We list 6 fully Funded Social Sciences Scholarships Open to Nigerian Students, with the deadline, study level and eligibility of each one taken from the award's own terms. Most are held in the United States (3), Australia (1) and China (1). Awards with a known closing date are listed soonest first.
These awards do not restrict the field of study, so social sciences applicants can apply too.
Written from the 6 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 5 min read.
This collection brings together 6 fully funded social sciences scholarships that are open to Nigerian students. Every award on the page is labelled fully funded, and every one of the six accepts Nigerian applicants. That is the whole list: no partially funded awards, no programmes where the funding position is left unclear, and no awards where the eligibility rules quietly exclude you.
Five of the six name no nationality restriction at all, which means the competition is global and you apply on the same terms as everyone else. One names Nigeria or the wider region directly. None of the six leaves eligibility unstated, so you are not chasing an award whose rules nobody has published.
The list is small, and that is useful. Six awards is a number you can work through properly in a single sitting, reading each one end to end rather than skimming twenty and applying to none.
The levels are mixed. 4 of the 6 are Masters awards, which is the group most Nigerian applicants will be looking at first. 3 are PhD awards, and some of those same programmes also take Master's candidates, so the counts overlap rather than sitting in separate boxes. One award is open at Bachelors level, and one is a postdoctoral or PhD position.
That spread matters because it changes what you submit. A Master's application leans on your degree classification, your transcripts and your referees. A PhD or postdoctoral application leans on your research proposal and, often, on evidence that you have already done independent work. Read the level on each award before you read anything else.
The destinations are concentrated. 3 of the 6 awards are in the United States. Australia, China and the Netherlands each account for one.
If your plan is built around a particular country, this tells you quickly where your options are thin. If your plan is built around the funding and the field, the geography matters less than whether the programme teaches what you want to research.
Fully funded is a phrase that hides a lot of variation, so it is worth looking at what these six actually say in writing.
Read those as what the award documents state, not as a promise that every cost you will face is covered. Tuition and living costs are the two lines that decide whether an offer is actually takeable, and they are not named by every award here. Where an award names travel, check whether it means an air ticket, a fixed allowance, or both. Where it names research or training costs, check whether that covers fieldwork, conference attendance, or neither.
The requirements are consistent enough to plan around.
Recommendation letters are the one item every single award demands, and they are the item Nigerian applicants most often leave late. Two or three referees, each writing a specific letter rather than a general one, takes weeks of polite chasing. Start there.
Only three of the six state an English test requirement. That does not mean the rest waive it automatically. It means the award page does not name it as a condition, and you should confirm the position with the institution before you assume anything. If you already hold a degree taught in English, ask directly whether that satisfies the requirement, and get the answer in writing.
Two awards want a research proposal. If you are applying at PhD level, that document is the application, not a supporting paper. Give it time.
All six awards carry a date, all six are currently open, and all six run on a recurring cycle, so a deadline you miss this year comes back next year. October and December are the busiest months on this list, with two awards closing in each. April accounts for one.
Five close soonest:
Two of those close within days of each other in October. If you are working on the Stanford and Stigler applications at the same time, your referees will be writing two sets of letters in the same fortnight. Tell them early.
Durations vary. Two awards run for 2 years, one runs for 1 to 2 years, and one is a 12-week residency running from 19 March to 31 May. The Knight-Hennessy Scholars program funds up to the first terminal degree. Plan your finances and your leave from work around the actual length of the programme, not the length you assumed.
The six providers are Stanford University, Harvard University, Peking University, the University of Groningen, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a group of participating Australian institutions. One award each.
Between them the awards span social sciences alongside related fields. Three of the six also list Arts & Humanities, three list Business & Management, three list Engineering, three list Law, and three list Medicine & Health Sciences. One lists Economics & Finance and one lists Education. Those overlaps mean a project sitting between disciplines is not automatically out of scope, but you should check the department you would actually be joining before you write your statement around it.
Open the five awards with the nearest deadlines first, starting with the two October ones. For each, note three things: the level, the date, and whether the award names tuition and living costs.
Then sort your documents. Order transcripts from your institution now, because Nigerian universities move at their own pace and a courier to the United States or the Netherlands is a cost you will pay more than once if you are applying to several awards. Confirm your degree classification wording with your faculty office so it matches what the application form asks for. Approach your referees with the award names, the deadlines and a copy of your CV, and give them at least three weeks.
If an award asks for a research proposal, draft it before you draft anything else. If it asks for an English test, book the test date before you need the score, not after.
Six awards, six deadlines, and a recurring cycle. Work through the list properly and you will know within a week which ones are worth your application fees and which are not.
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