Fully Funded Master's Scholarships 2026 for International Students

A master's is the level where funding is most competitive and least predictable. Doctoral study often comes with a salary because a research group needs the work done, while a taught master's is a year of teaching that the university has to pay for. That is why a fully funded master's is usually funded by a government or a foundation rather than by the department.

The biggest schemes are worth knowing by name. Chevening funds a one-year master's at any UK university, with tuition, a monthly stipend, a return flight and visa fees, and it asks for two years of work experience. Commonwealth Scholarships cover master's, PhD and split-site study in the UK for students from low- and middle-income Commonwealth countries, and require a nomination from a body in your country. Erasmus Mundus joint masters are funded by the EU and are taught by a consortium of universities in at least three countries.

Country-specific schemes fill the rest of the list. DAAD runs hundreds of programmes in Germany, including awards for development-related postgraduate courses. Stipendium Hungaricum funds master's study in Hungary and requires both an online application and a nomination from the sending partner. The Global Korea Scholarship covers tuition, a monthly allowance, airfare and Korean language training. MEXT funds study in Japan through an embassy or university route.

Two features decide whether you can use a scheme. The first is the nomination. If a body in your country has to put your file forward, the internal deadline is the real one and it is often a month before the international date. The second is the admission requirement: several schemes pay only after you hold an offer, which means you are running two applications in parallel and the course application has its own deadline.

What a master's award usually covers is tuition plus a monthly living allowance, with travel and insurance included in some schemes and not others. What it rarely covers is the gap between the stipend and rent in an expensive city, the deposit for accommodation, or a dependent. Compare the stipend with the real cost of the city, and check whether the award permits part-time work.

The practical timeline starts a year ahead. Course applications and scholarship applications open at different times and neither waits for the other. Pick the schemes you are eligible for, list their documents, and work back from the earliest deadline. Applying to three well-chosen schemes beats applying to ten you barely qualify for.