Fully Funded Scholarships in March 2027: Deadlines & How to Apply

March is the month when the scholarship calendar quietly splits in two. On one side are the last big government scholarship windows of the spring cycle — New Zealand’s Manaaki programme, many Fulbright country competitions, China’s CSC Type A embassy route, Korea’s GKS graduate tracks and a set of Australian research rounds all reach their closing dates in March. On the other side, March is when the results, interviews and shortlists for the autumn programmes — Chevening, the Swedish Institute, Türkiye Burslari — start landing in inboxes. If you are an international student from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria, Indonesia or anywhere else in the world planning to start a funded degree in 2027 or 2028, March 2027 is not a month you can afford to treat casually.

This guide lists the fully funded scholarships with deadlines in March 2027, explains exactly what each one covers, and — just as importantly — is honest about which March 2027 dates are already confirmed by the provider and which are expected dates based on the previous cycle, because the official 2027 date has not been published yet. Scholarship deadlines move, portals crash in the final 48 hours, and a date copied from an old blog post can cost you a year. Every programme below was checked against its official source in October 2026, and the status column in the table tells you how firm each date is. Where a date is marked “expected”, treat it as a planning deadline: prepare as if it is real, but confirm it on the official website before you submit.

Before you dive in, bookmark the main directories so you can compare your options side by side: browse all scholarships on StudyGraduate, explore university profiles worldwide, and check the latest university rankings before you finalise your course choices. If you missed the earlier rounds, our roundup of fully funded scholarships in February 2027 explains which February programmes roll into March selection stages, and our list of fully funded scholarships open now for the 2027 intake is a useful cross-check of what is still live.

March 2027 Deadlines at a Glance

Read the status column carefully. A “confirmed” date comes from the provider’s own published round information. An “expected” date means the provider runs the competition on a stable annual rhythm — the 2026 window is a matter of public record — but had not yet published the equivalent 2027 date when this guide was researched in October 2026. In both cases, the working rule is identical: your personal deadline should be at least seven days before the official one.

The March 2027 Scholarships, Programme by Programme

1. Manaaki New Zealand Scholarships — the flagship March deadline

The Manaaki New Zealand Scholarships are the New Zealand Government’s flagship development scholarship programme, funded through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. They support undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral study — plus short-term training awards — at New Zealand universities and institutes for citizens of eligible partner countries in the Pacific, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The award is genuinely fully funded: full tuition fees, a living allowance, an establishment allowance, medical and travel insurance, and return air travel between your home country and New Zealand. Postgraduate scholars can also receive support for research and thesis costs.

The timing is what puts Manaaki at the top of this March list. In the verified 2026 cycle, tertiary applications opened at midnight on 1 March 2026 and closed at midday on 31 March 2026, New Zealand time. The 2027 round had not been officially published when this article was researched, so the March 2027 window in the table above is labelled expected 1–31 March 2027, based on the previous cycle (official date TBC) on the official Manaaki application portal. Two practical warnings follow from the 2026 experience. First, the deadline is midday in New Zealand, which can be the previous evening in South Asia — convert the time zone before you plan your final day. Second, the portal can close early for heavily subscribed countries, so a mid-March submission is far safer than a 31 March one.

Manaaki selection is development-focused. Assessors want to see a credible link between your chosen programme, your country’s published priority sectors, and what you will do with the qualification when you return home. Generic essays about “helping my country” score poorly; a specific plan — the sector, the employer type, the problem you will work on — scores well. You must also be prepared to return home after your studies and contribute for at least two years, which is a condition of the award, not a suggestion.

2. Fulbright Foreign Student Program — many countries close in March

The Fulbright Program is the United States Government’s flagship exchange scheme, and the Foreign Student Program brings around 4,000 graduate students and young professionals from more than 160 countries to US universities each year for master’s degrees, PhD study and non-degree research. A Fulbright grant typically covers tuition, a monthly living stipend, health insurance and international travel, although the exact package is set country by country. It remains the single most prestigious fully funded route into the United States for most of our readers.

There is no single worldwide Fulbright deadline, and any website that gives you one is guessing. You apply through the Fulbright Commission, foundation or US Embassy in your own country, via the official Fulbright Foreign Student Program portal, and each country sets its own closing date. Across the programme as a whole, deadlines fall anywhere from February to October — but a large group of country competitions close in February and March. In the most recent verified cycle, for example, the US Embassy in Uganda set a 21 March deadline for its Foreign Student Program competition, and Pakistan’s USEFP competition has typically closed in the February–March window. For the cycle that will be decided in spring 2027 (for study beginning in 2028), the honest status is: expected February–March 2027 in many countries, based on the previous cycle (official date TBC for your country). The only way to get your real date is to open your country page on the official portal today — not in February — and note both the deadline and any country-specific eligibility rules, which differ more than applicants expect.

Fulbright essays reward a different skill from most scholarship applications. The study objectives statement and personal statement must connect your academic plan to a concrete need in your home country and to the exchange mission of the programme itself. Academic excellence is necessary but not sufficient: leadership, community engagement and a convincing post-grant plan carry real weight, and most country programmes give preference to applicants who have not previously studied in the United States.

3. Chinese Government Scholarship Type A — embassy deadlines peak in March

The Chinese Government Scholarship (CSC), administered by the China Scholarship Council, is one of the largest fully funded programmes in the world. A full CSC award covers tuition, free university dormitory accommodation (or an accommodation subsidy), comprehensive medical insurance and a monthly stipend of CNY 2,500 for undergraduates, CNY 3,000 for master’s students and CNY 3,500 for doctoral students. Applications are made through the official CSC “Study in China” system at campuschina.org.

CSC has several routes, and they close at different times — which is why China appears in both this March guide and our April guide. Type A (the Bilateral Programme) is handled by the dispatching authority in your country — usually a ministry, a higher-education commission or the Chinese Embassy — and those authorities set their own deadlines inside a broad January–April window. In practice, a large share of Type A country deadlines land in March, because authorities need time to nominate candidates to Beijing afterwards. The March 2027 status is therefore expected, based on the previous cycle (your authority’s official date TBC): you must get the date from your own dispatching authority, and you should ask for it in writing or screenshot the official notice. Note the age limits that apply across CSC routes — under 25 for bachelor’s, under 35 for master’s and under 40 for doctoral applicants — and that from the 2027 intake, undergraduate applicants are also expected to submit a China Scholastic Competency Assessment (CSCA) score where required.

Type A lets you list institute preferences inside the CSC system, and the system matches available universities to your student category and teaching language. Enter the agency number exactly as your authority publishes it: a wrong agency number means your application is never received by the right authority, and this is one of the most common — and most avoidable — CSC failures every year.

4. Global Korea Scholarship (GKS-G) — university track and document deadlines in March

Korea’s Global Korea Scholarship for graduate degrees (GKS-G), run by the National Institute for International Education (NIIED), funds master’s degrees (one year of Korean language training plus two years of degree study), doctoral degrees (one year of language plus three years of degree study) and research programmes. The package covers tuition, airfare, a monthly living allowance, settlement and language-training support, and medical insurance. Applications run through the official Study in Korea system, and there are two tracks: the Embassy Track, where your Korean embassy selects and forwards candidates, and the University Track, where you apply directly to a participating Korean university.

March matters for GKS-G in two distinct ways, both visible in the verified 2026 schedules. First, university-track windows at individual universities ran well into March — the University of Seoul, for example, published a university-track submission window of 23 February to 20 March 2026. Second, for embassy-track applicants, the online window itself closed in late February (12–25 February 2026), but the process continued through March: interviews in early-to-mid March, first-round results around 16 March, and hard deadlines for shortlisted candidates to deliver original documents — 23 March in the UK schedule and 31 March in the Swedish schedule. For 2027, NIIED had not published the graduate guidelines when this guide was researched, so all GKS-G March 2027 dates are expected, based on the verified 2026 cycle (official dates TBC). The practical lesson stands regardless of the exact 2027 dates: if you apply to GKS-G, your March is not free time. Apostilled or consular-confirmed documents, signed recommendation forms and original certificates must be ready to move within days of a first-round result.

5. DAAD EPOS — the late courses that close in March

The DAAD’s Development-Related Postgraduate Courses programme — DAAD EPOS — funds professionals from developing and newly industrialised countries for development-related master’s and, in some cases, doctoral courses in Germany. EPOS pays a monthly scholarship of €992 for master’s students and €1,300 for doctoral candidates, rising to €1,400 for doctoral candidates from February 2026, plus health, accident and personal liability insurance, a travel allowance, and possible rent and family allowances. You need a bachelor’s degree normally completed within the last six years and at least two years of relevant professional experience after it.

EPOS has no single deadline, because each approved course runs its own admissions. Most EPOS courses for the 2027/28 intake closed between August and December 2026 — but a tail of courses closes later, and at least one reported course window, INEMA, runs from 2 January to 15 March 2027. Treat that date as course-specific and verify it on the course’s own page, reached through the official DAAD scholarship database, because DAAD’s own guidance is explicit that the course website is the final authority. If your field has a March-closing EPOS course, March is your deadline month for Germany; if your course closed in October, March is when you should be building the experience and references for the next EPOS list instead.

6. Monash Graduate Research Scholarships — a confirmed 31 March round

Australia contributes one of the few genuinely confirmed March dates in this guide. Monash University in Melbourne runs its graduate research scholarship rounds on a fixed annual pattern, and its official scholarship pages state the pattern plainly: International Round 1 closes 31 March (International Round 3 closes later in the year). Applying in that round puts you in competition for the Monash Graduate Scholarship and the Monash International Tuition Scholarship (MITS), and for Research Training Program (RTP) linked support, in a single application — Monash does not ask you to nominate a specific scholarship; eligible applicants are automatically considered for all graduate research scholarships they qualify for, as the official Monash scholarship pages explain.

The context figures matter here. The Australian Government’s RTP base stipend rate is AUD 34,315 for 2026 and AUD 35,550 for 2027, although individual universities set their own stipend at or above the base, and Monash’s own graduate scholarship rates are published on its site for the relevant round. A stipend plus a tuition scholarship (MITS covers course tuition and a single Overseas Student Health Cover policy) is what makes a Monash research package fully funded in practice. Selection is fiercely merit-based — academic record, research outputs and prior research experience — and for most faculties you should have a supervisor conversation and a sharp research proposal well before March. One warning: Destination Australia is closed to new applicants (funding ceased on 1 July 2024), so ignore any March deadline list that still presents it as an open Australian opportunity.

7. Erasmus Mundus — honest expectations for March

Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters are integrated master’s programmes delivered by consortia of universities in at least three European countries, with scholarships that cover participation costs plus a monthly allowance of €1,400 for up to 24 months. Most applicants should know the truth about Erasmus Mundus timing: the large majority of consortium scholarship deadlines fall between October and January. March is not the main Erasmus Mundus season. A minority of consortia run later or additional rounds — one microtechnologies and photonics consortium, for example, has been reported with a March 2027 deadline — and some programmes keep a March deadline for self-funded places only, which is not a fully funded offer. If you find a March Erasmus Mundus deadline, open the consortium’s own website and check two things before you invest a week in the application: that the March date is for scholarship applicants, not only self-funded applicants, and that the programme is in the official Erasmus Mundus Catalogue for that intake.

What March Applicants Should Do, Week by Week

How to Apply: Step by Step

1. Build your March shortlist in October, not in March. List every programme in the table above that matches your level, field and nationality, and write its confirmed or expected deadline next to it. Programmes that exclude your country or level are deleted at this stage, not discovered in March.
2. Verify each date on the official source. For expected dates, check the provider’s site weekly from January. Use the StudyGraduate tools, including the deadline tracker, to keep every date and time zone in one place.
3. Separate the two application layers. Some March programmes are scholarship-only applications (Manaaki, Fulbright, CSC), while Monash combines course admission and scholarship consideration in one application. Note which layer each programme uses, because missing a parallel course application is a classic silent rejection.
4. Prepare documents once, to the strictest standard. Certified transcripts, passport, language scores, references and — for Korea — apostilled certificates take weeks. Prepare a master set in November and adapt copies per programme.
5. Write programme-specific essays. Manaaki wants a development plan for your country; Fulbright wants study objectives tied to exchange and leadership; CSC wants a study plan that fits the host university; Monash wants a research proposal a supervisor can champion. One generic essay recycled four times will lose four times.
6. Submit at least seven days early. Manaaki’s portal can close early for oversubscribed countries, CSC’s system slows near deadlines, and a midday New Zealand deadline is unforgiving across time zones. Early submission is the cheapest insurance in this entire process.
7. Save proof of everything. Download the submitted application, the confirmation email and a screenshot showing the timestamp. If a portal dispute ever arises, that folder is your only evidence.

Required Documents Checklist

• Valid passport (with at least 12 months of validity beyond your expected start where a programme requires it — CSC states this explicitly).
• Degree certificates and full academic transcripts; certified English translations where the originals are in another language.
• English proficiency scores (IELTS or TOEFL) where required, or a medium-of-instruction certificate where a programme accepts one.
• Two or three recommendation letters on the programme’s own form where one exists — GKS and several others reject free-format substitutes.
• CV in the format the programme specifies, plus a study plan or research proposal matched to the host institution.
• Medical certificate on the official form where required (CSC’s Foreigner Physical Examination Form; MEXT-style forms appear in other programmes’ later stages).
• Apostilled or consular-confirmed copies of certificates for Korea (GKS), and notarised copies where CSC or your dispatching authority requires them.
• Proof of work experience for DAAD EPOS (at least two years, post-degree, with employer confirmation).

Common Mistakes That Kill March Applications

• Trusting an “expected” date as if it were confirmed. Expected dates are planning tools. Applicants who never re-check the official site discover in April that their programme moved its deadline forward.
• Missing the time zone. Manaaki closes at midday New Zealand time; Monash works on Melbourne time; GKS works on Korean time. A “31 March” deadline can expire on 30 March where you live.
• Wrong CSC agency number or programme category. A Type A application with a mistyped agency number is received by nobody. Check the number character by character against your authority’s notice.
• Applying to Erasmus Mundus self-funded rounds believing they are scholarship rounds. Read the consortium page until you find the word “scholarship” attached to the March date.
• Ignoring return-home conditions. Manaaki and Fulbright both carry post-study return expectations (Fulbright’s J-1 two-year home-residence rule applies to many grantees). Applying without accepting the condition wastes everyone’s time, including yours.
• Leaving referees until March. A referee who agrees in principle in January and goes silent in March is the single most common cause of incomplete applications we see in reader questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which fully funded scholarships actually close in March 2027?

The strongest March cluster is: Manaaki New Zealand (expected 1–31 March window), many Fulbright country competitions (expected February–March), CSC Type A embassy-route deadlines set by national authorities (January–April, many in March), GKS-G university-track and document-stage deadlines, late DAAD EPOS courses such as INEMA (reported 15 March), and Monash’s International Round 1 graduate research round, which is a confirmed annual 31 March closing. Always re-check the status column in the table above before relying on any single date.

Are the March 2027 dates in this guide confirmed?

Some are and some are not, and the guide labels them honestly. Monash’s 31 March international round is a confirmed, annually published round date. The Manaaki window, Fulbright country dates, CSC Type A dates and GKS-G dates for 2027 had not been officially published when this article was researched in October 2026, so they are marked “expected”, based on the verified previous cycle. Confirm every expected date on the official website before you submit.

Can I apply to several March scholarships at the same time?

Yes. Nothing prevents you from applying to Manaaki, Fulbright, CSC and Monash in the same season, and strong applicants usually run two or three applications in parallel because each programme is highly competitive. The exception to manage carefully is CSC: you may pursue Type A and Type B routes, but you can only hold one Chinese Government Scholarship in the end.

Do I need IELTS for March 2027 scholarships?

It depends on the programme and the host university. Fulbright country programmes set their own English requirements and some test shortlisted candidates themselves; Monash requires you to meet its English language requirements for the course; CSC programmes taught in English follow each university’s rules, while Chinese-taught CSC programmes require HSK scores. Prepare a valid IELTS or TOEFL early unless your target programme explicitly accepts a medium-of-instruction certificate.

Is the Monash 31 March round only for PhD students?

No. Monash’s graduate research rounds cover both master’s by research and PhD applicants. What the round does not cover is coursework degrees — if you want a taught master’s at Monash, you follow the coursework application calendar and its separate scholarship schemes instead.

What stipend would I receive on a CSC scholarship in China?

The standard CSC monthly stipend is CNY 2,500 for undergraduates, CNY 3,000 for master’s students and CNY 3,500 for doctoral students, alongside a tuition waiver, free dormitory accommodation or an accommodation subsidy, and comprehensive medical insurance. Confirm the current rates in the CSC guidance for your intake year on campuschina.org.

What if I miss a March deadline?

Do not wait a year in silence. April brings another major cluster — Australia Awards, CSC Type B and the opening of MEXT — and several programmes in this guide run later rounds (Monash Round 3, for instance). Read our April guide, reset your calendar around the next confirmed dates, and use the intervening months to fix whatever caused the miss: documents, test scores or referee letters.

Does StudyGraduate charge for help with these applications?

No. StudyGraduate is an information portal, not an agency. All of the programmes in this guide are free to apply to through their official portals, and you should treat any third party demanding payment to “guarantee” one of these scholarships as a scam warning sign.

Sources & Verification

• Manaaki New Zealand Scholarships — official programme and application portal, nzscholarships.govt.nz (2026 window of 1–31 March verified; 2027 window not yet published at research time): nzscholarships.govt.nz
• Fulbright Foreign Student Program — official portal and country pages (country-specific deadlines; Uganda’s 21 March closing in the last cycle published by the US Embassy): foreign.fulbrightonline.org
• China Scholarship Council — CSC application instructions and stipend/structure guidance via the official Study in China system: campuschina.org
• Global Korea Scholarship (GKS-G) — NIIED guidelines and 2026 embassy/university schedules published by Korean embassies and universities (embassy online window 12–25 February 2026; document deadlines 23–31 March 2026; University of Seoul university-track window to 20 March 2026).
• DAAD — EPOS programme information and scholarship database (course-specific deadlines; €992 master’s and €1,300/€1,400 doctoral rates): daad.de scholarship database
• Monash University — official graduate research scholarship pages (International Round 1 closes 31 March; MITS covers tuition and single OSHC): monash.edu
• Australian Government Research Training Program base stipend rates — AUD 34,315 (2026) and AUD 35,550 (2027), as used in StudyGraduate’s verified programme research.

Disclaimer: Scholarship details, deadlines and amounts change every cycle. Dates marked “expected” in this guide are based on the previous cycle and had not been officially confirmed for 2027 at the time of writing — always confirm deadlines and amounts on the official website before applying. StudyGraduate is an information portal, not an agency, and cannot guarantee selection, admission or visa approval.