Scholarships for South African Students in Europe (2027)

Best scholarships for South African students

South Africa is marked eligible on all of the schemes below. Each sits at a different level, is paid by a different funder, and closes on a different date.

Chevening funds one taught master’s year in the UK: tuition full, a living allowance, return economy flights and one entry-clearance application. It asks for two years of work after your first degree and a written commitment to return home for two years afterwards. The 2027/28 round opened 4 August 2026 and closes 6 October 2026. See our Chevening scholarship guide.

Commonwealth Scholarships fund a one-year taught master’s or a three-year PhD in the UK, with a stipend of £1,712–2,000 per month and around 800 awards a year worldwide. South Africa qualifies through Commonwealth membership. You apply through a nominating body as well as the CSC portal, and the window closes 20 October 2026. Details on our Commonwealth Scholarships page.

Stipendium Hungaricum is the only fully funded route here that also pays for bachelor’s study. Hungary covers tuition in full, pays HUF 43,700–180,000 per month, adds medical insurance, and gives a dormitory place or a monthly housing contribution. Every application must be nominated by the national sending partner — for South Africa that is the DHET. See how Stipendium Hungaricum works.

DAAD funds master’s and doctoral study in Germany through EPOS and the Helmut-Schmidt-Programme, paying €992–1,400 per month plus travel and insurance. Applications go directly to the German course, never to a DAAD office. See our DAAD scholarships guide.

Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters covers tuition in full and pays €1,400 per month for a master’s taught across at least two countries. African applicants are a targeted region for extra EU-funded places. See Erasmus Mundus.

Türkiye Bursları pays tuition, TRY 4,500–9,000 per month, a state dormitory place and flights, with about 5,000 awards a year. One year of compulsory Turkish comes first, even for English-taught degrees.

Italian Government (MAECI) grants pay €1,200 per month for nine months. Tuition exemption depends on the university, so treat it as strong support rather than a full ride.

What is NOT open to South African students (or only partly)

Poland’s Banach Scholarship Programme (NAWA) is closed to you — South Africa is not on its eligible-country list. Do not build a Poland plan around it.

Three others are open only in part. Eiffel (France) pays €1,200–2,100 per month but covers no tuition, caps candidates at 35, and cannot be applied for by the student: only a French institution may file your name, after you already hold a place there.

OeAD Ernst Mach (Austria) is a research grant, not a degree scholarship. Stays run from one to nine months at €1,300 per month, and you must already be enrolled in a doctorate outside Austria or hold a very recent degree. South Africa is named for the travel subsidy.

MAEC-AECID (Spain) lists South Africa on its África-Med country list, but only permanent public-sector employees with written leave from a superior may apply, across about 41 awards in total.

Fully funded vs partial — know the difference

Read the coverage line before you spend six weeks on an application.

Fully funded means tuition plus a monthly living allowance, and usually more. Stipendium Hungaricum adds insurance and housing; Chevening and Commonwealth add return flights; Türkiye Bursları adds a dormitory place and flights. You can live on these without family money.

Partial means one piece of the bill. Eiffel pays a stipend but no tuition. Italian Government grants pay a stipend, with tuition exemption left to each university. MAEC-AECID pays an allowance and insurance, and nothing else.

Two things change the maths. First, a partial award in a cheap country beats a partial award in an expensive one. Second, some countries need no scholarship at all: German public universities charge free tuition at master’s level, so a stipend alone is enough to study there.

Scholarships by destination

Germany. Public tuition is free at bachelor’s level, so DAAD’s stipend, or your own savings, is the whole budget. Germany already hosts 1,150 South African students. See Germany scholarships.

The UK. Two full rides — Chevening and Commonwealth — and little else at undergraduate level. It is where South Africans already go in the largest numbers, 2,348 of them, and unfunded master’s tuition runs £9,000–30,000 per year. That combination makes it the hardest competition on this page. See UK scholarships.

Hungary. Stipendium Hungaricum, nominated through the DHET, is the whole strategy here. Without it, public tuition runs €3,000–8,000 per year and living costs are the lowest of our twelve destinations at €500–600 per month.

Türkiye. Türkiye Bursları covers everything, including flights and a dormitory place. Without it you pay US$750–2,000 per year at a public university and fund your own living costs, which is still one of the cheapest self-funded routes open to you.

Italy. MAECI grants, plus regional DSU right-to-study support. Public tuition is income-banded at €200–4,200 per year.

Austria. OeAD Ernst Mach only, and only for research stays. Degree students pay the flat third-country rate of €726.72 per semester.

France. Eiffel through your host institution. Public tuition sits at €255–3,950 per year for non-EU students, with many universities reducing it.

Ireland, Malta, Cyprus, Poland and Spain. For these five, Erasmus Mundus is the only realistic fully funded route from South Africa, since Banach is closed to you and MAEC-AECID takes civil servants only.

Eligibility & how to win

Grades and level decide most of it. South African qualifications map as NQF 7 three-year bachelor (360 credits); Honours (NQF 8) often needed for EU master's, so the Honours year is often what makes a European master’s application work at all. Commonwealth wants an upper second-class first degree. DAAD wants the top third of your cohort, plus two years of relevant work, and a degree no older than six years. Türkiye Bursları sets a floor of 70%.

Age matters more than people expect. Türkiye, Eiffel and OeAD all stop at 35; Italian Government grants stop at 40. Chevening and Commonwealth set no age limit.

Language is your advantage. English is an official language at home and the usual medium of instruction, so Chevening and the CSC require no English test at all, and many universities accept a medium-of-instruction letter instead of IELTS. Waivers are decided university by university, so confirm yours in writing.

On odds: these are competitive national schemes, not entitlements. One application built around a specific plan for your return beats five generic ones. Interviews are used by Chevening, Stipendium Hungaricum, Türkiye Bursları and the Italian missions.

South Africa’s own funding

NSFAS does not fund study outside South Africa. DHET’s own guidance confirms it: the scheme pays for public universities and TVET colleges at home only, so leaving means self-funding or winning an award. Plan on that from the start.

The route that does work is the DHET international scholarships portal, which handles study abroad. It carries the Stipendium Hungaricum nomination — the step no South African can skip — and signposts the Chevening, Commonwealth and Erasmus Mundus channels. Treat the DHET deadline, not the scheme deadline, as your real one; sending partners close earlier than the portals do.

Moving money out is now easier, too: the Reserve Bank raised the single discretionary allowance in March 2026.

Deadlines to watch

For a September 2027 start, the UK closes first. Chevening runs 4 August 2026 to 6 October 2026, with results Mid-June 2027 onwards. Commonwealth closes 20 October 2026, results By July 2027. OeAD Ernst Mach closes 1 December 2026.

Stipendium Hungaricum has not published 2027/28 dates; the last published call closed 15 January 2026, and the DHET nomination deadline comes earlier than that. Türkiye Bursları repeats a fixed window, last run 10 January 2026 to 20 February 2026. Erasmus Mundus consortia set their own dates, mostly October to January. The Italian Government call closed 26 March 2026 and the 2027/28 one is not yet out. The DAAD Helmut-Schmidt window has already closed for the 2027 intake, on 31 July 2026, with results December 2026 to January 2027 — plan for the following round.