We list 3 scholarships Open to Nigerian Students in the United Arab Emirates, 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 in the United Arab Emirates that are open to Nigerian students. Every one of the three is labelled fully funded by the awarding institution. That is the whole list: three awards, three universities, one country.
The three providers are Khalifa University, the American University of Sharjah and Muhammad Bin Zaid University. Each appears once. There is no filler on this page and no award whose funding status is left blank.
If you are searching for a UAE award and you hold a Nigerian passport, the question that matters is not whether the country is friendly to Nigerian applicants in general. It is whether the specific award names a nationality restriction. On this page, none of them do.
All 3 of the awards on this page are open to Nigerian students. The breakdown is worth reading carefully, because it tells you something about how these awards are written.
In other words, none of these universities wrote a clause naming Nigeria. They simply did not write a clause excluding anyone. That is the more common route into a UAE scholarship, and it means your application is judged on your academic record and your documents rather than on your passport. It also means you should read each award page yourself before you pay for anything, because an open-to-all award can still carry a college-level or subject-level condition buried in the detail.
All three are fully funded. Beyond that headline, the award texts name specific benefits, and the counts below show how many of the three mention each one.
Read those numbers as what the awards say in writing, not as a promise of what lands in your account. A fully funded award that names tuition only is still a large commitment from the university, but your living costs in the UAE remain yours to plan for. Before you accept anything, ask the admissions office in writing which of these four items your particular offer includes.
The list skews postgraduate. Masters and PhD each appear in all 3 awards, and Bachelors appears in 1. The American University of Sharjah award is the one that runs across undergraduate, masters and PhD level.
Subject coverage is narrow and specific. Three fields are named, one award each:
If your background is in the humanities, social sciences, law or business, this particular list is not built for you. That is not a judgement on your chances elsewhere; it is simply what these three universities have put in writing. A Nigerian graduate with a B.Sc or HND in engineering, computer science or a natural science is squarely in the target group.
These are the requirements the award texts state, and how many of the three state each one.
The English test is the line item most Nigerian applicants underestimate. Two of these three awards ask for IELTS or TOEFL, and that means booking a test date, paying the fee, and waiting for the result to be sent. Start that process early. If you studied your previous degree entirely in English, ask the admissions office directly whether a waiver applies to your case — do not assume either way.
The minimum degree class requirement matters for how you present your Nigerian result. A Second Class Upper is the usual benchmark for competitive postgraduate funding, and if your transcript uses a different classification system you will need to explain it. Order your official transcript from your university early; Nigerian transcript offices are slow, and courier costs are real money. If you are applying at PhD level, the research proposal is the document that carries the most weight, and it is the one you should draft first.
One award on this page carries a firm date. Khalifa University closes on 14 April, which is 188 days from now. That is the next deadline on the list, and it is the one to plan around. You can read the full entry here: Khalifa University Scholarship 2027 | UAE | Fully Funded.
The remaining awards are less tidy. One is still open, one recurs, and two are undated in the brief. April is the busiest month on this list. Treat any undated award as though it closes sooner than you think, and check the award page itself for the current cycle.
The two other entries are:
Three awards is a short list, which is an advantage. You can read every one of them properly rather than skimming twenty.
Start with the Khalifa University entry, because it has a live date and 188 days is enough time to do the work well. Confirm whether the IELTS or TOEFL requirement applies to you and book a test if it does. Request your transcript now, not in March. Ask two academic referees for letters while they still remember your work. If you are applying for the doctoral route, begin the research proposal before you touch the online form.
Then check the other two. The American University of Sharjah award is the only one here that reaches down to undergraduate level, so if you are finishing WAEC or NECO and looking at a UAE degree, that is your entry point. The Muhammad Bin Zaid award runs to a January 2027 regular deadline, which gives you a second cycle to aim at if this one passes.
Finally, verify everything on the university's own page before you submit. Funding lines, degree class thresholds and English requirements can change between cycles, and this page reflects what the awards state in writing at the time of listing. Confirm the detail, then apply.
Looking for a fully funded opportunity to study in the Middle East’s most dynamic academic hub? The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has emerged as a top destination for Nigerian students, thanks to its world-class universities, cutting-edge research facilities, and generous scholarship programs.
For the academic year 2025-2026, several fully funded scholarships in UAE are available to outstanding international students pursuing bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. These scholarships typically cover tuition fees, monthly stipends, free accommodation, visa support, health insurance, and in some cases, travel expenses.
The UAE is home to prestigious universities such as United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), Khalifa University, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), and American University of Sharjah, all of which offer generous funding for exceptional students.
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