Top Fully Funded Scholarships with Deadlines in 2027

Every year, thousands of strong students miss fully funded scholarships for the least glamorous reason imaginable: not ability, not grades — timing. The world’s best government and university scholarships do not share a deadline, a portal or even a season. France’s Eiffel programme closes in the first days of January. Korea’s GKS graduate window lasts barely two weeks in February. Australia Awards close at the end of April, Japan’s MEXT opens the same month, and the autumn giants — Chevening, Commonwealth, Knight-Hennessy, Gates Cambridge, DAAD EPOS — all demand applications between August and December of the previous year. A student who starts looking in the month they hope to apply has, in most cases, already missed the scholarship they wanted.

This guide fixes that problem in one page. It lists the top fully funded scholarships with deadlines in 2027, organises them into a month-by-month 2027 deadline calendar, and profiles each major programme with its coverage, level and eligibility essentials. Every date was researched against official or provider sources in October 2026, and every date carries a status. Confirmed means the provider has published that date or runs that round on a fixed, published annual date. Expected means the 2027 date was not yet published at research time and the entry is based on the verified previous cycle — the guide says so, every time. Treat expected dates as preparation deadlines and confirm them on the official website; treat confirmed dates as immovable.

One more honesty note before the calendar. “Fully funded” in this guide means the award covers tuition plus a living allowance, and usually travel and insurance as well — the standard used by the programmes themselves. Partial awards that are often marketed as fully funded are either excluded or flagged in plain language where they appear. You will also find two programmes handled with special care: Canada’s Vanier scholarship, which has been discontinued and replaced by the Canada Graduate Research Scholarship–Doctoral (CGRS-D), and Australia’s Destination Australia, which is closed to new applicants and therefore does not appear in the calendar at all, despite still featuring in outdated lists across the internet.

Work through this calendar with the rest of StudyGraduate open in nearby tabs: the scholarship directory to compare programmes, the universities directory and rankings to choose institutions, the study abroad guides for country planning, and the tools — including a deadline tracker and budget calculators — to run your campaign. For a rolling view of what is open at any given moment, keep our list of fully funded scholarships open now for the 2027 intake bookmarked alongside this calendar, and if you are starting late in the year, our roundup of fully funded scholarships closing soon shows what can still be salvaged.

The Top Programmes at a Glance

Month-by-Month Deadline Calendar for 2027

The calendar below is the heart of this guide. Months list application deadlines or opening events that fall in 2027, plus — clearly marked — the late-2026 deadlines that feed 2027 entry, because those are the dates a 2027 planner most often misses. Programmes whose 2027 dates were unpublished at research time are marked “expected”.

Programme Profiles: What Each Scholarship Really Offers

The January anchors: Eiffel, Stipendium Hungaricum and Gates Cambridge

France Excellence Eiffel is France’s instrument for attracting top master’s and doctoral talent, run by Campus France for the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. From January 2026 the monthly allowance is €1,200 at master’s level and €2,100 at doctoral level — note that older pages still show €1,181/€1,700, and even a December 2025 regulations document printed €2,000 for doctoral scholars; the €2,100 figure verified against Campus France’s implementation guidance in October 2026 is the current one. Eiffel also pays for services such as international transport and insurance — but it does not cover tuition fees, which is why this guide describes it precisely rather than calling it complete funding on its own; many French public universities charge modest regulated fees, and institutions often support Eiffel scholars on that side. You cannot apply directly: a French institution must submit your application, and Campus France’s 2027 call is open until 8 January 2027, which means your real deadline with the university is in the autumn of 2026.

Stipendium Hungaricum, Hungary’s government programme run with the Tempus Public Foundation, funds bachelor’s, master’s, one-tier master’s and doctoral study with tuition covered, a monthly contribution to living costs, an accommodation contribution or dormitory place, and medical insurance. You apply through the official portal and must be nominated by your home country’s sending partner — applying only online is the programme’s best-known rejection trap. The last published deadline was 15 January, and the equivalent January 2027 date is expected on the same pattern.

Gates Cambridge funds full-time postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge for citizens of countries outside the UK, covering the University Composition Fee, a maintenance allowance, one economy airfare, and inbound visa and Immigration Health Surcharge costs, with discretionary funds for academic development, dependants and fieldwork. Its timeline, published by the Trust, runs on two rounds: a US round closing in mid-October and an international round closing on your course’s funding deadline — 8 December 2026 or 6 January 2027 for 2027 entry. Selection weighs academic excellence, fit with the Cambridge course, leadership capacity and commitment to improving the lives of others in roughly equal measure.

The February–April government giants: Türkiye, SI, GKS, Fulbright, Manaaki, CSC, Australia Awards and MEXT

Türkiye Burslari is Türkiye’s all-in-one government scholarship: tuition, monthly stipend (6,500 TL for undergraduates, 9,500 TL for master’s and 13,000 TL for doctoral scholars on the scale verified in earlier waves of this programme — confirm the current scale on the official site), free accommodation, health insurance, a one-year Turkish language course, round-trip flights and university placement, meaning you do not need a separate admission offer. The official Türkiye Scholarships site confirms the shape of the season: applications for 2026 ran from 10 January to 20 February in a single window for all countries and levels. Age limits apply (under 21 for bachelor’s, under 30 for master’s, under 35 for PhD), which quietly disqualify many otherwise strong applicants — check them first.

The Swedish Institute Scholarship for Global Professionals funds master’s study in Sweden for citizens of a defined list of eligible countries who can document substantial work experience (the programme has used a 3,000-hour benchmark) and leadership experience. It pays tuition directly, plus a monthly living allowance and a travel grant. Its two-stage structure is the trap: you must first apply for eligible master’s programmes through Sweden’s central admissions by mid-January, and only then submit the scholarship application in its short February window (9–25 February in the 2026 cycle). Miss January and February is already lost.

Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) funds study in South Korea with tuition, airfare, monthly allowances, settlement support and a year of Korean language training before degree study. Keep the two rounds separate in your mind: the graduate round (GKS-G) is a February-season competition — embassy-track online applications ran 12–25 February 2026, with university-track windows running into March — while the undergraduate round (GKS-U) opens in September. Both tracks demand early document preparation, including apostilled or consular-confirmed certificates and recommendation letters on the official form.

The Fulbright Foreign Student Program remains the flagship route to the United States: around 4,000 grants a year across more than 160 countries, covering tuition, living stipend, insurance and travel in packages set by each country programme. There is no global deadline — commissions and embassies set dates anywhere from February to October — so its place in this calendar is deliberately a range. Find your country on the official portal and treat that page, and only that page, as your calendar.

Manaaki New Zealand Scholarships (March) and Australia Awards (April) are the Southern Hemisphere’s development-scholarship pair, and both buy development outcomes rather than migration: full packages, priority-sector course lists, and a contractual return home afterwards (two years for Australia Awards). CSC (China) is the volume giant — thousands of awards across hundreds of universities, split between the Type A embassy route (national deadlines, January–April) and Type B university route (university deadlines, many in April) via campuschina.org. MEXT (Japan) is the precision instrument: a short April–May embassy window, written examinations, and a research plan that must survive scrutiny by both the embassy and Japanese universities, in exchange for tuition, stipend and airfare with no bond attached. StudyGraduate’s dedicated guides to MEXT and Australia Awards go deeper on both.

The autumn heavyweights: Erasmus Mundus, DAAD EPOS, Chevening, Commonwealth, Knight-Hennessy, Rhodes, HKPFS and Canada

Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters offer something no other programme does: a master’s degree studied in at least three European countries, with participation costs covered and €1,400 per month for up to 24 months. Each consortium sets its own deadline, concentrated between October and January — the catalogue, not any single deadline list, is your source of truth.

DAAD EPOS funds experienced professionals (bachelor’s degree within roughly the last six years, plus at least two years of relevant work experience) on development-related courses in Germany at €992 per month for master’s scholars and €1,300 for doctoral scholars, rising to €1,400 from February 2026. Deadlines belong to individual courses and cluster between August and December, with a small tail into the new year — the official DAAD EPOS course list is the only reliable calendar. Germany’s separate living-cost reality also matters for non-EPOS routes: a blocked account of €11,904 per year is the 2026 benchmark for student visa proof of funds.

Chevening, the UK Government’s one-year master’s scholarship, selects for leadership and networking as much as academics, requires at least two years of work experience, and funds tuition, a monthly stipend and airfare. Applications open in August and close in the autumn — the exact closing date has moved between cycles, so treat any specific month (including the “November” in older guides) as unconfirmed until chevening.org publishes your round. Commonwealth Scholarships split into three streams with three different calendars: Master’s and PhD awards through nominating agencies (applications opened 8 September and closed 20 October in the last cycle, with stipends of £1,712 per month, £2,000 in London, on the last published scale), and Shared Scholarships for master’s courses at participating universities, closing in mid-December.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars at Stanford funds up to three years of any graduate degree — tuition, living stipend and an annual travel grant — for applicants of any nationality whose first bachelor’s degree is recent (the 2027 cohort required a degree earned on or after January 2020). Stanford’s official announcements confirm the 2027 cohort’s deadline was 6 October 2026, with the parallel Stanford programme application due by 1 December 2026 at the latest. The Rhodes Scholarship for Oxford opens applications in June and closes constituency by constituency from August to October (2027-entry examples: Australia 11 August, West Africa 27 August, Canada 24 September 2026). The Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme is the year’s most generous pure-PhD award — a stipend of HK$344,400 per year plus a HK$14,400 annual conference and research travel allowance on the last published scale — with a hard initial deadline of 1 December and a two-step application (RGC first, then the universities).

Finally, Canada. The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships are discontinued — any 2027 list still advertising Vanier is out of date. The replacement is the Canada Graduate Research Scholarship–Doctoral (CGRS-D), worth CAD 40,000 per year for 36 months through the tri-agency system, with an agency deadline of 17 October and — critically — much earlier institutional deadlines, because most applicants apply through a Canadian university; the official programme page is maintained by NSERC and its sister agencies. International students can hold CGRS-D awards but form a capped minority of recipients (up to 15% under NSERC’s published rules) and normally must already be in a doctoral programme at the institutional deadline — so for most international readers, Canada’s realistic fully funded route remains a supervisor-funded or university-funded PhD package, with CGRS-D as an in-programme upgrade. And a budget note for anyone planning Canada outside a full package: study-permit applicants must show living funds of CAD 22,895 for applications to 31 August 2026, rising to CAD 23,448 from 1 September 2026 under IRCC’s table.

How to Run a Full-Year Scholarship Campaign

1. Build the calendar backwards from December 2026. If you want 2027 entry, your campaign actually starts in autumn 2026: HKPFS, Gates, Commonwealth Shared, Chevening and most DAAD EPOS courses all close before 2027 begins. This calendar’s late-2026 entries are not a mistake — they are the point.
2. Choose a portfolio of four to six programmes across seasons. A balanced portfolio might be: one January programme (Eiffel via an institution, or Hungaricum), one February–April government giant (Türkiye, GKS, Manaaki, CSC or Australia Awards), one research round (RTP/Monash), and one autumn flagship (Chevening, Erasmus Mundus or Knight-Hennessy) for the following intake.
3. Prepare a master document set once. Certified transcripts and translations, passport, CV, language scores, two or three adaptable reference letters, and a one-page research or study concept. Every programme in this guide draws on the same set; the winners are the applicants who prepared it before any portal opened.
4. Sequence the essays, don’t duplicate them. Development impact (Manaaki, Australia Awards, Commonwealth), leadership (Chevening, Knight-Hennessy, Gates), research fit (RTP, HKPFS, DAAD) and exchange purpose (Fulbright, MEXT) are four different arguments. Reuse your evidence, never your text.
5. Track status, not just dates. Keep a simple table — programme, deadline, confirmed or expected, portal, referee status — and re-verify every “expected” date monthly from January. The deadline tracker and calculators in StudyGraduate’s tools section exist precisely for this.
6. Protect the plan with early submission. Portals close early for oversubscribed countries (Manaaki), slow down at deadlines (OASIS, CSC) and sit in inconvenient time zones (Hong Kong noon, Melbourne afternoon). A seven-day personal buffer, applied to every entry in this calendar, is the difference between a campaign and a gamble.

Required Documents Across the 2027 Calendar

• Passport valid well beyond your expected start date (CSC requires at least 12 months from the start of study; other programmes impose similar practical tests).
• Degree certificates and transcripts with certified translations; apostilled or consular-confirmed copies for Korea and notarised copies for several CSC and embassy routes.
• English scores (IELTS/TOEFL) or programme-accepted alternatives; HSK for Chinese-taught CSC programmes; Japanese ability is an asset, not a requirement, for most MEXT tracks.
• Reference letters on official forms where they exist (GKS, SI and several others reject substitute formats).
• A research proposal for research degrees; a study plan for CSC; development-impact statements for Commonwealth, Manaaki and Australia Awards; leadership essays for Chevening and Knight-Hennessy.
• Medical certificates on official forms at the stages that require them (CSC, MEXT), and proof of work experience for DAAD EPOS (two years minimum), the Swedish Institute and Chevening.
• Financial documentation for the routes that are not fully funded — for example a GREAT Scholarship plan (£10,000 towards tuition only) or Canada’s study-permit proof of funds (CAD 23,448 from 1 September 2026) — so that a partial award never becomes a visa refusal.

Common Mistakes in Planning a 2027 Campaign

• Starting in the month of the deadline. Eiffel’s January date requires an institutional submission prepared in autumn; the Swedish Institute’s February window requires a January university application. Every “sudden” deadline in this calendar has a hidden earlier deadline inside it.
• Applying for discontinued or closed programmes. Vanier is discontinued (apply under CGRS-D rules instead) and Destination Australia is closed. Both still appear in recycled lists — checking the provider’s current page takes two minutes and saves a wasted application.
• Believing abbreviated or invented dates. Fulbright has no global date; Chevening’s closing month moves between cycles; CSC Type B has as many deadlines as it has universities. The status labels in this guide exist because certainty varies — respect them.
• Confusing GKS rounds. September is the undergraduate opening; February is the graduate season. Applicants who prepare a graduate application for September lose a full year.
• Treating partial awards as full funding. GREAT is £10,000 towards tuition. Eiffel does not pay tuition. A plan that ignores the gap collapses at the visa stage, where officers check real money, not scholarship names.
• Ignoring return-home conditions. Australia Awards (two years out of Australia), Manaaki and Fulbright’s J-1 home-residence rule all assume you go home and build something. If that is not your plan, choose programmes without the condition instead of signing one you intend to break.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the single best fully funded scholarship with a 2027 deadline?

There is no universal best — there is a best fit. For a one-year UK master’s with work experience, that is usually Chevening; for a PhD, HKPFS, Gates Cambridge, RTP rounds and supervisor-funded packages compete at the top; for undergraduates, Türkiye Burslari, Stipendium Hungaricum, GKS-U, MEXT and CSC are the realistic giants. Match the programme to your level, citizenship, experience and return-home intentions using the at-a-glance table, then commit fully to two or three applications rather than skimming ten.

Which 2027 deadlines are already confirmed, and which are expected?

Confirmed at research time (October 2026) include Eiffel’s January 2027 call closing (8 January 2027, via institutions), Gates Cambridge’s 6 January 2027 international course deadline, Monash’s 31 March international round, HKPFS’s 1 December deadline, Knight-Hennessy’s 6 October 2026 deadline for the 2027 cohort, and CGRS-D’s 17 October agency deadline with earlier institutional dates. Expected — based on verified previous cycles, official dates TBC — include Türkiye Burslari, the Swedish Institute window, GKS-G’s February window, Manaaki’s March window, Australia Awards’ 30 April closing and MEXT’s April opening. The calendar table labels each entry.

Can I apply for scholarships in several countries in the same year?

Yes, and most successful applicants do. Nothing in the rules of Fulbright, CSC, Chevening, Erasmus Mundus or Australia Awards prevents parallel applications to other countries’ programmes. What you generally cannot do is hold two major government scholarships simultaneously for the same period — if fortune gives you a choice, you choose one and decline the others promptly so the place can be re-offered.

Is Vanier still available for PhD study in Canada in 2027?

No. The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships have been discontinued. The replacement doctoral award is the Canada Graduate Research Scholarship–Doctoral (CGRS-D), worth CAD 40,000 per year for 36 months, applied for mainly through a Canadian institution with internal deadlines well before the 17 October agency deadline. International students are eligible within a capped share of awards and typically must already be undertaking doctoral study at the institutional deadline, so plan Canada primarily around funded PhD admission packages.

Do all of these scholarships require IELTS?

No single rule applies. Host universities set English requirements for most programmes; some accept medium-of-instruction evidence, some test candidates themselves (MEXT’s embassy screening includes language examinations), and Chinese-taught CSC programmes require HSK instead. The safe default is to hold a valid IELTS or TOEFL score before your season starts, unless every programme on your shortlist explicitly waives it.

What stipends can I actually expect in 2027?

Use the verified figures in this guide as your baseline: DAAD EPOS €992/month (master’s) and €1,300 rising to €1,400 (doctoral); Eiffel €1,200 (master’s) and €2,100 (doctoral) from January 2026, excluding tuition; CSC CNY 2,500/3,000/3,500 by level; Erasmus Mundus €1,400/month; Commonwealth £1,712/month (£2,000 London) on the last published scale; HKPFS HK$344,400 per year; RTP base stipend AUD 34,315 (2026) rising to AUD 35,550 (2027), with universities free to pay above the base. Amounts are revised between cycles — confirm the figure attached to your actual offer, not a guide.

When should I start preparing for scholarships with 2027 deadlines?

Immediately — and if you are reading this in October 2026, you are on time for the spring 2027 season (Türkiye, GKS, Manaaki, CSC, Australia Awards, MEXT) and for the autumn 2027 season, but already inside the closing window for several 2027-entry flagships (HKPFS, Gates Cambridge, Knight-Hennessy, Chevening). Documents, tests and referee relationships take two to four months to assemble properly; essay quality is what fills the remaining time.

Are there application fees for these scholarships?

The government programmes in this calendar — Fulbright, Chevening, Commonwealth, CSC, MEXT, GKS, Türkiye Burslari, Australia Awards, Manaaki, DAAD EPOS — do not charge an application fee for the scholarship itself. Some university routes charge a course application fee (Cambridge’s postgraduate application, for example, is fee-bearing and is not covered by Gates Cambridge), and anyone demanding a fee to “process” a government scholarship application on your behalf should be treated as a fraud risk.

Sources & Verification

• Campus France — France Excellence Eiffel 2027 call (open until 8 January 2027; institution-submitted) and Eiffel implementation guidance (€1,200 master’s / €2,100 doctoral from January 2026; tuition not covered): campusfrance.org
• Gates Cambridge Trust — official timeline (US round 14 October 2026; international deadlines 8 December 2026 / 6 January 2027): gatescambridge.org
• Türkiye Scholarships — official announcement (2026 applications 10 January – 20 February): turkiyeburslari.gov.tr
• Stanford University / Knight-Hennessy Scholars — official cohort announcement (2027 cohort deadline 6 October 2026): knight-hennessy.stanford.edu
• Research Grants Council / University Grants Committee, Hong Kong — HKPFS call (applications 1 September – 1 December 2026, 12:00 noon Hong Kong time): ugc.edu.hk
• NSERC (Canada) — Canada Graduate Research Scholarship–Doctoral programme page (CAD 40,000/year for 36 months; agency deadline 17 October; institutional deadlines earlier): nserc-crsng.gc.ca
• Australian Government DFAT — Australia Awards country information (1 February – 30 April window verified for the 2027 intake); Monash University graduate research scholarship pages (International Round 1 closes 31 March); Australian RTP base rates AUD 34,315 (2026) / AUD 35,550 (2027).
• Government of Japan, Study in Japan, and Japanese embassy MEXT schedules (recruitment April–May; deadlines in May); NIIED and Korean embassy GKS schedules (graduate online window 12–25 February 2026; undergraduate round opening in September); China Scholarship Council guidance via campuschina.org; Commonwealth Scholarship Commission information (Master’s/PhD window 8 September – 20 October; Shared Scholarships closing in mid-December); Rhodes Trust constituency documents (applications open 1 June; deadlines August–September by constituency).
• DAAD — EPOS programme and scholarship database (course-specific deadlines; €992 master’s rate; doctoral €1,300, €1,400 from February 2026): daad.de.

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