I’ve just updated my lists of scholarships for African students, and research funding for African academics.
I maintain three lists of scholarships and grants for African academics: one for MA and Ph.D. study in Anglophone countries, one for Francophone countries, and one for post-doctoral and research funding. If you know of other scholarship resources I should add here, please let me know! The master list can be found here.
Anglophone countries
(Updated 12 February 2019. New entries are marked with an asterisk.)
I’ve come across several great scholarship opportunities for African students who’d like to study or attend workshops abroad recently, and wanted to highlight them here. They’re listed by country or region, and by university.
I include the link to the version of the scholarship offered when I found it, so some of the links may now be out of date. I don’t have time to update all the links every year, so if you find an outdated link, just Google the current information on the scholarship.
I’ll note here that I get a lot of requests from people asking me to help them get a scholarship. I’m not affiliated with any of the universities or scholarship providers listed here. I can’t provide individualized recommendations for scholarships. I can review a limited number of social science scholarship applications as my schedule permits.
Si vous êtes un étudiant francophone, veuillez regarder la liste des bourses ici.
Africa
- Strathmore University in Kenya is offering PhD scholarships in health management *
- The Intra-Africa Biomedical Engineering Mobility Scheme offers MA and PhD funding for students enrolled at African universities
- The Wadsworth African Fellowships support African students doing PhDs in anthropology at South African universities
- The American University in Cairo offers African Graduate Fellowships
- MOUNAF offers scholarships for students doing MA or PhD study in Africa
- The African Leadership University offers Mandela 100 scholarships for undergraduate study at ALU Rwanda
- The Mawazo PhD Scholars Programme offers a research fellowship for women doing PhDs at Kenyan universities
- The African Science Partnership for Intervention Research Excellence (ASPIRE) offers a variety of MA and PhD scholarships around Africa
- Zawadi Africa supports African women who are pursuing undergraduate studies in the US, Uganda, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya
- The government of Mauritius is offering scholarships to students from AU member states
- The Dolika Banda Scholarship for Zambian women in STEM at the African Leadership University
- The Pan-African University has a number of MA and PhD fellowships
- The Ethiopian Foundation offers scholarships to Ethiopian students
- Fondazione Edu offers scholarships for BA students at the University of Ghana
- The SSRC’s Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa program offers fellowships for PhD students preparing dissertation proposals, writing the dissertation, and completing the dissertation at universities in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda
- The ACLS African Humanities Program offers research funding to African PhD students at universities in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda
- The Institute of Infectious Diseases of Poverty offers PhD scholarships to students studying infectious disease at the University of Ghana, University of Ibadan, University of Sciences, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako and Modibbo Adama University of Technology
- The Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique offers funding for MA and PhD students to undertake research in East Africa
- The Jim Ovia Scholarship supports BA and MA students at Nigerian universities
- The ECOWAS Fellowship Programme for masters and PhD students at the University of Lagos and University of Ibadan
- The World Academy of Sciences has similar fellowships available for students doing PhDs in Brazil, China, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico and Pakistan
- The Lagos State Scholarship Board offers funding for BA and MA study in South Africa, India, Ukraine and China to Nigerian citizens
- The Graça Machel Scholarship Programme offers funding for post-graduate study in South Africa and the UK to women from Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, South Africa and Zambia
- The MTN Solution Space Fellowships for MBA study at the University of Cape Town
- The Lisa Maskell Fellowship supports graduate study at the University of Stellenbosch
- The Mandela Institute for Development Studies has just launched a new scholarship programme, details TBD
- The Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology is offering 10 PhD scholarships for students studying food and nutrition
- The Square Kilometer Array in South Africa offers undergraduate, MA and PhD scholarships in astronomy
- CODESRIA has a selection of scholarships for thesis completion and PhD studies at any public university in South Africa
- The Canon Collins Educational & Legal Assistance Trust provides scholarships to universities in southern Africa and the UK
- The Bank of Tanzania offers BA and MA scholarships at a range of Tanzanian universities
- The Partnership for African Social and Governance Research offers scholarships for students doing the MA in research and public policy at Maseno University, Egerton University, Uganda Christian University, Uganda Martyrs University, University of Dar es Salaam, and Mzumbe University
- The African Economic Research Consortium offers MA and PhD scholarships
- The Regional University Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) offers funding for MSc and PhD students in agriculture at African universities
- The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World offers fellowships for women pursuing PhDs in scientific fields at universities in low income countries
- The Open Society Foundation supports PhD students and professors from Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Sudan and South Sudan through the Civil Society Scholar Awards
Europe
UK
- The Rowan William Studentship at Cambridge offers support to students from conflict-affected countries *
- The University of Nottingham Developing Solutions Scholarships support MA study by students from Africa, India, and other Commonwealth countries *
- Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Climate Change Master’s Fellowships at the University of Edinburgh are available to students from low income countries
- The Standard Bank Derek Cooper Scholarship offers funding for African students pursuing MA study at Oxford, Cambridge, and the LSE
- The University of Manchester offers Equality and Merit scholarships to cover the cost of postgraduate study for students from low income countries
- The Gates Cambridge Scholarship covers the cost of postgraduate study for students who are not UK citizens
- The David and Elaine Potter Foundation offers scholarships for African students doing MA and PhD studies in Politics and International Studies at Cambridge
- A variety of scholarships are available through the Cambridge Africa program
- BG Fellowships are available for Tanzanian students doing MAs in fields relevant to the oil and gas sector at Imperial College London, Aberdeen University, and Robert Gordon University
- The University of Edinburgh offers scholarships for African students to undertake a variety of MA programs
- The African Excellence Fee Waiver is available for students doing graduate study at the University of Glasgow
- Peace, Security and Development Fellowships for African scholars undertaking the MSc Security, Leadership & Society at King’s College London (and also the same fellowship specifically for African women)
- The Program for African Leadership supports the MSc Development Management and MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies at the LSE
- Felix Scholarships support graduate study by students from low income countries at the University of Reading
- The University of Essex offers tuition discounts to African students through the African Scholarship Programme
- The Africa London Nagasaki Fund supports MA study at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University of Nagasaki
- The University of Manchester offers merit scholarships to students from Uganda
- The Dreyfus-Weidenfeld Scholarship supports postgraduate study at Oxford for students from low income countries
- Six separate scholarships offered by Oxford for the MSc African Studies
- Commonwealth Scholarships support African students doing the MA in International Human Rights Law at Oxford
- There are also Commonwealth Shared Scholarships for students from African Commonwealth countries doing several types of degrees at SOAS
- The Ferguson Scholarship for African students doing the MA in African Studies, International Studies and Diplomacy, or Social Anthropology of Development at SOAS
- The Cultures of Resistance scholarships for MScs, MAs, and LLMs at SOAS
- The Governance for Development in Africa Initiative offers funding for MSc and PhD students at the Centre of African Studies at SOAS
- African Graduate Fellowships for students doing an MSc in Global Health at UCL
- The Windle Trust offers fellowships for students from Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda who would like to pursue an MA at several different universities in the UK
- The UK’s Chevening Scholarship supports post-graduate study at a range of universities
- The Wellcome Trust offers scholarships for students from low income countries doing MAs in public health and tropical medicine in the UK
US
Other Resources
Francophone countries
Updated Dec. 9, 2018. New entries are marked with an asterisk .
Josaphat Musamba reminded me recently that the links in my post about scholarships for African students only concerned English-speaking countries. So here’s what I found as scholarships for francophone students.
Africa
Canada
Europe
- The Eiffel Excellence Scholarships support foreign students in France at the master’s and PhD levels
- Sciences Po offers scholarships to African students for 1st and 2nd cycle
- The Catholic University of Louvain offers doctoral scholarships to students from a developing country
- The Interuniversity Council of the French Community in Belgium offers scholarships to students from Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Uganda, DR Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe
- Student Network has a list of scholarships for foreign students who want to study in Belgium
Other Resources
- RFI offers the Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon scholarships to the two Ivoirian journalists for a month of training in Paris *
- Ashinaga Africa offers bursary scholarships to students from Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Gabon, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Senegal, and Togo
- All competitions maintains a list of scholarships offered by universities and governments around the world, including several for French-speaking students
- ExcelAfrica shares news of scholarships offered to African students
- Many options at Africa Stock Exchanges
Research and travel funding for African academics
(Updated Feb. 12 2019. New entries are marked with an asterisk.)
As a complement to my list of scholarships for African students doing MAs and Ph.D.s, here are all the research and travel grants that I could find for African professors. If you come across any others, please send them my way! They’re listed by funding type and by country or region.
I include the link to the current version of the fellowship or grant offered when I found it, so some of the links may now be out of date. I don’t have time to update all the links every year, so if you find an outdated link, just Google the current information on the program.
I’ll note here that I get a lot of requests from people asking me to help them get a scholarship. I’m not affiliated with any of the universities or scholarship providers listed here. I can’t provide individualized recommendations for scholarships. I can review a limited number of social science scholarship applications as my schedule permits.
African Post-Docs
European Post-Docs
Other Post-Docs
Research Funding
Travel, Conference, and Visiting Scholar Funding
- The Population Reference Bureau offers a policy training program for African PhD students studying public health *
- The Rothamsted International – University of Nottingham Fellowships offer visiting researcher positions to scholars from low income countries focused on agriculture *
- Chatham House offers the African Public Health Leaders Fellowship
- Iso Lomso fellowships are available for early career African researchers to spend time in residence at Stellenbosch
- The Women for Africa Foundation is funding visiting researcher positions for African women at scientific centers of excellence in Spain
- The African-German Network for Excellence in Sciences offers a mobility grant for junior African researchers
- The Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford offers one-year visiting researcher positions for African economists
- The Academy Africa fellowships at Chatham House support one visiting researcher each year from Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal or South Africa
- The Africa-Oxford Initiative has annual calls for visiting fellows
- The Structural Transformation of African Agriculture and Rural Spaces project at Cornell University has annual calls for African research fellows
- The Association of Commonwealth Universities offers Early Career Academic Grants for scholars from Commonwealth countries to travel to conferences
- African women in science should apply for the Kwame Nkrumah Regional Scientific Awards for Women
- The American Political Science Association’s Research Development Group is offering travel funding for early-career African scholars to attend their annual meeting
- The African Academy of Sciences is looking for early-career affiliates
- CODESRIA’s African Diaspora Support to African Universities program brings diaspora academics back to the continent as visiting professors
- The Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford offers travel busaries for African academics who have had a paper accepted to their annual conference
- 3ie is offering busaries for nationals of sub-Saharan African countries to attend the African Impact Evaluation conference
- African scholars are eligible for the African Studies Association’s Presidential Fellows program, which covers the cost of attendance at the annual ASA conference in the US
- The Elsevier Foundation funds short exchange programs for faculty members who are focused on sustainability and live in a low income country
- The United Nations University in Helsinki offers three-month residential internships for current PhD students
- The University of Michigan African Presidential Scholars program offers six-month residential fellowships to African professors
- PLOS offers US$500 travel grants for conference presentations by early career science researchers
- African Women in Agricultural Research and Development offers mentoring, travel grants, and short courses on leadership to female scientists
- The German Academic Exchange Service also offers funding for travel, research, and visiting scholar positions
- AuthorAID provides small grants for travel, workshops, or online courses for academics from low income countries
- The Emerging Nations Science Foundation offers travel and conference grants
- The UK Collaborative on Development Sciences lists a number of calls for proposals
Training
- The Mekatilili Fellowship Program offers three days of design training to fellows in Nairobi
- The Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program offers training to young and mid-career professionals from countries around the world
- St Francis Xavier University in Canada runs a Global Change Leaders training program to help women from low income countries build leadership skills
- The Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme offers leadership skills training to young people from across Africa
- The Peace and Security Fellowship for African Women is run by the Africa Leadership Centre
- The UN Fellowship Programme for People of African Descent offers training in human rights
- The British Institute in Eastern Africa runs a summer school in research methods
- The African Studies Review Pipeline for Emerging African Scholars program offers a weeklong workshop on the publication process
- The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences – Women in Innovation (WiIN) program offers a developmental leadership seminar for 15 women from across Africa
- The African Institutions Initiative lists training courses throughout Africa in public health and infectious disease
- Participants in the American Political Science Association’s Africa Workshops have their expenses covered
- The LSE-UCT July School offers bursaries for African nationals
- The Demographic & Health Surveys fellowship program offers training in the use of DHS surveys to university faculty from Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria and Zambia
- The Next Einstein Forum offers fellowships and mentoring to young African scientists
- The African Social Research Initiative at the University of Michigan offers summer research training to African PhD students or academics from Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, South Africa, and Uganda
- The African Studies Association of the UK offers writing workshops where early-career African academics can work on a paper with the editor of a journal
- The Partnership for African Social and Governance Research offers an intensive training course in research methods for African academics (also via Jon Harle)
- SOAS runs a residential school on governance for development in Africa, with all costs covered for accepted applicants
- Thomas Gale scholarships for students from the US and Kenya who would like to attend the SOAS Academic Summer School
- CODESRIA has just launched a College of Mentors, which connects PhD students at African universities to faculty members in Africa and the US for mentorship *
- TechWomen is a USAID program which offers training and mentorship to female leaders in STEM fields
- AuthorAID also connects academics from different countries who are looking for mentoring or assistance with specific aspects of the research and publication processes
- Global Colleagues is an initiative from Academics Stand Against Poverty which connects junior scholars from low income countries with senior colleagues around the world
- The Moremi Initiative offers a yearlong training program for African women from 18 – 25
- WOMID is a new initiative which connects women doing PhDs in development-related fields with other women currently working in development
- The World Economic Forum offers a unique three-year professional developent fellowship with academic modules, mentoring and work experience
- Residents of Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe are eligible for the Eisenhower Fellowship, which offers two months of leadership training in the US for mid-career development professionals
Check out some of the newly added opportunities below.
I’ll note here that I get a lot of requests from people asking me to help them get a scholarship. I’m not affiliated with any of the universities or scholarship providers listed here. I can’t provide individualized recommendations for scholarships. I can review a limited number of social science scholarship applications as my schedule permits.
Great resources for scholarships
The following sites are also great resources for scholarships. New entries are marked with an asterisk.
This article was originally published on RachelStrohm.com. It is reposted here with permission of the author, Rachel Strohm.