About FLAS Fellowships

FLAS Fellowships support graduate and undergraduate study in modern foreign languages in combination with area studies, international studies, or international or area aspects of professional studies. The following languages, classified by Center, are approved by the U.S. Department of Education for FLAS fellowships at Illinois.

• Center for African Studies : Arabic, Bamana, Lingala, Swahili, Wolof, or Zulu

• Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies : Brazilian Portuguese, Quechua or any other Amerindian Language, plus Spanish (third-year or above)

• Center for Global Studies : Arabic, Bamana, Bulgarian, Czech, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Lingala, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Serbian or Croatian, Swahili, Turkish, Ukrainian or Wolof; or at the advanced level* (third-year or above) Chinese, Japanese, or Russian

• Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies : Advanced* Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.

• Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies: Middle Eastern—Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, or Turkish. South Asian—Hindi.

• European Union Center: Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, Greek (modern), Italian, Polish, Serbian-Bosnian-Croatian, Swedish, or Turkish; or advanced * French, German, or Spanish.

• Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center : Bosnian, Bulgarian, Czech, Polish, Russian, Serbian-Bosnian-Croatian, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Yiddish.

FLAS Fellowships are administered by the University of Illinois Area Studies Centers and Programs and are awarded through an annual competition. Students from all departments and professional schools are encouraged to apply. Students may apply to more than one Center. Priority is given to the study of less commonly taught languages and each Center has specific priorities. A standardized FLAS application is available on-line through this Web site. Graduate student applications must be submitted by the student’s department. Please ask your department about its internal FLAS deadline. Undergraduate students should submit the completed application directly to each Center to which they are applying.

Grant Amount

• Graduate students receive full tuition, mandatory fees, and a stipend ($15,000) during the academic year; undergraduates receive $10,000 towards tuition and fees and a $5,000 stipend.

• Summer awards cover full tuition for a summer language program as well as required Illinois fees and a $2,500 stipend. Combined tuition and Illinois fees can't exceed $5,000. In some cases, a travel award may also be made.