King’s College London Scholarships for International Students 2026/27

King’s College London funds international students differently from its London rivals, and applicants who understand the shape of that funding save themselves a great deal of wasted effort. King’s does not operate one giant central scholarship for all international students. Instead, its funding is a mosaic: country-specific awards such as the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for India-domiciled postgraduates, school-level schemes such as the King’s Business School master’s scholarships and its GREAT Scholarships, deep faculty funding in law through the Dickson Poon School of Law — at both undergraduate and PhD level — and a searchable funding database of dozens of smaller awards that most applicants never look at. The skill at King’s is not finding the scholarship; it is assembling your combination from the mosaic.

This guide walks through King’s College London scholarships for international students for 2026/27 scheme by scheme, using only values and deadlines published on King’s own website for that cycle. You will find who each award is for, what it is worth, when it closes, and — just as importantly — the eligibility traps hidden in the small print, such as awards restricted to your first postgraduate degree, to full-time on-campus study, or to students who accepted their offer by a fixed date. Where a scheme’s 2026/27 round had closed by the time of writing, the dates are presented as the last published cycle, so you can plan the next one realistically.

For King’s rankings, courses, entry requirements and fees, start with our full King’s College London profile. For the national schemes that King’s students also hold — Chevening, Commonwealth and GREAT across all universities — see our guide to scholarships in the UK, and browse the wider StudyGraduate scholarships directory to compare King’s with other London universities before you commit.

King’s Scholarships at a Glance

Two patterns should shape your reading of this table. First, almost every King’s award is a tuition fee reduction, not cash: it shrinks your fee bill, it does not pay your rent. Your living-cost plan must stand independently. Second, the deadlines cluster tightly in late May for taught postgraduate awards, and much earlier — the previous December — for law PhD funding. A King’s funding plan is built backwards from those two facts.

Vice-Chancellor’s Awards: For India-Domiciled Postgraduates

The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards are King’s flagship country-specific scheme, launched in 2024 and spearheaded by King’s Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Shitij Kapur. In their third year, for September 2026 entry, King’s official announcement and award page confirm:

• Up to 40 awards, each worth £5,000, applied as a tuition fee reduction;
• Open to students domiciled in India who have received an offer to study their first on-campus postgraduate degree at King’s, starting in September 2026, full-time and on campus;
• Available across eight faculties: Arts & Humanities; the Dickson Poon School of Law; the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience; King’s Business School; Life Sciences & Medicine; Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences; Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care; and Social Science & Public Policy;
• Applicants must show how they will use their skills and knowledge to enhance society after their studies, and how they will make the most of their time at King’s academically and personally — the award is impact-framed, not purely grades-framed;
• The award is a fee reduction only: it is applied to your tuition fee account, no cash alternative is offered, and any remaining fee liability is yours.

The mechanics matter as much as the criteria. King’s award page for the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards 2026-27 states that prospective students should have submitted their study application by 25 April 2026 to have the best chance of a decision in time, must have accepted their study offer by 31 May 2026 to be eligible to apply, with deposits paid by the deadline on the offer — and the award application deadline itself was 31 May 2026 at 23:00. Eligible offer holders are given the opportunity to apply when they are made an offer. In other words: this is not an award you can chase after accepting late in the summer. If you are an Indian applicant targeting the next cycle, your real deadline is the April study-application date, not the May award date.

Who is excluded? Students who already hold a postgraduate degree (this must be your first postgraduate degree), distance-learning and part-time students, and anyone starting outside September 2026. By the time of writing, the 2026/27 round had closed; King’s has run the scheme for three consecutive years, but a future round is never guaranteed — check the funding database for the next cycle’s status rather than assuming renewal.

GREAT Scholarships at King’s Business School

King’s participation in the GREAT Scholarships 2026 programme sits inside King’s Business School, and its official pages are precise about scope. In partnership with the British Council and the GREAT Britain Campaign, King’s Business School offered 7 scholarships for 2026/27:

• Each worth £10,000, awarded as a reduction in course fees;
• For students from France, Greece, Italy, Malaysia, Spain, Thailand and Vietnam — you must be both a passport holder and a resident of one of these countries;
• You must be an offer holder on a full-time, one-year postgraduate course at King’s Business School, from the published list of eligible MSc programmes (which spans the School’s finance, management, marketing, HRM and related degrees);
• The published application deadline was 24 May 2026 at 23:59, with applicants notified by the end of June 2026;
• Eligible offer holders were emailed an invitation to apply, with a short written assessment forming part of the application;
• You may apply alongside other postgraduate scholarships, but you may only accept one.

Two cautions follow. First, do not generalise this scheme: the wider GREAT Scholarships 2026 programme supports postgraduates from a much longer list of countries at more than 60 UK universities — King’s official GREAT page names Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam among the programme’s countries — but King’s Business School’s own seven awards were restricted to the seven countries above. If you are from India or Bangladesh, GREAT money exists in the UK for you, just not through this particular King’s scheme in this cycle. Second, because King’s GREAT awards live in the Business School, an offer for a non-KBS master’s — however strong — does not make you eligible. Full details are on King’s official GREAT Scholarships page.

King’s Business School MSc Scholarships

King’s Business School runs its own suite of master’s scholarships alongside GREAT, published on its official postgraduate scholarships page. For international applicants, the most relevant are:

• Global Scholarships — up to £10,000: for successful applicants who are nationals of countries outside Europe; the School particularly welcomes applications from students in the Global South. For applicants from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria and Indonesia, this is the King’s Business School award most likely to fit.
• Future Financial Leaders — up to £10,000: for offer holders on named finance and economics MSc programmes (including Banking & Finance, Economics & Finance, and the Finance (Asset Pricing) and Finance (Corporate Finance) degrees) who demonstrate a passion for finance and economics and a plan to build a career in the field.
• Future Sustainability Leaders — up to £10,000: for successful applicants who demonstrate passion for and experience in sustainability and responsible business.
• Hinduja Scholarships: for Indian citizens holding an offer for the MSc MedTech Innovation & Entrepreneurship programme — one scholarship covering 80% of international tuition fees and four covering 50%. This is one of the largest percentage awards available to any international master’s student at King’s, attached to a single specialised programme.
• European Scholarships — up to £10,000: for European nationals who can demonstrate academic excellence.

The Business School also lists scholarships for under-represented groups and a dedicated Executive MBA funding page. Values are published as “up to” figures — the panel decides the actual award per recipient — and scheme availability is refreshed per cycle, so treat the School’s page, checked in your application cycle, as the authority.

Law Funding: Dickson Poon Scholarships and Studentships

Law is King’s most generously funded faculty for international students, thanks to the Dickson Poon School of Law — and it funds both ends of the ladder.

Dickson Poon Undergraduate Law Scholarships

The Dickson Poon undergraduate scholarship programme has historically been the School’s flagship award for incoming LLB students, open to applicants of all nationalities applying through UCAS for an undergraduate law programme at King’s, and assessed purely on outstanding merit by a selection panel appointed by the Dean — with financial circumstances explicitly not taken into account. In recent published rounds the awards offered £5,000 per year for the duration of the degree, with complimentary King’s accommodation in the first year, and applications ran in two rounds across the autumn and early spring. Because undergraduate law funding arrangements are refreshed between cycles, treat those historic terms as an indication of the scheme’s shape rather than a promise for your year: confirm the current round, value and deadlines in King’s funding database and on the Dickson Poon School of Law pages before you rely on them, and note that an LLB application at King’s also involves the LNAT admissions test, on its own calendar.

Dickson Poon School of Law Studentship (PhD)

At doctoral level the offer is unambiguous and fully funded. The Dickson Poon School of Law Studentship is a full studentship awarded to an incoming PhD student in the School, for a proposed PhD in any legal research area and open to any nationality. It includes:

• Three years of tuition fees — at the Home or international rate;
• A maintenance stipend at the UKRI level (with London weighting, as King’s describes it);
• Coverage of the £350 “pending submission” fee in the fourth year, with a stipend for maintenance up to the date of submission.

To apply, you apply to the Law Research MPhil/PhD programme and, in the funding section of the King’s Apply application form, tick the box indicating you have applied to a King’s funding scheme and enter the award scheme code published for the cycle (LAW2026 for the October 2026 round). King’s law research pages stress a rule with teeth: you must apply in Round 1 to be considered for any internal law funding, and the Round 1 deadline for October 2026 entry was 1 December 2025. The same internal funding round covered two further fully funded studentships on the same pattern — the Centre of European Law Studentship for research related to the Centre’s themes, and the Nash Scholarship in construction law and dispute resolution — each with its own scheme code. Awards are valid only for the stated October start and cannot be deferred or transferred.

A note on the China-UK Legal Innovation LLM Scholarship

Law also hosts one of King’s largest taught-master’s awards: the China-UK Legal Innovation LLM Scholarship offered a full tuition fee waiver of £38,300 for 2026/27, for applicants permanently domiciled in mainland China, classified as Overseas fee status, holding an offer for the LLM or the LLM Pathway Law Non-Award programme, who did not already hold a postgraduate degree. Its application deadline was 31 May 2026. It is included here as evidence of a wider truth: King’s periodically publishes very large, very specific awards tied to one nationality and one programme. You will only ever find them in the funding database — which is why the next section may be the most valuable in this guide.

The King’s Funding Database: Where Most Awards Live

King’s maintains a searchable funding database of scholarships, bursaries and studentships across all faculties and levels — Arts & Humanities, Dentistry, Life Sciences & Medicine, Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences, Nursing, Social Science & Public Policy, the IoPPN and more. Postgraduate research funding in particular is advertised faculty by faculty: health and life-science institutes, the Business School and other departments periodically advertise doctoral studentships covering fees and a stipend (King’s Business School doctoral studentships for a recent cycle, for example, covered three years of tuition plus a tax-free stipend for four years at a published rate in the region of £23,805 for 2027/28, with a training and conference fund — check the current advertisement for the rate in your cycle). Small awards live here too, right down to schemes such as the King’s Prepare for Postgraduate Scholarships (nine awards of £1,050 towards the pre-sessional programme’s tuition in 2026). The database is not glamorous, but it is where the money that applicants actually win is listed. Search it by level, faculty and nationality at the start of your application — and again before you accept your offer, because new awards are added during the cycle.

External Scholarships Tenable at King’s

King’s students also arrive on the major external schemes. Chevening Scholarships fund one-year master’s degrees at King’s for future leaders from eligible countries, on Chevening’s own early calendar. Commonwealth Scholarships support master’s and PhD study for citizens of eligible Commonwealth countries, including Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nigeria. Home-government awards and education foundations place further students every year. These schemes combine with King’s own fee reductions only within each funder’s rules — note in particular that King’s Business School GREAT recipients may hold only one scholarship, and the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards are fee reductions whose terms you should check against any external full award before accepting both.

Eligibility: Patterns Across King’s Awards

• Offer first: nearly every King’s award requires you to hold — and usually to have accepted — an offer for the specified programme before you can apply. Admission timing is scholarship timing.
• Domicile and passport are different tests: the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards test domicile in India; King’s GREAT awards require both passport and residence in a listed country. Read which test your award uses.
• First-degree rules: several King’s awards (Vice-Chancellor’s; the China-UK LLM scholarship) are restricted to your first postgraduate degree.
• Full-time, on-campus, fixed start: the standard King’s pattern. Part-time, distance and deferred starts are usually excluded, and awards cannot be deferred.
• Fee reductions, not cash: King’s awards are applied to your tuition account; no cash alternative is offered.
• One-award rules: some schemes (GREAT at KBS) let you apply for several but accept only one.

Benefits: What King’s Funding Adds Up To

How to Apply: Step by Step

1. Apply to King’s early. Use UCAS for undergraduate programmes and the King’s Apply portal for postgraduate programmes. For the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards, King’s advised submitting the study application by 25 April 2026 for a September start — build your timeline backwards from equivalents in your cycle.
2. Search the funding database immediately. Filter by your level, faculty and nationality. List every award you are eligible for, with its deadline and whether it needs an accepted offer.
3. Accept your offer in time. Several awards (Vice-Chancellor’s, deadline 31 May 2026) require an accepted offer and a paid deposit by the award deadline.
4. Watch for the invitation. Eligible offer holders are emailed the opportunity to apply for awards such as GREAT and the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards. Check the inbox — and spam folder — of the email on your King’s application.
5. Write the impact statement properly. The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards ask how your studies will enhance society and how you will use your time at King’s; GREAT involves a short written assessment. Specific, credible, programme-linked answers win these.
6. For law PhD funding, apply in Round 1 with the scheme code. Tick the funding-scheme box on King’s Apply and enter the published code for each studentship you are eligible for.
7. Apply for external schemes in parallel. Chevening and Commonwealth run earlier than King’s own deadlines.
8. Meet every condition. Fee reductions are applied to your tuition account only once you enrol; residual fees remain your responsibility.

Required Documents

• Your King’s application record: transcripts, degree certificates and references as required by your programme (LNAT for undergraduate law; UCAT for medicine);
• Offer letter and evidence of offer acceptance and deposit payment where an award requires them;
• Passport and evidence of domicile/residence where an award tests them (India domicile for the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards; passport plus residence for GREAT);
• The award-specific written responses: impact statements (Vice-Chancellor’s), short written assessment (GREAT);
• For law PhD studentships: your research proposal and the King’s Apply funding section completed with the correct scheme code;
• English language evidence meeting your programme’s band requirement.

Deadlines and Timeline (2026/27 Cycle)

Selection Tips

Win the admission race first. Every King’s taught award sits downstream of an offer, and the most generous timelines belong to early applicants. An offer accepted in April can access the full May scholarship cluster; an offer accepted in July can access almost none of it.

Match the award’s story. The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards are explicitly about social impact and engagement with King’s; GREAT’s written assessment rewards ambassadorial potential; the KBS thematic scholarships reward demonstrated passion in finance or sustainability. Panels can tell when a statement was written for a different scholarship. Rewrite for each award’s stated purpose.

Exploit the mosaic. Applicants who search only for “King’s College London scholarships” find the famous schemes. Applicants who search the funding database by faculty find the Hindujas, the law studentships and the one-programme full-fee waivers. The second group wins more money per hour spent.

For law PhD funding, Round 1 is the whole game. Supervisor engagement, a mature proposal and a December submission — not a spring scramble — is how King’s law studentships are won.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Applying for the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards with a previous master’s. The scheme is for a first postgraduate degree only.
• Missing the offer-acceptance condition. For the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards, accepting after 31 May made applicants ineligible, however early they had applied to study.
• Assuming GREAT at King’s covers your country. King’s Business School’s 2026/27 awards covered seven countries only. The programme-wide country list is not King’s list.
• Treating a fee reduction as living-cost support. King’s awards reduce tuition accounts; they pay no rent and offer no cash alternative.
• Submitting a law PhD application in Round 2 and expecting internal funding. King’s states you must apply in Round 1 to be considered for internal law funding.
• Forgetting the scheme code. Law studentship consideration runs through the funding section of King’s Apply and the published code. No code, no consideration.
• Accepting two KBS awards. GREAT applicants may apply for other postgraduate scholarships but may accept only one.

Frequently Asked Questions

What scholarships does King’s College London offer international students in 2026/27?

The headline schemes are the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards (up to 40 × £5,000 for India-domiciled postgraduates), King’s Business School GREAT Scholarships (7 × £10,000 for seven listed countries) and its MSc scholarships (several up to £10,000, plus Hinduja awards covering 50–80% of fees on one MSc), the fully funded Dickson Poon Law PhD Studentship, and a large funding database of faculty and departmental awards. Most King’s awards are tuition fee reductions rather than cash.

Can Indian students get a scholarship at King’s?

Yes — India has a dedicated route. The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards offered up to 40 awards of £5,000 to India-domiciled students starting a first on-campus postgraduate degree in September 2026 across eight faculties, with an application deadline of 31 May 2026 and an accepted offer required by the same date. Indian citizens are also the target of the Hinduja Scholarships at King’s Business School and are eligible for the School’s Global Scholarships.

How much is the GREAT Scholarship at King’s?

£10,000 as a tuition fee reduction, with seven awards at King’s Business School for 2026/27 for passport holders and residents of France, Greece, Italy, Malaysia, Spain, Thailand and Vietnam holding offers for full-time one-year KBS postgraduate courses. The application deadline was 24 May 2026.

Does King’s offer any fully funded scholarships?

At PhD level, yes: the Dickson Poon School of Law Studentship covers three years of fees at the Home or international rate plus a UKRI-rate maintenance stipend, for any nationality and any legal research area, and other faculty doctoral studentships follow a similar pattern. At taught level, full coverage is rare and specific — for example the China-UK Legal Innovation LLM Scholarship’s full £38,300 fee waiver for mainland-China-domiciled LLM offer holders in 2026/27 — while external schemes such as Chevening and Commonwealth provide the main full-funding routes for master’s students.

What are the Dickson Poon Scholarships at King’s?

They are the law school’s named funding family. At PhD level, the Dickson Poon School of Law Studentship is a fully funded studentship (fees plus UKRI-rate stipend) applied for through King’s Apply using the published scheme code, with a Round 1 deadline of 1 December 2025 for October 2026 entry. At undergraduate level, the Dickson Poon LLB scholarships have historically offered merit-based support to incoming law students of all nationalities; check the current cycle’s terms in King’s funding database before relying on historic values.

Do I need an offer before applying for King’s scholarships?

For almost all King’s awards, yes — and for several you must have accepted the offer (and paid any deposit) by the scholarship deadline. This is why King’s funding rewards early admission applications: the scholarship deadlines in May assume an offer already in hand.

Can I combine a King’s scholarship with Chevening or another award?

It depends on both funders’ rules. King’s Business School states GREAT applicants may apply for other postgraduate scholarships but may accept only one. Chevening and Commonwealth have their own conditions. Always disclose awards to both sides and check compatibility before accepting.

When should I apply to King’s to maximise scholarship chances?

For September entry, treat the previous autumn and winter as your application season: law PhD funding required a 1 December application, and taught postgraduate awards clustered around deadlines in late May, with study applications advised by late April. Applying to King’s in the summer before entry leaves almost no scholarship routes open.

Sources & Verification

Verified against the following official sources at the time of writing (October 2026):

• King’s College London — Vice-Chancellor’s Awards 2026-27 and King’s announcement of the third round: up to 40 awards of £5,000, India domicile, first on-campus postgraduate degree, 31 May 2026 deadline and offer-acceptance condition.
• King’s College London — GREAT Scholarships and King’s Business School GREAT page: 7 awards of £10,000, seven eligible countries, 24 May 2026 deadline, notification by end of June 2026.
• King’s College London — Postgraduate MSc Scholarships, King’s Business School: Global, Future Financial Leaders, Future Sustainability Leaders and Hinduja scholarship details.
• King’s College London — Dickson Poon School of Law Studentship and Law Research programme pages: full fees plus UKRI-rate stipend, scheme code LAW2026, Round 1 deadline 1 December 2025; and the China-UK Legal Innovation LLM Scholarship page (full £38,300 fee waiver, deadline 31 May 2026).

Disclaimer: Scholarship details, amounts and deadlines change every cycle. Always confirm the current figures, eligibility and deadlines on King’s official website before applying. StudyGraduate is an information portal, not an agency or a representative of King’s College London, and cannot guarantee admission, scholarship selection or visa approval.