Commonwealth Shared Scholarships

Commonwealth Shared Scholarships are for candidates from developing Commonwealth countries, looking to study selected postgraduate Masters courses.

Key facts

Fee status

International (including EU)

Your country/region

Commonwealth excluding UK

Level

Postgraduate (taught)

Number of awards

9

Value of awards

See details

Deadline

Deadline for the current round of applications has passed. We're waiting on funding confirmation for the next round.

The Commonwealth Shared Scholarships scheme is a joint initiative between the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission and UK universities.

They support students from developing commonwealth countries to study full-time in the United Kingdom on a postgraduate course.

Eligible countries:

  • Bangladesh
  • Belize
  • Botswana
  • Cameroon
  • Dominica
  • Eswatini
  • Fiji
  • Gabon
  • The Gambia
  • Ghana
  • Grenada
  • Guyana
  • India
  • Jamaica
  • Kenya
  • Kiribati
  • Lesotho
  • Malawi
  • Malaysia
  • Maldives
  • Mauritius
  • Montserrat
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • Nauru
  • Nigeria
  • Pakistan
  • Papua New Guinea
  • Rwanda
  • Saint Helena
  • Saint Lucia
  • Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Samoa
  • Sierra Leone
  • Solomon Islands
  • South Africa
  • Sri Lanka
  • Tanzania
  • Togo
  • Tonga
  • Tuvalu
  • Uganda
  • Vanuatu
  • Zambia

The nine scholarship awards are available for the following programmes:

The scholarship covers:

  • tuition fees
  • maintenance/living cost stipend
  • return flights
  • thesis grant
  • study travel grant (if applicable)
  • one-off arrival allowance 

Eligibility and availability

To be eligible, you must:

  • be a citizen of or have been granted refugee status by an eligible Commonwealth country, or be a British Protected Person;
  • be permanently resident in an eligible Commonwealth country;
  • be available to start your academic studies in the UK by the start of the UK academic year in September 2023;
  • by September 2023, hold a first degree of at least upper second-class (2:1) standard, or a second-class degree and a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Masters degree);
  • not have studied or worked for one (academic) year or more in a high-income country (as classified by the World Bank);
  • be unable to afford to study in the UK without this scholarship.

Full details about the candidate eligibility and eligible countries are available on the Commonwealth Shared Scholarships website.

How to apply

Applicants need to first apply to the University of Stirling for one of the eligible courses. To be considered for an award, applicants must hold an offer of a place at Stirling. We would recommend applying to Stirling well in advance of any deadlines for this scholarship.

The application system opened for candidate applications on 3 November 2022 and will close at 16:00 on 13 December 2022. The same application deadline applies to all institutions. 

Applications must be made using the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission's online application system, details of which can be found on the CSC’s website under the ‘How to apply’ section.

By the end of May 2023, the CSC will advise the institutions of approved nominations.

Candidates will receive confirmation of their successful application by the end of August 2023.

Contact us

postgraduate.admissions@stir.ac.uk

What next?

See all scholarships
Find a course

See what recipients of the Commonwealth Shared Scholarship said about studying at Stirling

Student stories

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Eziama Ngozi
Eziama Ngozi
Nigeria
MSc Aquatic Pathobiology
I decided to apply for scholarships to pursue the study of aquaculture and discovered that MSc Aquatic Pathobiology at Stirling is one of the courses sponsored by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. I was attracted to the course as it is one of a kind worldwide, a course offered only at the University of Stirling, and the modules of the course perfectly aligned with my future career.
Read Eziama's story
Angela Lum-Neh
Angela Lum-Neh
Cameroon
MSc Financial Technology (FinTech)
I was in search of a FinTech course with an integration of data science. The University of Stirling stood out as one of the very few universities in the UK with this combination. The innovative and practical nature of the course coupled with the fact that the different modules aligned perfectly with the skillset I wanted to develop sparked my interest in the course.
Read Angela's story
View more student stories