We list 2 phD Scholarships for Nigerian Students in Belgium, with the deadline, study level and eligibility of each one taken from the award's own terms. 2 of them are fully funded.
Written from the 2 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 6 min read.
This page collects 2 PhD scholarships in Belgium open to doctoral applicants. Both are labelled Fully Funded by the awarding institutions, so there is no partial-funding tier to sort through here. The providers are Ghent University and the University of Liège (ULiège), one award each.
It is a short list. That is worth saying plainly, because a short list changes how you should use it. There is no volume to filter, no long table of deadlines to compare. What you get instead is two named Belgian universities, both of which run doctoral research as a structured, salaried or funded activity rather than a self-financed degree. If Belgium is on your shortlist, this page is a starting point, not a full map of the country's doctoral funding.
One of the two awards also carries a Master's strand alongside its PhD strand, which is why you may see a Master's label attached to it elsewhere on the site. For your purposes, the doctoral route is the one described here.
Both awards state that they cover tuition, living costs and health insurance. Those three benefits appear in the written terms of both awards, which is the strongest signal on this page: a funded doctoral place in Belgium normally means your fees are handled and you receive a maintenance amount to live on.
Beyond that, the coverage narrows. One award names travel, one names accommodation, and one names research or training costs. Read that carefully — these are not both-and. Where an award does not name a benefit in its own text, treat it as something to confirm with the institution rather than something to assume.
No cash value is stated for either award on this page, and no number of awards is given. If you need a monthly figure to plan against, that is a question for the department or the doctoral school, not something you can read off this list.
Neither award states a nationality restriction in its own text. That is the honest position: eligibility is not stated on the award for both entries on this page. It does not mean Nigerians are excluded, and it does not mean Nigerians are named as eligible. It means the award text as we hold it does not settle the question, so you must read the full call before you invest time in an application.
What the pathway into this level looks like is clearer. A funded doctoral place in Belgium expects you to arrive with a completed Master's degree — the qualifications that fit are M.Sc, M.A, MBA or M.Phil. Your Nigerian Master's is the credential that opens the door; your Bachelor's degree and its class sit behind it in the file.
Doctoral funding in Belgium is frequently tied to a supervisor or a research group. That has a practical consequence: the programme application and the scholarship application often share a single deadline, and the person who decides whether you are funded is often the person who would supervise you. Contacting a potential supervisor before you apply is not an optional extra here.
The requirements stated across these two awards are narrow and specific:
The research proposal is the item that decides most doctoral applications, and it is the item Nigerian applicants most often under-prepare. A Belgian doctoral proposal is not a statement of purpose. It is a short research plan: the question, why it has not been answered, how you would answer it, what data or materials you would need, and roughly how long each stage takes. It should read as though you already know the field you are entering.
Write it against the research group you are targeting, not in the abstract. Name the group, name the supervisor if you have made contact, and show that your question sits inside work they already do. A generic proposal sent to five universities reads as generic to all five.
For the letters of recommendation, approach your referees early and give them your proposal and your CV. A referee writing from a two-line email produces a two-line letter.
Neither award on this page carries a fixed closing date in our records. Both are listed as undated, which means the dates move and you have to confirm them at the source.
The two entries do carry indicative windows. The Ghent University doctoral scholarships indicate a February 2026–2027 window, with exact dates announced by the university. The University of Liège (ULiège) entry indicates January–February 2026 for its ARES Scholarships, with further dates following.
Treat those as the shape of the cycle rather than a date to diary. Two things follow. First, if you are aiming at either, your proposal and referee requests need to be moving in the final months of the year before. Second, because the exact dates are published by the institution, the only reliable deadline is the one on the university's own call — check it before you plan anything around it.
The Ghent University Doctoral Scholarships are fully funded and run for a stated 4 years, structured as 24 months at Ghent University followed by 24 months at a partner institution. That split structure is unusual and worth understanding before you apply: you are not simply committing to four years in one city, and your proposal should make sense as a project that can be carried out across two settings.
The University of Liège (ULiège) award covers both Master's and PhD level and is fully funded. Its deadline note points to the ARES Scholarships window in January–February 2026, which tells you the funding stream it belongs to. If you are applying at doctoral level, make sure you are reading the doctoral strand of the call and not the Master's strand.
You can read the full entries here:
Belgium hosts a small but established Nigerian student community. UNESCO Institute for Statistics recorded 201 Nigerian students in Belgium in 2023, placing the country 43rd as a destination for Nigerian students. That is a modest presence, and it is useful context: you are unlikely to arrive into a large existing Nigerian cohort, and informal networks that carry you through a first year in a bigger destination may not be there in the same way.
Set against that, Belgium's doctoral system is structured. Funded doctoral researchers are typically treated as early-career staff within a research group, with a supervisor, a doctoral school and a defined trajectory. For a Nigerian applicant holding an M.Sc, M.A, MBA or M.Phil, that structure is the appeal — you are joining a research programme, not enrolling in a taught degree and hoping for funding later.
Open both entries and read the full award text. The single most important thing to establish is the eligibility wording, because neither award states a nationality restriction in the text we hold. Confirm in writing whether your nationality affects your application before you spend money on transcripts, couriers or English-test fees.
Then work backwards from the indicative windows. If you are targeting Ghent, the February 2026–2027 window means your proposal should be drafted well before the end of 2025. If you are targeting ULiège, the January–February 2026 ARES window sets a similar pace.
In parallel, identify a supervisor. For both institutions, the doctoral place and the funding are closely connected, and a supervisor who wants your project is the strongest asset in your file. Write to them with a short, specific proposal — not a request for information, but a research question you can already articulate.
Finally, budget your document timeline. Nigerian transcripts, attestation letters and courier deliveries take weeks, not days, and referees need lead time. Start the paperwork before the proposal is perfect, because the proposal can be revised up to the deadline and the transcript cannot be produced overnight.
Looking to pursue a world-class education in the heart of Europe? Belgium, known for its multilingual culture, high-quality education system, and international outlook, offers fully funded scholarships for Nigerian students for the academic year 2025-2026.
Belgian universities and government bodies provide generous financial aid covering tuition fees, living expenses, accommodation, travel, and health insurance. Whether you’re applying for a bachelor’s, master’s, or PhD, Belgium has something to offer—especially for students from developing countries, partner nations, and underrepresented regions.
In this guide, you’ll find the most prestigious fully funded scholarships in Belgium, including programs funded by the Belgian government (ARES, VLIR-UOS) and scholarships offered directly by top universities like KU Leuven, Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), and University of Ghent.
*UNESCO Institute for Statistics, inbound internationally mobile students from Nigeria, 2023.
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