We list 3 fully Funded PhD Scholarships for Nigerian Students in Saudi Arabia, with the deadline, study level and eligibility of each one taken from the award's own terms. 3 state eligibility that includes Nigerian applicants.
Written from the 3 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 6 min read.
This page collects 3 fully funded PhD scholarships in Saudi Arabia open to Nigerian students. Each one is a doctoral award at a Saudi university, and each is labelled fully funded by the institution offering it. The providers are King Abdulaziz University, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). One award comes from each.
All three are open to international applicants. None of the three names Nigeria specifically, and none of the three states a nationality restriction, so a Nigerian applicant is not excluded by the award text. That is the position on the page: three awards, no nationality bar written into any of them.
Two of the three also carry a master's route alongside the PhD, and one of the three includes an undergraduate level. If you are weighing up whether to apply now for a doctorate or to look at a master's place first, the same three providers appear at both levels.
All three awards state that they cover living costs. Two state that they cover tuition. Two state that they cover accommodation. One states that it covers travel.
Read that as what the awards say in writing, not as a promise about your particular offer letter. Funding packages at Saudi universities are usually assembled per student, and the wording on a scholarship page is the starting point for a conversation, not the end of it. When you apply, ask for the breakdown in writing: monthly stipend, tuition treatment, housing arrangement, and whether an annual travel allowance exists.
None of the three awards states a cash value on the page, and none states a number of places. Do not plan around a figure you have seen elsewhere. Plan around the four benefit lines above and confirm the rest with the admissions office of the university you apply to.
The qualification that leads into this level is a master's degree. In Nigerian terms that means an M.Sc, M.A, MBA or M.Phil, from a recognised university. Your transcripts, your statement of purpose and your research proposal carry most of the weight at doctoral level.
Two of the three awards state a minimum degree class as a requirement. Two state that you need an English test score, IELTS or TOEFL. One states work experience as a requirement. All three ask for letters of recommendation.
Doctoral funding in Saudi Arabia is often tied to a supervisor or a research group. That means the programme application and the scholarship application frequently share one deadline, and your first useful move is often an email to a potential supervisor rather than a form. If a professor agrees to take you, the funding route usually becomes clearer.
Expect the following from the three awards on this page, in the order you will actually deal with them:
The recommendation letters are the item Nigerian applicants most often underestimate. Approach your referees early, give them your CV and research summary, and be ready to send reminders. If your referees are on sabbatical or have moved institutions, sort that out before the deadline month, not during it.
On the English test: two awards state a score requirement. If you have studied in English at degree level, ask the admissions office directly whether a waiver applies to your case. Do not assume one, and do not assume the absence of one either. Ask, and keep the reply.
Transcripts and courier costs are yours to carry. Request your transcripts from your Nigerian university as soon as you decide to apply, because the internal processing time is usually longer than the courier time. Send official copies where the university asks for official copies, and keep scanned PDFs of everything.
The deadline picture on this page is thin, and you should know that before you plan around it. None of the three awards carries a fixed closing date on the page. None is marked as currently open. All three are undated in the listing, and none is described as recurring.
What the listings do show is this: King Abdulaziz University is described as open all year. KAUST shows two dates, January 11 and October 1. KFUPM says to see the details on the award page.
Two dates on one award usually means two admission rounds, so treat January 11 and October 1 as the two points in the year when a KAUST application can be submitted. For King Abdulaziz, "open all year" describes the application window, not a guarantee that a funded doctoral place is sitting empty in any given month. For KFUPM, open the award page and read the current cycle before you do anything else.
Because the dates here are not fixed, check each award page again before you pay for a courier or book a test. A date you saw last month may not be the date that applies to the round you are entering.
One of the three states a doctoral duration of three years. The same award sets out an undergraduate duration of four years and a master's duration of two years. Treat the three-year doctoral figure as the stated duration for that award, and confirm the funded period for the other two with the university.
Nigeria sits fourteenth among the countries sending students to Saudi Arabia, with 1,338 Nigerian students recorded there in 2024, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. That is a sizeable community and a useful one. It means there are people ahead of you in the system who have already dealt with the document trail, the supervisor search and the move.
The three universities on this page are research institutions with large science and engineering faculties. Doctoral places there are built around research groups, so the fit between your proposed topic and an existing group matters more than the prestige of the institution's name. Read the faculty pages, find two or three people whose current work overlaps with yours, and write to them with something specific about their published work.
Cost of living, climate and campus arrangements vary between the three cities involved. Ask current students about the practical side — housing, transport, whether a stipend covers a family — rather than relying on the scholarship page alone.
Open the three award pages linked above and read each one in full. Note which of them state a degree class requirement and which state an English test requirement, because those two conditions decide whether you can apply this cycle or need to prepare first.
Then work in this order. Shortlist one or two supervisors and write to them. Request your transcripts from your Nigerian university. Book your IELTS or TOEFL if you do not already have a valid score, and ask about a waiver in parallel. Line up your referees and give them at least three weeks. Check the KAUST dates against your own timeline, and check the KFUPM page for the current cycle.
If the PhD route does not open this cycle, remember that two of these three providers also run master's awards, and a master's place at the same institution is a route into doctoral funding there later. The page lists three fully funded PhD awards in Saudi Arabia. Read them properly, prepare the documents early, and apply to the ones that fit your research.
Saudi Arabia is rapidly becoming one of the most sought-after destinations for higher education among international students. With top-ranked universities, Islamic culture, and generous government support, it offers some of the best fully funded scholarships in the Muslim world. These scholarships are ideal for students who want to pursue Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD programs in a welcoming academic environment with full financial coverage.
The Saudi government and various universities offer scholarships that cover tuition, living costs, accommodation, healthcare, travel, and more. These programs aim to attract talented individuals from Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan, and offer opportunities to grow academically and professionally.
*UNESCO Institute for Statistics, inbound internationally mobile students from Nigeria, 2024.
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