Scholarships to Study in France for African Students 2027

Best scholarships to study in France

France’s own scheme is the Eiffel Excellence Scholarship Programme, run by Campus France for the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. It funds two levels only: master, phd. The stipend is €1,200–2,100 per month, the lower rate at master’s level and the higher at doctoral level, plus return travel and visa fees where applicable. You cannot apply for Eiffel yourself: only a French institution accredited to award the degree may present you, and files sent by foreign institutions are rejected. Seven expert panels appointed by the Ministry rank the candidates. The last published round opened 1 October 2025, closed 8 January 2026 and released results from 30 March 2026; that was the 2026 session — the 2027-session dates were not yet published as of 2026-09-10. Our Eiffel scholarship guide sets out the panels and the file.

The route that pays tuition as well is Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters, funded by the European Commission. Tuition is covered in full and the stipend is €1,400 per month for the whole programme. You apply to a consortium of universities in at least three countries rather than to France; see Erasmus Mundus scholarships.

University money in France is usually a fee exemption rather than a cash award. Sciences Po runs the Emile Boutmy Scholarship for non-EEA entrants and hosts Mastercard Foundation Scholars. HEC Paris runs a Future Leaders of Africa Scholarship and an Equal Opportunity fee reduction. Paris-Saclay, Paris Cité and Lille each run their own international master’s grants, and Aix-Marseille pairs its Amidex mobility grant with a partial exemption from the differentiated fee. Bordeaux hosts a France Excellence Embassy scholarship, administered by the French Embassy in your country rather than by the university. Amounts and closing dates sit on our French university pages.

The honest point: what tuition really costs without a scholarship

Public universities are cheap, which is part of why full scholarships are scarce. A Licence costs €178–2,902 per year and a Master’s €255–3,950 per year. The low end is the national rate French and EU students pay; the high end is the “droits différenciés” rate owed by non-EU students. Which one you pay is the university’s decision: Paris Cité and Paris-Saclay exonerate non-EU entrants to the national rate, while Aix-Marseille, Lyon 1, Grenoble Alpes and Bordeaux charge the full differentiated rate unless you win a waiver. Add the CVEC contribution of €105 per year. A May 2026 decree replaced blanket institutional exemptions with individual financial-hardship cases, so the waiver that brings you down to the national rate is harder to obtain for 2027/28. Private and grande-école fees are a separate market at €14,900–23,900 per year and €24,000–30,450 per year; see what studying in France costs.

Who is eligible from our countries

Erasmus Mundus is open to all nine origins we work with: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Morocco. Open worldwide with no nationality restriction. No more than 10 per cent of a project's scholarships may go to applicants of one nationality, a cap that excludes the targeted-region top-ups funded from NDICI and IPA III. African applicants are a targeted region for those top-ups: a reserved share for Sub-Saharan Africa, and a Neighbourhood South share covering Egypt and Morocco.

Eiffel is split. Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Uganda and Zambia are eligible. Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Morocco are marked restricted, so confirm the current session rules for your passport before an institution spends weeks preparing your file. The scheme publishes no country list of its own: Open to foreign nationals only. Candidates holding French nationality, including dual nationals, are excluded; there is no eligible-country list and no country quota, but the Ministry's cooperation and partnership policy is a stated selection criterion. The restriction comes from that cooperation policy rather than from a published ban.

The base is large but uneven. France hosted 443,500 international students in 2024/25, of whom 110,607 came from Sub-Saharan Africa, 24.9 per cent. The spread by origin is wide: 42,015 from Morocco and 3,256 from Egypt against 246 from Kenya, 69 from Uganda and 65 from Zimbabwe. Country detail starts on our study in France from Nigeria page.

Fully funded vs partial — know what you are applying for

“Fully funded” has one honest meaning in France, and Erasmus Mundus is the scheme that meets it: tuition covered in full and €1,400 per month for the whole programme, with no application fee for holders.

Eiffel does not meet it, and this is the most common misunderstanding about the scheme: on tuition the rule is blunt — None — tuition fees are not covered by the programme. It pays a stipend and travel. Housing is not an allowance either: Campus France arranges a place in a hall of residence or with a host family, which you may decline. Institutions often waive their laureates’ differentiated fee, but that is the university’s decision, not part of the award.

University awards are almost all partial: a percentage off tuition, a fixed annual sum, or an exemption down to the national rate. A partial award at a grande école still leaves a bill in the €24,000–30,450 per year band, against €255–3,950 per year at a public university.

Eligibility — grades, age, degree level, language

Neither scheme publishes a minimum grade average. Both are ranked competitions, so your marks count as a comparison against other files, not as a threshold.

Age is the hard filter on Eiffel: the maximum is 35. Degree level decides the rest. Eiffel funds master, phd, so a bachelor’s is not eligible at all, and Master's applicants need the qualification giving access to the French master's or engineering programme, with three years of transcripts. Doctoral applicants need a master's degree and a thesis project assessed by an external expert. Erasmus Mundus asks for A first higher education degree or a recognised equivalent; final-year bachelor students may apply where the consortium allows it.

Language is looser than students expect. A language certificate is required only where the chosen programme or institution requires one; the programme itself sets no minimum level. The CV and the professional-project statement may be written in French or English. Erasmus Mundus leaves the certificate and the score to each consortium. Your university admission is the separate gate: the usual floor is IELTS 6.5 for a bachelor’s and 6.5 for a master’s, set programme by programme; see studying in France without IELTS.

Eiffel needs your admission settled first, Erasmus Mundus does not, and Eiffel runs no interview, though a consortium may.

How to apply

1. September 2026 — choose the route: Eiffel for a funded master’s or doctorate, Erasmus Mundus for a joint master’s with tuition covered. You cannot hold both, and Eiffel also bars an Erasmus+ grant.
2. October 2026 — open your Études en France file. It is compulsory for Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa and Morocco; Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe apply directly to institutions.
3. October to December 2026 — legalise documents. An apostille suffices for South Africa and Morocco; the other seven origins need full consular legalisation.
4. Admission deadlines. Bachelor’s: DAP procedure (Licence 1 / PASS-L.AS / Architecture) for 2027/28 entry: platform opens 1 October 2026, closes 15 December 2026, 18:00 (metropolitan France time). Master’s: HDAP procedure (Licence 2/3, Master) for 2027/28 entry: platform opens 1 October 2026, closes 8 January 2027, 23:59; institutional decisions by 30 April 2027; candidate acceptance by 31 May 2027
5. November to December 2026 — ask each institution’s international relations office to nominate you for Eiffel. The institution files in the first week of January.
6. October 2026 to January 2027 — for Erasmus Mundus, search the EACEA catalogue, confirm the programme still funds EU scholarships for 2027, and apply to each consortium marking the scholarship request.
7. Spring 2027 — results. Eiffel published its last round from 30 March 2026; admission decisions follow the step-four timetable.
8. Summer 2027 — apply for the VLS-TS étudiant visa: €50–99, decided in 2 to 7 weeks. A scholarship certificate counts as proof against the €877.50 per month reference; see our France student visa guide.