We list 14 scholarships Open to Nigerian Students in Australia, with the deadline, study level and eligibility of each one taken from the award's own terms. 7 of them are fully funded. Awards with a known closing date are listed soonest first.
Written from the 14 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 5 min read.
This collection brings together 14 scholarships in Australia that are open to Nigerian students. Every award here is either explicitly open to applicants from Nigeria or carries no nationality restriction at all, which is the more common case on this list. The awards are hosted by Australian universities and by one national programme that places scholars across participating Australian institutions.
Australia is a realistic destination for Nigerian graduates. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics recorded 2,385 Nigerian students in Australia in 2024, placing Nigeria seventh among the countries sending students there. That is a settled community, not a handful of pioneers, and it means there are Nigerian students already navigating Australian admission offices, visa timelines and campus life ahead of you.
All 14 awards on this page are open to Nigerian applicants. Of those, one names Nigeria or the wider region in its own eligibility text, and 13 state no nationality restriction at all. Those two figures describe the same 14 awards, split by how the eligibility is worded, not two separate pools you can apply to on top of each other.
What this means in practice: you are not chasing a narrow Nigeria-only window. You are applying to awards where your nationality is simply not a barrier. The work then shifts to the things that are actually assessed — your degree class, your references, your research idea, and whether you already hold an offer of admission.
Funding is labelled on most of the list. Seven awards are described as fully funded and two as partially funded. Five do not label their funding either way, so this page makes no claim about what those five cover — read each award page directly before you build a budget around it.
Among the awards that name their benefits in writing:
Treat these as what the award text says, not as a promise that every cost on your spreadsheet disappears. Tuition is the benefit most commonly stated, and it is also the largest single line for an international student in Australia. Living costs, travel, accommodation and health insurance appear on a smaller set of awards, so if you need those covered, you are choosing from a shorter list and should read each one closely.
The list is weighted towards postgraduate study. Eleven awards are open at Masters level, eight at Bachelors, six at PhD, two at Postdoctoral and one each at Fellowship and High School level. Many awards sit at more than one level, which is why these counts add up to more than 14.
By field, the spread is broad rather than concentrated:
Energy & Environment and Law appear once each. If your field is not listed above, it does not mean nothing exists — it means this particular collection of 14 does not carry an award tagged to it.
The requirements stated on these awards are worth reading before you spend money on transcripts and courier fees. Of the 14:
Two things follow from this. First, the English test requirement is stated on only one award in this set, so do not assume every Australian application demands IELTS before you check the individual page. Second, the requirement that appears least often is also the one that catches people out: one award expects you to hold an admission offer before you apply for the funding. That reverses the usual order. If you are targeting that award, your university application has to move first, and Australian admission decisions are not instant.
References and degree class are the quiet gatekeepers. Three awards each name them, and both take time to arrange — a referee who has moved institutions, or a transcript office with a queue, can cost you a deadline.
Six awards on this page carry a stated date and six are still open. Eight are undated and six recur annually, meaning the date repeats each cycle rather than passing for good. The busiest month is May, with three deadlines, followed by April and August with one each.
The awards closing soonest are:
The April-to-May cluster is the one to plan around. Three deadlines land in May alone, and two of them fall on the same day, 31 May. If you intend to apply to more than one of these, you will be assembling two reference letters, two sets of transcripts and possibly two research statements in the same fortnight.
The awards come from a mix of national and institutional funders. Deakin University appears twice. The remaining named providers each appear once: Participating Australian Institutions, Queensland University, Australian National University (ANU), University of Tasmania and Edith Cowan University.
One award on the list carries a stated number of places: the Monash University – Museums Victoria PhD Research Scholarship, at 2 per year. That is a small intake, and it is worth knowing before you build a plan around it.
Durations vary by award. One runs for 1 year. Others run up to 3 years full-time for a PhD or integrated PhD, or 3–4 years full-time. One PhD award states 3.5 years with no extension available, which matters if your fieldwork or write-up tends to run long.
Start with the deadline cluster. Open the five awards listed above, confirm the dates on the award pages themselves, and work backwards from the earliest one you intend to enter. If a research proposal is required, that document takes the longest to produce and should begin before anything else.
Then sort the list by what you actually need funded. If tuition is your main obstacle, seven awards name it. If you need living costs, travel, accommodation or health insurance, you are working from three, and those pages deserve a careful read rather than a skim.
Finally, check the level you qualify for. With 11 awards at Masters level and eight at Bachelors, most of this list is aimed at postgraduate applicants, and the PhD and Postdoctoral entries are a smaller, more specialised group. Read the eligibility line on each award before you pay for a single transcript, and let the requirements — not the funding label — decide where you spend your application budget.
Australia remains one of the most sought-after study destinations for Nigerian students — known for its high-ranking universities, multicultural campuses, and globally recognized degrees. Yet, the cost of studying abroad often becomes a significant barrier for many deserving students.
Fortunately, numerous fully funded and partially funded scholarships are available specifically for Nigerian students, covering everything from tuition fees and living expenses to travel and health insurance. These opportunities aim to attract talented individuals and support their academic, professional, and personal growth in Australia.
In this comprehensive guide, we've curated the Top 10 Scholarships in Australia for Nigerian Students for 2026. These include generous government-funded programs like the Australia Awards Scholarships, as well as merit-based and research-focused grants offered by top institutions such as the University of Melbourne, Monash University, and the University of Sydney.
Whether you're pursuing an undergraduate degree, a Master’s, or a PhD, these scholarships can significantly reduce your financial burden — and even provide long-term pathways to career development or migration.
Let’s explore the best scholarship options that can turn your dream of studying in Australia into reality.
*UNESCO Institute for Statistics, inbound internationally mobile students from Nigeria, 2024.
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