We list 7 phD Law 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 China (3), the United States (2) and Australia (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 law applicants can apply too.
Written from the 7 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 5 min read.
This page collects 7 PhD Law scholarships that are open to Nigerian students. Every one of the seven is listed as fully funded, so the funding question is settled before you start reading individual entries: you are not sorting through partial fee waivers here. The seven sit in four countries — China, the United States, Australia and Japan — and they are offered by named universities and government schemes rather than by a single central body.
Law is the field filter for the whole list, so every award on the page is relevant to a doctoral law applicant. The level filter is PhD, which means master's, bachelor's and postdoctoral awards appear elsewhere on the site rather than here.
The spread is uneven and worth understanding before you shortlist.
China carries the largest share, and two of those three are government scholarship schemes that run through a group of universities rather than a single institution: the Shanghai Government Scholarship and the Beijing Government Scholarship. If you are weighing cost of living, distance from Nigeria and the practicalities of a long research degree, the country split is the first decision you make, not the last.
Funding is described in the text of each award, and the counts below show how many of the seven name each benefit in writing. Treat these as what the award states, not as a promise that every cost you incur will be met.
Living costs and travel appearing more often than tuition is a pattern worth noting. For a Nigerian doctoral applicant paying for transcripts, courier fees and test registration out of pocket, the question is not only whether fees are covered but whether there is a monthly stipend you can actually live on. Read each award's own page for the wording it uses.
Of the seven awards, 6 are open to Nigerian applicants. Within that group, none names Nigeria or the African region specifically — all six carry no nationality restriction at all. That is the more useful fact: you are not competing for a Nigeria-reserved slot, you are applying to an award that is open to international candidates generally. For the remaining award, eligibility is not stated on the award itself, so check the provider's own terms before you spend money on a application.
The qualification you need is a master's degree. The pathway into this level is an M.Sc, M.A, MBA or M.Phil, and the awards on this page are for PhD and doctoral study. Funded doctoral places are often tied to a supervisor or a research group, which means the programme application and the scholarship application frequently share one deadline. If you have not yet made contact with a potential supervisor, that is the step that unlocks everything else.
Requirements vary, but the counts below show how many of the seven state each item. Plan for the ones that appear most often.
Letters of recommendation are the most commonly stated requirement, and they are also the item Nigerian applicants most often leave late. Approach your referees early, give them your research proposal and your CV, and be clear about what the award is asking them to comment on. Where an English test is required, register in good time — test slots and result turnaround both take weeks you will not have if you start in the same month as the deadline. The research proposal is where a law PhD application is won or lost, so give it more drafts than you think it needs.
Three of the seven carry a specific date. Three are still open. Four are undated, and three recur annually. October is the busiest month with 2 deadlines, followed by September with 1.
The three closing soonest are:
Two of the Chinese schemes work differently. The Shanghai Government Scholarship runs between January and June of each year, and the Beijing Government Scholarship directs you to its details page for the deadline. The Asian Development Bank – Japan Scholarship Program is also undated on the listing, and about 300 scholarships are awarded annually across its participating academic institutions.
Durations vary by award. One entry states a PhD duration of 3.5 years with no extension available — a detail worth reading carefully, because a law doctorate that overruns without funding is a serious financial problem. Another funds up to a defined first period. A third runs for 2 years. A fourth describes a bachelor's degree programme of 4 to 5 years and a master's degree programme alongside it.
If you are applying from Nigeria, match the stated duration against your realistic completion timeline. Fieldwork, archival work, visa processing and the time it takes to get documents out of a Nigerian university all eat into a funded window. A programme that funds 3.5 years with no extension is not the same proposition as one that funds a first period and reviews.
Start with the three dated awards, because they force a decision. Check whether you meet the stated requirements, then work backwards from the deadline: research proposal, referees, English test if required, transcripts and any admission offer the award expects you to hold first.
Then look at the Chinese schemes, which run on a different cycle and may suit you better if your timeline is longer. The Shanghai Government Scholarship opens between January and June each year, which gives you room to prepare a stronger proposal than a deadline three weeks away allows.
Finally, read each award's own page rather than relying on this summary. The counts here tell you how many awards mention a benefit or a requirement in their text; they do not tell you the amount, the exact wording or the conditions attached. Those sit on the individual listings, and they are what your application will be judged against.
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