We list 3 scholarships Open to Nigerian Students in Italy, with the deadline, study level and eligibility of each one taken from the award's own terms. 3 of them are fully funded. Awards with a known closing date are listed soonest first.
Written from the 3 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 5 min read.
This page collects 3 scholarships open to Nigerian students in Italy. Every one of them is labelled fully funded by the body that offers it, so you are not looking at a mixed list where some awards cover only a fee waiver and others cover everything. All three are Italian, offered by Italian institutions, and all three are open to Nigerian applicants.
The providers are the University of Bologna, Bocconi University, and the University of Pavia and EDiSU. That is a small list, and it is worth understanding why before you decide whether it is worth your time.
The three awards handle nationality in two different ways, and the difference matters when you are reading the fine print.
No award on this page leaves eligibility unstated. So whichever one you open, you will find a clear answer on whether you qualify as a Nigerian citizen. Read that line first, before you read anything about money.
All three are fully funded, but "fully funded" is a label, not a breakdown. What each award actually names in its own text is narrower, and you should treat these counts as what the awards say in writing rather than as a promise:
The CICOPS award at the University of Pavia is the one that spells out its package in figures: 8 scholarships, with EUR 150 (gross) per week plus travel, accommodation, meals and insurance. If you are the kind of applicant who wants to see the arithmetic before applying, that is the one where the arithmetic is printed.
For the other two, the funding is described as full but the components are not itemised in the same way. That does not mean they cover less. It means you have to open the award page and read what the institution itself commits to.
The three awards sit across different study levels, and some of them sit across more than one.
The counts overlap because a single award can serve two levels. The University of Bologna Scholarship 2027 is listed for undergraduate and masters study. The Bocconi University Scholarships 2026-2027 are listed for undergraduate and master's study. The CICOPS Research Scholarships 2027 are different in kind: they are a research visit for PhD holders and academic staff, not a taught degree.
So if you are finishing a B.Sc or HND and looking for a taught master's, two of these three are aimed at you. If you already hold a PhD and want a short research stay in Italy, the CICOPS award is the one to read.
Italy is not the first country most Nigerian students think of, and the numbers bear that out. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 625 Nigerian students were studying in Italy in 2023, which places Nigeria 25th among the countries sending students there.
That figure cuts both ways. The Nigerian applicant pool in Italy is small, which means you are not one of thousands from Lagos competing for the same slot. It also means the information network is thin. Fewer alumni to ask, fewer WhatsApp groups, fewer people who have already done the transcript run from a Nigerian university to an Italian admissions office.
What you have instead is this page: three named awards, three named providers, and the specific things each one asks for. Work from that.
This page does not carry a breakdown of application requirements, so there is no honest way to tell you how many of the three ask for a motivation letter, a research proposal, or a language certificate. What the brief does tell you is the level each award targets, and that shapes the paperwork.
The two undergraduate and master's awards are institutional scholarships. Expect the standard Italian application set: your degree certificate and transcript, a statement of purpose, and evidence of English or Italian proficiency where the programme requires it. For a Nigerian applicant, the transcript is usually the slow item. Request it early, budget for the courier, and do not wait until the week the portal closes.
The CICOPS award is a research visit for PhD holders and academic staff, running 4 to 12 weeks in 2027. Applications at that level are judged on the research you propose and the academic record behind it, not on a general statement of ambition.
This is the part that decides whether the list is useful to you today.
The one dated award is the CICOPS Research Scholarship, which closed on 10 June 2026. The single busiest month across the three is June, with one deadline falling there.
The other two carry indicative windows rather than a single closing date. The University of Bologna Scholarship 2027 is listed with a deadline of May 2026. The Bocconi University Scholarships 2026-2027 are listed with April 14 for undergraduate and April 21 for master's. Treat these as the windows the institutions have used, and confirm the exact date on the award page before you plan anything around it.
None of the three is open at the moment this page was compiled. That is not a reason to close the tab. Italian university scholarship cycles repeat, and the applicants who succeed are the ones who start assembling documents months before a portal opens.
Open the three award pages and read the eligibility line on each one first. If you are an undergraduate or master's applicant, start with Bologna and Bocconi. If you hold a PhD and want a short research stay, start with CICOPS.
Then work backwards from the deadline you are targeting. Order your transcript now. Confirm whether the programme you want requires an English test or accepts a waiver based on your Nigerian degree. Check the courier timeline from your city to the institution. These are the steps that decide whether an application is complete, and they take longer than the writing does.
Three awards is a short list. It is also a specific one: three named Italian institutions, all fully funded, all open to Nigerian applicants. Read each page properly, and apply to the ones where your qualification and your level actually fit.
Italy is one of the most attractive destinations in Europe for international students who want to pursue higher education abroad. Known for its rich history, cultural diversity, and internationally recognized universities, Italy offers a wide range of fully funded scholarships for international students 2026–2027 at the bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD levels. These scholarships cover tuition fees, monthly living allowances, accommodation, health insurance, and in some cases, travel expenses, making it easier for talented students to study in prestigious Italian institutions like the University of Bologna, Sapienza University of Rome, and Politecnico di Milano. With these opportunities, international students can access high-quality education in fields such as engineering, medicine, business, arts, and social sciences while experiencing Europe’s unique lifestyle.
*UNESCO Institute for Statistics, inbound internationally mobile students from Nigeria, 2023.
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