Why “humanities scholarships” is the wrong search term
If you are applying to a program in history, politics, sociology, economics, anthropology or a similar field, searching for “scholarships for humanities students” mostly turns up recycled listicles, because there is no equivalent here to the dedicated national funding pots that exist for engineering or computer science. Governments and industry fund STEM at scale because they can point to a workforce shortage. They do not do the same for a master’s in political theory.
That does not mean the money does not exist. It means it is organized differently, around leadership, public service and international exchange rather than around a subject label. The scholarships below are genuinely open to social sciences and humanities applicants, and in most cases were built with exactly that kind of applicant in mind.
Chevening: a UK master’s built around leadership, not subject
Chevening is the UK government’s flagship scholarship for a one-year master’s degree, funded through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Chevening’s own eligibility guidance states applicants need at least two years of work experience, acquired after finishing an undergraduate degree, equivalent to 2,800 hours, and must have completed that undergraduate degree at least two years before the application deadline. Applicants must also be a citizen of a Chevening-eligible country and commit to returning home for a minimum of two years after the award ends.
Chevening’s published eligibility criteria do not list a restricted set of academic disciplines, which is worth noting given how field-specific most large scholarships are. What Chevening is actually selecting for is evidence of leadership and a plan for impact back home, which plays to the strengths of a strong social sciences or humanities candidate as much as anyone else. Check the current eligible-country list and this year’s deadline directly on Chevening’s site before you plan around it, since both can change year to year.
Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters: no discipline restriction, and a real number
The Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters (EMJM) programme funds joint degrees run jointly by universities in different countries, including a substantial number of programs in politics, international relations, migration studies, media and cultural studies alongside the STEM-heavy tracks. The European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme guide states plainly that “there is no limitation in terms of disciplines,” so a joint master’s in, say, journalism or global studies is exactly as eligible as one in engineering.
The guide sets the EMJM scholarship contribution at 1,400 euros a month, covering “travel, visa, installation and subsistence costs.” It also specifies that “projects cannot charge tuition fees or other mandatory costs related to student participation in the course to Erasmus Mundus scholarship holders.” Search the EMJM catalogue for programs in your specific subject area rather than assuming any given joint master’s is on the list, since the roster of funded programs changes each intake cycle.
Rotary Peace Fellowships: for a specific kind of social science applicant
If your interest sits closer to conflict resolution, governance, public policy or international development, the Rotary Peace Fellowship is worth a direct look rather than a generic search. Rotary’s own program page describes the fellowships as covering “tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and internship and field-study expenses,” and states that “each year, the Rotary Foundation awards up to 50 fellowships for master’s degrees and up to 120 for certificate studies,” 170 funded places in total across both tracks.
The master’s track is “designed for leaders with work experience in peace and development” who are committed to community and international service. This is a competitive, mission-driven fellowship rather than a general-purpose award, so it fits a specific kind of applicant better than a broad one, but for that applicant it is one of the few funding routes that covers the full cost of a social-science-adjacent master’s degree.
Fulbright: broad, but confirm your country’s terms directly
The Fulbright Foreign Student Program funds graduate study, research and, for some fields, creative work in the United States, and operates in more than 160 countries with approximately 4,000 recipients selected annually according to Fulbright’s own program page. The application and selection process “is administered by binational Fulbright Commissions/Foundations or U.S. Embassies,” and Fulbright states plainly that “program eligibility and selection procedures vary widely by country.”
That variation means you should not assume your Fulbright award will look like a friend’s award from a different country. Go to your country’s Fulbright Commission page directly, not a generic guide, to confirm what is covered (tuition, stipend, health insurance and travel are common components, but the exact package differs) and whether your intended field of study is a current priority area for your country’s program.
What this means for how you apply
Because none of these four rely on a subject-specific funding pot, your application strategy for a social sciences or humanities degree should lean harder on leadership experience, a clear account of what you plan to do with the degree, and a specific, well-argued reason for the country and program you have chosen, since that is what these committees are actually screening for. If you are building the personal statement or motivation letter that goes with any of these, treat the interview stage seriously too. Our guide to scholarship interview preparation covers the kind of follow-up questions leadership-focused committees tend to ask.
It is also worth comparing your field against ones the money is built around differently. Our guide to funding for law degrees covers a field where, like social sciences and humanities, there is no dedicated national pot, and the strategies for finding real money look more alike across these fields than they do compared to funding for engineering or medicine.