Fully Funded Scholarships in November 2026: Deadlines & How to Apply

November 2026 is one of the most deceptive months in the scholarship calendar. It is not the biggest deadline month of the year — that honour usually goes to January — but it is the month in which several genuinely fully funded opportunities quietly close while most applicants are still “preparing to prepare.” If you are reading this in late October or early November 2026, you do not have months to spare. You have days, and in some cases only hours, before portals that opened in the summer shut for another full year.

This roundup covers the fully funded scholarships with verified deadlines falling in November 2026, the major programmes that open in November 2026 (and therefore reward applicants who start the moment the portal goes live), and — just as importantly — two famous programmes that many websites wrongly list as November deadlines this cycle but which actually closed in October 2026. We flag those honestly, because an applicant who spends November polishing a Chevening application for a portal that closed on 6 October 2026 has wasted the most valuable month of the season.

Every deadline below was checked against the programme’s official pages or an official university or government source during October 2026. Where a date for the current cycle has not yet been officially published, we say so explicitly and place the programme in the “opening or expected” section rather than presenting a guessed date as fact. Amounts are quoted from official sources at the time of writing; always confirm the live figure on the official website before you rely on it.

November 2026 Deadline Table: What Actually Closes This Month

The table below is the confirmed core of this article. These are the fully funded (or full-cost, need-based) opportunities whose closing dates fall inside November 2026 for the current application cycle.

Read the table carefully and notice what it teaches: November’s confirmed closings are dominated by undergraduate full-ride awards in North America (UBC, Toronto, Berea) and a small number of prestigious master’s fellowships (Yenching, and individual DAAD EPOS courses such as Göttingen). There is no single giant government scholarship closing for everyone in November this cycle — which is exactly why generic “top 50 scholarships in November” lists mislead. Your November strategy must be built around the specific programmes you are eligible for, not around a fantasy list.

Programme Mini-Profiles: The November 2026 Closings in Detail

1. UBC International Scholars Program — closes 15 November 2026

The University of British Columbia’s International Scholars Program is one of the very few Canadian undergraduate awards designed from the ground up for international students with genuine financial need. It is not a small discount. UBC describes the programme as supporting students who have demonstrated leadership, exceptional contributions to their school or community, strong academic performance, and a need for meaningful financial support to attend university. One application puts you in consideration for four award categories: the Karen McKellin International Leader of Tomorrow Award, the Donald A. Wehrung International Student Award, the International Impact Award, and the Vantage One Excellence Award.

The deadline discipline matters here. The award application opened on 5 October 2026 and closes on 15 November 2026 at 11:59 pm Pacific Time. UBC explicitly instructs applicants to set their application time zone to Pacific Time — a small detail that has cost real applicants a full year when their portal displayed a local time zone instead. You are responsible for initiating the application, requesting a nomination from your school, and requesting a teacher referee; those third parties need their own time, which is why starting in the final week is a genuine risk rather than a slogan. Supporting admission documents and proof of meeting UBC’s English Language Admission Standard are due later, by 31 January 2027, but the award application itself cannot be started after 15 November.

On funding honesty: UBC does not publish a single fixed dollar value for most of these awards, because the value is assessed against your demonstrated financial need. The Vantage One Excellence Award is described by UBC as covering up to the full cost of the academic programme and living expenses. Treat any website quoting you an exact guaranteed figure for UBC International Scholars with suspicion. Also budget for Canada’s study permit proof-of-funds requirement: for a single applicant, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s living-expenses figure is CAD 23,448 for applications from 1 September 2026 — your award letter and family contribution together need to tell a coherent story at the visa stage.

2. DAAD EPOS, University of Göttingen — closes 15 November 2026

DAAD EPOS (Development-Related Postgraduate Courses) is Germany’s flagship fully funded route for professionals from developing and emerging countries, but it is not one scholarship with one deadline. It is an umbrella of individual courses, each with its own deadline set by the host university. That is why honest November guidance names specific courses rather than “DAAD” in general. One verified November closing is the MSc in Development Economics at the University of Göttingen, whose application window for DAAD EPOS candidates runs from 1 October to 15 November 2026, closing at 23:59 CET, for winter-semester 2027 entry.

EPOS funding at master’s level is €992 per month (the older €934 figure still circulating on blogs is superseded), plus health, accident and personal liability insurance, a travel allowance, and — under defined conditions — a monthly rent subsidy and allowances for accompanying family members. Doctoral EPOS candidates receive €1,300 per month. Eligibility is professional as much as academic: you need a bachelor’s degree normally completed within the last six years, above-average results, and at least two years of relevant professional experience after your degree. Göttingen’s Development Economics programme additionally expects a strong economics background and English at IELTS 7.0 or TOEFL iBT 95 level — check the course page for the exact current requirements, because EPOS courses set their own language thresholds.

The practical lesson generalises: if you want EPOS funding, download the official EPOS course list from the DAAD website and filter it by deadline month. Several courses closed in August–October 2026 and are gone; others close later in the winter. November applicants should work only from the live course list, never from last year’s blog roundups. For the full programme picture, see our dedicated guide to the DAAD Scholarship.

3. Yenching Academy, Peking University — closes 30 November 2026

The Yenching Academy at Peking University offers a fully funded, interdisciplinary master’s degree in China Studies, taught in English in Beijing. For the 2027 cohort, the application deadline for international applicants (and applicants from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) is 30 November 2026 at 9:00 am Beijing time — a morning deadline in China, which means the evening of 29 November in the Americas and the small hours in South Asia. Convert the deadline into your own time zone today, not on submission day.

The fellowship covers full tuition, accommodation in the Yenching Academy residential college, a monthly living stipend, round-trip airfare between your home country and Beijing, and field study expenses. Around 120 scholars are admitted each year, roughly three-quarters of them international. Eligibility requires a bachelor’s degree in any field (or enrolment in a bachelor’s programme with graduation expected by August 2027), a strong academic record, an interdisciplinary interest in China, and evidence of leadership and community contribution. English requirements are demanding: IELTS 7.0 or TOEFL iBT 100 or an accepted equivalent, with tests dated after 1 September 2025, unless you qualify for an exemption as a native speaker or graduate of an English-taught programme.

Two traps catch Yenching applicants every year. First, applicants from the Academy’s Partner Universities must go through an internal pre-selection process whose deadline falls in October or early November — well before 30 November. If your university is a partner institution, your real deadline may already be imminent or past; check with your fellowships office immediately. Second, the written components — a personal statement of up to 750 words and a statement of research interest of up to 1,500 words — carry decisive weight and cannot be drafted credibly in a weekend.

4. Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship, University of Toronto — early November 2026

The Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship is the University of Toronto’s most prestigious undergraduate award for international students, covering tuition, books, incidental fees and full residence support for four years, with roughly 37 scholars named each year. Its structure is different from an open application: your school must nominate you. For the current cycle the school nomination deadline fell on 9 October 2026, and nominated students then complete their admission application through OUAC and submit the scholarship application itself in early November 2026 (listed as 6 November 2026 for this cycle).

We include Pearson in this November roundup with that caveat stated plainly: if you were not nominated by your school in October, you cannot apply in November, and no amount of deadline-week effort changes that. If you were nominated, November is your execution window — complete the OUAC application and the scholarship application exactly as Toronto instructs, and confirm the precise closing date and time on the official University of Toronto Pearson page, because the date is set per cycle. If you are a younger student reading this for a future year, the real Pearson lesson is a September one: ask your school counsellor about nomination the moment the school year begins.

5. Berea College — 30 November 2026

Berea College in Kentucky is unique in the United States: it serves students of limited economic means, and its international scholarship covers the full cost of education — tuition, room, board and fees — for the first year, with students contributing through a work programme and defined arrangements in later years. Berea admits only a small number of international students each year (historically around 30, typically no more than one or two from any single country), which makes it simultaneously one of the most generous and most competitive undergraduate routes in the US. The international application deadline for the coming cycle falls at the end of November 2026 (30 November). Because Berea’s funding model and admissions quota work differently from larger universities, read the college’s own international admissions pages carefully and confirm the current deadline and package on berea.edu before applying.

What Opens in November 2026: Start These the Day the Portal Opens

November is also an opening month, and experienced applicants treat openings as deadlines in reverse — the earlier you file a complete application in a rolling or quota-based system, the safer you are.

Stipendium Hungaricum (Hungary) — the Hungarian government’s fully funded programme (tuition, accommodation contribution, monthly stipend and medical insurance for bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral study) opens its 2027/28 application period in November 2026; Hungarian universities confirm that the next application period starts in November 2026, following the pattern of the previous cycle, which closed on 15 January 2026 at 14:00 CET. The exact 2027/28 closing date had not been officially published when this article was written, so treat mid-January 2027 as the expected close based on the previous cycle (official date TBC) — and remember that your own country’s sending partner may set an earlier national deadline.

Commonwealth Shared Scholarships (UK) — the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission has confirmed through its official university-bids guidance that candidate applications for the next round are expected to open soon after early November 2026 and close in mid-December 2026, once the eligible course list is published. November is therefore your preparation month for a December closing; the full picture is in our December 2026 deadlines roundup and our guide to the Commonwealth Scholarship.

Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters — individual consortium programmes open on their own calendars through the autumn. The Erasmus Mundus Journalism, Media and Globalisation programme, for example, runs its application period from 1 November 2026 to 10 January 2027. Many other Erasmus Mundus programmes open in October–November and close between December and February; the only reliable method is to work through the official Erasmus Mundus Catalogue programme by programme. Our overview of Erasmus Mundus explains how the funding (participation costs plus a monthly allowance for up to 24 months) works.

Honest Corrections: Two Famous Programmes That Do NOT Close in November 2026

Chevening (UK) is described on hundreds of websites as an “early November deadline” scholarship, because in many past cycles applications did close in early November. For the 2027–28 cycle, however, Chevening’s published timeline shows applications opened on 4 August 2026 and closed on 6 October 2026 — a fact our own programme reporting confirmed when the cycle closed. If you missed it, November is not a Chevening application month; it is the month to build the leadership record, course shortlist and referee relationships that a 2027 application (for 2028 entry) will need. See our Chevening Scholarship guide for the eligibility rules, including the two years of work experience requirement.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars (Stanford, USA) likewise closed its 2027-cohort application on 6 October 2026 at 1:00 pm Pacific Time, per Stanford’s official pages. However, Knight-Hennessy applicants still face a December task: the separate Stanford graduate programme application must be submitted by the programme’s own deadline or 1 December 2026, whichever is earlier. That December date appears, correctly, in our December roundup.

We labour this point because deadline misinformation is the single most expensive error in scholarship planning. A wrong month does not just waste an application — it wastes the referee goodwill, test sittings and document legalisations you spent on it.

Week-by-Week Action Plan for November 2026

How to Apply: Step by Step for November Deadlines

1. Build your November list from official pages only. Start from the programmes in this article and the StudyGraduate scholarships directory, then confirm every date on the official programme website. Write each deadline in the programme’s own time zone (Pacific Time for UBC, CET for DAAD, Beijing time for Yenching) and convert it to your local time in writing.
2. Check eligibility before writing anything. November programmes are unusually specific: UBC requires you to be entering directly from secondary school; EPOS requires two years of post-degree professional experience; Yenching requires graduation by August 2027 and high English scores. Ten minutes of eligibility checking saves ten days of wasted writing.
3. Trigger every third-party task on day one. School nominations (UBC, Pearson), teacher and professor references (all programmes), and employer recommendation letters (EPOS) are the parts you cannot control at the deadline. Send the requests, with the deadline and submission instructions, the moment you decide to apply.
4. Assemble certified documents early. Transcripts, degree certificates, passport copies and — for EPOS — employment certificates and the DAAD application form and checklist. If a document needs translation or legalisation in your country, November is too late to start that process for a 15 November deadline; prioritise the programmes whose document sets you can genuinely complete.
5. Draft, then cut, your essays. UBC’s award questions are short (roughly 150–250 words each) and reward specific evidence of leadership and need; Yenching’s research statement rewards a precise, feasible research interest. Write long, then edit down to the limit — never pad up to it.
6. Submit 48–72 hours early. Every November portal named in this article has a hard cutoff measured in a foreign time zone. Submitting two days early converts a potential catastrophe (a crashed portal, a referee who has not clicked submit) into a manageable problem.
7. Save proof of submission. Download or screenshot the confirmation for every application, and record the exact date and time you submitted. If a technical dispute ever arises, that receipt is your only evidence.
8. Immediately pivot to December. The moment your November submissions are in, turn to the December list — Gates Cambridge’s 8 December international deadline and the mid-December Commonwealth Shared close are only weeks away. Use our deadline tracker and planning tools to keep the sequence visible.

Required Documents: The November Checklist

• Identity and citizenship: valid passport (data page) — required by virtually every programme; if yours expires before mid-2027, renew it now.
• Academic records: transcripts and certificates for all completed qualifications, plus to-date transcripts if you are still studying, with certified English translations where the originals are in another language.
• English proficiency: test scores meeting each programme’s own threshold (for example, Yenching’s IELTS 7.0 / TOEFL iBT 100 dated after 1 September 2025; Göttingen EPOS’s programme-specific requirement). UBC applicants must meet the English Language Admission Standard by 31 January 2027.
• References: school nomination and teacher reference (UBC); two academic recommendations from full or associate professors (Yenching); employer recommendation and employment certificates proving two years of experience (DAAD EPOS).
• Financial documentation (UBC): annual family income and expenses, assets, dependants and school fees — the International Scholars application is an in-depth financial assessment, so gather real figures from your family before you begin.
• Written components: UBC’s four short essay questions; Yenching’s personal statement (750 words) and statement of research interest (1,500 words); EPOS letter of motivation and completed DAAD application form with signed checklist.

Common Mistakes That Kill November Applications

• Trusting last year’s deadline. Chevening’s October close this cycle is the textbook example. Cycles move; verify the current one.
• Time-zone errors. 11:59 pm Pacific, 23:59 CET and 9:00 am Beijing are three different moments. Yenching’s morning deadline in China is the previous evening for applicants in the Americas.
• Starting nomination-based applications in deadline week. If your school has not nominated you for UBC or Pearson, there is no application to submit. Third-party steps come first.
• Applying to DAAD EPOS as if it were one scholarship. EPOS deadlines live at course level. A “DAAD deadline” copied from a blog may belong to a different course in a different month.
• Underestimating the UBC financial section. Applicants who invent round numbers instead of documenting real family finances undermine the need assessment at the heart of the award.
• Treating “fully funded” as “no money needed ever.” Application fees, test fees, document legalisation and — where an award is need-based rather than full-cost — a family contribution may still apply. Read each programme’s funding terms.
• Ignoring what opens in November. Applicants who spend the whole month only on closings arrive at the Stipendium Hungaricum and Commonwealth Shared portals weeks after prepared competitors.

FAQs

Which fully funded scholarships actually close in November 2026?

The verified November 2026 closings covered in this article are the UBC International Scholars Program (15 November), the DAAD EPOS MSc Development Economics course at Göttingen (15 November), the Yenching Academy Scholarship (30 November), the Lester B. Pearson scholarship application for school-nominated students (early November), and Berea College’s international deadline (30 November). Other programmes often listed for November — notably Chevening and Knight-Hennessy — closed in October 2026 this cycle.

Is Chevening’s deadline in November 2026?

No. Although Chevening closed in early November in many earlier cycles, the 2027–28 cycle opened on 4 August 2026 and closed on 6 October 2026. If you missed it, the next application window is expected in August 2027 for 2028 entry; use the intervening months to build work experience and leadership evidence.

Can I still apply to UBC International Scholars if I start in November?

Yes, if you move immediately: the application opened on 5 October 2026 and closes on 15 November 2026 at 11:59 pm Pacific Time. You must initiate the application, secure a school nomination and request a teacher referee, so contact your school on the first day. Admission documents and English-standard evidence are due later, by 31 January 2027.

What does DAAD EPOS pay in 2026?

EPOS master’s scholars receive €992 per month, plus insurance, a travel allowance and, under certain conditions, rent subsidy and family allowances. Doctoral scholars receive €1,300 per month. Older pages quoting €934 per month are out of date.

Does the Yenching Academy deadline apply worldwide at the same moment?

Yes — 30 November 2026 at 9:00 am Beijing time is a single global moment. That is 29 November in the evening in North and South America and the early hours of 30 November in South Asia. Convert it to your time zone and submit a day early. Note also that Partner University applicants face earlier internal deadlines.

What scholarships open in November 2026?

Stipendium Hungaricum’s 2027/28 application period starts in November 2026 (expected to close in mid-January 2027, official date TBC), Commonwealth Shared Scholarships are expected to open for candidates in November 2026 ahead of a mid-December close, and many Erasmus Mundus Joint Master programmes — including Mundus Journalism, whose window runs 1 November 2026 to 10 January 2027 — open or are open during November.

I missed a November deadline. Is my year wasted?

No. December brings Gates Cambridge’s international round (8 December 2026 for many courses) and the Commonwealth Shared close, January brings a large cluster of deadlines, and February brings Türkiye Burslari and the Swedish Institute. Work through our January 2027 deadlines roundup and browse the universities directory to build a rolling 90-day plan instead of a single-month gamble.

Sources & Verification

• University of British Columbia — 2027 International Scholars Program Application (deadline 15 November 2026, 11:59 pm Pacific Time) and UBC’s International Scholars programme pages (award categories, 31 January 2027 document deadline).
• DAAD — DAAD Scholarship Database and DAAD EPOS programme information (€992/month master’s rate; course-level deadlines, including Göttingen Development Economics, 1 October – 15 November).
• Yenching Academy, Peking University — admissions information for the 2027 cohort (deadline 30 November 2026, 9:00 am Beijing time), corroborated by the University of Pennsylvania’s CURF Yenching Academy page.
• University of Nyíregyháza — Stipendium Hungaricum notice (2026/27 deadline 15 January 2026; next application period starts November 2026).
• Commonwealth Scholarship Commission — Commonwealth Shared Scholarship university-bids guidance (candidate applications expected to open after early November 2026, closing mid-December 2026).
• Gates Cambridge Trust and Stanford Knight-Hennessy Scholars — official timelines used for the December and October cross-references in this article.

Disclaimer: Scholarship details, amounts and deadlines change every cycle. Everything above was checked against official sources in October 2026, but you must 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 for any programme.