy across borders. Suitable if you see yourself inside a multilateral body rather than a national ministry.

European Public Policy: Vienna and York

Delivered by CEU and the University of York. The emphasis is on European Union policy analysis and on solving problems that cut across national and transnational levels. This is the track for people who want to work on or with EU institutions.

Political Economy and Development: The Hague and Barcelona

Delivered by ISS and IBEI. It concentrates on political economy and development, which means you spend your time on how power, money and institutions interact rather than on policy drafting alone.

Governance and Development: The Hague and York

Delivered by ISS and the University of York. The centre of gravity here is governance and development inside developing country contexts, which tends to attract applicants already working in that space at home.

Because every track spans two countries, physical mobility is not optional. If a visa or a personal circumstance would make it impossible for you to move to the second country partway through, this programme is the wrong shape for you, however strong your profile.

Who the programme is looking for

There is no single sentence that tells you whether you qualify, so treat this as a checklist and be honest with yourself on each line.

• A completed bachelor degree representing at least three years of full time study, equivalent to 180 ECTS credits. If your degree is shorter than three years, this is a hard barrier rather than a soft preference.
• A background in the social sciences or a closely related discipline. The consortium states a preference here, so applicants coming from a purely technical background need to show clearly why their work belongs in a policy classroom.
• Proof of English language proficiency, unless you qualify for an exemption because your previous degree was taught entirely in English. Test thresholds are set on the admissions pages of Central European University, so check the number that applies in your cycle rather than trusting a figure copied onto a blog.
• Applicants heading for the tracks based at ISS in the Netherlands should note that additional proof of English proficiency is required for some of them, because of Dutch immigration rules rather than academic ones.
• A statement of purpose and academic letters of recommendation. CEU asks referees to submit within a short window once they are nominated, so give them notice.
• A CV and official transcripts. If you are still studying, an enrolment certificate is normally what stands in for a final transcript at application stage.

Nationality is not a filter. Applicants from inside and outside the European Union are considered on the same academic merit basis, which is unusual and worth appreciating.

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How the application actually works

This is where a surprising number of people go wrong, because the programme has four universities but only one front door.

1. You apply to Central European University Private University. Not to IBEI, not to York, not to ISS. Applications sent to the other partners do not enter the process.
2. You complete the online application form and select your Mundus MAPP track.
3. You upload the supporting documents listed on the CEU admissions pages, including transcripts, your CV, your statement of purpose and your English test result if one is required.
4. You nominate your referees so their letters reach the system before the deadline.
5. You indicate in the application that you want to be considered for the Erasmus Mundus scholarship. Funding is not a separate application, but it is tied to the earlier deadline round, which is covered below.
6. You submit before the closing time, then wait for the decision date attached to your round.

One practical detail worth knowing: CEU charges a €30 application fee across its master programmes, but Mundus MAPP applicants do not need to pay it unless they are also applying to other CEU programmes in the same cycle. That makes this one of the rare fully funded routes with no cost at all to try.

The dates, and an honest warning about them

The next admissions round opens on 7 September 2026, according to the CEU programme page, for studies beginning in 2027.

Here is the part you need to handle carefully. At the time of this check, the admissions calendar published on the Mundus MAPP website still displays the dates of the previous cycle, with a financial aid deadline of 14 April 2026, a deadline of 22 May 2026 for self funded applicants from outside the EU and EEA, a deadline of 15 July 2026 for self funded applicants inside the EU and EEA, and an official records deadline of 31 July 2026. Those dates have already passed. Several third party websites are circulating 1 December 2026 as the financial aid deadline for the new intake, and that date is not confirmed on the official calendar as of this writing.

So do this rather than guessing:

• Open the admissions calendar on the official Mundus MAPP website yourself once applications open in September 2026 and read the dates directly from it.
• Treat the structure of the calendar as reliable even while the dates change. There is an early round where scholarships are decided, a middle round for self funding applicants who need a visa, and a late round for applicants who do not.
• Assume that the scholarship round is the earliest of them. If you want funding, the later rounds are not an option, no matter how strong your file is.
• Write to the consortium and ask, in one short email, for the confirmed financial aid deadline for the 2027 intake. A dated reply from the programme office beats any blog post, including this one.

The consortium also sets an official records deadline in the summer, by which admitted students must supply certified final documents. Missing that has consequences even after you are admitted.

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What the funding is actually worth

Now the part everybody scrolls for, with the honest edges left in.

The Erasmus Mundus Joint Master scholarship

This is the full award, and it is genuinely substantial.

• A monthly allowance of €1,400 for the duration of the programme
• A maximum total of €33,600 across the 24 months
• A full tuition fee waiver, which removes the €26,000 tuition bill entirely
• Health insurance for the duration of your studies, plus two weeks before and two months afterwards
• Additional financial support for students with disabilities, scaled to the level of support needed

Read that monthly figure carefully, because the consortium is explicit that the allowance is meant to help cover travel, visa costs, installation, subsistence and anything else. There is no separate flight ticket, no separate settling in grant, and no separate visa budget. Your €1,400 does all of that work in cities where rent alone can take a third of it.

Two eligibility rules cut people out. You cannot hold this alongside another scholarship funded by the European Union for the same or another Erasmus Mundus master. And if you have already received an Erasmus Mundus joint master scholarship before, you cannot receive a second one.

The awards go to the highest ranked applicants, and the number available is limited. Nobody should apply on the assumption that they will get one.

The institutional scholarship

Separately, one institutional scholarship carrying a 50% tuition fee waiver is offered per track. It is a meaningful reduction rather than a free ride, and it still leaves living costs entirely on you.

If you end up self funding

Tuition is €13,000 per academic year, so €26,000 across the two years, and it is paid in instalments split between the two universities on your track. There is also an Austrian Student Union fee of €50.40 per year for students passing through Vienna.

The cost that catches applicants off guard is the visa one. Some tracks require students from outside the EU to transfer a large sum covering tuition, immigration fees and a full year of living expenses well before the programme begins, with the living cost portion refundable afterwards. Those figures are published on the tuition fees page of the official website, and you should look at them before you assume a partial award makes the programme affordable.

How to make your application competitive

The bar for this programme is set by people who already have policy experience, so treat every part of the file as a place to earn points.

• Name the track in your statement of purpose and argue for it. A generic public policy essay reads as though you did not look at the four routes, and the panel can tell.
• Connect your past work to a policy problem, not to a subject. Saying you studied economics is weak. Saying you spent a year on municipal water pricing and want to study how those decisions are made across borders is strong.
• Choose referees who supervised your actual work over the most senior person who barely knows you. Specific letters carry further than impressive letterheads.
• Give your referees at least three weeks, and tell them the deadline and the programme name. A missing letter is the most avoidable rejection there is.
• Take the English test early if you need one. Retaking it is possible, but only if you left yourself the calendar space.
• Apply in the scholarship round even if your file feels imperfect. Applications cost you nothing here except effort, and the alternative is waiting a full year.

Mistakes that quietly sink applications

• Applying to the wrong university. Everything goes through CEU, and applications sent elsewhere do not enter the process.
• Missing the early round and then asking to be considered for funding. Financial aid decisions are made in the earlier rounds only.
• Assuming the fully funded label removes every cost. Visa fees, document translation, the deposit some visa routes demand and your first month before the allowance lands are all on you.
• Copying dates from aggregator websites, including this one, without checking the official calendar. Cycles move.
• Paying an agent to submit on your behalf. Nobody needs to be paid to fill in this form for you, and the application fee itself is waived for Mundus MAPP applicants. Any person or website charging you a submission fee for this programme is not part of the process.
• Leaving official final documents until the summer. The records deadline is a real one.

Frequently asked questions

Can I apply before I have finished my bachelor degree?

Yes, applicants in their final year are normally able to apply, submitting an enrolment certificate in place of a final transcript and supplying the official documents later. That is what the official records deadline in the summer exists for. Your admission then depends on completing the degree and producing certified documents in time.

My degree is in engineering or natural sciences. Is that a dead end?

The consortium states a preference for a social sciences background or a closely related discipline, which puts a purely technical degree at a disadvantage rather than automatically excluding it. If your work history has already moved into policy, regulation or development, say so early and explicitly in your statement. If it has not, write to the admissions office with your transcript before you invest weeks in the application.

If I am rejected, can I appeal or simply try again next year?

Appeals exist, but their scope is narrow. Restating information you already supplied is explicitly not accepted as grounds, and rejection decisions are generally overturned only on procedural grounds, meaning something went wrong in how your file was handled. Reapplying in a later cycle is the more realistic route, and a rejection does not bar you from doing so.

Can I hold the Erasmus Mundus scholarship together with other funding or a part time job?

You cannot combine it with another scholarship funded by the European Union for the same or another Erasmus Mundus master. The consortium does not publish a blanket rule on outside employment, and work rights differ between Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom in any case, so confirm this with the programme office and with the immigration rules of both countries on your track before you count on any income.

What if my visa is delayed and I cannot start on time?

The consortium states that deferrals are not usually granted for visa or financial delays, though exceptional requests are reviewed individually. Practically, this means you should begin the visa process the moment you are admitted rather than waiting for the scholarship result, especially if you are applying from a country where appointment slots are scarce.