Financial Aid for Student Exchange Programs

1. Exchange Student Expenses

As a general rule, there is an exemption of payment of testing fees, enrollment fees, and tuition fees for those exchange students entering Osaka University under student exchange agreements (including provisions for reciprocal exemption of tuition fees). However, payment of all other expenses, e.g. travel expenses, insurance, and living expenses in Japan comes at the personal expense of all students participating in exchange programs. Living expenses vary greatly depending on one’s personal style of living, but it’s necessary to prepare about 100,000~120,000 yen/month for living expenses. So, if your period of stay is for one year, you must secure the financial resources for one year’s worth of living expenses in advance. Osaka University does not recognize the participation of exchange students in this program who intend to cover their living expenses through income from a part time job in Japan.

2. Payment of Expenses of Exchange Students

In order to cover living expenses outside of tuition, it is extremely important to tell us in detail how you will work out a method of covering the cost of studying abroad before applying to an Osaka University Exchange Program, be it through private funding, public expense, or through scholarships from your home university. Those students who are unsure about the payment of the living costs listed above are asked to contact the scholarship staff at his or her home university (in an exchange agreement with Osaka University) to receive advice on the possibility of receiving scholarships or other kinds of student support.

For information about average living expenses of students and various prices, please refer to JASSO’s homepage .

Scholarships for Incoming Exchange Students at Osaka University

Those students applying to University-wide Exchange Programs at Osaka University after receiving endorsement from their home university in an agreement with Osaka University have a chance to apply for scholarships for international exchange students listed below.

JASSO Scholarships -- aid for students coming from universities with an agreement with OU
Financial Aid for Student Exchange Programs (incoming)

Those hoping to apply should enter their intent for applying to these scholarships when applying to an exchange program. Applicants will be informed of the results of these scholarships at the end of May when entering Osaka University in September or at the end of February when entering Osaka University in April.

The presence or absence of recruitment for scholarships, the number of recipients, and the proportion for each greatly varies from year to year, and recipients are decided through document screening. Even if you apply to a University-wide Exchange Program at Osaka University, there is no guarantee that you can receive scholarship funding. The screening process for scholarships is a comprehensive screening of your application form and the content of your submitted materials such as grades, plan of study, and status of preparation. (While we do consider the balance of universities in an agreement with Osaka University, we do not select recipients based on household budget surveys of students’ family/guardians.)

A rough estimate of the financial support students will receive is about 320,000~400,000 yen for a semester of study, and 800,000~880,000 yen for a year of study. These scholarships will not cover all living expenses during your time in Osaka, so it can be assumed that part of the necessary expenses must be covered by either yourself or another scholarship.

There are no scholarships available for which exchange students can apply after coming to Japan and entering the university.

* Regarding acceptance of exchange students by schools and graduate schools based on inter-faculty agreements outside of University-wide Exchange Programs, please confirm by referring to the website of the appropriate department or by contacting the exchange program staff in that department.