Home / UK Scholarships / UK Scholarships for International Students
Quick answer: The UK Scholarships for International Students through ten serious routes, and only six of them are full scholarships: Chevening, the Commonwealth Master’s and PhD scholarships, Gates Cambridge, Clarendon, Rhodes and the Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships. Two more — Great Scholarships (£10,000 towards tuition) and most university awards — are partial. One, the Commonwealth Shared Scholarship, is applied for through the university rather than the government. Chevening’s 2027–28 round has already closed (6 October 2026); the next opens in August 2027, and the Commonwealth and Oxford routes close between November 2026 and January 2027.
UK Scholarships for International Students at a glance
| # | Scholarship | Level | What it pays | Who applies | 2027 cycle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevening | One-year master’s | Full: tuition, monthly stipend, return flights, visa, thesis grant | You, directly | 2027–28 closed 6 Oct 2026; next opens Aug 2027 |
| 2 | Commonwealth Master’s | Master’s | Full: tuition, £1,712/month stipend (£2,000 in London), airfare, study travel grant, child allowance | You, via your country’s nominating agency | 2027–28 applications closed 20 Oct 2026; nominators submit by Dec 2026; outcomes Jul 2027 |
| 3 | Commonwealth PhD | PhD | Full: tuition, stipend, flights, fieldwork grant | You, via a nominating agency | Agency round typically Nov–Jan ⚠ |
| 4 | Commonwealth Shared Scholarships | One-year master’s at named universities | Full: tuition, stipend, flights | You, directly to the university | Opens with university admissions, Dec–Jan ⚠ |
| 5 | Gates Cambridge | PhD | Full cost of study + maintenance allowance | You, to Cambridge | US citizens Oct; other nationalities early Jan ⚠ |
| 6 | Clarendon Fund (Oxford) | Master’s and DPhil | Full course fees + living-expenses grant, automatic consideration | You, via the Oxford course application | The December or January course deadline that applies to your course |
| 7 | Rhodes Scholarship | Postgraduate at Oxford | Full fees + stipend + allowances | You, through your country’s Rhodes constituency | Country deadlines Jul–Oct ⚠ |
| 8 | Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships (QECS) | Master’s | Full: tuition, stipend, flights | You, via the Commonwealth portal | Two rounds a year ⚠ |
| 9 | GREAT Scholarships | One-year master’s | £10,000 towards tuition | You, via the participating university | Opens Nov–Jan ⚠ |
| 10 | University awards (Edinburgh, UCL, KCL, Oxford, Cambridge, Scottish universities) | Bachelor’s / Master’s / PhD | Usually partial; some full | You, with the course application | Per university |
“Full” here means tuition and living costs. That distinction decides most applications: a £10,000 GREAT award against a £30,000 international fee is a discount, not funding.
Table of Contents
Who can apply for what, by level
The UK is a master’s country. Most of the money sits there, and the honest answer for two of the three levels is that the national schemes do not reach you.
| Level | National schemes open to you | Where else to look |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s | Effectively none. Chevening, Commonwealth, Gates, Clarendon, Rhodes and GREAT are all postgraduate. | University international awards, which are usually 10–50% fee discounts rather than full funding |
| Master’s | Chevening, Commonwealth Master’s, Commonwealth Shared, GREAT, QECS, Clarendon, Rhodes, plus university awards | The richest level by a wide margin — this is where to concentrate applications |
| PhD | Commonwealth PhD, Gates Cambridge, Clarendon, Rhodes, plus departmental studentships | UKRI-funded doctoral training centres, which are open to international students in a limited number of places |
If you are an undergraduate reading this, the realistic path is a university award plus a partial fee waiver, not a national scholarship — and the page you need is the funding section of the course page, not this one.
The two flagship schemes
Chevening is the UK government’s global scholarship, funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. It pays full tuition for a one-year master’s, a monthly stipend, return flights, visa costs and a thesis grant, and it is applied for directly — no nomination. The 2027–28 round closed on 6 October 2026, and the timeline then runs to interviews in early 2027 and a final university offer by 8 July 2027. The next round opens in August 2027 for a September 2028 start. Two things decide Chevening applications: the four essays (leadership, networking, studying in the UK, career plan) and whether the course you name is a plausible fit for the career plan you wrote. Our guide to the essays is linked below — it is the single highest-leverage page in this cluster.
Commonwealth Scholarships are the other government route, funded by the FCDO and administered by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. Master’s and PhD are separate schemes with separate eligibility: you must be a citizen of a Commonwealth country, and you must be nominated by a designated agency in your own country — the ministry of education, a scholarship board, or the British Council office. You cannot self-apply to the CSC. The Master’s covers full tuition, a stipend of £1,712 a month (£2,000 at London universities), airfare, a study travel grant and, where relevant, a child allowance; you also need a 2:1 and to be from one of 43 eligible low- and middle-income Commonwealth countries. Applications for 2027–28 closed on 20 October 2026, nominating agencies submit their nominations to the CSC by December 2026, and outcomes are announced in July 2027. The PhD covers tuition, stipend, airfare and a fieldwork grant on the same nomination model. Both close through the nominating agency before the CSC’s own deadline, so the date that matters is your agency’s, not the one on the CSC website.
What the Chevening essays actually test
Four essays decide the application, and each maps to something the assessors are told to score: leadership (a specific situation where you changed an outcome, not a list of roles), networking (how you build and use a network, with an example), studying in the UK (why this course at these universities, tied to your plan), and career plan (what you will do in your home country afterwards, with a timeline). The career plan is the one that most often fails: it has to name a sector, a problem and a role, and it has to be plausible for someone returning home, because Chevening’s stated purpose is to fund people who will go back and use it.
Oxford and Cambridge
Gates Cambridge funds a PhD at Cambridge — full cost of study plus a maintenance allowance — and is one of the few awards in the world that is assessed on leadership and social commitment as heavily as on academics. There are two deadlines: an earlier one for US citizens and a January one for all other nationalities, both for entry the following October.
Clarendon Fund is Oxford’s own scholarship: full course fees plus a living-expenses grant, available across master’s and DPhil courses. There is no separate application — you are considered automatically if you apply for the course by its December or January deadline, whichever applies to that course. That is why “apply early” here is not advice but a condition.
Rhodes funds postgraduate study at Oxford and is applied for through your country’s Rhodes constituency, not centrally. Deadlines therefore vary by country and mostly fall between July and October, a full cycle before the course starts.
The partial and the university-specific
GREAT Scholarships are £10,000 awards towards one year of master’s tuition, run by the British Council with participating universities, for students from a named list of countries. Each scholarship is tied to one university and one intake, so the country list is the first thing to check — the Nigeria edition, for instance, is a different set of universities from the one open to Pakistan or Vietnam.
Commonwealth Shared Scholarships are for one-year master’s courses at named UK universities, and unlike the main Commonwealth scheme they are applied for directly to the university. They exist for students who could not otherwise afford a UK master’s, and the award is full — tuition, stipend and flights.
University awards are where most international students actually end up funded, partially. Edinburgh’s Global scholarships, UCL’s Global Masters, KCL’s international awards and the Scottish university schemes all sit in this group. They are not national schemes, so they do not appear on scholarship aggregators, and they are found by reading the funding page of the course you want.
What has changed for the 2027 cycle
- Chevening has closed. The 2027–28 round shut on 6 October 2026; the next opens in August 2027 for 2028 entry.
- The Commonwealth Master’s round has closed too. Applications closed on 20 October 2026. Nominating agencies now submit to the CSC by December, and outcomes come in July 2027.
- The UK is not in Erasmus+. It left the programme and runs the Turing Scheme instead, which funds UK students going abroad, not international students coming in. Lists that still describe “Erasmus UK scholarships” are describing something that ended.
- GREAT is now a portfolio, not one scheme. Each scholarship is tied to one university and one country edition, so there is no single GREAT deadline to plan around.
Deadlines in order (for a September 2027 start)
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Aug – 6 Oct 2026 | Chevening 2027–28 application window — closed |
| 20 Oct 2026 | Commonwealth Master’s 2027–28 applications closed — closed |
| Oct 2026 | Gates Cambridge US-citizen deadline ⚠ |
| Nov 2026 – Jan 2027 | GREAT Scholarships open, per university and country ⚠ |
| Early Jan 2027 | Gates Cambridge deadline for all other nationalities ⚠ |
| Dec 2026 | Nominating agencies submit Commonwealth Master’s nominations to the CSC |
| Dec 2026 – Jan 2027 | Oxford course deadlines — the Clarendon cut-off, per course |
| Dec 2026 – Jan 2027 | Commonwealth Shared Scholarships, direct to universities ⚠ |
| Jul – Oct 2027 | Rhodes, by country (for 2028 entry) ⚠ |
| Jul 2027 | Chevening deadline to hold an unconditional UK offer (2027–28 applicants) |
| Aug 2027 | Chevening 2028–29 opens |
How to apply without wasting a cycle
- Pick the scheme by who applies. Direct: Chevening, GREAT, Shared, QECS. Via a nominator: Commonwealth Master’s and PhD, Rhodes. Automatic with the course: Clarendon.
- Work backwards from the course deadline. Oxford’s December or January deadline is also the Clarendon deadline; Cambridge’s January deadline is the Gates deadline. A late course application fails both.
- Match the country list first. Commonwealth, QECS and GREAT are all nationality-restricted. Chevening, Gates, Clarendon and Rhodes are open to most nationalities, subject to course eligibility.
- Treat Chevening as a writing task, not an academic one. The essays carry the decision; the degree is table stakes.
- Apply to two schemes in the same cycle. Chevening and Commonwealth run on different calendars, and a failed Chevening essay does not disqualify a Commonwealth nomination.
Documents the UK schemes ask for
Degree transcripts and certificates, two references, academic or professional, a personal statement, a career plan, English-language evidence (IELTS/TOEFL, or a medium-of-instruction letter where the university accepts one), and — for Chevening — an unconditional offer by July. Commonwealth applicants also need the nominating agency’s own form, which is usually longer than the CSC’s.
Five mistakes that cost people UK scholarships
- Applying to Commonwealth directly. Without a nomination the application is not considered, however strong.
- Naming a course in the Chevening application that does not match the career plan. The two are read together.
- Missing the Oxford or Cambridge course deadline and losing Clarendon or Gates by default.
- Confusing GREAT with a full scholarship. It is £10,000 against a fee that is usually three times that.
- Starting in June. By then Chevening, Commonwealth, Gates and Clarendon have all closed for that cycle.
FAQ
Is Chevening open now? No. The 2027–28 round closed on 6 October 2026. The next opens in August 2027.
Can I apply for a Commonwealth Scholarship without a nomination? No. A designated agency in your country must nominate you.
Which UK scholarships are fully funded? Chevening, Commonwealth Master’s and PhD, Commonwealth Shared, Gates Cambridge, Clarendon, Rhodes and QECS.
Do I need IELTS for a UK scholarship? The university sets the requirement, not the scholarship. Several UK universities accept a medium-of-instruction letter for certain nationalities.
Can I hold two UK scholarships? Generally no — Chevening and Commonwealth both prohibit holding another full award at the same time.
Is the UK still in Erasmus? No. The UK left Erasmus+ and runs the Turing Scheme instead, which funds outward mobility from the UK rather than incoming students.
Related guides
- Chevening: the full guide, plus the four essays — leadership, networking, studying in the UK, career plan
- Commonwealth Master’s, Commonwealth PhD, Commonwealth Shared and QECS
- Gates Cambridge, Clarendon Fund, Rhodes
- GREAT Scholarships (Nigeria edition), Edinburgh’s SGS AH earth scholarships, Cambridge Africa Alborada, KCL Africa PhD, UCL DPU70, ENI Oxford Africa
- UK scholarships without IELTS (being rewritten for 2027)
- UK student life and the visa
- UK scholarships for pakistani students
Sources
Chevening (chevening.org), Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk), Gates Cambridge (gatescambridge.org), Clarendon Fund and Rhodes House (ox.ac.uk), British Council GREAT Scholarships (britishcouncil.org), plus the Study Tribune UK pages linked above. Chevening’s 2027–28 closure date and the 8 July 2027 offer deadline were read on chevening.org in October 2026; the Commonwealth Master’s figures and dates (20 October 2026 close, £1,712/£2,000 stipend, 43 countries, December nominations, July 2027 outcomes) were read on cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk; the Clarendon mechanics were read on ox.ac.uk. The remaining dates in this draft are the published cycle pattern and are marked for confirmation.