We list 9 fully Funded Scholarships Open to Nigerian Students in China, 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 9 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 6 min read.
This page collects 9 fully funded scholarships in China that are open to Nigerian students. Every award here is labelled fully funded by the provider, and every one of the nine sits in China. There is no mixed bag of partial tuition waivers or fee discounts to sift through.
The list covers three study levels. All 9 are open at master's level, 7 at PhD level, and 6 accept bachelor's applicants. Some awards appear at more than one level, which is why those numbers add up to more than nine. If you are finishing a B.Sc or HND and looking at a master's, the whole page applies to you. If you already hold an M.Sc and want a doctorate, seven of the nine are worth reading.
The providers named in the brief include Peking University, Nankai University, Qingdao University and Yangzhou University, alongside grouped listings for Shanghai universities and Beijing universities. The awards are a mix of university scholarships and government-backed schemes, so the application route differs from one entry to the next.
Fully funded means different things at different universities, so it is worth reading what each award says in its own text rather than assuming. Of the nine awards on this page, 6 state that tuition is covered, 5 name living costs, 5 name accommodation, and 5 name health insurance. 2 mention travel, and 1 names research or training costs.
That pattern is typical of Chinese funding. Tuition and a place in university housing are the most common components; a monthly stipend and insurance usually follow. Travel is rarer, and where it appears it is often a one-off contribution rather than a full return ticket from Lagos or Abuja.
Do not treat these counts as a promise. They record what the award text states. If an award does not name a benefit, plan as though you are paying for it yourself. Budget separately for your flight, your visa application, your documents and your first month in China before any stipend lands.
Yes, and the brief is unusually clean on this point. All 9 awards are open to Nigerian students. None of the nine names Nigeria or a specific region as a restricted nationality, and none of the nine carries a nationality restriction that would shut Nigerians out. In other words, the eligibility barrier on this page is not your passport.
What will decide your application is your academic record, your documents and your timing. Chinese universities generally assess you on your transcripts, your degree classification and, where required, your English test score. An HND or a B.Sc with a strong class of degree is workable for master's entry; a good M.Sc result is what matters for PhD entry. Where an award asks for a research proposal, that proposal carries real weight, because it tells the panel whether you can work independently.
Some awards also require you to hold an admission offer before you apply for the funding. That is a sequencing issue, not an eligibility one, and it changes your calendar. Read each award page carefully before you start gathering documents.
The requirements across this list are document-heavy. 7 of the nine awards ask for letters of recommendation. 5 ask for an English test score such as IELTS or TOEFL. 3 ask for a research proposal. 1 asks for work experience, and 1 asks you to secure an admission offer first.
Start with the recommendations, because they are the slowest item to organise. Approach two or three lecturers who taught you at degree level, give them your CV, your transcript and a short note on what you intend to study, and give them at least three weeks. A generic letter signed by a busy professor is worth less than a specific one that names your project work and your result in a particular course.
On English tests, check the waiver position before you pay for a test slot. Some Chinese universities accept a letter confirming that your previous degree was taught in English, and some do not. Where a test is required, book early: test dates fill up, and results take time to reach you. Keep scanned copies of everything, because most of these applications are submitted online and you will need clean PDFs.
Transcripts and courier costs are the practical Nigerian bottleneck. Request your transcript from your university's exams and records office well ahead of the deadline, confirm how many copies you need, and budget for courier delivery. Do not leave this to the week the portal closes.
Six of the nine awards carry a stated date, and all six are still open. Three are undated, which usually means the provider runs a recurring cycle and has not published the next closing date. Six of the nine recur annually, so if you miss one intake you can plan for the next.
May is the busiest month, with 3 deadlines falling in it. December carries 1 and April carries 1. The five closing soonest are:
The Yenching Academy award at Peking University closes first, on 1 December. The Schwarzman Scholars Program at Tsinghua University closes 20 May and states up to 140 awards. The Qingdao University award closes 20 April and states 20 PhD awards and 10 master's awards. Two of the nine awards publish award counts; the rest do not, so treat the number of places as unknown.
Where a programme runs to a set length, the brief records bachelor's programmes of about four to six years, master's programmes of two to three years, and doctorates of around three years. Plan your funding and your return date around the longer end of those ranges.
The nine awards spread across ten subject areas. Arts and humanities, business and management, and economics and finance are each named by 4 awards. Agriculture, education, engineering, law, and medicine and health sciences are each named by 3. Public policy and development and social sciences are each named by 1.
That spread matters if you are applying from a Nigerian background in engineering, agriculture or health sciences, where Chinese universities have strong teaching capacity and where the funding tends to be attached to departmental programmes rather than central schemes. If your field is public policy or social sciences, your realistic options on this page are narrower, so read those entries closely and check the eligibility wording yourself.
Work in this order. First, decide your level and your field, then shortlist the awards on this page that match both. Second, open each award page and read the eligibility section in full, including any requirement to hold an admission offer first. Third, build your document pack: transcript, degree certificate, CV, statement of purpose, recommendation letters and, where required, an English test score or a research proposal.
Then set your own internal deadline at least three weeks before the provider's. The December closing date at Peking University is the nearest, and the April and May cluster will arrive faster than it looks. If you are aiming at a master's, the nine awards here are all open to you. If you are aiming at a PhD, seven are. Read them, match them to your record, and apply to more than one.
Studying in China has become an increasingly attractive option for Nigerian students seeking quality education, advanced research opportunities, and cultural exchange in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. With strong diplomatic ties between Pakistan and China, numerous fully funded scholarships are available each year through government and university-sponsored programs. These scholarships cover tuition fees, accommodation, monthly living stipends, and even airfare, making higher education in China not only accessible but highly affordable for talented international students. Below is a list of the top fully funded scholarships in China specifically available to international applicants.
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