Scholarships for Zambian Students in Europe and the UK (2027)

Best scholarships for Zambian students

Two UK government schemes are open to you. Chevening funds one taught master’s: tuition in full, a monthly living allowance, economy return flights, plus Arrival allowance, departure allowance, the cost of one entry clearance (visa) application for the scholar, a contribution of up to GBP 75 towards TB testing where required, and the Chevening engagement and networking programme. The award lasts One academic year — a full-time taught master's starting in the autumn term, and the 2027/28 round closes 6 October 2026 — the rules are on our Chevening scholarship guide. Commonwealth Scholarships fund master, phd study, pay £1,712–2,000 per month on top of tuition covered in full, and close 20 October 2026; the Commission makes about 800 awards a year — see our Commonwealth Scholarships guide.

DAAD funds Zambians in Germany through EPOS and the Helmut-Schmidt-Programme. Tuition is waived by university, the stipend is €992–1,400 per month, with insurance and a lump-sum flight. The Helmut-Schmidt window for 2027/28 closed 31 July 2026, so that door is shut until the next announcement; EPOS deadlines are set course by course. Applications go to the German course itself, never to a DAAD office; our DAAD scholarship guide covers both strands.

Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters is the widest open door: tuition in full and €1,400 per month for 12, 18 or 24 months (60, 90 or 120 ECTS); the scholarship runs for the full programme duration. You apply to a consortium of universities in at least three countries, not to one country, and no more than 10 per cent of a project’s awards may go to one nationality — see our Erasmus Mundus guide.

Four more schemes accept Zambian nationals. Eiffel pays €1,200–2,100 per month in France at master’s and doctoral level; the Italian government (MAECI) grant pays €1,200 per month for nine months; Austria’s Ernst Mach grant pays €1,300 per month and closes 1 December 2026. Türkiye Bursları pays TRY 4,500–9,000 per month with tuition, a dormitory place and flights, and takes applicants straight from secondary school.

What is not open to Zambian students, and what is open only in part

Three schemes are closed to Zambian passports. Stipendium Hungaricum is marked no, because Zambia is not on Hungary’s eligible partner-country list. Poland’s Banach/NAWA programme is marked no. Spain’s MAEC-AECID grants are marked no. Do not start those three, and treat any offer letter naming Stipendium Hungaricum as a scam — it is the pattern most often aimed at Zambian students, alongside advance-fee “visa processing” demands and recruiters posing as embassy staff on social media. Our page on how to spot a fake agent shows the tells.

Two of the open schemes are open only in part. Commonwealth sets its eligible-country list per scheme, one list for the agency-nominated master’s and a narrower one for the PhD awards, so confirm which list carries Zambia in the cycle you enter. Eiffel needs admission first (yes) and only the French institution may file; a file sent by the student, or by a foreign institution, is rejected.

Fully funded vs partial — know the difference

Fully funded means tuition plus an allowance you can live on. Three of the eight meet that test for a whole qualification. Chevening and Commonwealth cover tuition in full, Commonwealth paying £1,712–2,000 per month. Erasmus Mundus covers tuition in full, pays €1,400 per month, and bars consortia from charging holders an application fee or any mandatory cost. Türkiye Bursları sits alongside them, with tuition, dormitory, flights and TRY 4,500–9,000 per month.

The rest are partial or short. Eiffel pays a stipend, and on fees the rule is: None — tuition fees are not covered by the programme. The MAECI grant covers tuition only where the university chooses to exempt you, and runs nine months, not a degree. Ernst Mach funds 1 to 9 months (Ernst Mach worldwide); 4 to 10 months at a university of applied sciences; the grant must be consumed by the end of 2028 — a research stay, not a qualification. Read the coverage line before you read the headline figure.

Scholarships by destination

United Kingdom. Your strongest corridor: both UK schemes are open, and a taught master’s costs £9,000–30,000 per year without one. Chevening carries a condition: Return to the home country (country of award) for at least two years after the scholarship ends.

Germany. Public tuition is free at master’s level before any scholarship, so a DAAD stipend turns an affordable degree into a funded one, and the €75 visa fee is waived for DAAD holders. Graduates get the §20 job-seeker residence permit for 18 months. See our Germany scholarships page.

Türkiye. The one scheme funding a first degree from scratch; public tuition is US$1,600–2,400 per year if you self-fund instead. Every holder does a compulsory year of Turkish first, even on an English-taught degree. See Türkiye scholarships.

France, Italy and Austria. Low public tuition does most of the work here: €200–4,200 per year in Italy on a country-tiered scale, €726.72 per semester in Austria. The scholarships on top are narrower: Eiffel is filed by the French university, MAECI through the Italian mission, Ernst Mach needs an Austrian supervisor’s written consent first. Zambians also pay the upper end of the French visa fee, €50–99, being outside the Études en France list.

Ireland, Hungary and Poland. Ireland has no scheme open to you here, but Zambian nationals are exempt from the study visa requirement that costs others €60–100. The Hungarian and Polish national schemes are closed to Zambia, leaving self-funded study at €3,000–8,000 per year and €2,000–6,500 per year.

Eligibility and how to win

Grades come first. Commonwealth asks for Upper second-class (2:1) honours, or lower second-class with a relevant postgraduate qualification; a contextualised route exists for disabled applicants nominated through the Commonwealth Disabled People's Forum. Your degree maps across through the ZAQA framework: Distinction/First (GPA 4.0, UK I), Merit/Upper Second (3.33–3.67, II.1), Credit/Lower Second (3.0, II.2), Pass/Ordinary (2.0–2.3, III); UNZA uses a 5-point CGPA scale. DAAD wants an Above-average result in the first academic degree — upper (top performance) third of the cohort, and Türkiye Bursları sets a floor of 70%.

Age closes doors quietly. Eiffel and Ernst Mach both cap at 35, Türkiye Bursları at 35, MAECI at 40. Chevening has no age limit but tests experience instead: 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 Zambia is ahead. English is an official language (yes) and medium-of-instruction letters are commonly accepted (yes). Chevening dropped its own English requirement in 2020 and the CSC never had one; you must still meet the university’s rule.

On odds, be realistic: Türkiye Bursları makes about 5,000 awards against nearly 200,000 applications, Eiffel 433 and Ernst Mach 1024 worldwide. One targeted file beats five rushed ones.

Zambia’s own funding

HELSB, the Higher Education Loans and Scholarships Board, is the national funder, and for study abroad it is marked no. Under the Higher Education Loans and Scholarships Act No. 31 of 2016 a HELSB loan is defined to fund study only at a local Zambian institution. HELSB scholarships are defined separately and can cover a foreign institution, but they are a limited number of negotiated bilateral and government-to-government placements rather than a general route to any university you pick. Build your plan on the international schemes above and treat a HELSB placement as an extra. For scale: 5,318 Zambians were studying abroad in 2023, 11 of them in Hungary.

Deadlines to watch

Miss one and you wait a full year. Chevening opened 4 August 2026 and closes 6 October 2026, with results Mid-June 2027 onwards. Commonwealth closes 20 October 2026, and your nominating body will set an earlier internal date. Ernst Mach closes 1 December 2026. Erasmus Mundus consortia run their own windows, usually October to January. DAAD’s Helmut-Schmidt round closed 31 July 2026. Türkiye Bursları ran 10 January 2026 to 20 February 2026 last cycle and the 2027/28 dates are not yet published. The MAECI call closed 26 March 2026 for 2026/27 — the 2027/28 call had not been published as of 2026-09-10. Eiffel’s last published session closed 8 January 2026; because the French institution files it, approach its international office by November. Work backwards from the earliest date that applies to you, and allow four to six weeks for references and legalisation.