GREAT Scholarships

Who can apply

Passport holder and permanent resident of one of the 18 eligible countries: Bangladesh, China, Egypt, France, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, or Vietnam
Hold an undergraduate degree
Meet the English language requirement of the specific UK institution you are applying to
Which universities and courses are available differs by nationality; check the country-specific page on the British Council's Study UK site for the participating universities and courses open to your nationality
Apply directly to the university, not to the British Council; over 140 scholarships are offered across more than 60 UK universities for the 2026-27 academic year

A £10,000 tuition contribution, jointly funded

GREAT Scholarships put £10,000 toward tuition for a one-year taught postgraduate course in the UK, funded jointly by the UK government’s GREAT Britain Campaign, the British Council, and the participating universities themselves. For the 2026-27 academic year, that’s over 140 scholarships spread across more than 60 universities in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

A contribution, not a living-cost award, and the country list varies by university

Two things are worth knowing before you spend time on this one. First, it is a contribution toward tuition, not a living-cost award: accommodation, food, travel and visa costs are yours to fund separately, and £10,000 may not cover your full tuition depending on the course and university. Second, the eligible country list is not the same at every university. The scholarship overall is open to applicants from 18 countries, spanning Bangladesh, China, Egypt, France, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam, but any individual university only offers it to a subset of those. Check the country-specific page on the British Council’s Study UK site for your own nationality to see which universities and courses are actually available to you.

Beyond the money: a welcome event, a network, and real scholar testimonials

The British Council builds a community element into the scholarship itself: every GREAT scholar is invited to a welcome event in their first semester and a networking event in the second, on top of whatever their specific university offers. The programme’s own page backs this up with scholar testimonials rather than just marketing language, past recipients from Greece, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt and elsewhere describing the scholarship as opening a global network and a top-tier education they wouldn’t otherwise have accessed, alongside the financial support itself.

Each university sets its own timeline, and applications go directly to them

You apply to the university directly, not to the British Council, and each university runs its own timeline. For the 2026-27 academic year, the University of Kent’s deadline was 24 April 2026 and Nottingham Trent University’s was 27 May 2026; both have already passed by the time of this check, and no 2027-28 dates have been announced yet on the pages checked. There is no single scholarship-wide deadline to wait for: once a university publishes its own GREAT Scholarships page for a new cycle, that page carries the actual date that applies to you. For the wider cost picture of living and studying in the UK beyond what this contribution covers, see the guide to studying in the UK.