Scholarships to Study in Poland for African Students 2027

Best scholarships to study in Poland

Poland runs one national scholarship our students can win: the Banach NAWA Scholarship Programme, funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange and Polish Aid. It covers tuition in full at public universities, pays PLN 2,500 per month, adds a one-off travel lump sum whose amount NAWA does not publish, and includes A tuition-free NAWA preparatory course on the Polish-language path, or a Polish language and culture course on the English-language path. It funds master, language-course study only, with no field restriction. Banach is a country-list scheme, not an open competition: Citizens of the 36 Polish Aid partner countries named in the call, divided into four country groups with separate application caps. Polish citizens and anyone who has applied for Polish citizenship are excluded. The last published call opened 13 April 2026, closed 8 May 2026 and published results by 31 July 2026; the cycle status is 2026/27 call 16/2026, last published; recurring – 2027/28 not yet published. Our NAWA Banach scholarship guide tracks each call.

The second route is not Polish at all. Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters is paid by the European Commission, covers tuition in full and pays €1,400 per month for the whole programme. You apply to a consortium of universities in several countries, one of which can be Polish, rather than to Poland.

University awards are smaller and scattered. AGH, SGH and the University of Warsaw run rector’s scholarships; the University of Łódź reserves its rector’s award for the top students in each field of study. Jagiellonian University runs a merit award for outstanding entrants. Kozminski University offers a pre-enrolment scholarship covering tuition for the full study period, plus an award for olympiad winners and finalists. Lazarski runs a foreign scholarship programme, and Gdańsk University of Technology lists the Visegrad Scholarship Programme. The University of Wrocław also lists the NAWA Ignacy Łukasiewicz Programme, with no value stated on its page. Each award sits on the relevant Polish university page.

The honest point: what tuition really costs without a scholarship

Poland is inexpensive by European standards, which is why most African students here are paying rather than funded. A public bachelor’s runs €2,000–6,500 per year and a public master’s €2,500–7,500 per year. Private universities charge €3,500–7,000 per year at bachelor’s level and €4,000–8,000 per year at master’s. Medicine in English is a different market at €14,900–17,000 per year. Living costs are the steadier bill: PLN 1,500–2,500 per month nationally, PLN 2,500–4,500 per month in Warsaw against PLN 1,600–2,600 per month in Katowice. Add NFZ health insurance at PLN 55.80 per month. The full arithmetic is on our page about what studying in Poland costs.

Who is eligible from our countries

Banach is open to two of our nine origins. Nigeria and Kenya are on the Polish Aid country list; Ghana, Egypt, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Morocco are not, and an application from those passports cannot succeed. The call splits eligible countries into four groups with separate application caps, so a Kenyan file competes against its own group rather than the whole field. Any agent offering you Banach from Accra, Harare or Cairo is selling something that does not exist.

The size of the African student body in Poland makes that gap sharper. Of 108,609 international students in 2024/25, 4,157 were African, or 3.9 per cent, and 3,846 of them were Zimbabwean. The largest African nationality in Poland is the one Banach cannot fund.

Erasmus Mundus is open to all nine. It sets no nationality bar, and African applicants are a targeted region: Sub-Saharan Africa and the Southern Neighbourhood, which covers Egypt and Morocco, both draw extra scholarships from the EU’s external funding instrument. A cap limits how many awards in one consortium go to a single nationality, which works in the favour of applicants from smaller origins such as Zambia.

For the seven countries outside Banach, the realistic plan is a university award or fee discount plus part-time work, set out on our Poland master’s page.

Fully funded vs partial — know what you are applying for

Two of these awards meet the phrase “fully funded”, and both are master’s only. Banach waives tuition at public universities, pays a monthly stipend and adds travel and a language course, which brings a Polish master’s close to no cost for an eligible student. Erasmus Mundus does the same across a consortium, and bars its consortia from charging holders an application fee or any mandatory participation cost.

Everything else is partial. A rector’s scholarship or an entrance award reduces a bill; it does not remove it. A partial award still leaves you proving PLN 17,650 for the visa, paying €200 to apply, and covering living costs of PLN 1,500–2,500 per month. Banach also blocks stacking: No other scholarship for the same course of education during the agreement, except benefits under the EU Erasmus+ programme.

Eligibility — grades, age, degree level, language

Neither scheme publishes a minimum grade average, and neither publishes an age limit. What they check is the stage you have reached. Banach asks for A first-cycle (bachelor) degree awarded no earlier than 2024, or final-semester enrolment with graduation by 15 July of the application year. Holders of a second-cycle or uniform master degree are excluded. 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 where files fail. Banach requires Polish at B1 for the preparatory-course path, Polish at B2 for Polish-taught studies, English at B2 for English-taught studies, evidenced by a certificate from the recognised lists annexed to the call. Erasmus Mundus leaves it to each consortium. University admission is a separate gate, with common Polish minimums of IELTS 5.5 for a bachelor’s and 6 for a master’s; the exemptions are on our page about studying in Poland without IELTS.

The order matters: Banach needs your university application in place before you apply, Erasmus Mundus does not. Banach runs no interview, so documents and a one-to-three-minute self-presentation video decide it. Your secondary certificate needs an apostille, and higher-education recognition goes through NAWA (SYRENA system) confirms a secondary certificate's eligibility to apply; nostrification applies only to higher-education diplomas/degrees, not secondary certificates.

How to apply

1. September to November 2026 — confirm your passport against the Banach country list. Only Nigeria and Kenya qualify among our nine origins; the other seven should plan on Erasmus Mundus, a university award or self-funding from the start.
2. October 2026 — start the paperwork that takes longest. An apostille is required for African secondary certificates, and NAWA’s SYRENA system confirms whether yours gives access to Polish study.
3. October 2026 to January 2027 — submit Erasmus Mundus applications directly to each consortium, marking the scholarship request, and sit any interview or test the consortium runs.
4. November 2026 to February 2027 — apply to a Polish university through its own IRK admissions system. There is no national portal; each university runs its own. Intakes are October, February (some).
5. Winter 2026/27 — obtain the language certificate your Banach path requires, from the recognised lists annexed to the call. Certificates outside those lists are rejected.
6. Spring 2027 — register at NAWA’s application system, programs.nawa.gov.pl, upload the passport page, diploma, transcript, admission confirmation, language certificate and video, and submit the single permitted application before the call closes. The 2026 call closed 8 May 2026 at 15:00 Warsaw time; 2027/28 dates are not yet published.
7. Summer 2027 — await results. The 2026 call published them by 31 July 2026.
8. Summer 2027 — file the visa. The National (Type D) visa costs €200 and takes 2 to 8 weeks; see our Poland student visa guide.