Scholarships for Nigerian Students in Europe (2027/28)

Best scholarships for Nigerian students

Three schemes fund a full taught master’s and take your application directly, with no Nigerian government step. Chevening covers tuition in full, adds a living allowance and return flights, and runs at master level only; the 2027/28 round opened 4 August 2026 and closes 6 October 2026. Commonwealth Scholarships cover tuition in full and pay £1,712–2,000 per month at master, phd level, about 800 awards a year across every eligible country, closing 20 October 2026 — though the route is mixed, so a nominating agency or a UK university has to put your name forward. Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters pay €1,400 per month with tuition covered in full, and each consortium sets its own deadline in an October-to-January window. No more than a tenth of any one project’s awards may go to a single nationality, so a strong Nigerian file competes against a capped field rather than the whole world.

Two schemes also fund a first degree. Stipendium Hungaricum covers bachelor, master, phd, short-course, language-course with tuition in full, a stipend of HUF 43,700–180,000 per month, insurance and a dormitory place or housing money. Türkiye Bursları covers bachelor, master, phd, research-stay, short-course, pays TRY 4,500–9,000 per month, adds flights and a dormitory bed, and makes about 5,000 awards a year.

Poland’s Banach NAWA programme funds a master’s with tuition in full and PLN 2,500 per month. Nigeria is on the Banach country list, so older guidance telling Nigerians to skip that scheme is wrong. Germany’s DAAD pays €992–1,400 per month with tuition waived by university. The remaining three are narrower: France’s Eiffel pays €1,200–2,100 per month, the Italian Government scheme pays €1,200 per month for nine months, and Austria’s OeAD Ernst Mach grant pays €1,300 per month for a research stay rather than a degree.

What is NOT open to Nigerian students (or only partly)

Spain’s MAEC-AECID scheme is marked restricted for Nigeria. Nigeria appears on the África-Med Máster country list, but the award is not for ordinary students: Permanent, non-temporary employment in or dependence on a public body in the applicant's own country, evidenced by the contract or appointment, plus written authorisation from the competent hierarchical superior Spanish is required as well, and there were only 41 places across both of its programmes.

Two more limits are practical rather than national. Eiffel is filed by the French institution, never by you — students who apply for themselves are rejected. And the Commonwealth PhD scheme uses a narrower country list than the master’s scheme, so check which list Nigeria sits on before you plan a doctorate around it. Our dataset holds no Nigeria entry for the Irish Government scholarship or Italy’s regional DSU grants, so treat both as unconfirmed rather than open.

Fully funded vs partial — know the difference

Fully funded means tuition plus a monthly allowance you can live on, and usually insurance, housing or flights as well. Chevening, Commonwealth, Erasmus Mundus, Stipendium Hungaricum, Türkiye Bursları and Banach NAWA are in this group. Partial means part of the bill, and the coverage line is where you find out which you are reading.

Three examples show the gap. Eiffel pays a good stipend but None — tuition fees are not covered by the programme. The Italian Government award covers tuition only Partial — the call states that some universities exempt grant holders from enrolment and tuition fees. The exemption depends on the institution, does not cover regional taxes and does not apply to Italian language courses. OeAD pays €1,300 per month but insurance is not included (no). DAAD sits in between: the stipend is real money, and it works because German public tuition is already free.

Scholarships by destination

Hungary is the widest door. Nigeria is a Stipendium Hungaricum sending partner, so a nomination from the national sending authority is possible — and necessary, because the route is mixed. Without it you pay €3,000–8,000 per year against living costs of €500–600 per month, the lowest of our twelve destinations. Hungary already teaches 1,167 Nigerian students. See Hungary scholarships.

The UK holds the two best-known awards and the largest Nigerian student population, 38,040 people. It is also the most expensive place to get this wrong: a master’s costs £9,000–30,000 per year unfunded, and the visa alone is £558. See UK scholarships.

Germany is the cheapest destination without a scholarship, because public tuition is free and you fund living costs of €850–1,200 per month. DAAD turns that into a funded degree, and only 614 Nigerians were studying there, so the applicant pool from home is small. See Germany scholarships.

Türkiye runs one national scheme and one portal, and it funds bachelor’s study, which almost nothing in Europe does. Public tuition without it is US$1,600–2,400 per year. See Türkiye scholarships.

Poland has Banach NAWA plus low fees of €2,000–6,500 per year, against a visa fee of €200 and a legalisation step that no other destination on this list demands. See Poland scholarships. France runs Eiffel through the institution, and public fees there are €178–2,902 per year before any award. See France scholarships.

Eligibility & how to win

Grades come first. Nigeria’s degree scale is 5-point CGPA: First 4.50+, 2:1 = 3.50–4.49, 2:2 = 2.40–3.49, and Commonwealth asks for A first degree of at least upper second-class (2:1) honours standard, or a lower second-class degree plus a relevant postgraduate qualification, held by September 2027 DAAD wants an above-average degree normally under six years old. Türkiye Bursları sets a floor of 70%.

Age rules out some applicants entirely: 35 for Eiffel, 35 for Türkiye Bursları and OeAD, 40 for the Italian Government scheme. Chevening sets no age limit but demands At least 2,800 hours acquired after the undergraduate degree and over a minimum of two years — roughly two years of full-time work at 35 hours a week; full-time, part-time and voluntary work and paid or unpaid internships count, entered as up to 15 employment periods

Language is where Nigeria has an advantage. English is an official language (yes) and medium-of-instruction letters are widely issued (yes), though acceptance varies by university. Chevening dropped its own English test in 2020 and relies on the university’s requirement instead. Where a test is still needed, the floor is IELTS 5.5 in Hungary and Poland and IELTS 6 in the UK — and a medium-of-instruction letter often replaces it. Documents are checked hard: WAEC and NECO both run online result verification, and German uni-assist requires the WAEC result-checker PIN.

Nigeria’s own funding

One federal route still funds study abroad. The PTDF Overseas Scholarship is marked yes, but its published scheme covers only the UK, Germany, France and Malaysia, and only oil-and-gas-related fields. It does not cover Ireland, Malta, Cyprus, Hungary or Poland, and the 2026 cycle has closed — confirm the next one on the PTDF portal before you build a plan on it.

The other two are closed. NELFUND is marked no: eligibility is tied to JAMB admission at recognised Nigerian institutions, with no provision for overseas tuition. BEA and FSB scholarships are marked no — the bilateral education scheme was discontinued in 2025. For most Nigerians the funded route abroad is an international scheme, not a federal one.

Deadlines to watch

Two deadlines are live now. Chevening opened 4 August 2026 and closes 6 October 2026, with results Mid-June 2027 onwards. Commonwealth closes 20 October 2026, results By July 2027. OeAD closes 1 December 2026.

One has already gone: DAAD’s 2027/28 round closed 31 July 2026. Four have not been published yet — Stipendium Hungaricum, whose last call closed 15 January 2026; Türkiye Bursları, last open 10 January 2026 to 20 February 2026; Banach NAWA, last closed 8 May 2026; and Eiffel. Erasmus Mundus has no central date at all: each consortium publishes its own, usually between October and January. Work backwards from the earliest date that applies to you, not the latest, because references, transcripts and document legalisation all run on other people’s timetables.