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

When you attend upper secondary school abroad, you may be eligible for a housing grant if you do not live together with your parents.

No separate application form is required for this, but you need to tick that you will be living away from your parents in the usual application form for grants.

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

If you are above the age of 18 and don’t live with your parents, you may borrow up to NOK 3,851 per month.

The loan is not means-tested against income. This means that you can receive the loan regardless of how much you or your parents earn.

The loan must be repaid

This is a loan you must repay. When you no longer receive grants and loans from Lånekassen, interest accrues on the loan and you must repay it. You must pay the entire loan plus interest, but you repay it in monthly instalments.

How to apply

There is no separate application for loans. When you apply for grants and check the box indicating that you are living away from home, you are asked if you also want to apply for a loan.

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
Female and male pupil

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