VIU strives to promote excellence and diversity and to provide a powerful learning experience in which students develop their capacity for critical thinking and creative problem solving. VIU awards scholarships to talented, motivated students of the Globalization Program and the Intensive Graduate Activities, to support them in completing their study period in Venice, or to foster their graduate and professional studies and careers.

In essence, studying at VIU is a transformational experience — one that expands minds and empowers students to become thoughtful, culturally-aware leaders in an interconnected world.

Academically, students encounter new educational philosophies and learning styles, challenging their assumptions and encouraging intellectual flexibility. They often engage with global issues from alternative perspectives, gaining a more nuanced understanding of complex challenges such as sustainability, equity, governance, and innovation. Classroom learning becomes deeply connected to real-world contexts while the unique setting of Venice offers the opportunity for meetings, encounters, investigations and explorations of the city as a special laboratory, as a location that foregrounds the extraordinary culture of the past, the problems of the present, and the possibility of the future.

As a new environment for all students, VIU becomes a setting where students learn to study together in unfamiliar situations, to communicate across cultural and language barriers, and embrace ambiguity with curiosity, stimulating profound personal growth-strengthening empathy, confidence, and self-awareness. This peer-to-peer engagement fosters cultural humility and cross-cultural competence, helping students navigate and appreciate diversity in its many forms.

The friendships and professional networks students build while studying at VIU enrich their global outlook and often shape their future careers and aspirations. Many return home with a renewed sense of purpose, a commitment to global citizenship, and a desire to make a meaningful impact in their communities and beyond.

Globalization Program | RED (Residency-Excellence-Diversity) Scholarship

To promote excellence and diversity in the Globalization Program, scholarships are awarded to talented students to contribute to their cost of living in Venice for a semester. Under the guidance of Prof. Luca Pes, selected students actively participate in and collaborate on activities supporting diversity, inclusion, and a sense of belonging in the VIU community.

Globalization Program | Scholarships to support Internships in Italy

Two calls for applications are published yearly for the Internships in Italy Program. The call is addressed to students from any of the member universities, including exchange students at Ca’ Foscari, Iuav, Padova, Tor Vergata, and Milano-Bicocca, who are attending the Globalization Program semester at VIU (completing at least three courses) and who wish to do an internship in a host organization in Italy following their semester/academic year at VIU.
Selected students are awarded a scholarship that will partially cover lodging and living costs.

(Organizations interested in hosting VIU students for internships can write to globalization@univiu.org)

Intensive Graduate Activities |  Fee-waiver Scholarships and Travel Grants 

The Intensive Graduate Activities at VIU aim to contribute to the creation of knowledge, understanding, and skills, responding to current and future major societal challenges faced by humankind today: environmental, social, cultural and technological phenomena and their local impacts. Whether they will work within or outside academia, graduate students and young researchers must be able to develop and nurture a forward-looking vision of the challenges they face. At VIU they have the opportunity to meet their peers from all over the world, to tackle transversal topics in innovative ways, while sharing their research, disciplinary, and cultural perspectives.  

Full fee-waiver scholarships, travel grants and free accommodation are awarded to selected students in the PhD Academies and Graduate Seminars.  In the PhD Academy participants are advanced doctoral students or junior researchers. They receive training in a range of skills that will support them in developing their research and academic careers. In the Graduate Seminar, participants are early-career doctoral students. They receive support in defining and refining the research question of their research project.

Erasmus+ Grants Incoming 

Students from KU Leuven, Ludwig Maximilians Universität and Université de Bordeaux may be eligible for Erasmus+ grants during their studies at VIU. Interested candidates should consult the International Office at their own university, and should consider that they may need to apply 7-12 months in advance. 

Students from Stellenbosch University may be eligible for KA171 Erasmus+ grants to support their participation in academic programs at VIU. Refer to the program coordinator for information. 

Erasmus+ Grants Outgoing

Students of the Italian member universities should check the Calls for Application at www.univiu.org/erasmus for Erasmus+ grant support and mobility opportunities to study at VIU member universities for short or long mobility. Interested candidates should consider that they may need to apply 6 - 9 months before the planned mobility abroad. (In 2025, destination available: Stellenbosch University)

Contacts
Globalization Program
globalization@univiu.org

Intensive Graduate Activities
phdacademy@univiu.org

Erasmus Office 
erasmus@univiu.org 

Scholarship Fund

VIU welcomes donations from the extended VIU Community to the VIU Scholarship Fund: it is really important that deserving students know that they can apply for the programs without the concern of the financial burden of sustaining the living costs in their host city.  
Explore the VIU People Profiles to learn about the VIU experience through text and video interviews with students, researchers and professors. 

Donate to the VIU Scholarship Fund 

VIU Scholarships ensure equity of access to VIU Academic Programs.
Donations can be made via bank transfer payable to: 

Beneficiary: Venice International University