Erasmus in Málaga: Process, Housing, Costs and Tips

In short: Málaga gives you a beach, a big city and an airport with plenty of connections home, but in return you pay the highest room prices in Andalusia. The Universidad de Málaga only accepts you if your home university nominates you. After that, everything runs through the ALGORIA portal. With an Erasmus grant of 540 € from Germany or 470 € from Austria (2026/27), in Málaga you mostly cover the rent, and you need to bring the rest yourself.

Why Málaga, and who is it less suited to?

Málaga is one of the few cities in Andalusia where you get university, a city beach and big city life all at once. The winter is mild, the old town compact, and at the weekend you can quickly get to Granada, Ronda or the beaches along the coast. The UMA is well prepared for visiting students: there is a buddy programme, welcome events in English and Spanish and an active ESN section.

Málaga is a less good fit if your budget is tight or if your main goal is learning Spanish. The city is international, you can get by with English in the centre, and it is very tempting to spend a whole semester only with other exchange students. Then there is the location of the main Teatinos campus: it lies in the west, quite a distance from the old town and the sea. If you want to go straight from the lecture hall to the beach, Cádiz or Almería put you closer.

The process from application to transcript

You never apply directly to the UMA. The place belongs to an agreement between your department and a faculty in Málaga, and your home university decides who gets it. Only then does the UMA get involved.

1. Application at your home university

   The internal deadline is set by your International Office or your department, often around a year before the stay. Ask early which faculty in Málaga your subject has an agreement with. That determines which campus you end up on.

2. Nomination at the UMA

   Your university registers you through the UMA’s nomination tool. The UMA explicitly only accepts students who were nominated through this system. It gives this window: from 22 April until 14 June for the first semester and the full year, until 15 November for the second semester. For Health Sciences, Medicine and Fine Arts, 15 June applies to all periods.

3. Registration in the ALGORIA portal

   After the nomination you receive login details for ALGORIA by email and enter your personal details there. As soon as the form is saved, you get a link to your Acceptance Letter.

4. Learning Agreement

   You agree on your courses with your coordinator at home and the coordinator of the faculty in Málaga. Course selection at the UMA has its own window: in 2024/25 it ran from 20 June to 15 September for the first semester and from 18 December to 15 February for the second.

5. Arrival and welcome

   At the start of the semester the Servicio de Relaciones Internacionales invites you to information sessions, in 2024/25 at the beginning of September and in mid February, each held once in English and once in Spanish. There you find out how enrolment on site works.

6. Enrolment and changes

   You confirm your courses, get your arrival certified and adjust the Learning Agreement if courses clash or do not take place. That is normal and happens to almost everyone.

7. Departure and Transcript of Records

   Before you leave, you get the end of your stay confirmed. Your grades come as a Transcript of Records, which your home university uses to recognise your credits.

Semester dates, language and exams

The Spanish academic year starts earlier than the German winter semester. In the 2024/25 academic year, the first semester at the UMA ran from 2 September to 14 February and the second from 17 February to 18 July, both including exams. Exams for the first semester were in January, for the second from the last week of May into the first week of July. The UMA requires a minimum stay of 4.5 months. If you come from Germany, check whether the second semester starting in mid February clashes with your own exams at home.

Language requirements and Spanish course

Teaching takes place in Spanish, only a few subjects are offered in English. The UMA does not require a language certificate, but it recommends B1. Be honest with yourself: with B1 you will only partly understand a lecture in Andalusian Spanish during the first weeks. The university’s language centre, the Centro Internacional de Español (CIE), offers an optional Spanish course for Erasmus and exchange students. Prices and dates are on the CIE website.

Course selection and exams

As an Erasmus student at the UMA in 2024/25 you could take at least 6 and at most 36 ECTS per semester, and at most 66 in the full year. How many credits you need for full funding is decided by your home university. Spanish courses usually involve attendance, interim assignments and a final exam, and the grade is made up of several parts. Grades go from 0 to 10, and you pass from 5. Each subject has two exam sittings per year, the convocatoria ordinaria and the convocatoria extraordinaria as the resit. The resit may fall after your planned departure. Sort this out with the lecturer before you book your return flight.

Housing for five to ten months

The UMA does not provide housing, and it says so itself in capital letters. The normal case is a room in a shared flat. According to Idealista, a room in Málaga cost 437 € on average in the first quarter of 2026, and the UMA gave a range of 350 to 500 € for 2024/25. Private halls of residence with meals were around 800 to 900 € and are not very common among exchange students. Whole flats cost 16.5 € per square metre on the city average (Idealista, September 2026), more than in any other Andalusian university city.

Where and when to look

The UMA runs a free housing portal through its social services. You get access with your university login, which is available after acceptance from 20 June, or in advance with a UMA PIN. The International Hub and ESN Málaga can also help. The university only puts you in touch with landlords and takes no responsibility for the contract.

According to the UMA, demand is particularly high in September and February. Two approaches work: search online a few weeks beforehand and view by video call, or book a hostel for the first few days and view places on site. The second approach is safer, but it is hard on the nerves.

• Teatinos: right by the main campus, lots of student flatshares, short trips to uni, a long way to the beach.
• Cruz de Humilladero and the station area: between the campus and the centre, good metro connections in both directions.
• Centre and La Victoria: in the middle of everything and close to the El Ejido campus, but noisy and with lots of holiday flats.
• Pedregalejo and El Palo: beach neighbourhoods in the east. Only worthwhile if you rarely need to go to Teatinos.

Scam traps

Exchange students are a popular target because they book from far away and are under time pressure. You should become suspicious if the landlord is supposedly abroad and wants to send you the key, if you are asked to transfer a deposit before a viewing, if the price is well below the market or if payment is supposed to go through a link to an alleged booking platform. Insist on a written contract and pay by bank transfer, not in cash without a receipt. For one semester you usually get a seasonal contract, where a deposit of two months’ rent is common. More on this in Finding a flat in Spain.

Costs and funding

The Erasmus grant is a contribution, not a full scholarship. For Spain, these rates apply in the 2026/27 academic year:

• Germany: 540 € a month (country group 2). Some universities do not fund every day of the stay, so ask about the maximum duration.
• Austria: 470 € a month.
• Top-up: an extra 250 € a month for students with fewer opportunities, for example with a child, a disability or a chronic illness. Your university sets the criteria.
• Green travel: if you travel by train or bus, you can get additional funded travel days and a higher travel allowance.

Erasmus and Auslands-BAföG (Germany’s state student funding for studying abroad) can be combined. The Studierendenwerk Heidelberg is responsible for Spain, and you should apply about six months in advance. As an Erasmus student you pay no tuition fees at the UMA. You can find the general section on funding and recognition in Erasmus in Spain.

Monthly budget in Málaga

In this table, the room, the bus pass and the funding are backed by sources. The other rows are estimated ranges for a normal Erasmus everyday life.

So there is a gap of several hundred euros a month. On top of that come the one-off costs of the deposit and the flights.

Student life: ESN, beach and day trips

ESN Málaga is the local section of the Erasmus Student Network. The UMA itself names it as a point of contact, including for finding a room. ESN organises get-to-know-you evenings and trips, through which you quickly meet people in the first few weeks. The UMA’s buddy programme also matches you with a local student who helps you before and during your stay. Make use of it: it is the easiest way to make Spanish contacts.

You can explore the city itself with the article Things to see in Málaga. For beach days beyond the city beach, the beaches of the Costa del Sol and Nerja and Frigiliana are worth it. Classic day trips are Ronda and the cliff path Caminito del Rey, for which you need to book tickets early. More ideas are collected in Day trips from Málaga.

Paperwork: what you really need

For one or two semesters the list is short. A lot of what people moving abroad have to deal with does not apply to you.

• Health insurance: the UMA refers EU students to the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). It is on the back of your health insurance card. Check the expiry date. Private travel insurance with repatriation is a sensible addition.
• NIE: for one semester you usually do not need the foreigner identification number. It becomes necessary if you work in Spain or if a landlord or bank asks for it. Then Applying for an NIE will help.
• Bank account: your account from home is enough. Transfers within the SEPA area cost nothing extra in euros.
• Rental contract: in writing, with the landlord’s name and ID number, the amount of the deposit and the arrangement for utilities.

Checklist before you fly

• Acceptance Letter downloaded from ALGORIA
• Learning Agreement signed by all three parties
• Grant Agreement signed with your home university, first instalment sorted
• EHIC valid, travel insurance taken out
• ID card or passport valid until after your return
• Accommodation booked for the first nights, viewings arranged
• Money available for the deposit and first rent
• Date of the welcome event noted
• Passport photos and copies of the most important documents packed

You want to stay for more than a semester and do your whole degree in the city? Admission, costs and neighbourhoods for that are covered in Studying in Málaga.

Frequently asked questions

Cover image: Tyk · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0