Upper secondary school in the Nordic countries

Applicable to those taking upper secondary education in Sweden, Denmark, Finland or Iceland.

Grant for course materials

NOK 1,359

for the whole year

Support for upper secondary education in the Nordic region

You may be eligible for support to attend upper secondary schools that are state authorised in the country you are moving to and that carry an entitlement for support in the country concerned.

Most upper secondary schools in the Nordic region are authorised

If the equivalent of “Lånekasse” in the country concerned provides support, the school will also be authorised for support from Lånekassen in Norway. The studies you are taking must have a duration of at least four months and teaching must take place at school, i.e. not through online teaching. You must also study full-time to be eligible for support.

Various types of support are available

Most applicants only receive a grant for course materials, but some also receive travel grants, housing grants and income-dependent grants. If you have to pay tuition fees, you may also receive support for this.

Grants are not to be repaid

Grants are not the same as student loans, that students in university and university college education receive. Grants are funds you receive and are not required to repay.

The exception is if you receive more grant than you are entitled to. In this case, you must repay the excess. This may for example happen if you quit in the middle of the school year.

Application deadlines

You must have a school place before applying. The same deadlines apply to all grants:

15 November for the entire year or just the autumn semester
15 March for the spring semester

Go to application

Housing grant

You can receive

NOK 6,677

per month

Grants for travel

Support for

3 trips home

for a full academic year

If you do not live with either of your parents, you will also be entitled to a travel grant as a subsidy to cover the costs of travel between your home in Norway and the school.

Grants are paid in accordance with fixed rates.

The rates for the full 2024-2025 academic year are:

Sweden, Denmark, Finland: NOK 5,352
Iceland: NOK 9,042
Faroe Islands NOK 13,044

A self-contribution of NOK 1,401 has been deducted from these rates.

The travel grant will be reduced if you are travelling abroad for a period shorter than a full academic year.

Travel within Norway

You will also receive a travel grant to cover travel from your parental home in Norway to the border station.

Oslo Airport, Gardermoen is the border station for applicants who are studying in Nordic countries other than Sweden.

Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, Trondheim Airport, Værnes or Harstad/Narvik Airport, Evenes are the border stations for applicants who are studying in Sweden.

The rates for 2024-2025 are:

0-300 kilometres: NOK 2,15 per kilometre
301-1,500 kilometres: NOK 1.19 per kilometre
1,500 kilometres or more: NOK 0.43 per kilometre

You will receive a grant for three roundtrip journeys each year, i.e. six one-way trips.

Example of travel grant

study in Denmark, 400 km from the border station (Oslo lufthavn Gardermoen).

Grant	Rates	Quantity	Total NOK
Travel grant Denmark	5,352	1	5,352
Travel within Norway, first 300 km	2,15	300x6	3,870
Travel within Norway, last 100 km	1,19	100x6	714
Total			9,936

Are you above the age of 18 and want to take out a loan?

You may borrow up to

NOK 3,851

per month if you live away from home

Does your family have a strained economy?

If your parents have a strained economy, you may be entitled to more grant.

The limits for how low your parents' income must be vary. This is because this also affects whether you can receive an income-dependent grant:

whether your parents live together
whether your parents have new partners
how many siblings you have

Check if you are entitled to this grant

Tuition fee

If you will be attending a school where tuition fees are payable, you may be eligible for more support.

Tuition fee grants

You may be eligible for a grant to pay some of your tuition fees. The grant is for up to 85 per cent of tuition fees, but there is an upper limit of NOK 111,974 per year.

Grants are available for tuition fees only but do not cover, for example, programme fees payable to an exchange organisation. The school must verify that you pay tuition fees.

A separate application form is available to apply for a grant to cover parts of tuition fees.

Loans for tuition fees

If you have to pay tuition fees, you may also borrow up to NOK 32,211 per year to cover these fees. You cannot receive more in support for tuition fees than you are actually required to pay. You will apply using the usual application form.

Go to application form for grants for tuition fees (P-skjema)

Documentation

If you or your family reside outside of Norway, Lånekassen will not receive information from your school or the Norwegian National Registry. Therefore you will need to submit documentation after submitting your application for support.

We do not receive an overview of the studies for which you have been admitted, so you will need to submit confirmation. Such confirmation could be a copy of the letter of admission.

If your parents do not live in Norway, you need to submit documentation of the travel distance between your parental home and the school, if this is greater than 40 km, or if the travel time exceeds three hours per day. You also need to submit documentation showing your parents’ address.

If the distance between the school and your parental home is less than 40 km, you need to submit documentation showing the travel time and your schedule. If you live away from your parental home due to personal or social circumstances that prevent you from completing your education, you will need to submit need documentation.

If you have to pay tuition fees, you need to submit confirmation from the school showing how much you have to pay.

If your parents live abroad, you will need to submit a copy of the assessment/tax information for those who do not pay taxes to Norway, information about your parents’ marital status and the number of children in the family under the age of 16 (birth certificates).

Related rules

Links to Norway