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. Note: undergraduates cannot apply to study French, German, or Spanish.

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

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

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

• European Union Center : Arabic, Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, French, German, Greek (modern), Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, or Turkish. *Priority will be given to less-commonly-taught languages (languages other than French, German, Spanish) and higher-level language study.

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

FLAS Fellowships are administered by the University of Illinois Area Studies Centers and Programs and are awarded competitively through an annual competition. Students from all departments and professional schools are encouraged to apply. 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 are submitted by the student’s department; undergraduate applications are submitted directly to the Center to which the student is applying. All applications are due 10 February 2012. Graduate students should check with their department about its internal FLAS deadline.

Grant Amount

• Academic Year Fellowships
  • Graduate student FLAS recipients receive full tuition, mandatory fees, and a $15,000 stipend
  • Undergraduates receive $10,000 for tuition and fees and a $5,000 stipend.
• Summer Fellowships
  • $5,000 towards tuition for a summer language program as well as required Illinois fees and a $2,500 stipend. In some cases, a travel award may also be made.