We list 14 undergraduate Scholarships for Nigerian Students in the United Kingdom, with the deadline, study level and eligibility of each one taken from the award's own terms. 3 of them are fully funded. 9 state eligibility that includes Nigerian applicants. Awards with a known closing date are listed soonest first.
Written from the 14 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 5 min read.
This page collects 14 undergraduate scholarships in the United Kingdom open to students applying for a first degree. Every award here sits at bachelors level, and every one is at a UK institution. The list is narrow on purpose: if you are finishing WAEC or NECO and looking for funding towards a UK degree, these are the awards we have indexed under that combination.
It is not a list of postgraduate funding. The same institutions run master's awards, and there are 8 master's scholarships in the wider UK collection, but those sit on a different page. What follows is about the first degree only.
Funding on this list is mostly partial. 10 of the 14 awards are labelled partially funded and 3 are fully funded. One award does not label its funding either way, so treat that one as unknown until you read its own page.
Partial funding at UK universities usually means a reduction in tuition rather than a cheque. Of the awards that name what they cover in their own text, 6 name tuition. Far fewer go further: 1 names living costs, 1 names accommodation, and 1 names research or training costs. Those counts tell you what the awards say in writing. They are not a promise about what you will receive, and the value of each award is set by the provider, not by this page.
The practical reading is simple. A partial tuition award lowers your bill; it does not remove your need for maintenance, visa costs, flights or the day-to-day cost of living in the UK. Budget for those separately before you accept a place.
For 9 of the 14 awards, a Nigerian applicant can apply. Of those nine, 1 names Nigeria or the region in its eligibility text, and 8 carry no nationality restriction at all. The remaining 5 awards do not state their eligibility on the award page, which means you have to check the provider's own terms before you spend money on an application.
That split matters when you are paying for transcripts and courier fees out of your own pocket. An award with no nationality restriction is the safer bet to prepare for, because nothing in its text excludes you on the grounds of where you were born. An award that names Nigeria or the region is worth prioritising, since the field is smaller. An award that says nothing about eligibility should be checked first, before you order documents.
There is context for why UK institutions keep Nigerian applicants in view. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 71,756 Nigerian students were studying in the UK in 2023, the 1st largest group by that measure. You are not applying into a country that has never seen a Nigerian undergraduate.
The requirements stated on these award pages are modest in number but firm where they appear. 2 awards ask for an English test score such as IELTS or TOEFL. 2 ask for an admission offer first, meaning the scholarship application follows the university application rather than replacing it. 1 asks for a minimum degree class, and 1 asks for work experience.
The admission-offer requirement is the one that catches people out. If an award requires an offer before you can apply for the money, your timeline is set by the university's admissions office, not by the scholarship deadline. Start the university application early enough that an offer can land before the funding window shuts.
On English tests, check whether your WAEC or NECO English result is accepted by the institution before you pay for IELTS. Some UK universities waive the test for Nigerian applicants with a strong senior secondary English grade; others do not. That decision sits with each university, and the award pages here do not settle it for you.
The list leans towards business and management, which accounts for 4 awards. Medicine and health sciences follows with 3. Arts and humanities has 2. Economics and finance, engineering, natural sciences and social sciences each have 1.
If your intended course falls outside these areas, the list is thin for you, and you should look at the wider UK collection rather than forcing a fit here. If you are aiming at business or a health-related degree, this is the strongest part of the page.
Providers are spread across the sector rather than concentrated in one or two names. University College London (UCL) appears twice. Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Kent, the University of Stirling, Goldsmiths, University of London and Kingston University each appear once.
Where duration is stated, 3 awards run for 1 year, 2 run for 4 years, and 1 runs for 3–4 years. One award states its duration separately by level: undergraduate for 3–4 years and master's for 1 year.
A one-year award on a three-year degree leaves you funding the remaining years yourself. That is not a reason to skip it, but it is a reason to plan the whole degree's cost before you accept. A four-year award covers more of the course, and the competition for it will reflect that.
6 awards carry a stated date and 6 are still open. 8 are undated, and 6 recur, meaning the same award returns in a later cycle. The busiest months are May (3 deadlines), June (2) and July (1).
The awards closing soonest are worth naming:
Three of these sit in May, which is the tightest point in the calendar. If you are applying this cycle, May is the month to have your documents already in hand.
Work in the order the deadlines force on you. Start with the awards closing in May, then June, then July. For each one, open the award page and confirm three things before you spend anything: whether Nigerian applicants are eligible, whether you need an admission offer first, and whether an English test is required.
Then prepare the documents that take longest in Nigeria. Transcripts, WAEC or NECO result verification and courier delivery all cost money and time, and none of them can be rushed at the last week. If an award requires an admission offer, submit the university application before you touch the scholarship form.
Two fully funded awards are worth a close look if your circumstances fit: the UCL Access Opportunity Scholarship and the Goldsmiths International Response Scholarship. The Goldsmiths award states 4 awards, 2 at undergraduate and 2 at master's level. The Denys Holland Scholarship at University College London closes 7 July and is another partial award to keep on the list.
Read each award page in full before you apply. The counts on this page describe what the awards say in writing; the entry requirements, values and conditions are set by each provider and can change between cycles.
Studying in the UK is a dream for many international students, offering world-class education, global exposure, and prestigious degrees. But the cost can be a major barrier. Thankfully, numerous scholarships are available specifically for Nigerian students that can fund tuition, living expenses, and even travel. In this post, we’ll explore the Top UK scholarships for international students in 2025–2026, including eligibility, benefits, deadlines, and how to apply.
*UNESCO Institute for Statistics, inbound internationally mobile students from Nigeria, 2023.
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