Masters Scholarships for Nigerian Students in Denmark 2026-2027

What this page lists

This page collects 3 masters scholarships in Denmark that are open to Nigerian students. Every award here is at masters level and every one is based in Denmark. Two are labelled fully funded and one is labelled partially funded. The awards come from two named providers, the University of Southern Denmark and the IT University of Copenhagen, plus the Erasmus+ programme, which routes students through Danish partner universities.

Denmark is a small country with a short list of English-taught masters programmes, and its scholarship pots are correspondingly small. That is why this collection is three awards rather than thirty. What matters more than the number is what each award actually pays for, and whether the eligibility wording on the award leaves room for a Nigerian applicant.

What the awards pay for

Across the three awards, the written benefit is consistent on two points. All three name tuition and all three name living costs. One names travel and one names health insurance.

That distinction matters when you are budgeting from Lagos or Abuja. Tuition is the largest single line, and a Danish masters is charged to non-EU students at a commercial rate. Living costs in Denmark are high, and Copenhagen in particular is expensive. An award that covers tuition but leaves living costs to you is a very different proposition from one that covers both.

Only one award on this page mentions travel, and only one mentions health insurance. If you are comparing these three, read the benefit wording on each award page rather than assuming the fully funded label means the same thing everywhere.

Fully funded and partially funded

• Danish Government Scholarship 2027 (Fully Funded) — University of Southern Denmark
• Erasmus+ Scholarship for Study in Denmark — Danish partner universities
• IT University of Copenhagen Scholarships — partially funded

The Erasmus+ award is the widest of the three in scope. It is listed for masters, PhD and exchange study, and it runs across Denmark and other European partner universities rather than at a single institution. Its own text describes it as fully funded, naming tuition, stipend, travel and insurance.

The IT University of Copenhagen award is the one labelled partial. Its stated purpose is to assist with living expenses in Denmark. That is a contribution towards your costs, not a full ride, and you should plan your funding around that.

Who can apply

Of the three awards, 1 is open to Nigerian applicants on the face of the eligibility wording. Within that figure, none names Nigeria or the West African region specifically, and 1 carries no nationality restriction at all. For the remaining 2, the award text does not state nationality eligibility either way.

That last point is the practical one. Two of these three awards simply do not say on their own page who may apply. That is not a rejection and it is not an invitation. It means the answer sits with the university, and you will have to ask. Email the admissions or scholarships office at the institution, state your nationality and your degree, and ask directly whether the award is open to non-EU applicants. Get the answer in writing before you spend money on a transcript courier.

What a Nigerian applicant brings

The route into a Danish masters is a first degree or an HND. The qualifications that fit are B.Sc, B.A, B.Eng, LLB, MBBS and HND.

Danish universities typically state a minimum class of degree. Where an award asks for an upper second, that corresponds to Second Class Upper, or 2:1, on a Nigerian transcript. If your transcript reads Second Class Lower, do not assume you are out — but do check the exact wording on each award before you apply, because the requirement is set award by award and not by a central rule.

Whether an HND is accepted is decided by each university individually. There is no national answer to that question, so it has to be asked institution by institution.

For context on scale: the UNESCO Institute for Statistics recorded 30 Nigerian students in Denmark in 2024, a rank of 74. Denmark is not a large destination for Nigerian students. That cuts both ways. There is no established Nigerian community in most Danish cities to lean on, but the applicant pool for these awards is also thinner than it is for the UK or Canada.

What the applications demand

The single most consistent requirement across this page is the English test. All three awards state an English test score (IELTS or TOEFL). One also states letters of recommendation.

Three out of three is worth pausing on. If you are planning a Danish application, book your IELTS or TOEFL early and treat the score as a hard gate rather than an afterthought. Test slots in Nigeria fill up, results take time to reach you, and the score has to be valid at the point you submit. Some universities waive the test where your previous degree was taught in English, but that is a decision for the institution and it is not stated on these awards.

Letters of recommendation are named by one award. Where they are required, approach your referees early and give them your CV and your statement of purpose so they are writing something specific rather than generic.

Deadlines

None of the three awards on this page carries a fixed date in our listing, and none is marked as still open. All three are undated here. That does not mean they are closed. It means the deadline is not stated on the award text we hold.

Two of the three do give you something to work with. The Danish Government Scholarship at the University of Southern Denmark references intakes, with an October 15, 2026 date attached to a February intake. The Erasmus+ award states that deadlines vary by programme, generally falling between October and January. The IT University of Copenhagen award points you to its own details page.

The practical consequence is that you cannot run these three off a single calendar. You have to open each award, find the current cycle's date, and work backwards. For a Danish masters starting in September, the application window usually sits in the winter before, which means your documents need to be ready months ahead.

What to do next

• Open each of the three award pages and read the eligibility wording line by line.
• Email the university directly to confirm whether the award is open to Nigerian and other non-EU applicants.
• Book your IELTS or TOEFL now, since all three awards require a score.
• Request your transcript from your Nigerian institution early and budget for the courier.
• Ask your referees for letters if the award requires them.
• Confirm the current deadline with the university rather than relying on a listing.

Denmark is a narrow market for Nigerian masters funding, and three awards is a small field. Treat each one as a separate application with its own rules, its own paperwork and its own date. Confirm the eligibility question first, because everything else — the test fee, the transcript, the courier — is money you spend before you find out whether you were eligible at all.