Scholarships for African Students in 2027: 21 Open Calls

Twenty-one scholarships are open right now across twenty separate funders. Ten of them are fully funded. The rest cover tuition and leave you to find the airfare, the room and the medical insurance yourself, which is the single most expensive misunderstanding in this field.

This page sorts them by what they pay, who they accept and when they close. Deadlines run from 30 September 2026 to 12 February 2027.

The ten that cover everything

Fully funded means tuition, living costs and usually travel and insurance. Only half of what is tracked here qualifies.

Wageningen University Africa Scholarship 2027/28 for Masters at Wageningen University & Research covers tuition, stipend, travel and insurance for a master's in the Netherlands, open to all African countries, closing 1 December 2026. Beit Trust Postgraduate Scholarships for Southern Africa from The Beit Trust does the same across nineteen awards for applicants from Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi, closing 12 February 2027, hosted in the United Kingdom and South Africa.

Maastricht University NL-High Potential Scholarship 2027 at Maastricht University pays between EUR 20,150 and EUR 38,750 across eighteen awards, with travel and insurance included, capped at age 35, closing 1 February 2027. Mastercard Foundation Doctor of Public Health Scholarships 2027 from the Mastercard Foundation funds seven doctoral places in public health in Canada with tuition, travel and accommodation covered, closing 1 October 2026.

University of Sussex Commonwealth PhD Scholarships 2027 at the University of Sussex covers tuition, stipend and travel for Commonwealth doctoral study, and ARC-GSSP Postgraduate Scholarships for African Students from ARC Ltd. does the same for postgraduate study hosted in Africa itself.

The tuition-only group, and what it really costs

Nine of the twenty-one cover tuition and nothing else, or cover tuition with an explicit refusal on the rest.

NDMC External Bursary Programme 2027 for South African students in disaster management from the National Disaster Management Centre states accommodation as not covered and pays ZAR 11,000. DFFE Full-time Bursary Programme 2027 for South African students in environmental fields from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment pays ZAR 80,000 per year in tuition for South African students. Indomie Scholarship Program 2026: full tuition for new Nigerian students from Indomie covers full tuition for Nigerian undergraduates and stops there.

Open Doors Russian Scholarship 2027/28 for International Students run by leading Russian universities is the clearest example of why reading the coverage line matters: tuition yes, stipend yes, travel no, insurance no, accommodation no. A funded degree with three unfunded costs attached is still a good offer. It is not the same offer as the ten above, and applicants who treat it as such arrive short.

Work the arithmetic before you rank anything. A tuition waiver in an expensive city can leave you further behind than a smaller award that includes housing.

Sorted by level

Master's: fifteen of the twenty-one, which makes this the best-served level on the site by a wide margin. TU Delft Justus & Louise van Effen Excellence Scholarships at TU Delft, St Leonard's Masters Scholarship 2027, University of St Andrews at the University of St Andrews paying GBP 18,000 per year, A.S. Hornby Scholarship 2027/28 for English teachers, MEd TESOL at Exeter at the University of Exeter for English teachers with ten awards, and Joint MSc in Environmental Risks and Human Security in Bonn, Germany from United Nations University in Germany all sit here.

Doctoral: eleven calls, including Notre Dame PhD in Sustainable Development 2027 with full funding at the University of Notre Dame with tuition, stipend and insurance, and CIFAR Global Scholars Program for Early-Career Researchers from CIFAR which pays CAD 100,000 to early-career researchers.

Undergraduate: four only. Indomie Scholarship Program 2026: full tuition for new Nigerian students and NDMC External Bursary Programme 2027 for South African students in disaster management are both national programmes, which is the pattern at this level everywhere. International undergraduate funding for Africans barely exists, and pretending otherwise wastes a year.

Postdoctoral: one.

National calls are the best odds on this page

Five of the twenty-one are restricted to a single country or a small group, and they are consistently the strongest bet for anyone who qualifies.

Indomie Scholarship Program 2026: full tuition for new Nigerian students and NDMC External Bursary Programme 2027 for South African students in disaster management and DFFE Full-time Bursary Programme 2027 for South African students in environmental fields are South African or Nigerian only. Czech Government Scholarships 2027/2028 for Ethiopia, Gabon, Mauritania and Zambia and Czech Government Scholarships 2027/2028 for developing countries from the Government of the Czech Republic accept only Ethiopia, Gabon, Mauritania and Zambia. France-South Africa Scholarship Programme 2027 for Graduates from France-South Africa Scholarship Programme takes South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi for study in France. Beit Trust Postgraduate Scholarships for Southern Africa takes three southern African countries.

The arithmetic is simple and most applicants ignore it. A global scholarship receives applications from a hundred countries. A four-country scholarship receives applications from four. If your passport appears on one of these lists, apply there before you apply anywhere open.

The language question

Only two of the twenty-one explicitly state that no IELTS is required. That does not mean the other nineteen demand it. It means they do not say, and applicants should check each official page rather than assume either way.

Where a test is required, plan for it early. Booking, sitting and receiving a score takes several weeks, and a deadline in December means testing in October at the latest.

The calendar, in three waves

The first wave closes between 30 September 2026 and 8 October 2026: Adelaide University Research Scholarships in Australia at Adelaide University, the two Czech calls, Indomie Scholarship Program 2026: full tuition for new Nigerian students, NDMC External Bursary Programme 2027 for South African students in disaster management, Mastercard Foundation Doctor of Public Health Scholarships 2027, DFFE Full-time Bursary Programme 2027 for South African students in environmental fields, ARC-GSSP Postgraduate Scholarships for African Students and France-South Africa Scholarship Programme 2027 for Graduates. Nine deadlines in nine days. If you find this page in late September, pick one and do it properly rather than three badly.

The second wave runs 20 October 2026 to 1 December 2026, and it holds the largest awards: University of Sussex Commonwealth PhD Scholarships 2027, Joint MSc in Environmental Risks and Human Security in Bonn, Germany, Open Doors Russian Scholarship 2027/28 for International Students, CIFAR Global Scholars Program for Early-Career Researchers, A.S. Hornby Scholarship 2027/28 for English teachers, MEd TESOL at Exeter, Notre Dame PhD in Sustainable Development 2027 with full funding, Wageningen University Africa Scholarship 2027/28 for Masters and TU Delft Justus & Louise van Effen Excellence Scholarships.

The third closes in February 2027: Maastricht University NL-High Potential Scholarship 2027, Maastricht University Social Justice Scholarship, St Leonard's Masters Scholarship 2027, University of St Andrews and Beit Trust Postgraduate Scholarships for Southern Africa. These are the ones to start now if you are reading this in autumn.

What to build once and send many times

Every one of these twenty-one wants a version of the same four documents.

Academic transcripts, certified. Registrars are slow everywhere. Request them the week you decide to apply, not the week before submission.

Two reference letters from people who taught or supervised you. Ask early and give them your draft statement so they can write something specific.

A personal statement built around one concrete problem you want to work on, not a summary of your biography. Committees read hundreds of biographies and very few clear problems.

Proof of funds or a budget, where asked. For the tuition-only group this is where applications quietly fail, because the university needs to believe you can cover what the scholarship does not.

Confirm every deadline, award count and coverage detail on the funder's own page before relying on it. Scholarship terms change between cycles, and the official page is the only authoritative version.