Scholarships to Study in Germany for African Students 2027

Best scholarships to study in Germany

Germany runs one national scheme that matters for African applicants: DAAD Scholarships, funded by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. Two of its programmes are built for you. EPOS funds development-related postgraduate courses. The Helmut-Schmidt-Programme funds social and political sciences, law, economics, public policy and administration. Both pay €992–1,400 per month, tuition is waived by university, health insurance is included, and there is a lump-sum flight between Germany and home. You apply to the master’s course itself, not to a DAAD office; applications sent to the DAAD are not forwarded. The Helmut-Schmidt round for the 2027/28 intake opened 1 June 2026 and closed 31 July 2026, with results due December 2026 to January 2027; EPOS courses each set their own date. Our DAAD scholarships guide sets out the programme list.

The second route is Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters, paid by the European Commission. Tuition is covered in full, the stipend is €1,400 per month for the whole course, and holders may not be charged an application fee or any other mandatory participation cost. You apply to a consortium of universities in at least three countries, one of them German. See Erasmus Mundus scholarships.

German universities add their own awards, and they are smaller. The Deutschlandstipendium runs at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, the Free University of Berlin, Humboldt, KIT, TU Berlin, TU Darmstadt, TU Dresden, Hamburg and Tübingen. STIBET grants help students in their closing semesters at Berlin, Darmstadt, Dresden and Tübingen. TUM offers a scholarship for international students alongside a tuition-fee waiver. RWTH Aachen runs an award for involved international students and a degree-completion grant. Heidelberg adds the Baden-Württemberg-STIPENDIUM, Bonn an equal-opportunity award. Amounts and dates sit on our German university pages.

The honest point: what tuition really costs without a scholarship

A scholarship in Germany is not what buys you a place. At a public university a bachelor’s is free and a consecutive master’s is free. What you pay each term is the semester contribution, €100–400 per semester, which includes a public transport ticket in many cities. Three exceptions matter. Baden-Württemberg bills non-EU students a state tuition fee per semester, so Heidelberg, Freiburg, Karlsruhe and Tübingen are not free. TUM charges non-EU fees. FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg starts charging them for newly enrolling non-EU students in 2027/28. Private universities are a separate market at €6,000–20,000 per year and €8,000–25,000 per year. The real bill is living costs: €850–1,200 per month nationally, from €600–1,000 per month in Dresden to €1,300–1,700 per month in Munich, plus health insurance at €141–146 per month. The full arithmetic is on our cost of studying in Germany page.

Who is eligible from our countries

All nine of our origin countries qualify for both national routes. Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Morocco appear on the DAAD country lists for EPOS and the Helmut-Schmidt-Programme, and none of them is restricted or excluded.

DAAD sets its bar by development status rather than by continent: Graduates from developing and newly industrialised countries on the OECD DAC list, as published in the DAAD's own country list for each programme. Applicants resident in Germany for longer than 15 months at the deadline are excluded, as are Helmut-Schmidt applicants who spent more than the past 15 months in a country not on the DAC list. So the filter that removes most African applicants is the age of the first degree and the work-experience rule, not the passport.

Erasmus Mundus is wider still: 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. Sub-Saharan Africa is a targeted region for those top-ups, and so is Neighbourhood South, which covers Egypt and Morocco.

One German admissions rule works in your favour everywhere: no APS certificate is required for any of the nine origins, because there is no APS office in Africa. Your degree still has to clear uni-assist and the Anabin database, applicants from Nigeria and Ghana need a WAEC scratch card so results can be verified, and certificates need an apostille.

Fully funded vs partial — know what you are applying for

Two of these awards are full packages. The rest are top-ups.

Erasmus Mundus is the cleanest: tuition covered in full and €1,400 per month for the whole programme, whether that runs one year or two.

DAAD is a package built differently. The stipend is €992–1,400 per month, the graduate rate at the bottom of that band and doctoral rates at the top. Tuition is waived by university. Health insurance is included, with a lump-sum flight, a rent subsidy where it applies and a monthly allowance for family members who come with you. The graduate rate is the same figure the blocked account is built on, €992 per month × 12 (2026), so a DAAD award is designed to cover the month rather than to top up family money.

University awards are partial by design: a few hundred euros a month, usually for a semester or two, sometimes a one-off prize at graduation. Treat them as help with rent, not as degree funding.

Eligibility — grades, age, degree level, language

Neither scheme publishes an age limit. Age enters through the degree instead. DAAD asks for A first university degree (bachelor, normally a four-year course) in a relevant subject, normally not more than six years old at the time of application — for the 2027 Helmut-Schmidt intake, issued not before 1 January 2020. Grades are ranked, not scored: Above-average result in the first academic degree — upper (top performance) third of the cohort. Work counts as much as marks: At least two years of relevant professional experience after the bachelor's degree (EPOS); relevant practical experience, internships, political activity or community service, set course by course (Helmut-Schmidt-Programme).

Erasmus Mundus asks for less: A first higher education degree or a recognised equivalent; final-year bachelor students may apply where the consortium allows it. Each consortium sets its own language rule.

Language is checked twice, by the scheme and by the university. DAAD accepts IELTS or TOEFL at the level the course sets and will not take the institutional TOEFL; German-taught courses need DSH 2 or TestDaF 4 before the course starts, with at least B1 certified at application. University admission has its own floor, IELTS 6 for a bachelor’s and 6.5 for a master’s; see studying in Germany without IELTS. Neither scheme makes you hold an admission letter first, and DAAD runs no interview.

How to apply

1. September 2026 — pick the route. EPOS or the Helmut-Schmidt-Programme if you have work experience and a development-related subject; Erasmus Mundus if you want a master’s paid for across several countries. Both at once is allowed.
2. September to November 2026 — check your degree on Anabin, order a uni-assist evaluation at €75, and have certificates apostilled. Applicants from Nigeria and Ghana should release a WAEC scratch card early.
3. October 2026 to January 2027 — search the EACEA catalogue, confirm each programme still funds the 2027 start, and send one application per consortium with the scholarship request marked.
4. Course by course — choose up to three EPOS courses, complete the DAAD form once, and send the full application directly to each course by that course’s own deadline.
5. The Helmut-Schmidt round for 2027 entry closed 31 July 2026 and decisions arrive December 2026 to January 2027; if you missed it, EPOS courses with later dates are the way into the same cycle.
6. By 15 July / 15 January (many earlier) — apply for university admission through uni-assist, which most German universities use. The intakes are Winter (October), Summer (April).
7. Spring to summer 2027 — arrange proof of funds even with a decision pending: €11,904 per year in a blocked account, a bank guarantee or a formal obligation letter from a German resident. See our proof of funds page.
8. From summer 2027 — file the student visa at €75, waived in practice for DAAD holders, and allow 4 to 12 weeks. Our Germany student visa guide lists the file.