University of Exeter Scholarships for International Students 2026

The University of Exeter has put serious money behind international recruitment: the university states it is investing over £7 million in scholarships for international and EU students paying international fees in 2026/27. At the centre of that investment sit the Exeter Excellence Scholarships — merit awards of £3,000 or £5,000 per year for undergraduates, and £3,000, £5,000 or £10,000 for taught master’s students — assessed through a short application with a 300-word personal statement once you hold an offer. Around them, Exeter runs automatic country-specific postgraduate awards worth up to £10,000 that can be combined with an Excellence award up to a £10,000 cap, GREAT Scholarships for selected countries, faculty and programme awards, and funded PhD studentships. If you are an international student considering Exeter for September 2026 or January 2027, this guide explains the system as Exeter publishes it — values, eligibility, the application rounds and their deadlines, the statement that decides competitive awards, and the combination caps that catch students out.

Exeter’s model rewards early, organised applicants. The Excellence Scholarships are not automatic: they run in rounds with fixed closing dates (undergraduate Round 1 closed on 12 February 2026 and Round 2 on 23 April 2026 in the last confirmed cycle; postgraduate rounds run later, with a January 2027-entry round closing on 26 November 2026). That means your course application must be early enough for you to hold an offer before a round closes. This guide is built from Exeter’s official funding pages for 2026/27, checked in October 2026, and it labels last-cycle dates as such wherever a round has already closed.

See our full University of Exeter profile for rankings, courses and fees, compare Exeter with other universities in our guide to scholarships in the UK, and browse the StudyGraduate scholarships directory for external awards such as Chevening and Commonwealth scholarships, for which Exeter is an eligible institution.

Exeter Scholarships at a Glance

Two structural points shape everything below. First, the undergraduate Excellence award is recurring — £3,000 or £5,000 in each eligible year of study — while the postgraduate Excellence award is a first-year-only reduction. Over a three-year degree, a £5,000 undergraduate award is worth £15,000, which puts Exeter among the most generous Russell Group universities at undergraduate level. Second, Exeter operates an explicit combination cap: a country postgraduate award and an Excellence award can be held together, but only up to a combined maximum of £10,000. If the two together would exceed £10,000, the Excellence award is reduced to fit the cap.

Undergraduate Scholarships in Detail

Exeter Excellence Scholarships (Undergraduate) — £3,000 or £5,000 per year

To apply for an undergraduate Excellence Scholarship for 2026/27 you must have international fee status (including EU students required to pay international fees) and already hold an offer — conditional or unconditional — to study an eligible undergraduate degree at Exeter, entering Year 1 directly in September 2026. The awards are intended for self-funded students. Students progressing from the University of Exeter International Study Centre (ISC) International Foundation programme are not eligible for this scheme. Selection rests on two pillars published by the university: academic merit, judged from the information in your UCAS application, where applicants are typically expected to demonstrate achievement (or the ability to achieve) the equivalent of GCE A-level grades AAB; and your application statement, where you must show academic and career ambition, a clear plan for making the most of the study opportunity, and a sense of social responsibility and willingness to engage with the Exeter community. Awards are £3,000 or £5,000, applied as a reduction in international tuition fees and recurring for each eligible year of study — so the panel’s decision in a single round can be worth up to £15,000–£20,000 across a three- or four-year degree. The application runs in rounds: in the last confirmed cycle Round 1 closed on 12 February 2026, and Round 2 opened on 26 February 2026 and closed on 23 April 2026, with decisions communicated by 14 May 2026. Published ineligible programmes include Flexible Combined Honours, BMBS Medicine, law programmes delivered by the University of Law, the Dual LLB/Juris Doctor with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the LLB Engineering and Law (HKUST), Graduate Law LLB and degree apprenticeships. Because rounds close months before September entry, an undergraduate applicant who applies through UCAS by the main January deadline and holds an offer by February is positioned for Round 2; a Clearing applicant is not positioned for Excellence at all and should ask Exeter what, if anything, applies to Clearing entry in their cycle.

Automatic, country and programme undergraduate awards

Beyond Excellence, Exeter’s funding database lists automatic awards linked to specific countries or programmes for some intakes, plus achievement-based scholarships for sport and other distinction, and partner awards. These smaller schemes change by cycle and are easy to overlook; the funding database is searchable by fee status, level and nationality, and ten minutes there at offer stage is one of the highest-value habits an Exeter applicant can build. Where an automatic award and an Excellence award overlap, Exeter’s terms for the specific awards govern the total — never assume the headline figures simply add together without checking the cap or exclusion wording on both pages.

Postgraduate Taught Scholarships in Detail

Exeter Excellence Scholarships (Postgraduate Taught) — £3,000, £5,000 or £10,000

The postgraduate Excellence scheme mirrors the undergraduate one with a different value structure: awards of £3,000, £5,000 or £10,000 as a reduction in first-year international tuition fees only — not recurrent in later years (most Exeter master’s are one year, so the practical effect is a single substantial discount). You must be classified as an international student for fees purposes and hold an offer for an eligible full-time postgraduate taught degree at Exeter commencing in September 2026 (with a dedicated round for January 2027 entry). Selection is on academic merit — applicants are expected to have achieved, or be able to achieve, the equivalent of a UK upper second class (2:1) degree — plus the application statement. The application is made through Exeter’s webform once you hold your offer, and requires a personal statement of no more than 300 words answering three published questions: what are your ambitions for the future and how will your studies at Exeter help you achieve them; what will you contribute to the study experience and environment on campus at Exeter; and, as a scholar, how might you act as an ambassador for the university? The round structure in the last confirmed cycle ran: Round 2 from 28 January to 18 June 2026, Round 3 from 1 September to 29 October 2026, and Round 4 — for January 2027 entry only — closing on Thursday 26 November 2026, with notifications within a month on a rolling basis and no later than 10 December 2026. Panels aim to award the highest value your application supports; if the top tier is not offered, a lower tier may be offered instead, so there is no strategic reason to “aim low” — one application is considered for all three values.

Country Postgraduate Taught Scholarships — automatic, £5,000 to £10,000

Exeter’s second postgraduate engine is a set of automatic country scholarships for master’s applicants in 2026/27. The published pattern: if you are a citizen/passport holder of a listed country, are classed as international for fees, hold an offer for an eligible master’s programme beginning in 2026/27, meet your offer conditions (including paying the tuition fee deposit) and enrol, the award is allocated automatically — no separate application is required. Published values illustrate the range: Kenya £10,000; Vietnam £8,000; Sri Lanka £7,500 and Nepal £7,500; and £5,000 for a list of countries including Türkiye, Thailand, China (mainland), Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and others, with Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Korea and more included in the scheme’s published country groupings (check your country’s own Exeter page for its exact value, as amounts are set per country and per cycle). These awards are first-year tuition reductions, are not recurrent, and — critically — can be combined with an Exeter Excellence postgraduate award up to a maximum combined value of £10,000: if the two together would exceed £10,000, the Excellence award is reduced accordingly. For January 2027 entry rounds of the country scheme, the published application deadline on the country pages is 1 December 2026. The self-funded condition applies here too: these awards are intended for students funding themselves rather than those fully sponsored by an employer or government.

GREAT Scholarships and external awards at Exeter

Exeter participates in the GREAT Scholarships programme with the British Council, under which students from eligible countries receive £10,000 towards a one-year taught postgraduate course in eligible subject areas; the participating countries and courses are set per cycle on Exeter’s funding pages and the British Council’s country pages. Exeter is also an eligible institution for Chevening Scholarships (full-cost, leadership-focused, applying a year ahead through Chevening’s own window) and Commonwealth Scholarships for eligible Commonwealth countries (full-cost routes assessed on merit and development impact). External full awards sit outside Exeter’s combination cap logic because they fund you through a different mechanism — but you must declare them, and an Exeter discount may be adjusted or withdrawn if your external funding covers the same fees, per the relevant terms.

Faculty and programme awards

Exeter’s faculties — Environment, Science and Economy; Health and Life Sciences; and Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences — and individual programmes periodically offer their own scholarships, including for the One Planet MBA and specialist MSc programmes. These appear in the funding database with their own values and deadlines, and some are automatic by programme while others are competitive. If your programme is one of Exeter’s premium-fee master’s, a faculty award can matter as much as the central schemes; filter the database by your programme at the moment you receive your offer, not weeks later.

Research Scholarships: Funding a PhD at Exeter

Doctoral funding at Exeter is advertised as individual studentships through the Doctoral College and the university’s funding database: research council studentships, university-funded studentships, industry- and charity-partnered projects, and supervisor-led project studentships. A typical full studentship covers tuition fees and provides a maintenance stipend at the standard UK research council rate for the funded period, but every advert defines its own package, duration and eligibility — including whether international applicants are eligible and whether the award covers the full international fee or the UK-rate fee with a separate arrangement for the difference. Competitions cluster in the winter and spring before autumn starts. Exeter also offers a strong sports scholarship programme for elite student athletes, which research and taught students can explore separately from academic awards. The disciplined approach is identical at every university: secure a supervisor conversation early, apply to the specific studentships whose criteria you meet, and treat funding as confirmed only when you hold a written award letter stating fees and stipend.

Eligibility: The Rules That Apply Across Exeter Schemes

What the Scholarships Cover — and What They Do Not

Exeter’s taught awards are tuition fee reductions against the international fee. The undergraduate Excellence award recurs in each eligible year at the awarded value; the postgraduate Excellence and country awards apply to the first year only. None of these awards pays cash, funds accommodation or living costs, or covers your visa fee and Immigration Health Surcharge. A confirmed award reduces the tuition shown on your CAS, which reduces the financial evidence you need for fees under the Student visa rules (alongside the maintenance requirement for study outside London). Exeter’s own living-cost guidance suggests budgeting carefully above the visa minimum — the city is far cheaper than London, but rent in popular student areas still dominates a budget. Part-time work within Student visa limits (20 hours per week in term) can supplement, never substitute for, your evidenced funds.

How to Apply: Step by Step

1. Apply for your programme early. UCAS for undergraduate (main deadline in January) and direct application for postgraduate. Excellence rounds close months before entry, so offer timing is scholarship timing. Start from Exeter’s official funding and scholarships hub to map the awards open to you.
2. Check your programme’s eligibility in Exeter’s funding database against the exclusion lists and your fee status.
3. Submit the Excellence webform in an open round once you hold your offer, including the personal statement of up to 300 words answering Exeter’s three published questions.
4. Let the country award happen automatically (PG) — hold an eligible offer, meet conditions, pay the tuition deposit and enrol; then verify the award appears in your fee figures.
5. Apply separately for GREAT or faculty awards where your cycle offers them, by their own deadlines.
6. Confirm the final combined figure. If you hold both a country award and an Excellence award, check the £10,000 cap has been applied correctly on your CAS and invoice.

Documents You Will Need

For admission and scholarship purposes: academic transcripts and certificates with certified translations where required; evidence of English proficiency meeting your programme’s requirement; your UCAS or programme personal statement and references; a valid passport; and the 300-word Excellence statement itself — draft it as a standalone document answering Exeter’s three questions, because it is assessed alongside your academic record, not instead of it. Country-award holders need proof of citizenship/passport for the listed country and evidence of meeting offer conditions, including the deposit payment. Keep digital copies of everything for CAS and visa use.

Deadlines and Timeline

For September 2027 entry, expect the same architecture — an early undergraduate round closing in February and a second in April, with postgraduate rounds running later — but confirm the new cycle’s dates on Exeter’s funding pages when they are published. The recurring lesson is that Exeter’s scholarship calendar runs roughly six months ahead of the academic calendar.

How to Improve Your Chances

The 300-word statement is where Excellence awards are won and lost, because every serious applicant already meets the grades threshold. Answer the three questions literally and separately: ambitions (specific, career-shaped, and tied to named Exeter strengths — a research group, a facility, the Business School’s accreditations); contribution (what you will actually do on campus — societies, mentoring, research volunteering, sport); and ambassadorship (credible ways you will represent Exeter to your home community and future applicants). Use your 300 words on evidence, not adjectives: one quantified achievement beats three paragraphs of enthusiasm. Apply in the earliest round your offer allows, because panels award the highest value your application supports and earlier rounds are decided before later applicants compete for attention. For the automatic country awards, your “application quality” is administrative: meet conditions early, pay the deposit, and verify the award — students lose automatic money through inattention, not competition.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Applying for the course too late for the scholarship rounds. No offer, no Excellence application — and rounds close as early as February for September entry.
• Budgeting both PG awards at full value. The country award plus Excellence is capped at £10,000 combined.
• Assuming the PG award recurs. Postgraduate Excellence and country awards are first-year only.
• ISC foundation students assuming Excellence eligibility. Progression from the Exeter ISC International Foundation is explicitly ineligible for UG Excellence.
• Writing a generic statement. Exeter publishes its three questions; an answer that could be sent unchanged to any university scores poorly against them.
• Ignoring the exclusions. BMBS and the named dual/partner law programmes and degree apprenticeships cannot receive UG Excellence awards.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much are Exeter Excellence Scholarships worth in 2026/27?

Undergraduates receive £3,000 or £5,000 per year, recurring for each eligible year of study. Postgraduate taught students receive £3,000, £5,000 or £10,000 as a first-year tuition fee reduction. Exeter states it is investing over £7 million in international scholarships for 2026/27 across its schemes.

Are Exeter Excellence Scholarships automatic?

No — Excellence Scholarships require an application through Exeter’s webform after you hold an offer, including a personal statement of up to 300 words answering the university’s three questions. By contrast, the country-specific postgraduate scholarships are allocated automatically to eligible offer holders who meet their conditions and enrol.

Can I combine a country scholarship with an Excellence Scholarship at Exeter?

Yes, up to a point: the two can be combined to a maximum total of £10,000. If the combined value would exceed £10,000, the Excellence award is reduced so the total stays within the cap. Check your final package on your CAS.

What grades do I need for an Exeter Excellence Scholarship?

Undergraduate applicants are typically expected to show achievement, or the clear ability to achieve, the equivalent of A-level AAB. Postgraduate applicants are expected to hold (or be on track for) the equivalent of a UK upper second class (2:1) degree. Awards are then decided by the panel using your application information and statement.

When are the Exeter Excellence deadlines?

In the last confirmed cycle, undergraduate rounds closed on 12 February 2026 (Round 1) and 23 April 2026 (Round 2). Postgraduate rounds ran to 18 June 2026 (Round 2) and 29 October 2026 (Round 3), with Round 4 for January 2027 entry closing on 26 November 2026. New cycles publish new dates — check Exeter’s funding pages.

Do Exeter scholarships cover living costs?

No. Excellence and country awards are tuition fee reductions only. You must still fund accommodation and living costs and evidence the full maintenance requirement for your Student visa; a confirmed fee reduction does lower the tuition amount you need to evidence.

Are foundation students eligible for Exeter undergraduate scholarships?

Students progressing from the University of Exeter International Study Centre International Foundation are not eligible for the Undergraduate Excellence Scholarships, which require direct entry into Year 1. Ask the ISC and the university about any progression-specific support for your intake.

Does Exeter offer fully funded PhD scholarships for international students?

Exeter advertises funded PhD studentships through its Doctoral College and funding database, including research council and university studentships; each advert sets its own fee and stipend package and whether international applicants are eligible. There is no single central application — you apply to individual studentship competitions, usually after discussing your project with a potential supervisor.

Sources & Verification

Prepared in October 2026 from the University of Exeter’s official funding pages (exeter.ac.uk), including the Exeter Excellence Scholarships 2026/27 award pages for undergraduate study (values £3,000/£5,000 recurring, AAB-equivalent expectation, offer and international fee status requirements, ISC progression exclusion, programme exclusions, Round 1 deadline 12 February 2026 and Round 2 window to 23 April 2026 with decisions by 14 May 2026) and postgraduate taught study (values £3,000/£5,000/£10,000 first year, 300-word statement and three published questions, round dates including the Round 4 award page closing 26 November 2026 for January 2027 entry with notifications by 10 December 2026, and the £10,000 combination cap with country awards), the country Postgraduate Taught Scholarship pages such as the Türkiye country award page (automatic allocation, citizen/passport holder and offer conditions, deposit requirement, published values including Kenya £10,000, Vietnam £8,000, Sri Lanka £7,500, and £5,000 countries, 1 December 2026 deadline for January entry), and Exeter’s international pages stating over £7 million invested in scholarships for 2026/27. These awards were previously branded Global Excellence Scholarships; the current official name is Exeter Excellence Scholarships.

Disclaimer: Scholarship details, values and deadlines change every year. Always confirm the current amounts, eligible courses and deadlines on the official University of Exeter website before applying. StudyGraduate is an information portal, not an agency, and cannot guarantee admission, scholarship selection or visa approval.