South Africa / Scholarships
Global Futures Scholarships 2025
The University of Manchester is proud to offer more than 330 awards to international students commencing their studies in September 2025. The total value of scholarships offered will be over £4.5 million, and awards will be open to students applying for undergraduate and master’s degrees
Undergraduate awards
The University of Manchester is proud to offer more than 100 merit-based undergraduate scholarships of £24,000 (£8,000 per year over three years) to international students from a selection of countries across the globe.
The Bicentenary Global Futures Scholarships for Africa are open to applicants domiciled in the following countries: Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Please note the application form will only be made available to you once you have applied and received an offer.
Each award comprises £8,000 for the first year of study with a further £8,000 awarded in the second and third years of study, conditional on attainment of 60% average in each year. Scholarships will be awarded in the form of a discount on published overseas tuition fees.
Students must be taking one of the following qualifications: A-level, IB, South African Matric (NSC or IEB), NCUK International Foundation Year.
Scholarships will be awarded based on academic excellence, predicted grades and your responses to questions in the online application form, which will be emailed to all eligible offer holders.
Awardees will be selected based on academic merit, but we will endeavour to achieve a balance in the allocation of the awards by gender, domicile, qualification type and course of study.
Please note the application form will only be made available to you once you have applied and received an offer.
- Applications will be considered from international fee-paying students domiciled in the following countries: Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
- To be considered as domiciled in these countries, applicants must have predominantly resided there during the last three years.
- We consider your permanent country of residence to be the country in which you are ordinarily resident, not a country where you are only living for the purpose of full-time education.
- Applicants must be applying for direct first-year entry in 2025 and have, or be working towards one of the following qualifications:Application deadlines will vary by the qualification taken.
- A-levels
- IB Diploma
- South African NSC or IEB
- NCUK International Foundation Year
- Scholarship applications from A Level, IB and NCUK IFY students will be assessed on any previous examinations, predicted grades in the above-listed qualifications and the strength of the personal statement.
- Scholarships for South African NSC/IEB students will be based upon grades attained following the results release in January 2025 and the strength of the personal statement.
- Applicants must be self-funded (not sponsored).
- Applicants for Medicine (MBChB), Dentistry (BDS), Architecture, or any courses with an integrated foundation year are not eligible for the award.
- Applicants must have selected The University of Manchester as their FIRM UCAS choice by 23 May 2025.
- Applicants who have previously studied in the UK are not eligible for the award.
- The award applies only to full-time courses of study delivered at The University of Manchester’s UK campus in Manchester. Applicants for blended and distance learning programmes are not eligible for the award.
- The application form will be emailed automatically to all eligible applicants shortly after an academic offer is made. Forms will not be emailed until December 2024.
The above is provided as a summary but please ensure that you download and read our full terms and conditions (PDF, 189KB).
Applications are considered in two rounds according to the qualification you are taking.
- Those taking A Level, IB or NCUK IFY should apply by 24 April 2025.
- Students taking South African NSC or IEB or November series A Level or who already hold results from an accepted qualification should apply by 13 March 2025.
Successful applicants will be notified by the following dates according to the examinations taken:
For Students taking South African NSC, November Series A Level, successful applicants will be notified of the decision by 11 April 2025.
For Students taking IB, A Level or NCUK IFY taken in 2025, successful applicants will be notified decision by 23 May 2025.
Master’s awards
The University of Manchester is proud to offer more than 230 merit-based master’s scholarships to prospective international students from a range of countries across the globe.
The value of Global Futures Scholarships for African students is £15,000; scholarships will be awarded in the form of a discount on published overseas tuition fees.
Within Africa, the awards are open to applicants domiciled in the following countries: Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Please note the application form will only be made available to you once you have applied and been made an offer.
These scholarships of £15,000 will be awarded based on academic excellence and the quality of your responses in the online application form.
Scholarships will be awarded in the form of a discount on published overseas tuition fees.
Please note the application form will only be made available to you once you have applied and been made an offer.
- Applications will be considered from international fee-paying students domiciled in the following countries: Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
- To be considered as domiciled in these countries applicants must have predominantly resided there during the last three years.
- We consider your permanent country of residence to be the country in which you are ordinarily resident, not a country where you are only living for the purpose of full-time education.
- Applicants for the African awards must hold an unconditional offer to study a full-time on-campus master’s course at The University of Manchester for a course starting in September 2025 by 24 April 2025 and must submit an online scholarship application form by the same deadline. The application form will be emailed to all eligible offer-holders.
- Applicants will be considered for the award based on academic merit and the quality of their scholarship application, but we will endeavour to achieve a balance by gender, domicile and course in the allocation of the awards.
- Applicants must be self-funded (not sponsored).
- Applicants for MBA, MPhil, Master of Architecture (MArch), Architecture and Urbanism (MA), Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA), Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), Clinical Medicine and Dentistry degrees are not eligible for the award. Some ‘Master’s by Research’ courses are also ineligible (see Terms and Conditions, below).
- Applicants who have studied a Bachelor’s degree outside of Africa are not eligible for the award.
- Applicants for blended and distance learning programmes are not eligible for the award.
The above is provided as a summary but please ensure that you download and read our full terms and conditions (PDF, 158KB).
Applicants for the African awards must hold an unconditional offer to study a full-time master’s programme at Manchester and must submit an online scholarship application form by 24 April 2025.
Please note the application form will only be made available to you once you have applied and been made an offer.
All successful applicants will be notified of the University’s decision by 30 May 2025.
In addition, a number of other faculty, school and programme-specific scholarships are available to students from Africa.
For PhDs the University offers a number of competitive bursaries via individual Schools and research groups for well-qualified candidates. Please check with your prospective academic School for details and check the University’s postgraduate research funding database.