Updated: August 20, 2026 | Reading time: 5 min | Written by: StudyTribune Team
If you’re searching for King’s College London’s “Africa International PGR Scholarship” — the three-place PhD award that ran through 2022-23 — here’s the honest update: we could find no evidence it’s continued since that cohort. King’s own funding-database form is still filed under a “2022-23” filename, and no subsequent cohort has been announced anywhere. What has replaced it, at least in spirit, is a newer, genuinely active programme: the African Creativity Beyond Borders Prize Programme. This guide covers what that actually offers, since it’s not simply the old scholarship under a new name — the eligibility, subject scope, and structure are meaningfully different.
What Happened to the Original Africa International PGR Scholarship
Established in 2020 by King’s Centre for Doctoral Studies, the original scheme funded three PhD scholarships a year for African nationals researching topics at the intersection of Conflict/Peace/Security, Global Health, Development, and Digital Technology. Scholars from that programme are still active researchers at King’s today — but we found no record of a new cohort being announced or funded beyond the 2022-23 intake. If you’re relying on older content (including earlier versions of this page) describing this specific scheme as currently open, verify directly with King’s Doctoral College before applying — we couldn’t confirm it.
What’s Actually Current: African Creativity Beyond Borders
King’s recently launched the African Creativity Beyond Borders Prize Programme, offering four fully funded PhD scholarships for study starting October 2026, built on King’s existing Africa Regional Networks and partnerships including the African Leadership Centre (Nairobi), the University of Lagos, the University of Nairobi, and Stellenbosch and Rhodes University in South Africa.
Important eligibility detail: of the four scholarships, only one is available to international applicants — the other three are reserved for home-fee-status candidates. This is a meaningfully smaller international opportunity than the original scheme’s three fully international places, and it’s the kind of detail easy to miss if you’re skimming rather than reading closely.
Eligibility
- The programme specifically encourages applications from candidates who identify as Black or Mixed-Black, and/or who have diasporic or heritage roots in Africa — this is broader than the original scheme’s strict “African nationals, permanently resident in an African country” requirement
- Relevant academic background in Politics & Economics, International Affairs & Development, Arts/Culture/Media, History and Classics, or Policy and Society
- A genuine research interest in African creativity, culture, and its global influence, understood broadly across the creative economy, intercultural exchange, and sociocultural impact
What It Covers
- Tuition fees
- A stipend
- A Research Training & Support Grant
Exact figures weren’t specified in what we found — confirm current amounts directly with King’s Doctoral College or the programme’s own page before applying.
Timeline for the Most Recent Cohort
For the October 2026 intake, shortlisted candidates were invited to interview in March-April 2026, with final decisions communicated in May 2026. If you’re reading this after that point, this specific cohort’s selection process has already concluded. Based on this pattern, expect the next round (for October 2027 entry) to open with a similar interview and decision timeline roughly a year later — confirm exact dates directly with King’s rather than assuming an exact repeat.
Other Africa-Focused Funding at King’s Worth Checking
King’s Doctoral College maintains a broader funding opportunities database covering multiple doctoral training entities and scholarship schemes, some with Africa-relevant themes beyond these two specific programmes. It’s genuinely worth searching that database directly for your specific research area, since King’s runs several smaller, less publicized funding routes alongside its named flagship scholarships.
How to Apply: Step by Step
- Confirm which programme (if any) is currently accepting applications directly with King’s Doctoral College — don’t assume either scheme described here is open right now without checking.
- Identify a relevant supervisor and confirm your research area fits the programme’s specific subject scope.
- Prepare a strong, specific research proposal connecting your work to the programme’s stated focus — for African Creativity Beyond Borders, that means genuinely engaging with African creative economy, culture, or heritage themes, not a tangentially related topic.
- Apply through King’s standard postgraduate research application system, following that specific programme’s funding code or application instructions as published on its official page.
- Track the programme’s specific deadline and interview timeline directly, since these aren’t standardized across King’s various Africa-focused schemes.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Assuming the original Africa International PGR Scholarship is still running. We found no evidence of a cohort beyond 2022-23 — verify before building an application around it.
- Assuming all four African Creativity Beyond Borders scholarships are open to international applicants. Only one is — the other three require home-fee status.
- Missing that eligibility has broadened beyond strict African nationality for the newer programme, to include diasporic and heritage connections to Africa.
- Relying on an old blog post’s deadline. Both programmes’ specific dates shift by cohort — confirm directly with King’s.
FAQs
Is the King’s College London Africa International PGR Scholarship still open? We couldn’t confirm this. No new cohort has been announced since 2022-23, and King’s own application form is still filed under that year — verify directly with King’s Doctoral College before assuming it’s currently active.
What replaced it? The African Creativity Beyond Borders Prize Programme is the most current, verifiable Africa-focused PhD funding at King’s, though it’s a genuinely different programme with different eligibility and subject focus, not a direct continuation.
How many of the African Creativity Beyond Borders scholarships are open to international students? Only one of the four — the other three are reserved for home-fee-status applicants.
Do I need to be an African national to apply for African Creativity Beyond Borders? No. Eligibility is broader — it includes candidates who identify as Black or Mixed-Black and/or have diasporic or heritage roots in Africa, not only African nationals resident in Africa.
What subjects does African Creativity Beyond Borders cover? Politics & Economics, International Affairs & Development, Arts/Culture/Media, History and Classics, and Policy and Society — centered on African creativity, culture, and global influence.
When does the programme’s application cycle run? For the most recent intake, interviews ran March-April 2026 with decisions in May 2026, for an October 2026 start — the next round is expected roughly a year later, but confirm exact dates with King’s directly.
Does King’s have other Africa-focused PhD funding besides these two programmes? Likely yes — King’s Doctoral College maintains a broader funding database with multiple schemes, some Africa-relevant. Search it directly for your specific research area.
Where do I get authoritative, current information? Directly from King’s Doctoral College (kcl.ac.uk/doctoralcollege/funding) — not from third-party scholarship listing sites, which is exactly the gap that led to this page needing a full rewrite.
Related Reading
Strengthen your application with our guides to writing a recommendation letter for a scholarship and a personal statement for scholarship applications. For other Africa-focused funding routes, our Pan-African Leadership & Fellowship Programs guide covers a wider set of opportunities across the continent.
The clearest lesson from researching this one: named scholarships at individual universities can quietly lapse or get replaced without much public notice, especially smaller programmes like these. Confirm current status directly with the university before treating any specific scheme as open, rather than trusting a scholarship listing site’s word for it — including, if you’re reading this in another year, this one.