Scholarships for Nigerian Students in the United Kingdom 2026-2027

What this page lists

This page collects 40 scholarships in the United Kingdom open to Nigerian students, gathered in one place so you can compare them before you start paying for transcripts, courier fees and test bookings. Every award here is in the UK. The list covers undergraduate, master's, PhD and one fellowship opportunity, and it mixes awards that fund everything with awards that fund part of your costs.

The United Kingdom is the first destination for Nigerian students abroad. UNESCO Institute for Statistics puts the number of Nigerian students in the country at 71,756 in 2023, the largest group from any single country. That is the competition you are entering, and it is the reason a page like this exists: the awards are there, but they are scattered across university websites, and the deadlines do not wait.

What the awards pay for

Of the 40 awards on this page, 25 are fully funded and 12 are partially funded. Three do not label their funding either way, so treat those as unknown until you read the award page itself.

Funding is rarely a single lump. When an award spells out what it covers, the most common benefit is tuition, named by 26 awards. Living costs appear in 15. Travel is named by 8, accommodation by 5, and research or training costs by 5. Two awards mention a settling-in or arrival grant, which matters more than it sounds when you are calculating the first month in a new country before any stipend lands.

Partially funded awards are worth your time if the shortfall is manageable. A tuition-only award still removes the largest single line from your budget, and a Nigerian sponsor or employer can sometimes close the rest. Read each award's own wording rather than assuming what "partial" means.

Which levels are covered

Master's awards dominate this list: 30 of the 40 are open at master's level. Bachelors awards number 14, PhD awards 10, and there is 1 fellowship. Some awards appear at more than one level, which is why the figures add up to more than 40.

For a Nigerian graduate, the master's route is the practical one. A good B.Sc or HND, plus NYSC and a few years of work, is the profile most of these awards are written for. PhD awards usually want a research proposal and a supervisor conversation before you apply, and they are fewer, so plan earlier. Undergraduate awards exist but are more competitive per place, and most Nigerian applicants for those are either already in a UK programme or applying straight from WAEC/NECO with strong A-level equivalent results.

If you are weighing up where to apply, the Oxford Pershing Square Scholarship and the AfOx Graduate Scholarship both sit at master's and MBA level, and the Herchel Smith Scholarships show what a funded PhD in a specialist field looks like.

Do Nigerian applicants qualify?

This is the question the list answers most directly. Of the 40 awards, 20 state that Nigerians may apply. Within that group, 3 name Nigeria or the African region specifically, and 17 carry no nationality restriction at all. The remaining 20 awards do not state their eligibility on the award page, which does not mean you are excluded — it means the information is not written down where we can count it, and you have to check the provider's own page.

Read that distinction carefully. An award that names Nigeria is telling you it wants applicants like you. An award with no nationality restriction is open on paper, but the field is global. An award that says nothing about eligibility is a research task, not a rejection.

What the applications demand

The requirements are where most Nigerian applicants lose time, so start with the documents you cannot produce quickly.

• Letters of recommendation — named by 8 awards. Give your referees at least three weeks and a summary of what you are applying for.
• An admission offer first — named by 7 awards. You cannot apply for these until a UK university has already accepted you, which pushes your timeline back by months.
• An English test score — IELTS or TOEFL, named by 6 awards. Book early; test slots in Lagos and Abuja fill up.
• A minimum degree class — named by 6 awards. Check whether your class of degree meets the stated threshold before you spend on anything else.
• Work experience — named by 5 awards. NYSC plus two or three years in a relevant role is often enough.
• A research proposal — named by 5 awards, mostly at PhD level.

Transcripts and courier costs are not counted here because they are not part of the award criteria, but they are part of your budget. Request transcripts from your Nigerian institution early; the process can take weeks, and some awards will not review an application without them.

How the deadlines fall

Sixteen awards carry a stated date, 15 are still open, and 15 run on a recurring cycle, meaning the same window returns each year. Twenty-four are undated, so you will need to check the provider directly.

The busiest months are May (5 deadlines), June (3) and January (2). If you are planning a single application season, build your calendar around those.

Five awards close soonest, and they are worth opening today:

• B.A. Krukoff Fellowship 2026-2027 — Queen Mary University of London, master's, fully funded. Closes 31 October.
• Oxford Pershing Square Scholarship 2026-2027 — University of Oxford, master's/MBA, fully funded. Closes 6 January.
• AfOx Graduate Scholarship 2026-2027 — University of Oxford, MBA, fully funded. Closes 6 January.
• Intellectual Property PhD – Herchel Smith Scholarships 2026-2027 — Queen Mary University of London, PhD, fully funded. Closes 26 March.
• Hatfield Lioness Scholarship 2026-2027 — Durham University, master's, fully funded. Closes 31 March.

If you want a partial-funding option with a later date, Kingston University Scholarships 2026-2027 covers undergraduate and master's study and closes 10 May.

Who provides these awards

The providers are mostly individual UK universities rather than governments or external foundations. The University of Oxford accounts for 5 awards on this page, with the University of Cambridge, Queen Mary University of London, University College London and the University of Stirling each providing 2. A further 2 come from UK universities listed collectively.

This matters for how you apply. When a university funds the award itself, the scholarship committee and the admissions committee often sit close together, and a strong admission application does some of the work for you. It also means you should apply to the university, not just the scholarship.

What to do next

Start with the five awards closing soonest and check whether you meet the stated criteria. If you do, work backwards from the deadline: referees first, then transcripts, then the English test if it is required, then the application itself. If an award requires an admission offer first, your real deadline is the university's, not the scholarship's.

Then work through the rest of the 40. Filter by level — master's if you are applying with a B.Sc or HND, PhD if you have a research proposal ready — and by funding, so you know whether you are looking at a full award or one that covers tuition and leaves you to find living costs. Read the eligibility line on every award page before you invest time, because 20 of these awards do not state their nationality rules and only the provider can confirm them.