GREAT Scholarships 2027 in the UK for Master’s Students: Guide by Country

The GREAT Scholarships are one of the most widely available postgraduate funding opportunities in the United Kingdom — and one of the most misunderstood. They offer £10,000 towards tuition fees for a wide range of one-year taught postgraduate courses, they are jointly funded by the UK government’s GREAT Britain Campaign and the British Council together with participating UK universities, and in the 2026-27 academic year — the latest cycle published on the official Study UK website at the time of writing — over 140 scholarships are offered by over 60 universities across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, for students from 18 countries. What they are not is a fully funded scholarship. £10,000 is a substantial contribution, but most international master’s tuition fees in the UK are higher than £10,000, and the award does not pay your rent, your visa, your flights or your living costs. Students who understand that from the start, and build the rest of their budget honestly, use GREAT very successfully. Students who read “£10,000 scholarship” as “free master’s degree” discover the gap too late.

This guide is organised by country, because that is how the programme itself works. There is no single GREAT application portal and no single GREAT deadline. Each scholarship is tied to a country, a university and often a specific set of courses: you check your country’s page on the official Study UK website, find which universities are offering GREAT Scholarships to students from your country, apply for an eligible one-year taught master’s at one of those universities, and then follow that university’s own scholarship application process and deadline. Applicants must be passport holders and residents of an eligible country, hold an undergraduate degree that meets the university’s entry requirements, meet the English language requirement of the chosen institution, and — in the pattern the British Council describes — be willing to engage as a GREAT scholar and ambassador, including attending the welcome and networking events to which all GREAT scholars are invited. If you are from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria or one of the other eligible countries listed below, GREAT should be on your shortlist alongside fully funded awards such as the one described in our Chevening Scholarship guide. Start your wider search in the scholarships directory, browse institutions in the universities directory, and compare destinations in our study abroad section.

GREAT Scholarships at a Glance

A note on years, because the naming confuses applicants every cycle. This article is titled for 2027 entry, and the cycle you will most often be applying into is described by the British Council by academic year — 2026-27 is the latest cycle fully published on the official GREAT Scholarships page on Study UK at the time of writing, with its 18-country list, its figure of over 140 scholarships and over 60 universities. Country lists, participating universities and course eligibility can change from one academic year to the next, and a university that offered a GREAT award to your country last year may not do so this year, or may offer it for different courses. That is why every step in this guide ends at the same place: your country’s dedicated page on Study UK, and then the participating university’s own scholarship page. Those two pages, for your cycle, override any guide — including this one.

Guide by Country: Who Is Eligible for 2026-27

For the 2026-27 academic year, the British Council states that GREAT Scholarships are available to students from the following 18 countries: Bangladesh, China, Egypt, France, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. On each country’s dedicated page on Study UK you will find the comprehensive list of universities providing scholarships to students from that specific country, details of which courses are covered, and how to apply. The pattern across the programme is that each participating university typically offers a scholarship for students from a given country — often described as one scholarship per country per university — so your real competition pool is applicants from your own country applying to that university, not the whole world. The country notes below focus on the countries most relevant to StudyGraduate readers, and on what applicants from each should check first.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh is on the 2026-27 eligible country list. Bangladeshi applicants should start on the Bangladesh country page on Study UK, note which universities are offering awards to Bangladesh for their intended intake, and check whether their target course is among the covered courses at each university — course coverage, not just university participation, decides eligibility. Because Bangladeshi applicants are also a core audience for Chevening and Commonwealth awards, treat GREAT as one layer in a funding stack: apply for the fully funded awards you qualify for, and use GREAT, where offered, to close the tuition gap at a university you would genuinely attend.

India

India is on the 2026-27 list, and Indian applicants typically have one of the widest choices of participating universities. The same breadth creates the main Indian-applicant mistake: applying to a university for GREAT without checking whether that university’s GREAT award for India covers your specific course and intake. Check course-level eligibility, the university’s own deadline — Indian applicants should expect many deadlines in spring for September entry — and whether the university requires you to hold an offer before your scholarship application is considered.

Pakistan

Pakistan is on the 2026-27 list. Pakistani applicants should follow the Pakistan country page carefully, because the set of universities offering awards to Pakistan changes between cycles. Build your budget on the assumption that GREAT covers £10,000 of tuition only: you will still need to show, for visa purposes and for yourself, that the remaining tuition and your living costs are funded. A GREAT award strengthens an application file, but it does not replace the financial evidence the visa process requires.

Indonesia

Indonesia is on the 2026-27 list. Indonesian applicants comparing a UK master’s with options in Asia should note the distinctive shape of GREAT: a one-year taught master’s, a fixed £10,000 tuition contribution, and a deadline and process owned by the university, not by an Indonesian government body or embassy. There is no Indonesian nomination stage for GREAT. Your application stands or falls at the university, on your course application, your academic record and your scholarship statement where one is required.

Nigeria

Nigeria is on the 2026-27 list. Nigerian applicants should check the Nigeria country page for the current university list and be especially careful about deadlines and deposit requirements: some universities ask scholarship recipients to pay a tuition deposit within a short period to secure the award, and those terms are set by the university. Read the offer and scholarship conditions together, not separately, before accepting.

The other eligible countries

China, Egypt, France, Ghana, Greece, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam complete the 18-country list for 2026-27. The same rules apply to applicants from each: passport holder and resident of the country, an eligible one-year taught postgraduate course at a university participating for that country, and an application made through the university by its deadline. Applicants from France, Greece, Italy and Spain should additionally check fee-status and course rules carefully with the university, because their wider UK fee and visa position differs from non-European applicants. If your country is not on the list for your cycle, you are not eligible for GREAT that year — do not apply in hope; instead use our rankings and scholarships directory to find university and government awards that do include your country.

Eligibility in Full

Across the programme, the British Council’s model and the participating universities’ published criteria share a common core. You must be a citizen or passport holder of an eligible country, and resident in that country — universities commonly phrase this as holding a passport from, and living in, the eligible country at the time of application. You must hold an undergraduate degree that enables entry to a UK postgraduate programme, and meet the specific academic entry requirement of your chosen course, which may be higher than the general minimum. You must be applying for, or hold an offer for, a one-year taught postgraduate course at a participating university — research degrees, undergraduate degrees, part-time courses and courses longer than one year generally fall outside the GREAT model, and universities also commonly exclude distance-learning, PGCert and PGDip provision, so check the course rules precisely. You must meet the English language requirement of the UK institution. And you are expected to engage with the programme beyond the money: the British Council describes GREAT scholars attending a welcome event in the first semester and a networking event in the second, and scholars are expected to act as ambassadors for the programme and stay in contact with the British Council and their university as alumni.

Individual universities add their own conditions on top of that core — for example a minimum degree classification or equivalent, a requirement not to have previously studied in the UK in some universities’ schemes, course-specific exclusions, or a deadline by which a deposit must be paid if you win. None of those extra conditions can be guessed from the programme-level description. Read the scholarship page of the exact university, for the exact intake, before you apply to the course, because the cheapest time to discover an exclusion is before you have paid an application fee or turned down another offer.

Benefits and Coverage: What £10,000 Does and Does Not Do

Put practical numbers on that, using an example rather than a promise. If your one-year master’s tuition fee is £24,000 and you receive a GREAT Scholarship, £10,000 is applied towards tuition and £14,000 of tuition remains, before living costs. If your fee is £15,000, £5,000 remains. The award therefore changes the affordability calculation most at universities where total fees are moderate, and it can be combined — where the university’s terms allow — with other university discounts or with your own or family funding for the balance. Always ask the university, in writing, whether GREAT can be held alongside any other award it offers you, because stacking rules are university-specific. And use the budget planners in our tools section to model the full year — tuition balance, rent, food, transport, visa-related costs and a contingency — before you accept an offer, not after.

Programs and Fields of Study

GREAT is deliberately broad: the British Council describes the awards as covering a wide range of one-year taught postgraduate courses, and participating universities span comprehensive research universities, specialist institutions and modern universities across all four UK nations. In practice, eligible fields in recent cycles have included business and management, law, engineering, computer science and data, public health, education, social sciences, humanities, creative subjects and sciences — but the operative word is “participating”: a field is only eligible for you if a university participating for your country lists that course for your intake. Some universities open GREAT to almost any taught master’s for the eligible country; others restrict it to named courses or faculties, sometimes linked to priority themes for that cycle. Two applicants from the same country can therefore face completely different eligible course lists because they chose different universities. There is no shortcut around reading the country page and the university page for your exact course.

That breadth also makes GREAT a useful comparison tool. If two universities both offer your course and both participate for your country, the one where GREAT is available — and where any remaining tuition balance is lower — may be the financially rational choice even if it is not the more famous name. Check teaching, course content and outcomes first, using course pages and our university profiles, then apply the funding comparison. A £10,000 award at a university whose course genuinely fits your goals is worth more than a speculative application to a course you do not want, made only because a scholarship is attached to it.

How to Apply, Step by Step

Step 1 — Confirm your country is eligible for your cycle. Go to the Study UK GREAT Scholarships page and check the country list for the academic year you want to start. If your country is not listed for that year, stop and choose other funding.

Step 2 — Open your country’s dedicated page. The British Council provides a page per eligible country listing the universities offering GREAT Scholarships to students from that country, the courses covered and how to apply at each. Make a shortlist from that page only — not from general internet lists, which are often a cycle out of date.

Step 3 — Choose your course and university together. For each shortlisted university, confirm your exact course is eligible, check its entry requirements and English requirement, and note the scholarship deadline and whether an offer is required before the scholarship decision.

Step 4 — Apply for the course. Submit your university application well before the scholarship deadline, with transcripts, references, personal statement and English evidence as the university requires. A scholarship application built on a weak or late course application rarely recovers.

Step 5 — Secure your offer where required. Many universities consider GREAT applicants from among offer holders, or require an offer by a stated date. If your university decides scholarships before offers are finalised, follow its stated sequence instead — the university’s instructions govern.

Step 6 — Complete the university’s GREAT application. This may be a separate scholarship form, a statement or essay, or consideration based on your course application, depending on the university. Where a statement is required, address the themes the programme itself values: academic merit, motivation for this course and university, your plans after the degree, and your willingness to engage as a GREAT scholar and ambassador. Be specific; generic praise of the UK convinces no one.

Step 7 — Submit before the university’s deadline and keep evidence. Deadlines are set by each university and are typically in spring for autumn entry, though some intakes and universities differ. Save your submission confirmation and note any deposit deadline attached to a successful outcome.

Step 8 — Respond promptly if you are selected. Accept the scholarship on the university’s terms, pay any required deposit within the window given, and then complete your visa preparation using official UK guidance, with financial evidence covering the remaining tuition and living costs. A GREAT award does not guarantee a visa, and the visa assessment looks at your full funding position.

Required Documents

Because applications are made to universities, there is no single GREAT document list. A complete file for a typical participating university will draw on the following, so prepare them early and in the format each university specifies:

• Passport evidence showing your nationality, supporting your status as a passport holder and resident of an eligible country.
• Undergraduate degree certificate and full academic transcripts, with certified translations if they are not in English and the university requires them.
• Evidence that you meet the course’s academic entry requirement, including any degree classification or GPA conversion the university applies.
• English language evidence meeting the institution’s requirement, such as an accepted test result or other evidence the university specifies for your course.
• Your course application materials: personal statement, CV where requested, and academic or professional references in the university’s format.
• The university’s GREAT scholarship application form, statement or essay, where a separate scholarship application is required.
• Your offer letter, where the university requires offer-holder status for scholarship consideration.

Check names and dates across documents, and keep digital copies of everything. If a university sets a scholarship deadline before final degree results are available in your country, follow its instructions about predicted or interim results rather than assuming an exception will be made for you later.

Deadlines and Timeline

The single most important sentence in this section is that there is no programme-wide GREAT deadline. Any website that gives you one date for “the GREAT Scholarship deadline” is describing one university, or is wrong. Your deadline is the one on your chosen university’s scholarship page for your country, your course and your intake. Put that date — and the earlier internal dates for course application and offer — into your own tracker, and work backwards from it.

Selection Criteria and How to Improve Your Chances

Selection is made by the participating universities within the programme’s framework, so criteria are applied at university level. In practice, committees weigh academic merit — your degree result and its relevance to the course; the quality of your course application and any scholarship statement; clear motivation for this course at this university; a credible plan for what the master’s enables next; and fit with the scholar role, including willingness to participate in the GREAT community and to act as an ambassador. Because the typical pattern is a scholarship per country per university, your chances depend heavily on choices you control: picking a university and course where you are genuinely competitive, rather than only the most oversubscribed names, and submitting a complete, early, course-specific application.

Practical ways to improve your position: apply for the course early so scholarship consideration is not rushed; tailor any statement to the actual course modules and your post-degree plan; show, with evidence, how you will fund the remaining costs — committees prefer applicants who can actually enrol; engage honestly with the ambassador element rather than treating it as a formality; and apply to more than one participating university where the country page lists several options open to you, as long as each application is properly tailored. Do not submit identical generic statements to multiple universities — assessors can tell, and the courses differ enough that a generic statement is a weak statement everywhere.

Common Mistakes

The costliest mistake is treating GREAT as fully funded and failing to plan for the tuition balance and living costs. Next is applying to a university or course that is not participating for your country in your cycle, often because an out-of-date listicle said it was. Other frequent errors: missing a university-set deadline while waiting for a non-existent central deadline; assuming any postgraduate course qualifies, including research, part-time or distance-learning courses that the university excludes; applying for the scholarship before checking whether an offer is required first; ignoring deposit conditions after winning; and assuming GREAT can automatically be combined with every other discount the university advertises. Each of these is avoidable by the same habit: read your country page, then your university’s page, then your course page — in that order, for your cycle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the GREAT Scholarship fully funded?

No. It provides £10,000 towards tuition fees for a one-year taught postgraduate course. You remain responsible for any remaining tuition and for living costs, travel and visa-related costs.

Which countries are eligible?

For 2026-27, the British Council lists 18 countries: Bangladesh, China, Egypt, France, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. Check the list for your own cycle, as it can change.

How many GREAT Scholarships are there?

Over 140 scholarships are offered by over 60 universities across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in the 2026-27 academic year, according to the British Council.

Do I apply to the British Council for GREAT?

No. You apply through the participating university. Start from your country’s page on Study UK, which lists the universities and courses for your country and explains how to apply at each.

What is the GREAT Scholarship deadline?

There is no single deadline. Each university sets its own, typically in spring for autumn entry. Your deadline is the one published by your chosen university for your intake.

Can I use GREAT for an undergraduate degree, a PhD or a two-year master’s?

The programme is for one-year taught postgraduate courses. Undergraduate degrees, research degrees and longer or part-time courses generally fall outside it — check your university’s course eligibility rules for any specific provision.

Do I need an offer before I can be considered?

Many universities consider GREAT applicants who hold, or have applied for, an eligible course offer, and some require an offer by a stated date. The exact sequence is set by the university — follow its scholarship page.

What else do GREAT scholars receive besides the money?

All GREAT scholars are invited to a welcome event in the first semester and a networking event in the second semester, and scholars are expected to engage with the British Council and their university as ambassadors and alumni.

Sources and Verification

This guide was prepared from official sources: the British Council’s Study UK GREAT Scholarships pages (study-uk.britishcouncil.org), including the programme description — £10,000 towards tuition for one-year taught postgraduate courses, jointly funded by the UK government’s GREAT Britain Campaign and the British Council with participating institutions, over 140 scholarships at over 60 universities in 2026-27, the 18-country list for 2026-27, the country-page application model, and the welcome and networking events for GREAT scholars — supplemented by participating universities’ published GREAT criteria for common conditions such as passport-holder and resident status, course exclusions and deposit requirements, which vary by university and are flagged as university-specific wherever they appear above.

Disclaimer: Scholarship details change yearly — always confirm deadlines, amounts, eligible countries, courses and application rules on the official British Council Study UK website and on your chosen university’s scholarship page before applying. StudyGraduate is an information portal, not an agency, and cannot promise selection, admission or visa approval.