Scholarships for Ugandan Students in Europe (2027)

Best scholarships for Ugandan students

Eight schemes take Ugandan applicants on nationality grounds. Award values and dates change every cycle, so confirm each one on the official site before you build a file.

Chevening covers tuition in full for one taught master’s year in the UK, with a living allowance, economy return flights and one visa application. The 2027/28 round opened 4 August 2026 and closes 6 October 2026; results run from Mid-June 2027 onwards.

Commonwealth Scholarships fund a one-year taught master’s or a PhD: tuition in full plus £1,712–2,000 per month, out of roughly 800 awards a year shared across every eligible Commonwealth country. The deadline is 20 October 2026, and you must be nominated as well as apply. Uganda’s Commonwealth membership is what puts both UK schemes on your list.

DAAD pays €992–1,400 per month for study in Germany, with tuition waived by university, health insurance and a lump-sum flight. Its Helmut-Schmidt round for 2027/28 closed on 31 July 2026; EPOS courses each publish their own date, so the route stays open through the year.

Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters cover tuition in full and pay €1,400 per month for a degree taken in two or more countries. There is no nationality rule, and Sub-Saharan Africa is a targeted region for extra places funded from the EU’s NDICI budget.

Four smaller routes complete the list. Türkiye Bursları is the largest by volume at about 5,000 awards a year, with tuition paid, TRY 4,500–9,000 per month, a dormitory place and flights both ways. Austria’s Ernst Mach grants pay €1,300 per month for research stays and close 1 December 2026. France’s Eiffel programme pays €1,200–2,100 per month and made 433 awards worldwide in its last session. Italy’s MAECI grants pay €1,200 per month for nine months.

What is NOT open to Ugandan students (or only partly)

Two schemes are closed. Poland’s NAWA Banach programme records Uganda as no, and Spain’s MAEC-AECID grants as no. Both countries still take self-funded Ugandan students, at €2,000–6,500 per year and €757–8,186 per year for a public bachelor’s.

One is limited. Stipendium Hungaricum is marked restricted for Uganda: the Ministry of Education and Sports nominates only in Engineering, Computer Science and Agriculture. If your subject sits outside those three, the Uganda allocation is not open to you, whatever the Hungarian programme list shows.

Two more are unrecorded. Our dataset holds no eligibility decision for the Government of Ireland scholarship or for Italy’s regional DSU grants, so treat both as unconfirmed and read the current call before spending weeks on either. Domestic funding is closed too: no Ugandan public scheme pays for study outside the country.

Fully funded vs partial — know the difference

Fully funded means tuition plus an allowance you can live on. Chevening, Commonwealth at £1,712–2,000 per month, Erasmus Mundus at €1,400 per month, Türkiye Bursları and Stipendium Hungaricum in its three Uganda fields all sit here, and each adds housing, insurance or flights on top.

Partial means you fund the gap. Eiffel states its tuition cover as None — tuition fees are not covered by the programme. Italy’s MAECI grant exempts you from fees only where the university chooses to, and pays no travel. Austria’s Ernst Mach grant sets insurance cover at no and pays nothing towards rent. Read the coverage line before the prize money: in Germany, where public tuition is free, a stipend-only award is full funding, while the same award in Ireland leaves fees of €9,500–36,000 per year unpaid.

Scholarships by destination

United Kingdom. Chevening and Commonwealth are the two national routes, both open to you on citizenship and both decided at an interview held in Kampala. Budget separately for the UK visa at £558 and the tuberculosis certificate every Ugandan applicant needs, US$145 at the IOM Migration Health Assessment Centre, Naguru, Kampala. See UK scholarships for African students.

Germany. DAAD is the main award, and public tuition is free with or without it. Unfunded students must still show €11,904 per year in a blocked account. See Germany scholarships.

Hungary. Stipendium Hungaricum in Engineering, Computer Science or Agriculture only; self-funding is the fallback at €3,000–8,000 per year with living costs of €500–600 per month, the lowest of our twelve destinations. See Hungary scholarships.

Türkiye. Everything goes through the YTB portal in one fixed winter window; there is no office in Africa and embassies do not receive applications. Public tuition without an award is US$1,600–2,400 per year. See Türkiye scholarships.

Austria. Ernst Mach grants suit doctoral and research applicants, and pay a travel subsidy against invoices. Tuition is a flat €726.72 per semester. See Austria scholarships.

France. Only a French institution can file an Eiffel application, so secure the admission first. Public master’s fees are €255–3,950 per year, and Uganda pays the upper end of the visa fee range, €50–99, because it is not on the Études en France list. See France scholarships.

Eligibility & how to win

Grades come first. Commonwealth asks for an upper second-class degree, which on the Ugandan scale means Makerere CGPA (max 5.0): First 4.40–5.00; 2:1 3.60–4.39; 2:2 2.80–3.59; Pass below 2.80. Türkiye Bursları sets a flat academic minimum of 70%. Chevening publishes no grade bar; the test is an unconditional offer from a UK university.

Level and age narrow the field next. Chevening, Commonwealth, Erasmus Mundus and Eiffel are master’s and above. Türkiye Bursları and Stipendium Hungaricum fund bachelor’s study. Eiffel, Ernst Mach and Türkiye Bursları all cap the applicant at 35, and MAECI at 40.

Work experience decides Chevening: 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 DAAD’s EPOS asks for two years of relevant work after the bachelor’s, and a degree normally no more than six years old.

Be honest about the odds: Commonwealth spreads about 800 awards across every eligible Commonwealth country, Eiffel made 433 worldwide, and Chevening does not publish an award count at all. One application built over three months beats five assembled in three weeks.

Uganda’s own funding

No Ugandan public scheme pays for study abroad. HESFB’s abroad eligibility is no: its loans and scholarships are mandated for NCHE-accredited institutions inside Uganda, and the same holds for government-merit and district places.

What the state does provide is nomination. MoES abroad eligibility is yes, and the ministry is the national nominating body for Stipendium Hungaricum, restricted to Engineering, Computer Science and Agriculture, and for Commonwealth, alongside bilateral awards from Türkiye, China and others. Nomination is a separate application with its own earlier deadline, and missing it invalidates the scheme application even when the scheme file is perfect. For scale, 6,044 Ugandans were studying abroad in 2018.

Deadlines to watch

The 2027/28 calendar starts now. Chevening closes 6 October 2026 and Commonwealth 20 October 2026, with Commonwealth results By July 2027. Ernst Mach closes 1 December 2026.

DAAD’s Helmut-Schmidt round has gone for this cycle, closing 31 July 2026, with decisions due December 2026 to January 2027; EPOS course deadlines run separately. Erasmus Mundus consortia mostly open in October and close in January, each on its own date. Nominating deadlines at the Ministry of Education and Sports fall earlier still, so a Commonwealth or Stipendium Hungaricum file runs on two clocks.

Four schemes have not published 2027/28 dates as of September 2026. Their last published windows were Eiffel 8 January 2026, Stipendium Hungaricum 15 January 2026, Türkiye Bursları 10 January 2026 to 20 February 2026, and MAECI 26 March 2026.