Fully funded undergraduate scholarships for international students exist, and there are far fewer of them than the internet suggests. Being straight about that is more useful than another list, because the wrong strategy here costs a year.

Most large international scholarship money is postgraduate. Government programmes like Chevening fund master’s study, university-endowed awards mostly fund graduate research, and assistantships barely exist at bachelor’s level. What remains is real but narrower, often tiny in number, and usually decided months before the admission deadline. Here is exactly where it is, based on the awards in our directory.

Universities that fund international undergraduates in full

These are the closest thing to a complete package, and they are extremely competitive.

  • Lester B. Pearson International Scholarships, University of Toronto. Covers tuition, books, incidental fees and full residence support for four years. About 37 students are named each year. The catch: your high school must nominate you, only one student per school, and the school’s nomination deadline is 9 October 2026, a month ahead of the 6 November 2026 scholarship deadline.
  • UBC International Scholars Program, University of British Columbia. Need-and-merit awards that can reach the full cost of study and living. You need all As or equivalent and must show that a UBC degree would be impossible without major help. Applying rules you out of UBC’s separate merit awards. Closes 15 November 2026.
  • Reach Oxford Scholarship. Course fees, a living-costs grant and one return flight a year, for students from developing countries who cannot study for a degree at home. Only 2 to 3 are awarded each year, and you must already hold an Oxford offer. The scholarship deadline is 26 January 2027. Medicine is excluded.
  • MBZUAI, Abu Dhabi. Its AI bachelor’s programmes list tuition at $45,000 a year, but it states that merit and needs-based scholarships of up to 100% of tuition and cost of attendance are awarded automatically with the admission offer, with no separate application. Early Action closes 1 November 2026 and Regular Decision 1 February 2027. Our MBZUAI entry covers its graduate programmes and links to the undergraduate route.

Government scholarships open at bachelor’s level

A handful of governments fund full undergraduate degrees for foreign students. They share three traits: you usually apply through your own country, age limits are strict, and you often spend a year learning the local language first.

  • MEXT (Japan) pays 117,000 yen a month, waives tuition and covers flights, applied for through the Japanese embassy in your country. Recruitment runs April to May for students arriving the following April, and in principle you must be born on or after 2 April 2002.
  • Global Korea Scholarship covers Korean language training, tuition, a living allowance and airfare. The undergraduate track is for under-25s, with submissions usually September to November, and needs a GPA of 80% or a top-20% class rank.
  • Türkiye Scholarships covers tuition, a 4,500 lira monthly stipend at bachelor’s level, accommodation, a flight, insurance and a Turkish course. Bachelor’s applicants must be under 21 with at least 70%, and the window usually runs 10 January to 20 February.
  • TaiwanICDF covers airfare, housing, tuition, insurance and NT$15,000 a month for bachelor’s students, but only for citizens of countries with diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Applications run 1 December 2026 to 15 March 2027.
  • Chinese Government Scholarship runs through Chinese embassies, each with its own deadline, and bachelor’s applicants must now sit the China Scholastic Competency Assessment (CSCA).

Foundation and refugee funding

The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program is the best-known foundation route for young Africans. You apply to a partner university or NGO, not to the Foundation, and each partner sets its own criteria and deadline.

For refugees, DAFI funds an undergraduate degree in your country of asylum, not abroad. You must have recognised refugee status, be no older than 28 when you start, and apply through the UNHCR office or partner in that country, which sets its own deadline.

The partial awards that close the gap

If none of the above works, the realistic route is to assemble funding from parts. Several awards are designed to do exactly that:

  • Padua International Excellence Scholarships, Italy: €8,000 a year plus a tuition fee exemption for English-taught degrees, considered automatically through your degree application. The next call is due in November 2026.
  • Émile Boutmy Scholarship, Sciences Po: a total exemption or €9,500 off bachelor’s tuition for non-EU applicants, requested inside the admission application.
  • NL Scholarship, the Netherlands: a one-off €5,000 in the first year. The official page says plainly that it is not a full-tuition award.
  • Wells Mountain Initiative: up to $3,000 a year (average $1,500) for a first degree in your own home country or region. It will not fund study in the US, UK, Canada or Australia. Applications run 1 December 2026 to 1 March 2027.
  • Home-country schemes. In Nigeria, the Indomie Scholarship pays full tuition at public institutions for new 2026/2027 admissions, with registration closing 30 September 2026. Many governments and companies run equivalents that never appear on international sites, so ask your ministry of education directly.

A typical working combination is a low-tuition country, a university entrance award, one or two modest external awards and permitted part-time work. None of those pieces is dramatic. Together they can add up to a funded degree. Our guide to studying abroad for free compares tuition in the low-fee countries of Europe.

What to check before committing to a plan

Two numbers decide whether any plan works, and both come from official sources.

Current tuition for your nationality at the specific institution, from its own fee page. Tuition policy varies by country and sometimes by region, and it has changed in several places recently.

The money you must prove for the student visa, from the destination country’s immigration guidance. This is separate from tuition and is often the bigger obstacle. A scholarship that covers living costs can sometimes count toward it. Our proof of funds guide explains how each country checks it.

Timing

Undergraduate funding runs early, and the scholarship deadline is often earlier than the admission deadline. For September 2027 entry, the Pearson school nominations closed on 9 October 2026, UBC closes 15 November 2026, and the MEXT embassy recruitment for April 2027 arrivals already ran in April and May 2026. Missing a government scheme’s window means waiting a full year, so find the date before you do anything else.

If nothing fully funded works out

The most common successful path for international undergraduates is not a scholarship at all. It is choosing a country where the total cost is manageable, then closing the remainder with a partial award and work.

A degree completed affordably somewhere less famous, followed by a fully funded master’s, is a well-worn route. Postgraduate funding is where the large money is, and our comparison of the major fully funded scholarships shows how much more of it there is.

Start here

Pick three countries where tuition for your nationality is low, and find the official fee page for one specific university in each. Then check which of the awards above you are eligible for by nationality, age and level. Write down the real gap once tuition is handled. That number, rather than the phrase “fully funded,” is what you are trying to close.