We list 9 masters Social Sciences Scholarships for Nigerian Students, with the deadline, study level and eligibility of each one taken from the award's own terms. 7 of them are fully funded. Most are held in Australia (1), Canada (1) and China (1). 6 state eligibility that includes Nigerian applicants. 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 9 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 6 min read.
This page lists 9 masters scholarships in the social sciences that are open to Nigerian students. Every entry is a masters-level award, and every entry sits in the social sciences rather than in a neighbouring field. The awards are spread across nine countries: Australia, Canada, China, the Netherlands, Qatar, Romania, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. One award sits in each of those countries.
The list is deliberately narrow. If you are looking for a taught masters in sociology, political science, international relations, development studies, anthropology or a related discipline, this is the set to work through. If your interest is elsewhere, the same scholarships often appear on our broader subject pages, because a single award can carry several fields.
Seven of the nine are labelled fully funded. One is labelled partially funded. One does not state its funding either way, and we say nothing about what that award covers.
Among the awards that spell out their benefits, the pattern is consistent. Five name tuition. Five name accommodation. Four name living costs. Four name travel. Three name health insurance. One names research or training costs.
Read those counts as what the awards say in writing, not as a promise that every line item will be met in your case. Funding letters are specific: an award that names tuition and accommodation may leave your feeding, books and local transport to you. When you shortlist, open the award page and check which of these six categories it actually names.
Six of the nine awards are open to Nigerian applicants. For one of those six, Nigeria or the wider region is named directly in the eligibility text. For the other five, no nationality restriction is stated at all. Those two figures add up to the six.
Three awards do not state their eligibility on the award page. That is not a refusal. It means the information is not there, and you would need to confirm with the provider before spending money on a transcript or a courier.
The qualification you bring into this level is a first degree or an HND. In practice that means a B.Sc, B.A, B.Eng, LLB, MBBS or HND. These are taught and research masters, and awards usually state a minimum class of degree. Where an award asks for an "upper second", that corresponds to Second Class Upper (2:1) on a Nigerian transcript. Whether an HND is accepted is decided by each university, not by us, so treat that as a question to put to the admissions office in writing.
The requirements the awards state most often are not the ones Nigerian applicants worry about first.
Letters of recommendation are the single most common requirement, and they are the one that costs you time rather than money. A referee who has taught you, supervised your project or employed you needs weeks of notice, not days. Ask early, send your CV and your draft statement, and follow up once.
The two awards that require an admission offer first work in the opposite order from what most people expect. You cannot apply for the funding until a university has already admitted you. That means the university application deadline is the real deadline, and the scholarship date is a second, later gate.
Three awards ask for IELTS or TOEFL. If you studied your first degree in English, check the award page before you pay for a test. Some providers waive the requirement; some do not. Do not assume either way, and do not book a test date until you have read the wording.
Six of the nine awards carry a stated date. Six are still open. Three are undated. Six recur, which means they run again in a later cycle even if you miss this one.
The busiest months are December, with two deadlines, then April and October with one each. The awards closing soonest are:
Two of those five close on the same day in December, so if both are on your list, the paperwork for both runs in parallel. Plan for that in October, not in the last week of November.
Six awards are shown in detail on this page, alongside the three others counted in the total. The six are:
Three of those six are not social-sciences-only awards. Stanford, Romania and Australia Awards also carry other levels, and the Romania and Australia awards carry undergraduate and PhD study as well as masters. That matters for how you read the eligibility text: a broad award may have a separate quota or a separate selection route for the social sciences, and the award page is where that is set out.
Durations vary. The awards on this page state periods including two years, one to two years, and a one-and-a-half-year or two-year master's programme depending on the course. One award funds up to the first portion of a longer programme. Read the duration line carefully before you plan a budget around it.
Social sciences is the largest field grouping on this page, with all nine awards. Arts and humanities follows with eight, engineering with six, business and management with five, and medicine and health sciences with four. Economics and finance, education, energy and environment, and law each appear twice. Agriculture, computer science and IT, natural sciences, and public policy and development each appear once.
Those overlaps are useful. An award counted under social sciences may also be counted under arts and humanities or under public policy and development. If your research interest sits between two fields, check both groupings rather than assuming you are limited to one.
Start with the five awards closing soonest, because their dates are fixed and the December pair will not wait. For each one, open the award page and answer four questions before you spend any money: does it name Nigeria or state no nationality restriction, does it name the benefits you need, does it require an English test from someone with your background, and does it require an admission offer before you can apply.
Then work backwards from the deadline. Letters of recommendation take the longest, so request them first. Transcripts from Nigerian universities take time to produce and time to courier, and you should confirm the exact wording your school uses for your class of degree before you send anything. If an award asks for a research proposal, that document needs weeks of drafting and a supervisor's eye.
If a deadline passes, note the award anyway. Six of the nine recur, and the next cycle usually opens on a similar date. The three undated awards are worth checking directly with the provider, since an award with no stated date may still be running.
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