Masters Scholarships for Nigerian Students in Saudi Arabia 2026-2027

This page holds every award on ScholarshipsNigeria that fits one description: Masters Scholarships for Nigerian Students in Saudi Arabia. There are 5 of them right now. Each entry was read before it was listed, and the deadline, study level, what the award pays for and who may apply were taken from the scholarship's own published terms — not from a summary of it, and not from another listing site.

4 of the 5 are fully funded, meaning the award itself states that it carries the main cost of study rather than a discount on it. That matters more than the number of entries: a list of two hundred partial fee waivers is worth less to a Nigerian applicant than a dozen awards that actually pay for the degree.

Saudi Arabia is not an untested destination for Nigerians: 1,338 Nigerian students were enrolled there in 2024 according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, which makes it destination number 14 for students leaving Nigeria. A country with an established Nigerian student population usually means visa officers who have seen your documents before, and seniors you can ask.

What these scholarships actually pay for

Scholarship pages use words like "full funding" loosely, so we counted what the awards on this list actually name in their own benefit sections. Across the 5 entries:

• Living costs — named by 4 of the 5 awards
• Accommodation — named by 3 of the 5 awards
• Tuition — named by 2 of the 5 awards
• Travel — named by 1 of the 5 awards
• Health insurance — named by 1 of the 5 awards
• Research or training costs — named by 1 of the 5 awards

Read the counts as "this many awards say so in writing". An award that does not mention flights has not refused to pay for them — it simply has not promised them, and that is the difference you need to budget for. The cost a Nigerian applicant most often forgets is not tuition but the part before the scholarship starts: passport, transcripts, courier fees, an English test if one is required, and the visa itself.

Who can apply from Nigeria

4 of the 5 awards on this page are open to Nigerian applicants on their own stated terms. 0 of those name Nigeria, or a region that contains Nigeria, directly in the eligible-countries wording; the other 4 place no nationality restriction at all, which means a Nigerian passport is not a barrier to applying.

On qualifications, this list assumes one starting point: you hold a first degree or HND. In Nigerian terms that is B.Sc · B.A · B.Eng · LLB · MBBS · HND, and it is the entry point for masters study.

Taught and research masters. Awards usually state a minimum class of degree — "upper second" corresponds to Second Class Upper (2:1) on a Nigerian transcript. Whether an HND is accepted is decided by each university.

Degree class is where Nigerian applicants most often rule themselves out wrongly, because the wording differs:

• First Class on a Nigerian transcript reads as first class honours abroad
• Second Class Upper on a Nigerian transcript reads as upper second class (2:1) abroad
• Second Class Lower on a Nigerian transcript reads as lower second class (2:2) abroad
• Third Class on a Nigerian transcript reads as third class honours abroad

A criterion written as "a good honours degree" or "upper second class or equivalent" is the one most Second Class Upper graduates meet. Where an award sets a numeric CGPA instead, the award page quotes the figure it asked for.

What the applications ask for

We also counted what the 5 awards ask applicants to produce, reading each award's own requirements:

• Letters of recommendation — 4 of 5
• An English test score (IELTS or TOEFL) — 3 of 5
• A minimum degree class — 2 of 5
• Work experience — 1 of 5

3 of the 5 mention an English test, which leaves 2 that do not raise it on the award page. Several universities waive IELTS for Nigerian applicants because the degree was taught in English, but that waiver is a university decision rather than a scholarship one, so ask the admissions office in writing and keep the reply.

Start with the documents that take longest and do not depend on the award: a valid passport, official transcripts from your institution, and a reference your referee has actually agreed to write. Those three are what make a late-discovered deadline impossible to meet.

How this list breaks down

The providers appearing most often are King Abdulaziz University (1), Islamic University Madinah (1), King Saud University (1), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) (1) and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) (1). Where one institution runs several awards it is usually worth reading all of them together: they often share one application form and one deadline.

Stated duration, where an award gives one, runs mostly to undergraduate: 4 yearsmaster’s: 2 yearsphd: 3 years (1 awards).

How to use this list

Work down the list rather than across it. Open the three or four awards whose deadline you can still meet, read what each one pays for against what your year will actually cost, and check the eligibility line before anything else — a Nigerian applicant who fails one stated condition cannot be rescued by a strong statement of purpose.

Use the filters in the sidebar to narrow by level, host country, subject or funding, and set an alert for this list if the next round is months away: most of these awards open and close inside a four-week window, and the people who miss them are rarely the people who were unqualified.