Eiffel Excellence Scholarship 2027 in France: Master’s & PhD Guide

The France Excellence Eiffel Scholarship — still widely searched as the Eiffel Excellence Scholarship — is the French government’s flagship award for attracting outstanding international students to master’s and doctoral programmes in France. It was developed by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and is managed by Campus France. Its purpose is specific and worth understanding from the start: Eiffel is designed to train future foreign decision-makers in the public and private sectors, in a defined set of priority fields. It is not a general hardship fund, it is not open to every subject, and — most importantly — you cannot apply for it directly. Only a French higher education institution can submit an Eiffel application, and it does so only for candidates it has selected and wants to welcome.

That single fact shapes your entire strategy. For most scholarships, your job is to complete a central application form well. For Eiffel, your real job happens months earlier: you must earn admission to a French institution, in an eligible field, and convince that institution that your file is strong enough to carry its nomination. Institutions can only put forward a limited number of excellent candidates, and they protect their credibility with Campus France by nominating carefully. This guide explains the verified 2027 rules — the €1,200 monthly allowance for master’s students, the €2,100 monthly doctoral allowance that applies from January 2026, the age limits, the seven eligible fields, what the scholarship does and does not pay for, and the step-by-step route from shortlisting a programme to a nomination submitted before the 6 January 2027 institutional deadline.

A note on figures before we begin: older web pages — including some official Campus France country pages that have not yet been updated — still show the previous allowances of €1,181 for master’s and €1,700 or €2,000 for doctoral students. Those figures are superseded. The current amounts, verified for the 2027 campaign, are €1,200 per month at master’s level and €2,100 per month at doctoral level from January 2026. Where a source you find disagrees, trust the current campaign regulations and the Campus France 2027 call, not an archived page. You can browse this and other French awards in our scholarship directory and compare destinations in our study abroad guides.

Eiffel Excellence Scholarship 2027 at a Glance

The official 2027 call is published on the Campus France website: Call for France Excellence Eiffel applications 2027, which confirms that the call is open until 6 January 2027 and is exclusively for French higher education institutions. Read that page first, then this guide for the practical detail around it.

Who Is Eligible for the Eiffel Scholarship?

Eligibility has several layers, and you must satisfy all of them: the programme’s own rules, the admission requirements of your chosen French institution, and the institution’s willingness to nominate you.

Nationality and residence

Candidates must be foreign nationals. If you hold dual nationality and one of your nationalities is French, you are not eligible. At master’s level, candidates who are already studying or residing in France at the time of application are not eligible — the master’s component is aimed at students coming from abroad, with priority given to applicants from emerging countries. At doctoral level, applicants from both emerging and industrialised countries are encouraged. For doctoral candidates, the programme supports study under joint supervision or co-direction of a thesis with a partner higher education institution abroad, so a research link between a French institution and an institution in your home country is built into the design.

Age limits

Age limits are strict and are assessed against a reference date in the campaign year. For the 2027 campaign, master’s candidates must be no older than 29 on 31 March 2027 — in other words, born after 31 March 1997 — as confirmed in the published guidance of French universities applying the 2027 regulations, such as the Université Grenoble Alpes Eiffel call for master’s applicants. Doctoral candidates must be no older than 35 at the equivalent reference point. There is no discretion here: if you fall outside the age window, an institution cannot nominate you, however strong your grades are. Check your date of birth against the campaign rules before you invest months in an application.

Level and type of programme

The French institution presenting your candidacy undertakes to enrol you in one of the following: a course leading to a master’s degree; an engineering degree programme; or a doctorate under joint supervision or co-direction with a foreign partner institution. Programmes that do not lead to these qualifications — and formats such as continuing education or work-study arrangements excluded by the regulations — do not qualify. The funded study period must start within the window set by the campaign rules, and deferral of the scholarship is not possible, so your admission and your scholarship must line up in the same academic year.

One nomination, no combining, no second chances at master’s level

Three rules from the regulations catch applicants out. First, a candidate may be presented by only one French institution — you cannot hedge by asking three universities to nominate you. Second, the Eiffel scholarship cannot be combined with another French government scholarship, an Erasmus+ grant, or a scholarship from the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF). Third, at master’s level, a candidate who has already held an Eiffel scholarship cannot receive it again at the same level, and a candidate whose master’s application was unsuccessful in a previous campaign may not reapply at master’s level, even with a different institution or field. Doctoral rules differ — a former Eiffel master’s holder can be considered at doctoral level — but you should confirm the current regulations with Campus France and your institution before assuming anything.

Academic excellence

Finally, the unwritten-but-real criterion: Eiffel is an excellence scholarship. Institutions nominate candidates whose academic record, and the quality and coherence of their study or research project, place them among the strongest international applicants for that programme. There is no published minimum GPA that guarantees a nomination, because the institution — and then the national selection — compares you against the field. Treat every element of your admission file as part of your scholarship file, because for Eiffel, it is.

Benefits: What Eiffel Pays For — and What It Does Not

Eiffel’s funding model is different from a typical “fully funded” scholarship, and misunderstanding it is the most common reason students misjudge the award.

The monthly allowance

Master’s scholarship holders receive a monthly allowance of €1,200. Doctoral scholarship holders receive €2,100 per month from January 2026. The allowance is intended to cover your living costs — food, local transport, personal expenses and the part of your housing costs you pay yourself. It is paid for the months covered by your award, within the maximum durations described below.

Services paid directly

In addition to the allowance, Campus France describes direct payment or provision of several services for both components of the programme: international transport (your travel to France and return), transport within France, insurance (health and supplementary cover under the programme arrangements), assistance with finding accommodation, and cultural activities. These are services organised or paid for directly — they are not extra cash added to your allowance — and they follow the conditions in the Eiffel regulations, as summarised on Campus France country pages such as Campus France Nigeria’s Eiffel programme page. Note that some of those country pages still display the older allowance figures; the service descriptions remain useful, but use the 2027 amounts in this guide.

The tuition warning — read this carefully

The Eiffel programme does not cover tuition fees. Campus France states this explicitly for both the master’s and doctoral components. This does not necessarily mean you will personally pay full tuition: French government scholarship holders enrolled for national diplomas at public institutions can benefit from tuition-fee exemption under French regulations, and some institutions reduce or waive fees for Eiffel scholars — but that comes from the fee rules and the institution, not from Eiffel itself. At private institutions and for certain programmes, fees can be substantial and would remain your responsibility. Before you accept a place, get a written answer from the institution to one question: “As an Eiffel scholar on this specific programme, what tuition amount, if any, will I still owe?” Budget with our study tools and calculators once you have that figure, and compare France with other destinations in our guide to fully funded scholarships in France, paying attention to what “fully funded” actually includes in each case.

Duration of funding

Two practical notes from the regulations. A compulsory internship or mobility period that forms part of your programme curriculum may be compatible with maintaining the scholarship under the conditions set out in the regulations, while a gap year can lead to suspension of payments and associated benefits. And because the scholarship cannot be deferred, if your plans change you cannot simply carry the award to the following year — tell your institution immediately if anything about your enrolment changes.

Eligible Fields of Study

Eiffel covers seven fields, grouped into two broad areas. Your programme must fit one of them — an excellent candidate in an ineligible field cannot be nominated.

Science and technology: Biology and Health; Ecological Transition; Mathematics and Digital Sciences; Engineering Sciences.

Humanities and social sciences: History, French Language and Civilization; Law and Political Science; Economics and Management.

These fields are confirmed in the official 2027 call on Campus France. In practice, programmes are mapped to a field by the nominating institution, so if your programme sits between fields — a data-science master’s with a management flavour, for example — ask the institution which Eiffel field it would present you under, and make sure your study project is written to that field’s priorities. Interdisciplinary ambition is welcome; a project that matches no field is not.

How to Apply for the Eiffel Scholarship: Step by Step

Because students do not submit Eiffel applications, the steps below are about positioning yourself for nomination. The timeline is unforgiving: institutions must submit complete files to Campus France by 6 January 2027, and most institutions set their own internal deadlines weeks or months earlier, in the autumn. Work backwards from your target institution’s internal deadline, not from January.

1. Choose your programme and institution (spring–summer before the campaign). Shortlist master’s or doctoral programmes in the seven eligible fields. Check the institution’s standing — our university rankings can help you compare — and confirm the programme leads to an eligible diploma.
2. Contact the institution’s international relations office early. Ask three direct questions: Does the institution submit Eiffel candidacies for this programme? What is its internal deadline for Eiffel hopefuls? What does it require from candidates at the internal stage? Campus France advises exactly this contact, plus guidance from the Campus France office in your country or the cooperation and cultural action service of the French embassy.
3. Apply for admission through the institution’s normal route. Your Eiffel hopes rest on an admission file: transcripts, degree certificates, CV, motivation letter or research proposal, references and language evidence as the programme requires. Apply as early as the institution allows.
4. Signal your Eiffel intention clearly. When the institution invites it — some run a specific internal Eiffel call, as Université Grenoble Alpes does for master’s applicants — submit the internal Eiffel request by its deadline, with a study or research project written for Eiffel’s priorities: excellence, coherence, and future leadership in your field and country.
5. The institution selects and submits. If the institution chooses you, it completes and submits your candidacy online to Campus France before 6 January 2027. Only one institution may present you. Files sent by students, or by foreign universities, are not accepted.
6. National selection and results. Campus France manages the programme and the national selection process; results for the 2027 campaign are expected in spring 2027, and the institution that nominated you is central to how you will be informed. No institution, agent or website can promise you the outcome in advance — if anyone offers to “secure” an Eiffel nomination for a fee, walk away.
7. Prepare for France. If selected, follow Campus France and your institution’s instructions for the scholarship services (transport, insurance, housing search support), complete your visa process through the official channels for your country, and confirm your tuition position in writing before you travel.

Required Documents

The institution builds your Eiffel file from your admission materials, so prepare a complete, consistent set. Exact requirements vary by institution and level, but a strong Eiffel-ready file normally contains:

• Passport / identity document — proving your nationality (and that you do not hold French nationality) and your date of birth for the age-limit check.
• Academic transcripts and degree certificates — for all completed higher education, with certified translations where the institution requires them.
• Curriculum vitae — focused on academic achievement, research or professional experience, publications, prizes, and leadership or community roles relevant to the “future decision-maker” aim of the programme.
• Study project (master’s) or research proposal (doctoral) — what you will study, why this programme and this institution, how it fits an eligible Eiffel field, and what you intend to do with it afterwards. For doctoral applicants under joint supervision, the co-supervision arrangement and both supervisors’ roles should be clear.
• Letters of recommendation — from academics or professional referees who can speak specifically about your excellence and potential.
• Language evidence — as required by your programme. Programmes taught in French require adequate French; programmes taught in English set their own English requirements. Institutions presenting non-French-speaking candidates must be satisfied your language level will let you succeed — a weak language file undermines an otherwise strong nomination.
• Proof of application / admission status — whatever the institution’s internal process asks for at the nomination stage.

Keep names, dates and grades identical across every document and language version. Inconsistencies slow institutional staff down at exactly the moment they are deciding whom to nominate.

Deadlines and Timeline for the 2027 Campaign

If you are reading this after an institution’s internal deadline has passed, you have almost certainly missed that institution for the 2027 campaign — the January date is not a student deadline you can use. Your realistic options are a different institution whose internal window is still open, or a properly prepared attempt in the following campaign, subject to the no-reapplication rule at master’s level: note that the bar on reapplying applies after an unsuccessful submitted master’s candidacy. Do not let an institution submit a rushed, weak file in your name just to “try” — at master’s level, a failed candidacy closes the door.

Selection Criteria and How to Improve Your Chances

Campus France and the institutions apply the programme’s logic at two gates. The institution asks: is this candidate among the best we are admitting, in an eligible field, with a project we can defend nationally? The national selection asks similar questions across all nominated files. You improve your chances by making both answers easy to say yes to.

• Lead with academic excellence. Strong, consistent grades, a demanding prior programme, research experience, publications, competitions or professional achievements that evidence ability — put the strongest proof early in your CV and motivation materials.
• Write a coherent project, not a wish list. The published criteria used by institutions include a coherent and well-developed academic and professional project. Connect your past, this specific programme, an eligible Eiffel field, and a credible post-study plan — ideally one that shows how you will contribute to your home country’s public or private sector, which is the programme’s stated purpose.
• Choose the institution as carefully as the programme. An institution that regularly presents Eiffel candidates and knows the process is an advantage. Ask how it handles Eiffel before you commit your one nomination to it.
• Respect the field map. Frame your project honestly within one of the seven fields. Reviewers can tell when a project has been relabelled; they also reward a genuine fit.
• Be early and complete. Internal deadlines reward candidates whose files are finished, translated and consistent. A complete file in November beats a brilliant file missing a transcript in January.
• For doctoral candidates, show the partnership. A clear joint-supervision structure, named supervisors on both sides, and a research plan that needs both institutions make the doctoral case concrete.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Trying to apply directly to Campus France. Student-submitted files are not accepted. Your application route is always through a French institution.
• Working to the 6 January deadline. That is the institutions’ deadline with Campus France. Your real deadline is your institution’s internal one, weeks or months earlier.
• Assuming Eiffel pays tuition. It does not. Confirm your exact fee liability in writing, especially at private institutions.
• Using the old allowance figures in your budget. €1,181 and €1,700 (and the transitional €2,000 doctoral figure on some pages) are superseded: €1,200 master’s and €2,100 doctoral from January 2026 are the current amounts.
• Asking several institutions to nominate you. Only one institution may present your candidacy.
• Holding another incompatible award. Eiffel cannot be combined with another French government scholarship, Erasmus+ or AUF funding.
• Wasting your master’s attempt. An unsuccessful submitted master’s candidacy cannot be repeated, even at a different institution. Prepare fully before your file goes forward.
• Ignoring the age limits. They are mechanical. Check your date of birth against the campaign reference date first, not last.
• Paying an agent who promises a nomination. Nominations are institutional decisions. No intermediary can sell you one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I apply for the Eiffel Scholarship myself on the Campus France website?

No. Applications are submitted exclusively by French higher education institutions for candidates they have selected. Your task is to gain admission and be chosen for nomination by one institution before its internal deadline.

How much is the Eiffel Scholarship worth in 2027?

Master’s holders receive €1,200 per month and doctoral holders €2,100 per month from January 2026, plus directly provided services: international and national transport, insurance, help with finding housing, and cultural activities. Older figures (€1,181, €1,700, €2,000) found on some pages are superseded.

Does the Eiffel Scholarship cover tuition fees?

No — Campus France states tuition fees are not covered by the programme for either component. Some scholars benefit from tuition exemption under French rules for national diplomas at public institutions, or from institutional waivers, but you must confirm your own programme’s fee position with the institution in writing.

What are the Eiffel age limits for the 2027 campaign?

Master’s candidates must be no older than 29 on 31 March 2027 (born after 31 March 1997). Doctoral candidates must be no older than 35 at the campaign reference date. Dual nationals holding French nationality are ineligible at any age.

Can I apply again if my Eiffel application is unsuccessful?

At master’s level, no: the regulations bar a candidate whose submitted master’s candidacy was unsuccessful from reapplying at that level, even through a different institution or field, and a former Eiffel master’s holder cannot hold it again at master’s level. This is why a rushed nomination is a costly mistake. Confirm the current rules with Campus France for doctoral situations.

Which subjects are eligible for Eiffel?

Seven fields: Biology and Health, Ecological Transition, Mathematics and Digital Sciences, and Engineering Sciences (science and technology); and History, French Language and Civilization, Law and Political Science, and Economics and Management (humanities and social sciences).

Do I need to speak French to win an Eiffel Scholarship?

You need the language level your programme requires. Many eligible programmes are taught partly or fully in English, but the institution must be satisfied your language skills will let you succeed in the programme and integrate. Check the language of instruction and required certificates for your specific programme early.

When will I know the result of the 2027 campaign?

Results are expected in spring 2027 under the campaign calendar managed by Campus France. Your nominating institution is your main channel for updates. Check the official 2027 call page for the announced results week, and be wary of any third party claiming to know your outcome earlier.

Sources and Verification

The facts in this guide were checked against official sources at the time of writing:

• Campus France — Call for France Excellence Eiffel applications 2027 (2027 campaign, 6 January 2027 institutional deadline, seven fields, institution-only submission, programme funder and manager).
• Campus France country programme pages, including Campus France South Africa — France Excellence Eiffel Scholarship (programme aims, levels, fields, durations, age guidance) and Campus France Malaysia’s programme page (doctoral allowance of €2,100 from January 2026).
• Université Grenoble Alpes — Applications for Eiffel Scholarship, master’s level, 2027–2028 (€1,200 amount from January 2026, age reference date, selection criteria, combining and reapplication rules).
• Brief fact update applied: the doctoral allowance of €2,100/month from January 2026 supersedes the €2,000 printed in the December 2025 regulations PDF and the €1,181/€1,700 figures on older pages.

Disclaimer: Scholarship details, amounts, deadlines and regulations change with each campaign. Always confirm deadlines, amounts and eligibility on the official Campus France website and with your French institution before applying. StudyGraduate is an information portal, not an agency or a French institution; we cannot nominate you, and nothing in this guide promises selection, admission or visa approval.