We list 15 masters Scholarships Open to Nigerian Students in the United Kingdom, with the deadline, study level and eligibility of each one taken from the award's own terms. 7 of them are fully funded. Awards with a known closing date are listed soonest first.
Written from the 15 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 5 min read.
This collection gathers 15 master's scholarships in the United Kingdom that are open to Nigerian students. Every award on the page is at master's level, every one is in the UK, and every one is either named for Nigeria or its region, or carries no nationality restriction at all. That last point matters: of the 15, 3 name Nigeria or the wider region in their own eligibility text, while the remaining 12 state no nationality restriction, which means a Nigerian applicant is not excluded by the wording. None of the 15 leaves eligibility unstated, so you are not guessing about who may apply.
Nigerians are not a marginal presence in UK postgraduate study. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics recorded 71,756 Nigerian students in the United Kingdom in 2023, the largest national group from any country. The awards below are a small part of what that population is competing for, but they are the ones whose terms do not shut Nigerians out.
The 15 awards split almost evenly by funding label. 7 are listed as fully funded and 7 as partially funded. One award does not label its funding either way, so treat that one as unknown until you read its own page.
What the awards actually say they cover, in their own text, is more useful than the label:
Read those as what the award documents commit to, not as a promise that every cost is met. A "fully funded" award that names tuition and living costs but not travel still leaves you paying for a flight, a visa, the NHS surcharge and your first weeks in the country. A partial award may cover a fixed slice of tuition only. Check the individual page before you build a budget around it.
Three providers account for most of the list. The University of Oxford appears 3 times, and the remaining named providers — Westminster, Cambridge, Queen Mary University of London, Durham and the University of East Anglia — appear once each. That concentration is normal: large research universities run several separate schemes with different eligibility rules, and Oxford's three are not the same award.
By subject, the list is spread rather than deep. Business & Management is the only field with more than one award, at 2. Arts & Humanities, Engineering, Medicine & Health Sciences and Social Sciences each have 1. The remaining awards sit outside those five field labels. If your subject is not listed, that does not mean nothing on the page fits you; it means the award's own text does not classify it under those headings.
The route into these awards is a first degree or an HND — B.Sc, B.A, B.Eng, LLB, MBBS or HND. They are master's awards, both taught and research, so you apply as a graduate.
The one requirement to watch is degree class. Where an award states a minimum, "upper second" corresponds to Second Class Upper (2:1) on a Nigerian transcript. Only 1 award on this page states a minimum degree class in its own text, but that does not mean the others are indifferent to your grades; it means they have not put a class threshold in writing. Whether an HND is accepted in place of a degree is decided by each university, not by this page.
English tests are a smaller hurdle than most applicants expect. Only 2 awards state an IELTS or TOEFL score as a requirement. Many UK universities waive the test where your degree was taught in English, which is the case for most Nigerian graduates — but the waiver is the university's decision, and you should confirm it in writing before you pay for a test slot.
Across the 15 awards, the stated requirements are:
The two that require an admission offer first are the ones that catch people out. You cannot apply for the scholarship until the university has offered you a place, and the offer takes weeks. Work backwards from the scholarship deadline, not forwards from today.
For the two research awards, the proposal is the application. A weak proposal cannot be rescued by a strong transcript. Start it early, and get a supervisor's name attached if the award expects one.
Budget for documents as well as fees. Transcripts from Nigerian universities, courier delivery, and certified copies all cost money and take time, and some institutions are slower than others. Request transcripts the moment you decide to apply rather than the week the portal closes.
Five awards carry a stated date. Five are marked as still open. Ten carry no date at all, and 5 recur annually. The busiest months for deadlines on this page are May (2 awards), then October and March with 1 each. The undated awards are not necessarily closed — many run on a rolling or course-linked cycle — but you cannot plan around a date that is not published.
The five closing soonest, in order:
The Clarendon Fund at the University of Oxford runs on a different rhythm: it closes in December or January, tied to your course deadline, and recurs annually. If you are applying to Oxford, the Clarendon deadline is your course deadline, so treat them as one date.
Durations vary because the awards cover different courses. Three are listed at 1 year, which is the standard taught master's. One runs 3 years. One covers 2 years at master's level or 3 years at PhD. One covers up to 5 years at undergraduate level and 1 year at master's. That last one is a multi-level scheme, so read its terms carefully if you are applying only for the master's portion.
Start with the five dated awards above, because a deadline you can see is a deadline you can plan against. Open each page, read the eligibility wording in full, and note whether it requires an admission offer before you can apply — that single line decides your order of work.
Then work through the undated awards. Ten of the 15 carry no published date, and among them are recurring schemes that open and close on the same months each year. If a scheme is not open today, its page still tells you what it asks for, and that is what you prepare in the meantime.
Keep the document list in front of you: transcripts, references, and a research proposal where required. Those take the longest and cost the most, and they are the parts you control. The 15 awards on this page are open to Nigerian applicants by their own wording. What separates applicants is how early they start.
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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