Bulgarian Government Scholarship for Foreign Students

Under the decree, foreign citizens admitted through an act of the Council of Ministers or under an intergovernmental exchange agreement receive free tuition at Bulgarian state higher education institutions and a monthly scholarship stipend paid for 12 months of the year, starting from the first year of study. Awards are available across Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD levels, and typically also include a preparatory year of Bulgarian language instruction for students who need it before beginning degree-level study, since most programmes are taught in Bulgarian (English-taught medicine and engineering programmes exist but usually fall outside this specific tuition-free channel and instead charge standard international fees).

Applications are not submitted directly to Bulgarian universities. Instead, foreign nationals apply through the Bulgarian Embassy or Consulate in their home country, or in some cases through their own Ministry of Education if a bilateral agreement is in place, which forwards nominations to Bulgaria's Ministry of Education and Science for review and placement.

For Pakistani applicants, the practical route is to contact the Bulgarian Embassy in Islamabad directly, since Pakistan does not have as extensive or as visible a standing bilateral education agreement with Bulgaria as some other countries, and the embassy can confirm whether places are available for a given intake and what documentation is required that year.