We list 5 fully Funded Masters Scholarships Open to Nigerian Students in Switzerland, with the deadline, study level and eligibility of each one taken from the award's own terms. Awards with a known closing date are listed soonest first.
Written from the 5 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 5 min read.
This page collects 5 fully funded masters scholarships in Switzerland that are open to Nigerian students. Every award here is at masters level, every one is based in Switzerland, and every one is fully funded. All 5 are open to Nigerian applicants: none of them names Nigeria or a region as a restriction, and none of them carries a nationality restriction at all. That is the whole list, not a sample of it.
Switzerland is small, expensive and unusually well funded at postgraduate level. The five awards come from five different providers: the Swiss Government through Swiss universities, ETH Zurich, the University of Lausanne, IMD, and the Geneva Academy. One is a government scheme that also covers doctoral and postdoctoral study; the rest sit inside a single institution.
All 5 are labelled fully funded, so the intention behind each one is to remove the cost of study rather than reduce it. What the award documents actually name varies. Of the five, 3 name tuition in their own text. One names living costs. One names travel. One names accommodation. One names health insurance.
Read that carefully. An award can be fully funded and still leave you responsible for a flight, a deposit on a room, or the first month of feeding yourself before a stipend lands. When you open an individual award page, look for the words the award itself uses — tuition waiver, monthly stipend, travel grant, housing — and treat anything not named as something you may have to cover. The counts above are what the awards say in writing, not a promise about your particular offer.
The pathway is straightforward. You hold a first degree or HND, and you are applying for a taught or research masters. The qualifications that lead into this level are B.Sc, B.A, B.Eng, LLB, MBBS and HND.
Most awards at this level state a minimum class of degree. Where an award asks for an upper second, that corresponds to Second Class Upper (2:1) on a Nigerian transcript. If your transcript reads Second Class Lower, read each award's own wording before you rule yourself out — some state a minimum, some describe it differently, and the decision rests with the university, not with a general rule. Whether an HND is accepted is decided by each university individually, so check the specific award rather than assuming.
On English: 3 of the 5 awards state an English test score (IELTS or TOEFL) as a requirement. That leaves room, but only where the award's own text allows it. If you studied your first degree in English, that fact may or may not be accepted in place of a test — again, it depends on what the award says. Do not pay for a test before you have read the requirement.
The asks are modest in number but not in effort. Three awards state an English test score. Three ask for letters of recommendation. One asks for work experience. One asks for a research proposal.
For a Nigerian applicant paying for transcripts and courier fees out of pocket, the practical sequence matters more than the list:
Two of the five awards carry a stated date. Two are still open. Three are undated on the listing, and two recur. November is the busiest month, with two awards closing in it.
The two closing soonest are:
Both are masters awards in Switzerland and both are fully funded. If you intend to apply this cycle, these two set your calendar. The remaining three — the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships, the IMD MBA Scholarships and the Geneva Academy Scholarship — are listed with deadlines to be confirmed on the award page, so open each one and read the current cycle rather than relying on a remembered date.
This is a small list, and the fields reflect that. One award sits in Business & Management, one in Law, and one in Public Policy & Development. The other awards are not tied to a single field in the way those three are, which is why the field counts do not add up to the total.
Level is more uniform. All 5 awards are masters. One of the five — the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships — also covers PhD and postdoctoral study, which is why you will see those levels mentioned on that award's page. If you are looking specifically for doctoral funding in Switzerland, that award is the one on this list that reaches it.
Durations vary by award: one runs across 3 or 4 semesters, one is described as 2 years for students undertaking a master, and one is 1 year. Check the duration against your own funding needs, because a one-year award and a two-year award are very different propositions when you are budgeting for a country as expensive as Switzerland.
According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 110 Nigerian students were studying in Switzerland in 2024, placing Nigeria 57th among the countries sending students there. That is a small number against the size of the Nigerian postgraduate market, and it tells you something useful: you will not be following a well-worn path, and you should not expect to find a large Nigerian cohort to lean on for information about these awards.
It also means the applications are yours to research properly. Read each award page in full, note what it names and what it does not, and build your documents around the requirements the award actually states.
Start with the two November deadlines, because they are the ones that will pass while you are still deciding. Open the University of Lausanne award and the ETH Zurich award, read the eligibility wording, and check whether either states an English test requirement that applies to you. Then work through the other three: the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships, the IMD MBA Scholarships and the Geneva Academy Scholarship, each of which lists its deadline on its own page.
Five awards is a short list, but it is a list where every entry is fully funded, at masters level, in Switzerland, and open to you as a Nigerian applicant. That combination is not common. Treat each one as a separate application with its own documents, its own referee requests and its own deadline, and give yourself enough weeks for the Nigerian paperwork — transcript, courier, attestation — that sits behind every one of them.
Looking to study in one of Europe’s most advanced and beautiful countries—without the burden of high tuition fees? Switzerland offers fully funded scholarships for Nigerian students in the academic year 2025-2026, making it an ideal destination for those seeking world-class education, cutting-edge research, and a high quality of life.
Known for its top-ranked universities like ETH Zurich, University of Geneva, EPFL, and University of Lausanne, Switzerland welcomes talented students from around the world through generous government-funded and university-specific scholarships. These prestigious awards cover full tuition fees, monthly living stipends, health insurance, housing, and travel costs—providing financial relief while allowing students to focus on academic excellence.
Whether you’re aiming for a master’s degree, PhD, or postdoctoral research, scholarships such as the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships, ETH Zurich Excellence Scholarships, and EPFL Fellowships offer a fully funded path to studying in Switzerland.
In this detailed guide, we’ll explore the top fully funded scholarships in Switzerland for international students 2025-2026, complete with benefits, application requirements, and step-by-step instructions to help you succeed.
Dreaming of studying in one of Europe’s most scenic, innovative, and academically renowned countries? Sw...
*UNESCO Institute for Statistics, inbound internationally mobile students from Nigeria, 2024.
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