What this page lists
This page collects 6 master's scholarships in Russia that are open to Nigerian students. Every one of the six is labelled Fully Funded by the award itself. That is the whole list: six awards, one country, one study level.
They are not all the same kind of thing. Some are government schemes that route you through a national quota and then place you at a university. Some are run by a single institution that admits you directly. One is a group of medical universities working through the same quota system. Read the individual award pages before you decide which route suits you, because the application you submit is different in each case.
Who is behind the six awards
The providers named in this collection are:
- Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech)
- National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Moscow
- Leading Russian medical universities, including Sechenov, Pirogov, RUDN, Kazan and Kursk
The remaining awards on the page come from the Russian Government and its partner universities, and from HSE University. Between them they cover a wide spread of institutions rather than a single campus.
What the awards say they pay for
Funding is where Russian awards tend to be explicit, and this list is no exception. Of the six:
- 6 state tuition coverage
- 5 state living costs
- 4 state accommodation
- 1 states health insurance
- 1 states research or training costs
These are the benefits the awards name in their own text. Treat them as what the award says, not as a promise of what will land in your account. Where an award mentions a stipend, the amount and the payment schedule are set by the institution or the quota authority, and you should confirm both in writing before you commit to anything.
Tuition and dormitory housing appearing on the same award is the pattern that matters most for a Nigerian applicant. It removes the two largest monthly outgoings. Living costs are named separately on five of the six, which tells you the stipend is meant to cover food, transport and personal expenses rather than rent.
Does a Nigerian applicant qualify?
For all six awards on this page, the eligibility text does not state a nationality restriction. That is the position as written on the award. It is not the same as an open invitation, and it is not the same as a named Nigeria quota. Where an award is silent on nationality, the practical question moves to the university and to the quota process, and that is where you should direct your enquiries.
The qualification you bring is a first degree or an HND. The awards at this level are taught and research master's programmes, and they usually state a minimum class of degree. On a Nigerian transcript, Second Class Upper (2:1) is what corresponds to the "upper second" wording you will see in these requirements. Whether an HND is accepted is decided by each university, not by this page, so ask the admissions office directly and keep the reply.
Russia is a real destination for Nigerian students. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics recorded 1,950 Nigerian students in Russia in 2023, placing the country eighth among destinations for Nigerian students. That figure is context, not a projection about your own application.
What the applications demand
The requirements stated across the six awards are lighter than you might expect from a fully funded award:
- 2 ask for letters of recommendation
- 1 asks for an English test score (IELTS or TOEFL)
- 1 asks for an admission offer first
Only one award names an English test. If you are applying to the others, do not assume a waiver and do not assume a requirement. Ask the university what it accepts, and ask early, because booking and sitting IELTS or TOEFL costs money and takes weeks you may not have.
The award that asks for an admission offer first runs in the opposite direction to the others. You cannot apply for the funding until a university has already admitted you. That changes your timeline completely: the admission application comes first, and the scholarship application follows it.
Two awards asking for recommendation letters is a small number, but recommendation letters are the item Nigerian applicants most often leave late. Approach your referees with the award name, the deadline and a copy of your transcript in hand, and give them more notice than you think they need.
How the deadlines fall
None of the six awards on this page carries a fixed closing date. All six are undated. That does not mean they are open indefinitely; it means the date is set by the provider and published elsewhere, usually on the award page or the university's own site.
What the awards do describe is a pattern. The Russian Government Scholarship and the Russian Government Quota Scholarship both indicate that applications usually open in November and close in February or February/March for the following academic year. MEPhI and the medical universities follow the same November to February window through the quota. HSE University is the exception: its deadlines vary by programme and generally run from January to August.
So the working calendar for most of this list is a November opening and a February close. If you are reading this in the second half of the year, that is your preparation window, not your waiting period.
The awards on this page
Each of the six has its own page with the provider, the level, what the award states it covers and the application route:
What to do next
Start with your documents, because they are the part you control and the part that takes longest from Nigeria. You will need your degree certificate and transcript, and if your transcript does not already show it clearly, a statement of your class of degree. Transcripts from Nigerian universities take time to produce and cost money to courier, so request them before you need them rather than after a deadline appears.
Then decide which route fits you. If you want the widest choice of institution, the government quota awards place students across a large number of public universities. If you want a specific programme, Skoltech, MEPhI and HSE admit directly, and you deal with one institution rather than a placement process.
Then check the two things this page cannot tell you. First, whether the university accepts your exact qualification, including an HND if that is what you hold. Second, the current closing date, since none of the six awards states one here. Get both answers in writing from the university or the provider, and keep them.
Finally, work to the November to February window that most of this list describes. That gives you a date to plan around even though the awards themselves are undated on this page.
