What counts as a funded route
A route is listed only if it removes the biggest cost of studying abroad for international students. In practice that means one of these, each shown as a tag on the listing:
- Tuition-Free — a public university that charges international students no tuition. Small semester or administration fees may still apply, and we say so on the route page.
- Full Scholarship — an award that covers tuition and a living allowance (often travel and insurance too).
- Need-Based Aid — a university that commits to meeting the full demonstrated financial need of the international students it admits.
- Fee Waiver — the application fee can be waived, so applying costs nothing.
- Merit and Low Tuition — competitive awards or genuinely low fees. These are included when they can make study affordable, and are always labelled so you are never misled into thinking they are free.
Where the facts come from
Only official sources: the university's own website, the scholarship provider's website, or a government page. We do not use aggregator sites, forums or social media as sources, and every "Official page" button goes to the institution's own domain. Each route page lists the sources we used.
How often routes are checked
- Every listing shows a "Last verified" date: the last time its facts were confirmed against the official page.
- An automated check visits every official page on a schedule and records whether the page has changed. When a page changes, the new deadline information is extracted and compared with what we publish.
- Only clear, consistent changes are applied. Anything uncertain is held for a person to review, and the existing information stays live until it has been checked — we would rather show an older, correct date than a new, wrong one.
- Deadlines are shown as each route's typical annual date. Cycles shift slightly each year, so the countdown is a planning aid — the official page always has the final word. A ≈ sign marks deadlines that vary by course or country.
How new routes are added
Candidate routes are found through research, including automated searches. A candidate is only published after its funding claim has been confirmed on the official page and a person has approved it. Rejected candidates are recorded so they do not come back.
Use of automated and AI tools
We use software, including AI models, to monitor official pages for changes, to extract deadline information and to help draft summaries. These tools make it possible to check many pages often; they do not decide what is published. Facts on route pages are checked against the linked official sources, and anything a tool is unsure about is reviewed by a person.
Independence
Institutions cannot pay to be listed, to be ranked higher, or to change how they are described. Advertising is served by Google in separate, clearly labelled spaces and has no influence on the listings. If a paid placement is ever offered, it will be labelled "Sponsored" in the listing itself.
Corrections
If you believe something is wrong or out of date, email hello@degreestep.com with the route name and, ideally, a link to the official page that shows the correct information. We check reports against the official source and update the page and its "Last verified" date. Significant corrections are noted on the route page.
Limits
We are an information service, not an adviser. We cannot confirm whether you personally are eligible, and we cannot guarantee that a programme will run or that its rules will not change after we checked. Please read our terms of use.