Erasmus in Granada: Process, Housing, Costs and Tips

In short: Granada is one of the most popular Erasmus destinations in Europe: affordable, full of students and with a university that has been handling exchanges smoothly for decades. For a September start, your home university nominates you in April, and you then apply online to the Universidad de Granada yourself by 15 May (2026/27 deadlines). Bring Spanish at B1 level and find your room yourself, as there is no residence hall for exchange students.

Why Granada, and who is it less suited for?

The city is small enough to reach everything on foot and big enough that something is going on every evening. In the bars you get a tapa with your drink, the Alhambra sits above the old town, and the ski slopes and the beach are less than two hours apart. The UGR welcomes a very large number of exchange students every year, so the procedures are well established.

That is exactly the catch, too. If you want, you can spend five months here in an international bubble and barely speak any Spanish. If you really want to learn the language, you have to actively look for Spanish flatmates and courses with local students. Granada is also not ideal if you depend on courses taught in English, if you want to be by the sea, or if cold flats in winter get to you.

The process from application to transcript

Erasmus always goes through your home university. The UGR only gets involved once you have been nominated there.

1. Application at your home university

   You apply to your department or international office for a place at the UGR. Each university sets its own internal deadlines, and they are well ahead of those of the host university. Ask about them a year before your planned start.

2. Nomination

   Your university registers you with the UGR. For a September start, nominations run from 1 to 30 April, for a February start from 1 to 31 October.

3. Online registration as an incoming student

   After the nomination you receive the login details for the UGR online application by email. It is open from 1 April to 15 May (September start or full year) or from 1 to 31 October (February start). Tick the box for the mentor programme here.

4. Learning Agreement

   Together with both universities, you decide which courses you take and what will be recognised at home. Have it signed by all parties before you leave. Changes in the first few weeks are normal.

5. Arrival and welcome

   The faculties invite you to welcome events. They are not compulsory, but that is where you find out exactly how enrolment works at your faculty.

6. Enrolment on site

   You enrol in your courses and adjust the Learning Agreement if needed. At the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, for example, you may take up to 6 credits per semester at other faculties, but you have to request this on arrival.

7. Departure and Transcript of Records

   The UGR no longer issues paper transcripts. According to the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, you download your electronically signed transcript yourself from the university platform. Also remember the confirmation of stay for your home university.

Semester dates, language and language courses

Spanish semesters start and end earlier than German ones. You should check this against your exams at home.

The second semester starts in mid February, when exams are still running at many German universities. Find out early whether you can take exams earlier or resit them later.

How much Spanish do you need?

Depending on the faculty, the UGR recommends or requires B1, and B2 for Hispanic Studies courses. The Faculty of Economics states clearly that its courses are taught in Spanish, with only a few in English. At the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, almost all English courses belong to English Studies. If you only want to choose courses in English, it is up to you to make sure you collect enough credits for your home university.

Centro de Lenguas Modernas

The university’s language centre, the Centro de Lenguas Modernas (CLM), is accredited by the Instituto Cervantes. For Erasmus students there is an intensive Spanish course with 60 hours and 6 ECTS, plus courses at different levels every semester. The placement test is free for UGR mobility students. The courses are not part of the regular degree programmes: if you want the credits recognised, include them in your Learning Agreement. Current prices are listed on the CLM website.

Choosing courses and exams

Spanish courses are more school-like than you are probably used to. There is often attendance, homework, presentations and midterm tests that count towards the final grade. Read the guía docente (course description) for each course: it explains how the grade is made up.

Each course has two convocatorias (exam sittings): the ordinary one at the end of the semester and the extraordinary one as a second chance, in February for the first semester and in July for the second. If you only stay for the first semester, you may already have left by the time of the February resit. Raise this with your lecturers early. Grades are given on a scale from 0 to 10, and 5 is a pass.

The Faculty of Philosophy and Letters explicitly mentions two restrictions: compulsory internships of the degree programmes are generally not open to exchange students, whereas you can take a final thesis.

Housing for 5 to 10 months

The UGR does not offer exchange students accommodation on campus. You look for a room in a shared flat, and that works better in Granada than in the coastal cities, because many flats are let to students by the semester anyway.

When to look? For September, the market is tightest at the end of August and the beginning of September. Many people arrive one to two weeks before the semester starts, stay in a hostel first and view rooms on site. February is more relaxed, because that is when the first-semester Erasmus students move out.

Where to look? Private landlords advertise on the university’s housing portal, and there are also the big portals such as Idealista. Good areas for an Erasmus flatshare are the centre, Realejo and the area around Camino de Ronda and Plaza de Toros. If your faculty is in Cartuja or on the PTS health campus, it is worth checking the map before you commit. The Albaicín is beautiful, but steep and cold in winter.

What does it cost? Whole flats in Granada are advertised at an average of 10.8 euros per square metre (Idealista, September 2026), in Málaga at 16.5 euros. The Idealista reports do not give a documented average price for shared flat rooms in Granada; the Spanish average was 430 euros at the beginning of 2026.

Scam traps

• Do not transfer any money for a room you have not seen, at least by video call with someone standing in the flat.
• Be suspicious of landlords who are supposedly abroad and want to send the key by courier.
• A price far below the market is a warning sign, not a stroke of luck.
• Ask for a written contract and pay the deposit by bank transfer, not in cash without a receipt.
• Ask about the heating and whether electricity and gas are included in the price. In January this makes a noticeable difference.

More about contracts and deposits in Finding a flat in Spain.

Costs and funding

You do not pay tuition fees at the UGR. Erasmus funding depends on your home country. Spain is in the middle country group in each case.

• Germany: 540 euros per month (18 euros per day) in 2026/27. Some universities limit the funded duration.
• Austria: 470 euros per month in 2026/27.
• Top-up: an extra 250 euros per month for students with fewer opportunities, for example with a child, with a disability or a chronic illness. Your university will tell you the exact criteria.
• Travel: If you travel by train or bus, you can get additional funded travel days.

Auslands-BAföG (German state funding for studying abroad) can be combined with Erasmus, and the responsible office for Spain is the Studierendenwerk Heidelberg. Submit the application about six months in advance. Even if you do not get BAföG in Germany, you should have your eligibility checked.

Monthly budget

The ranges are estimates for flatshare life in Granada. The bus fares and the funding rate are documented.

So with 540 euros of funding you roughly cover the rent and part of your food. You need the rest from savings, from your parents or from BAföG. On top of that come one-off costs for the flight, the deposit and the insurance.

Student life: ESN, tapas and trips

The UGR explicitly mentions ESN Granada on its website, the local section of the Erasmus Student Network. It organises activities and trips for international students and is the quickest way to make contacts in the first few weeks.

The rest comes naturally in Granada. To get started with the bar culture, Tapas in Granada helps, and for your first Sunday, Albaicín and Sacromonte. Book your visit to the Alhambra early, as tickets are often gone weeks in advance: Alhambra tickets. In winter you can spend a day in the Sierra Nevada, and from May go to the beaches of the Costa Tropical. More destinations for free weekends are in Day trips from Granada.

Paperwork: what you really need

For one or two semesters, the list is short.

• Insurance: The UGR requires exchange students to have health and travel insurance for the entire stay and asks for proof. For healthcare it refers to the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). In addition, you need travel insurance that covers repatriation and liability, among other things. The university has agreed its own policy with an insurer for this, which according to the university website costs 147.38 euros (as of October 2026). An equivalent policy from home also works.
• ID: ID card or passport, valid for the whole period.
• NIE: For one semester you usually do not need it. It becomes necessary if you work in Spain or if a landlord or bank insists on it. In that case, Applying for an NIE helps.
• Bank account: Your account from home is usually enough. Make sure you have a card with no ATM fees.

Checklist before your flight

• Learning Agreement signed by all three parties
• Grant Agreement with your home university signed
• EHIC valid, travel insurance taken out, proof saved as PDF
• UGR login details and confirmation of the online application
• Accommodation booked for the first few nights
• Journey from Málaga or Granada airport planned
• Warm clothes and slippers packed for the winter
• Passport photos and copies of your ID and certificate of enrolment

You do not just want to stay for one semester but do your whole degree here? Admission, costs and neighbourhoods for several years are covered in Studying in Granada.

Frequently asked questions

Cover image: Zarateman · Wikimedia Commons · CC0