Nursing Scholarships for International Students 2026–2027

Nursing is one of the most employable degrees in the world — and one of the hardest to fund. Tuition for an international nursing student can be two or three times the home-student rate, clinical placements add uniform, travel and occupational-health costs, and in most countries you cannot simply work extra hospital shifts to close the gap because your student visa caps your hours. That is why nursing scholarships for international students matter so much in the 2026–2027 cycle, and why you need to understand them precisely rather than hopefully.

This guide explains, honestly and in detail, where funded nursing study actually exists for international students, which routes are not funded despite what social media claims, how much the major schemes pay, who is eligible, what documents you need, and how the application timelines fit together. It covers undergraduate BSc Nursing, pre-registration and specialist master’s degrees, and doctoral nursing research, across the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Canada, the United States and France. You can browse every funded route in one place in our scholarships directory and compare institutions in the university directory.

One warning belongs at the very top, because it shapes everything else: a scholarship pays for education; it does not give you a licence to practise. Nursing is a regulated profession everywhere. A funded degree abroad and a nursing registration in that country are two separate achievements, governed by two separate bodies, and confusing them is the single most expensive mistake international nursing applicants make. This guide returns to that point repeatedly, on purpose.

Nursing Scholarships at a Glance

The table below summarises the main funded routes discussed in this guide. Amounts are the verified figures for the current cycle; where a scheme pays a rate set by a government department rather than a fixed published sum, the table says so instead of inventing a number.

Notice what is not in the table: a big, universal, fully funded BSc Nursing scheme open to everyone. It does not exist. Undergraduate nursing funding for international students is mostly university-level — entrance scholarships, percentage tuition discounts and, in a few countries, government partner schemes such as Australia Awards. Postgraduate nursing — advanced practice, nursing education, nursing research, and health-service leadership — is where the large national scholarships genuinely open up. Planning around that reality, instead of around a rumour, is the first step to a funded offer. For the country-specific picture, read our companion guide to nursing scholarships in the UK for international students 2026–2027.

Who Is Eligible for Nursing Scholarships?

Eligibility has three layers, and you must pass all three: the scholarship’s own rules, the university’s admission rules, and the nursing regulator’s rules for any clinical component. Applicants usually check the first, skim the second and ignore the third — then discover, after winning funding, that their programme’s placement or registration pathway does not work for them.

Academic eligibility

For a BSc Nursing, universities typically require secondary schooling with biology and chemistry (or equivalent science subjects) and overall grades equivalent to their published international entry requirements. For a master’s in nursing — for example advanced clinical practice, nurse education, or nursing research — you normally need a bachelor’s degree in nursing or a closely related health field, often with a minimum grade equivalent to a UK 2:1 or a GPA around 3.0, though every university sets its own threshold. For a nursing PhD, you need a relevant master’s or an outstanding bachelor’s plus a viable research proposal and, in practice, a supervisor who has agreed to support the project. Large scholarships add their own academic bar on top: Chevening requires a degree that qualifies you for a UK master’s; DAAD EPOS expects above-average results, generally in the upper third of your class, with the degree normally completed within the last six years.

Professional eligibility

Many funded nursing routes are designed for people already inside the profession. DAAD EPOS requires at least two years of relevant professional experience after your bachelor’s degree. Chevening counts at least 2,800 hours of work experience of almost any kind, but competitive nursing applicants are almost always registered nurses with ward, community or public-health experience they can describe in leadership terms. Australia Awards country programmes frequently ask for work experience aligned with the priority field — clinical nursing, midwifery, or health-system roles — and the exact requirement is set in your country profile, not globally. If you are a school leaver with no nursing experience, your realistic funded routes are undergraduate entrance scholarships and partner-country schemes, not EPOS or Chevening.

Registration and licensing eligibility — the layer people miss

If your goal is to practise as a nurse in the country where you study, research the regulator before you apply for money. In the UK, registration is with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC); nurses trained outside the UK must pass its Test of Competence — a computer-based test (CBT) taken in their home country and a practical OSCE taken in the UK — and meet its English-language requirements, as set out by NHS Employers’ guidance on overseas nurses and midwives. In the United States, licensure is by state and normally requires the NCLEX-RN examination and credential evaluation. In Australia, registration is through AHPRA and the Nursing and Midwifery Board, with its own outcomes-based assessment for internationally qualified nurses. In Canada, each province regulates nursing separately. A pre-registration degree completed inside the destination country (for example a UK BSc Nursing or an Australian Bachelor of Nursing) normally leads directly to eligibility to apply for registration there, because it is an approved programme — but a specialist master’s for already-qualified nurses usually does not change your registration status at all. Read every programme page for the sentence that says whether it leads to registration, and believe that sentence.

Nationality and return-home conditions

Government scholarships fund development as much as education. Chevening and Commonwealth scholars must return home for at least two years after their award. Australia Awards scholars must leave Australia for a minimum of two years after completing their studies. DAAD EPOS is restricted to citizens of countries on the DAAD’s eligible-country list. None of this makes the scholarships bad — for many nurses they are life-changing — but if your private plan is to emigrate permanently on the back of a development scholarship, the scheme’s conditions will eventually collide with it. Choose routes whose conditions you can honestly accept.

What Do Nursing Scholarships Actually Cover?

Coverage falls into four tiers, and your budget planning should be based on the tier you actually win, not the tier in the headline you first read.

Tier 1 — Full government scholarships. Chevening pays full tuition for a one-year taught master’s, a monthly stipend, return airfare and arrival/departure allowances. The Commonwealth Scholarship Commission pays tuition, airfare and a monthly stipend — £1,712 per month in recent cycles, £2,000 per month for scholars in London — plus allowances such as a child allowance where applicable. Australia Awards pays full tuition, return air travel, a one-off establishment allowance, a fortnightly Contribution to Living Expenses, an Introductory Academic Program and Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) for the award holder, as described in the Australia Awards Scholarships Policy Handbook. These packages are genuinely comprehensive, which is why competition is severe.

Tier 2 — Stipend scholarships where tuition is separate. DAAD EPOS pays €992 per month to master’s scholars and €1,300 per month to doctoral scholars, rising to €1,400 from February 2026, plus health, accident and personal-liability insurance, a travel allowance, and possible rent and family subsidies. EPOS works in Germany partly because most public universities charge little or no tuition — but note the honest detail: for the fee-charging health master’s courses on the EPOS list, DAAD’s stipend does not automatically erase tuition, so you must read your specific course’s funding page. Germany’s student-visa blocked account requirement is €11,904 for a year (2026 figure), which scholarship holders may be able to evidence differently — confirm with the German mission in your country.

Tier 3 — Research stipends. Australia’s Research Training Program (RTP) supports master’s by research and PhD students with a stipend at a base rate of AUD 34,315 in 2026 and AUD 35,550 in 2027, plus a tuition fee offset, administered by each university. Nursing PhD topics — workforce, aged care, patient safety, digital health — compete well for RTP rounds when the proposal fits a university’s research strengths. In Canada, note a change many older guides get wrong: the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships are discontinued. The doctoral replacement is the Canada Graduate Research Scholarship – Doctoral (CGRS-D) at CAD 40,000 per year for 36 months; the CGRS-M for master’s students is domestic-only and is not an international-student route.

Tier 4 — University discounts. Percentage scholarships (commonly 10–50% of tuition), fixed entrance awards and faculty bursaries are the most common form of nursing funding at undergraduate level. They are real money, but they leave a large balance: always calculate the remaining cost, including living expenses, before accepting. In Canada, for comparison, immigration authorities require proof of living funds of CAD 22,895 for study-permit applications between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2026, rising to CAD 23,448 from 1 September 2026 — on top of first-year tuition. A “scholarship” that covers a quarter of tuition does not meet that test by itself.

The Main Funded Routes, Field by Field

Undergraduate BSc Nursing

Your realistic funding stack is: (1) university entrance scholarships — check the nursing faculty pages of universities you are already considering through our university profiles; (2) Australia Awards, where your country profile lists nursing or health as a priority — some country programmes support undergraduate and even in-country nursing diplomas, though the well-known Papua New Guinea in-country nursing scholarships are for study inside PNG, not in Australia; (3) government scholarships from your own country, which often fund nursing abroad for top school leavers; and (4) in the USA, need-based aid at a small number of wealthy universities that meet full demonstrated need for admitted international students — admission, not the nursing major, is the hard part. Be sceptical of any agent promising a “fully funded BSc Nursing in the UK for international students” as a standard product: UK nursing courses for home students are supported through NHS-related funding arrangements that do not extend to international-fee students, who pay full international tuition and rely on university scholarships like everyone else.

Master’s degrees for registered nurses

This is the strongest funding zone. Chevening funds one-year taught master’s degrees in subjects such as advanced nursing practice, nursing leadership, and health management — explore the official eligibility rules on the Chevening eligibility page and our dedicated Chevening Scholarship guide. Commonwealth Master’s and Shared Scholarships fund UK master’s study for candidates from eligible Commonwealth countries who could not otherwise afford it, with nursing-relevant courses in global health, advanced practice and health systems. In Germany, EPOS-listed health courses — such as the MSc International Health programmes at Charité Berlin and Heidelberg and the MSc Global Health at Bonn — are health-system degrees rather than clinical nursing master’s, but they are a proven funded path for nurses moving into management, education and policy; see our DAAD Scholarship guide for how EPOS works. Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters pay €1,400 per month for up to 24 months plus participation costs, and while few are labelled “nursing”, several in health, ageing and long-term care admit nursing graduates — check each consortium’s entry profile in the official catalogue.

Doctoral nursing research

For a PhD, funding follows the research, not the profession. The realistic routes are: RTP in Australia (base stipend AUD 34,315 in 2026 / AUD 35,550 in 2027); CGRS-D in Canada (CAD 40,000 per year for 36 months, replacing the discontinued Vanier); DAAD research and EPOS doctoral funding in Germany (€1,300 per month, €1,400 from February 2026); Commonwealth PhD Scholarships in the UK; and university-funded doctoral studentships advertised by nursing schools with large research programmes — for example the nursing and health-sciences researchers at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford, whose profiles on StudyGraduate link to their research strengths. A nursing PhD proposal that solves a funded problem — rural workforce retention, infection prevention, dementia care — will always beat a generic “I want to study nursing abroad” proposal.

France: a narrower but real option

France’s Eiffel Excellence Scholarship pays €1,200 per month at master’s level and €2,100 per month at doctoral level from January 2026, plus international and national transport, insurance and housing-search support — but it does not cover tuition, and its eligible fields are set nationally (Biology and Health is one of them), with applications submitted by the French institution, never directly by the student, via Campus France’s Eiffel programme page. French nursing education itself is delivered mainly through IFSI institutes tied to universities, in French, and is a poor fit for most international applicants seeking an English-taught funded degree; Eiffel is realistic mainly for health/biology master’s and doctoral researchers, including nurse-researchers, not for a first nursing qualification.

How to Apply: Step by Step

1. Decide the exact qualification you need. First nursing degree, specialist master’s, or PhD? Registration in the destination, or skills to take home? Write the answer down; it eliminates 80% of unsuitable schemes immediately.
2. Shortlist programmes before scholarships. Pick 3–6 specific courses. A scholarship application that names real courses, modules and supervisors is credible; one that says “any nursing course in Canada” is not.
3. Check the regulator. If the course is clinical, confirm on the regulator’s site (NMC, AHPRA/NMBA, state board, provincial college) whether it leads to registration for an international graduate.
4. Match schemes to courses. For each course, list which of Chevening, Commonwealth, Australia Awards, EPOS, Erasmus Mundus, RTP/CGRS-D or university aid can fund it, with that scheme’s deadline.
5. Prepare documents early (see the checklist below). Nursing applicants need extra items — registration certificate, licence verification, immunisation and placement clearances — that take weeks.
6. Apply to the universities and the scholarships in the right order. Chevening requires you to apply to three UK courses and hold an unconditional offer by its July deadline; EPOS applications go to the course, not to DAAD; Eiffel nominations go through the French institution. Each scheme’s order is different — follow its own instructions, not a generic checklist.
7. Write the impact statement. Every major scheme asks, in effect: what will change because we funded you? Answer with your ward, your community, your country’s nursing shortage — specific, evidenced, and honest.
8. Submit, then verify. Keep confirmation emails, note reference numbers, and re-check your email (including spam) weekly during selection periods.

If you are also weighing a broader health degree, compare this guide with our analysis of medicine scholarships for international students 2026–2027 and public health scholarships for international students 2026–2027 — many nurses ultimately take a funded public-health master’s rather than a narrowly clinical one, because that is where the large scholarships sit. Our study-abroad tools, including the scholarship finder and deadline tracker, can help you organise the calendar.

Required Documents

• Passport and previous visas (if any)
• Degree certificates and full academic transcripts (with certified translations where required)
• Nursing registration certificate / current licence, and verification or good-standing letter from your home regulator
• CV focused on clinical roles, responsibilities and any teaching, audit or quality-improvement work
• English test results (IELTS, OET, TOEFL or PTE as the scheme/university accepts — nursing regulators often require OET or IELTS at specific band scores)
• Two references — ideally one academic, one senior clinical or employer referee
• Personal statement / scholarship essays tailored to each scheme’s questions
• For PhD: research proposal and evidence of supervisor contact
• Financial documents for the visa stage, including scholarship award letter
• Police clearance, health/immunisation records and placement clearances (timing varies; do not order them until instructed, as they expire)

Deadlines and Timeline

Exact dates change every cycle and differ by country programme, so treat this table as the planning pattern and confirm each date on the official scheme page for your cycle.

How to Improve Your Chances

Frame nursing as leadership. Selection panels for Chevening, Commonwealth and Australia Awards are not hiring a nurse; they are investing in someone who will change a health system. The applicant who “mentored six junior nurses, cut medication-round errors on my ward through a checklist I designed, and wants an MSc to formalise that work” beats the applicant who “loves nursing and dreams of studying abroad”, every time.

Evidence everything. Registration number, employment letters on headed paper, CPD certificates, audit results. Panels can smell an inflated CV, and scholarship fraud checks are real.

Choose courses that match your story. If your experience is community nursing, an MSc in community/public-health nursing or primary care coheres; a sudden jump to an unrelated specialism invites rejection. Coherence is also why reading our university rankings should come second to reading course modules — fit beats prestige for scholarship success.

Respect the return-home logic. For development scholarships, a credible home-country plan is not a formality; it is the point. Name the hospital, ministry programme or university you intend to join, and the problem you will work on.

Common Mistakes

• Assuming a scholarship includes registration. It does not. Check the NMC/AHPRA/state-board pathway separately, every time.
• Believing “fully funded BSc Nursing, no IELTS, any country” adverts. No major scheme matches that description. Treat such claims as marketing, and verify on official sites.
• Applying for EPOS or Chevening without the required experience. EPOS needs two years of relevant professional experience and a degree normally no older than six years; Chevening needs 2,800 hours. Ineligible applications are rejected without review of your essays.
• Presenting Destination Australia as an open scheme. It is closed — funding ceased on 1 July 2024 — and any guide still listing it as a live nursing route is out of date.
• Budgeting only for tuition. Visas require proof of living funds (for Canada, CAD 23,448 from 1 September 2026) and nursing study adds placement travel, uniforms and checks.
• Missing that Eiffel does not pay tuition and cannot be applied for directly — the French institution must nominate you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I get a fully funded BSc Nursing as an international student?

Full undergraduate nursing funding is rare and almost never comes from a single global scheme. Realistic routes are Australia Awards (where your country profile includes nursing/health), your own government’s overseas scholarships, and stacking university entrance awards — which are usually partial. Anyone promising a guaranteed fully funded BSc Nursing place should be asked for the official scheme page, in writing.

Which scholarship is best for a registered nurse who wants a master’s?

For the UK, Chevening and Commonwealth are the flagship routes. For Germany, DAAD EPOS funds listed health master’s courses at €992 per month plus insurance and travel support. For Australia, Australia Awards (partner countries) and university scholarships dominate; for research master’s, the RTP pays AUD 34,315 in 2026 and AUD 35,550 in 2027 at base rate.

Does a nursing scholarship let me work as a nurse in that country afterwards?

No. Registration is separate: the UK requires NMC registration (CBT + OSCE for overseas-trained nurses), the USA requires state licensure including NCLEX-RN, Australia requires AHPRA/NMBA registration, and Canada regulates provincially. A degree completed in the destination country on an approved pre-registration programme normally makes you eligible to apply for registration; a specialist master’s usually does not change your status.

Can I study nursing in Germany in English with DAAD funding?

Germany trains most nurses through a vocational Ausbildung system in German, not through English-taught university degrees. DAAD EPOS funds postgraduate health courses (for example MSc International Health and MSc Global Health) taught in English, which suit experienced nurses moving into health-system roles — but they are not a first clinical nursing qualification and do not by themselves register you as a nurse in Germany.

What English test do nursing scholarships require?

Universities and schemes variously accept IELTS, OET, TOEFL or PTE, but nursing regulators are stricter — the UK NMC, for instance, accepts IELTS or OET at set scores. Take the test your target regulator accepts, not merely the one your university accepts, if registration is your goal.

Is Vanier still available for a nursing PhD in Canada?

No. Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships have been discontinued. The doctoral replacement is the Canada Graduate Research Scholarship – Doctoral (CGRS-D), worth CAD 40,000 per year for 36 months. The master’s-level CGRS-M is domestic-only.

How much money do I need besides a scholarship?

Even with tuition covered, budget for visa fees, health surcharges or insurance gaps, flights not covered by your scheme, placement travel and initial rent deposits. For Canada, immigration living-fund requirements alone are CAD 22,895 (applications 1 September 2025–31 August 2026) and CAD 23,448 from 1 September 2026, separate from tuition.

Can I bring my family on a nursing scholarship?

Some schemes pay dependants’ allowances (DAAD EPOS has possible family subsidies; Australia Awards has specific rules by country), but student-visa dependant rules have tightened in several countries and are course-level dependent. Never assume dependants are permitted or funded — check both the scholarship handbook and the visa rules for your exact programme.

Sources and Verification

• DAAD — Development-Related Postgraduate Courses (EPOS), official programme and scholarship database (daad.de): €992/month graduate rate; doctoral €1,300 rising to €1,400 from February 2026; two years’ experience; eligible-country list.
• Campus France — France Excellence Eiffel Scholarship Program: €1,200/month master’s, €2,100/month doctoral from January 2026; tuition not covered; institution submits the application.
• Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade — Australia Awards Scholarships Policy Handbook: full tuition, return air travel, establishment allowance, Contribution to Living Expenses, OSHC; two-year return condition.
• Chevening (UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office programme) — eligibility guidance: citizenship, 2,800 hours of work experience, three course choices, two-year return commitment.
• NHS Employers — recruitment of overseas nurses and midwives: NMC Test of Competence (CBT and OSCE) for overseas-trained nurses.
• Australian Government — Research Training Program base stipend rates AUD 34,315 (2026) and AUD 35,550 (2027); Government of Canada / IRCC study-permit proof-of-funds table; Tri-agency CGRS-D value CAD 40,000 per year for 36 months (Vanier discontinued).

Disclaimer: Scholarship amounts, deadlines and eligibility rules change every cycle. Always confirm the figures and dates in this guide on the official scholarship and university websites before applying. StudyGraduate is an information portal, not an agency or a university: we do not promise or guarantee selection, admission, registration or visa approval, and no scholarship guarantees that you will be licensed to practise nursing in any country.