A funded master's in the UK, from Nigeria

This guide is for a Nigerian graduate who wants to do a one-year Master's in the UK on the Commonwealth Master's Scholarship and has never applied for anything like it. It takes you from your degree to your first term in the UK, one stage at a time: what you have just done, what you do now, where, what it costs, how long it takes, and what comes next. Start with "Where the window stands today": if it is after 4pm in Lagos on Tuesday 20 October 2026, it sends you straight to the closed plan; before that hour, it and the table under it tell you, from the day you open this guide, whether you can still finish this window. Then read Part 1 once from top to bottom, and come back to the stage you are on. Every fee, date and rule in it comes from the official page that sets it. The guide was read whole on 11 October 2026; where this window's page has not yet said something, the guide says so. A line that begins "Last year" gives the 2026/27 window's rule or date, only to show what has changed; it is never this window's rule. Where a line says "applicants who did it say", it is what Nigerians report from their own applications, not a rule.

Where the window stands today

If it is after 4pm in Lagos on Tuesday 20 October 2026, this window is closed: go straight to Part 8, the closed plan. If you submitted in time, go to Stage 9 (the Board) or Stage 10 (an NGO).

If you are reading this on another day before that hour. Count the days from today to 4pm in Lagos on Tuesday 20 October 2026, and find your row in "From today" below.

On 11 October 2026, the day this guide was read whole, the 2027/28 window is open, and nine days are left to the close.

Why 4pm in Lagos is every nominator's hour. Every nominator's application is the CSC's own form on CSC Central, and that form closes at 16:00 BST, which is 4pm in Lagos. FAWE's call prints 16:00 GMT, which would be 5pm in Lagos, but the form shuts an hour earlier, so 4pm is your hour. The Board prints no hour at all; its application is the same form, so 4pm is its hour too. Submit days before it: the CSC warns that its system "will be very busy in the days leading up to the application deadline", and it takes no late application.

What has passed. The CSC's window opened on Tuesday 8 September 2026, and the Board's call came out with a PDF dated 10 September 2026. Leeds asks anyone applying for a scholarship to submit "at least one month before the scholarship deadline"; for 20 October that day was 20 September, and it has passed. Chevening's Nigeria window for 2027-2028 is closed.

What no page has said yet. The date and venue of the Board's interview for this window. As at 11 October 2026 no notice is on the Ministry's site. Last year the Board posted its notice on 21 October 2025, the week after its close, for interviews from 3 to 7 November 2025 (Stage 9).

What has changed since last year. Last year the Board's own window ran from 2 September to Tuesday 14 October 2025, six days before the CSC's close; this year the Board's call gives 20 October 2026, the CSC's own day, and prints no opening date. Last year the Board's advert said applicants "must print out their completed application form before submitting it online"; this year's call says "Create PDF version of the completed form, download and print one (1) hard copy for submission at the interview venue", which you do after you submit. The Board's degree line has not changed: last year its advert asked for "1st Class or 2nd Class Upper Division for Masters in his/her 1st Degree", and this year's call asks "A First Degree of at least Second Class Upper for Masters".

From today: what you can still finish

The work that takes longest is the work you do not control: a university's decision, a transcript from your Nigerian university, a referee's letter. Each row says what must already be in your hands for you to finish by 4pm in Lagos on 20 October. Through the Board you need more by that hour than through FAWE or another NGO, so each row answers for both. "Which nominator?" in Part 1 tells you which column is yours.

Where these times come from.

• The universities. Leeds aims to decide "within ten working days if all necessary documents have been received", so a Leeds application complete on Tuesday 6 October can be decided by 20 October, and one completed later cannot. LSE averages eight weeks. Sussex begins to look at applications in late November. Manchester opened its 2027/28 applications on 10 October 2026 and states no time. None of them decides before your file is complete: Leeds decides once "all necessary documents have been received", Manchester says "We can't make you an offer until it's complete", and LSE processes nothing until every supporting document, the references included, has arrived.
• What the Board asks by its date. "Admission into at least two (2) U.K. Institutions", with the "admission letter received from a UK Institution listed in the application form" in the upload you make by 20 October; "Evidence of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)"; your transcripts, your birth certificate and your passport photograph in the same upload. Last year it checked every original at its interview.
• The transcript. ABU states 24 to 48 hours for an e-copy and 5 to 7 days for a hard copy. UNILAG, UI, UNN and OAU state no time. Graduates quoted in the Nigerian press in 2025 describe a transcript taking an hour on one university's portal, two to three weeks at another and about a month at a third. Request yours today, whatever your row.
• The referees. No official page states a time. Applicants say referees are the slowest part, and that they chased them in the last ten days before a close.
• The form. Registering on CSC Central is one sitting: a passcode by email, then the two-factor sign-in. Your examples take two or three evenings and your answers a week of evenings (Stages 5 and 6).

Part 1. Before you start

What the scholarship is

The Commonwealth Master's Scholarships are funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). In the CSC's own words they "are aimed at those who could not otherwise afford to study in the UK". Each one pays for one year of full-time taught Master's study at a UK university: your whole tuition fee, your flight to the UK and back, your Student visa and its health surcharge, and a monthly stipend of £1,712 (about ₦3 million), or £2,000 (about ₦3.6 million) in London, at the CSC's current levels. You can study any subject that fits one of the CSC's six development themes, but not an MBA and not a research Master's. Nigeria is on the CSC's list of countries for this scholarship.

If you hold a 2:2, an HND or a postgraduate diploma, or you have not finished NYSC, read Check that you can start first: it gives you the answer for your degree with each nominator.

The bodies you will deal with

The CSC, the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK, is the body that selects the scholars and pays for the scholarship. The Association of Commonwealth Universities runs it day to day as the CSC Secretariat, which handles your payments, your travel and your welfare once you are selected.

A nominator is a body that puts candidates forward to the CSC. The CSC does not accept direct applications for these scholarships. As well as applying to the CSC, you must apply to a nominator, and the CSC selects only from the people nominators put forward. Each nominator runs its own selection and can set its own extra rules and its own closing date.

The Federal Scholarship Board is Nigeria's national nominator. It is not a separate agency: it is a department of the Federal Ministry of Education, headed by a Director, and its 2027/28 call is issued by the Ministry's Department of Scholarship Awards, "formerly Federal Scholarship Board". It runs Nigeria's side of the Commonwealth scholarships, interviews its candidates, and puts its nominees forward to the CSC. Every Board interview notice in this guide (2021, 2023, 2025) held the interview in Abuja.

Your UK universities give you the place on the course. The CSC places its Master's Scholars only at universities that have signed an agreement with it; under that agreement the university pays 20% of the overseas tuition fee and anything above the CSC's fee cap, and the CSC pays the rest. You pay none of it. An offer is conditional when the university still wants something from you, such as a final transcript or an English result. It becomes unconditional when you have met every condition. Once you hold an unconditional offer, your university gives you a CAS, a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies: a reference number you must have before you can apply for your visa.

The Home Office, through UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), gives you the Student visa, the visa for studying in the UK. With the visa comes the immigration health surcharge (the IHS), the charge for UK healthcare that is paid when you apply for a visa. For a Commonwealth Scholar the FCDO pays both the visa fee and the IHS.

One form, two applications

You fill one form, the CSC's application on its online system, CSC Central, and on that form you choose your nominator. The Board calls this form the "EAS". Its 2027/28 call says "All applications should be made through the Electronic Application System (EAS)" and names "User Registration Page - CSC Central" among its websites. Last year the Board invited to its interview the candidates "who had successfully completed the Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) application form via the Electronic Application System (EAS)", and said: "Only candidates who chose Federal Scholarship Board as their Nominating Agency are to attend the interview." So the Board's EAS is CSC Central: you register there, fill the CSC's form, and choose the Federal Scholarship Board as your nominating agency. Nothing is posted or emailed to the Board.

You meet both bodies' rules. The CSC says it plainly: "You must meet both the nominating agency criteria/deadline and the CSC criteria/deadline." Where the two set different rules, the stricter one is the one you live under, and this guide names it at every step.

The mistake applicants report most at this point is thinking the CSC form is the whole application, or thinking the Board wants papers sent to it by email. This year's call asks for nothing to be posted or emailed.

Check that you can start

Where the CSC and your nominator set different degree lines, the stricter one governs you. Here is the answer for your degree, nominator by nominator.

Through the Federal Scholarship Board:

• A 2:1 or a first qualifies: the Board's call asks for "A First Degree of at least Second Class Upper for Masters".
• A 2:2 with a Master's or a postgraduate diploma does not qualify: the Board's call asks for "A First Degree of at least Second Class Upper for Masters" and prints no 2:2 line, so the CSC's wider line does not reach you through the Board.
• A 2:2 without a postgraduate qualification does not qualify.
• An HND does not qualify: the call invites "qualified Nigerian University graduates" and asks for "A First Degree".

The Board adds two more lines of its own: "Evidence of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)" and "Admission into at least two (2) U.K. Institutions". If you are still serving, the Board is not your nominator this window: last year its interview list asked for the "Original and photocopy of NYSC discharge/exemption Certificate" and said a candidate without its listed papers "will not be accredited for the interview", and serving corps members who applied in 2019 and 2022 say they were told the certificate is compulsory.

Through FAWE (women only):

• A 2:1 or a first qualifies: FAWE's call prints no degree class, so the CSC's line governs, "a first degree of at least upper second-class (2:1) honours standard".
• A 2:2 with a related Master's qualifies: the CSC takes "a lower second-class degree and a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master's degree)", and FAWE adds nothing stricter.
• A 2:2 with a relevant postgraduate diploma qualifies. A 2:2 with a relevant postgraduate diploma meets the CSC's words, "a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master's degree)": the line names a postgraduate qualification, and "usually" means a Master's is not the only one. Apply, and send the CSC the confirmation below the same day.
• A 2:2 without a postgraduate qualification does not qualify.
• An HND does not qualify: the CSC asks for "a first degree ... honours standard", and the UK universities in this guide that name the HND place it inside an undergraduate degree, not as one (Coventry takes it for a top-up degree; Teesside for the second or third year of a degree).

FAWE asks no NYSC certificate and no university admission.

Through the other NGOs (TCEN, HALI, the CDPF):

• A 2:1 or a first qualifies with each of them.
• A 2:2 with a related Master's or a relevant postgraduate diploma qualifies through TCEN and HALI, which print the CSC's own line ("a second-class degree (2:2) and a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master's degree)", in TCEN's words). Through the CDPF, its 2026 page asks for "a 2.1 degree", while the CSC's page says disabled applicants without a 2:1 "may be considered for a contextualised nomination through the Commonwealth Disabled People's Forum nominator": the CDPF's own answer decides it, and the question to send it is below.
• A 2:2 without a postgraduate qualification does not qualify through TCEN or HALI. Through the CDPF, it is the same question below.
• An HND does not qualify through any of them, for the reason under FAWE.

One confirmation, and the one question no page answers. Send yours today, and keep the reply.

• A 2:2 and a postgraduate diploma, through FAWE, TCEN or HALI: a confirmation. Apply: your diploma meets the CSC's words. The same day, send the CSC a confirmation on its Contact Us, opens in a new tab form, subject "I want to find out if I am eligible for a scholarship" (the form's own words): "I hold a 2:2 first degree and a relevant postgraduate diploma in [subject], and I am applying for the 2027/28 Master's. Your page asks for 'a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master's degree)'. Please confirm that my postgraduate diploma counts." If the answer is yes, or no reply has come, submit before 4pm in Lagos on 20 October as planned. If the answer is no, this window is not yours: go to Part 8.
• Disabled, without a 2:1, through the CDPF. In the registration email you send the CDPF anyway (to martha.aldridge@commonwealthdpf.org, copied to richard.rieser@commonwealthdpf.org), today: "I hold [a 2:2 / a 2:2 and a Master's in ...]. Your 2026 page asks for a 2.1 degree; the CSC's page says disabled applicants without a 2:1 may be considered for a contextualised nomination through the CDPF. Will you consider me for the 2027 nomination?" If the answer is yes, choose the CDPF on the CSC's form and send it your papers by 14 November. If it is no, choose FAWE if you are a woman with a 2:2 and a related Master's; otherwise go to Part 8. If no reply has come by Monday 19 October, choose the CDPF.

The CSC's own lines, for every nominator. The CSC takes you if you:

• are a citizen of Nigeria (or hold refugee status from a Commonwealth country on its list), and live permanently in such a country;
• can start your studies in the UK by September 2027;
• by September 2027 hold "a first degree of at least upper second-class (2:1) honours standard, or a lower second-class degree and a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master's degree)";
• cannot afford to study in the UK without this scholarship;
• send every supporting paper in the format asked.

Your class is the class on your certificate: the CSC's page gives no conversion for Nigerian grades, and Leeds, the one university in this guide that converts, takes a Nigerian 2:1 as a 2:1 and a 2:2 as a 2:2. "Cannot afford" needs no paper: the CSC's list of supporting papers is your passport, your transcripts and your references, and nothing on it proves your money.

Your age and your work. There is no age limit. Work experience is not required. If you work, settle with your employer what leave you can take.

If you are still finishing your degree. The CSC lets you apply with your transcripts to date and your expected completion date; your first degree must be completed by September 2027. The Board is not your nominator this window: it asks for "A First Degree" and evidence of NYSC, and you hold neither yet. FAWE is, if you are a woman.

If you already have a Master's. The CSC "would not normally fund a second Master's degree", and if you apply for one you must say why. This catches a 2:2 holder whose postgraduate qualification is a Master's: the line that lets you in also asks you to justify a second Master's, so your personal statement says why you need this one (Stage 6). If you have already studied at Master's level at a UK university, or already held a Commonwealth Master's award, you cannot apply.

Who cannot apply. An employee, a former employee or a relative of an employee of the UK government; a staff member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities or the British Council; a Commonwealth Scholarship Commissioner, a former one, or a relative of one. Former employees can apply three years after leaving.

If you are disabled. The CSC counts as a disability a physical or mental impairment with a substantial and long-term effect on normal daily activities, as the UK's Equality Act 2010 does: among others a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia or ADHD, an autism spectrum condition, a long-standing illness such as HIV, diabetes or epilepsy, a mental health condition, a physical impairment, being deaf or hard of hearing, and being blind. The CSC asks about health and disability on the form, and that answer is confidential: your nominator and the selection panel do not see it, and it does not affect the outcome. The CDPF route below is for disabled candidates.

Which nominator? Choose by your own case

You name one nominator on the CSC's form. Every nominator's page speaks of choosing it as "your nominating agency", one agency, so choose before you submit. This guide walks the Board, because the CSC calls the national nominating agencies "the main route of application"; every stage says where FAWE and the other NGOs differ.

The Board asks the most. Beyond the CSC's lines: a second class upper with no 2:2 line, evidence of your NYSC, and two UK admissions by its date, then its interview (last year in Abuja) at your own cost, and months of waiting: the CSC's result comes by July 2027. A nomination is not an award: the Board's own report counts, for 2022, 51 nominations to the CSC and 8 awards, Master's and PhD together.

• You hold a 2:1, your NYSC certificate, and two UK admission letters by 20 October. Choose the Board.
• You are a woman, and you do not hold all three. Choose FAWE. Its call asks only what the CSC asks, "proof of citizenship/refugee status, academic transcripts and references", and names no admission, no NYSC certificate and no interview. If you hold all three, choose the Board, the main route.
• You hold a 2:2 with a related Master's. Not the Board. A woman chooses FAWE. Anyone whose studies serve LGBTI+ people chooses TCEN; a disabled candidate the CDPF; a member of a HALI organisation HALI. A man in none of these groups has no nominator that lists Nigeria in this window, and the closed plan does not change that while the Board's line stays at a second class upper: its watch line (Part 8, Stage C7) tells you when the next call is out, so you read its line then.
• You hold a 2:2 and a relevant postgraduate diploma. Not the Board. A woman chooses FAWE; TCEN, HALI or the CDPF if you are in its group (the CDPF on its answer to the question in "Check that you can start"); a man in none of these groups has no nominator that lists Nigeria this window.
• You hold a 2:2 and no postgraduate qualification, or an HND. No nominator takes you in this window. The UK universities in this guide that name the HND take it into an undergraduate degree (Coventry's top-up; Teesside's second or third year), which is paid study and outside this guide.
• You have not finished NYSC, or you are still finishing your degree. Not the Board this window. A woman chooses FAWE. A man goes to Part 8 and applies through the Board in the next window, with his certificate in hand.
• You are disabled, or your studies serve LGBTI+ people, or you belong to a HALI member organisation. That NGO is open to you; its rules are below. If you also meet every one of the Board's lines, choose the Board; if you miss one, choose the NGO.

The other nominators that list Nigeria

Besides the Board, four charities and networks can put Nigerian candidates forward for the Master's. Each takes only its own group, and the CSC says that applicants who do not fit a nominator's group "will not receive a reply and their application will not be considered".

• The Commonwealth Disabled People's Forum (CDPF), for disabled candidates only, who must show how their studies will improve the position of disabled people in Nigeria. It can nominate 10 Master's candidates in all, and keeps a gender balance. You register with it by 20 October 2026 by emailing martha.aldridge@commonwealthdpf.org, copied to richard.rieser@commonwealthdpf.org, showing that you are disabled and hold the qualifications. Then, by 14 November 2026 (16.00 GMT, 5pm in Lagos), you send it your name, country, email, phone number, gender and date of birth; a copy of your completed CSC application and attachments ("You need to take a copy before you submit this"); up to 100 words, with supporting papers, on your impairment and the reasonable accommodations you need; up to 250 words on your work for disabled people's rights; and up to 250 words on how your studies will improve the position of disabled people in Nigeria. Its 2026 page asks Master's candidates for "2 references + university transcript showing a 2.1 degree". Its call for the 2024 scholarships made an exception for a candidate who could show that a lack of reasonable accommodations kept her below a 2:1; its 2026 page does not repeat it, so the question under "Check that you can start" goes with your registration.
• The Commonwealth Equality Network (TCEN), for candidates who can show how their studies will improve the position of LGBTI+ people in Nigeria. It can nominate 10 Master's candidates. It takes the CSC's own degree line: a 2:1, or a 2:2 with a relevant postgraduate qualification. You choose it as your nominating agency on CSC Central, then answer its own question in no more than 1,000 words, in Word, and email that answer with your Applicant ID (from the CSC's confirmation email) to tcen.secretariat@kaleidoscopetrust.com by 4pm in Lagos on 20 October 2026 (its guidance prints 16.00 GMT; its page says the call closes at "16:00 UK time", which is 4pm in Lagos). It wants at least two references signed and on letterhead, and warns: "Avoid the excessive or inappropriate use of AI."
• The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), for women from the African countries it lists, Nigeria among them. You select FAWE as your nominating agency on CSC Central and submit by 4pm in Lagos on Tuesday 20 October 2026. It names no separate form and no degree class (Stage 7, "On FAWE").
• The HALI Access Network, only for candidates affiliated with one of its member organisations; it takes no individual applications. You apply on CSC Central, then work with your member organisation to be put forward. Its Nigerian members on its directory are Build Nigeria Inc and WAAW Foundation in Abuja (info@waawfoundation.org, +234 909 677 4358). It takes the CSC's degree line.

If you are also applying for Chevening or the DAAD

Chevening (the UK government's other scholarship for a UK Master's) and the DAAD's EPOS scholarships for postgraduate courses in Germany ask for much of the same work. Do it once.

• Your transcript. The CSC needs full transcripts of every university qualification, every year's marks, uploaded by you by its close. Chevening asks for no papers to submit an application, and asks for your official degree certificate only if you are selected for interview; it does not need transcripts translated. So the transcript you get out for the CSC (Stage 4) serves your universities and Chevening too.
• Your referees. The CSC wants at least two signed reference letters uploaded with your application. Chevening wants two referees who know you "in a professional or personal capacity, but not a friend or relative", their letters uploaded "no later than seven working days before your interview". Ask the same people once, for both, in the first week (Stage 3).
• Your English. Neither the CSC nor Chevening asks for an English test to apply ("The Chevening English language requirement was removed in 2020."). Your universities set their own English rule for each course (Stage 2), and that rule serves all three.
• Your examples. The CSC grades your merit, your study plan and your development impact; Chevening assesses your answers in four areas: leadership and influencing, building professional relationships, your course and the UK's priority areas, and your career plan. The same notebook of what you have done, with dates and results, feeds both (Stage 5).
• Your three university courses. The CSC takes up to three choices in order; Chevening asks you to apply to three courses and hold an unconditional offer from at least one by its own deadline (17:00 BST on 8 July 2027 for this cycle). One set of university applications serves both.
• What is different. Chevening asks at least 2,800 hours of work experience over at least two years after your degree, and that you finished your degree at least two years before its deadline; the CSC asks no work experience. The DAAD's EPOS asks at least two years' related professional experience after your bachelor's, results in the upper third, a degree normally not more than six years old, and you apply to the German university, not to the DAAD; for Heidelberg's and Freiburg's courses the window closes on 15 October 2026. Chevening's Nigeria window for 2027-2028 is already closed.

What one result does to another. You can apply to several, but you cannot hold two at once: "Other scholarships, awards, or bursaries that cover the same costs may not be held concurrently", and the CSC wants any other offer referred to your Programme Officer. The DAAD's own page says that any amount of a second scholarship from an international provider above EUR 603 is deducted from a DAAD scholarship. A Commonwealth Scholarship also closes Chevening to you afterwards: Chevening does not take anyone who has "previously studied in the UK on a UK government-funded scholarship", and the CSC is funded by the FCDO. If Chevening is your first wish, settle that before you accept a Commonwealth award.

Part 2. The whole journey on one page

Stage 1. Check you fit, and choose your nominator. Your degree against the CSC's lines and your nominator's, the stricter one governing. Free. One evening.

Stage 2. Choose three courses and apply to the universities. Three one-year taught Master's at universities on the CSC's list. Through the Board, two admission letters by 20 October; through FAWE or another NGO, none to apply. No fee named by Leeds, Manchester or Sussex; £95 (about ₦169,000) at LSE. Leeds aims to decide in ten working days; LSE averages eight weeks.

Stage 3. Ask your referees. Three names, at least two signed letters, uploaded by you. Free. Ask in the first week.

Stage 4. Get your papers out. Your transcripts (every year), your passport, and for the Board your NYSC certificate and your birth certificate, with your name the same on each. ₦5,000 to ₦25,000 a transcript, by university. From a day to weeks.

Stage 5. Gather your examples. Your work, your volunteering, your leadership, your publications and prizes, each with what changed. Free. Two or three evenings.

Stage 6. Write your answers. The development impact statement in four parts, your career plans, your study plan and your personal statement, to the form's word limits. Free. A week of evenings.

Stage 7. Apply to your nominator. The Board's own call, its papers, its two admissions and your NYSC certificate; or FAWE's or another NGO's own rules. Free. By 4pm in Lagos on Tuesday 20 October 2026.

Stage 8. Submit on CSC Central, with your nominator chosen. Upload, submit, and save your copy. Free. Before 4pm in Lagos on Tuesday 20 October 2026.

Stage 9. The Board's interview. Watch for the notice, and go on the day it gives you, with its list of papers. Your fare and a night or two away. Last year it was 3 to 7 November 2025, in Abuja.

Stage 10. Wait for the CSC's email. The Board nominates by December 2026 and writes to no one; the CSC writes to every applicant by July 2027. Free.

Stage 11. Your result, and what you do next. If selected: the tasks, the unconditional offer, the Notification of Award, then the Confirmation of Award. If not: Part 8.

Stage 12. Your Student visa. The TB test, ATAS if your course needs it, then the visa from Nigeria with biometrics at a visa centre. The visa fee and the IHS are paid by the FCDO; the TB test is yours: $94 (about ₦125,000) at IOM (the International Organization for Migration, which runs approved TB clinics), or ₦120,000 at a private clinic in Lagos. A decision usually within 3 weeks.

Stage 13. Travel to the UK. The CSC books your flight after your visa. Carry £200 (about ₦357,000) in cash.

Stage 14. Arrival and your first term. The CSC's registration form, a UK bank account, a GP, and your first stipend on your cash card when you arrive.

Stage 15. When the course ends. Book your flight home eight weeks before the end, and go home. The CSC does not let a Master's Scholar stay on the Graduate visa.

The money. Up to your result, you pay only your universities' application fees (none named by Leeds, Manchester or Sussex; £95 at LSE), your transcripts (₦5,000 to ₦25,000 each at the five universities in this guide), any paper you must replace, and, through the Board, your trip to its interview. After selection you pay your TB test ($94, about ₦125,000, at IOM; ₦120,000 at a Lagos clinic), your travel to the visa centre, and the £200 (about ₦357,000) the CSC tells you to carry. The scholarship pays your tuition, your visa (£558, about ₦995,000), your IHS, your flight and your stipend. You never pay a tuition deposit. Part 7 has every figure.

The time. The 2027/28 window runs from 8 September to 4pm in Lagos on 20 October 2026. The Board nominates by December 2026, and the CSC's result comes by July 2027; applicants who did it say provisional selection emails came from early May to June, and regret emails from March to August. Your study starts in September or October 2027, about eleven months after the close.

If the window has closed, go to Part 8: the closed plan's stages come first, and the form waits for the next window.

Part 3. Stage by stage

Stage 1. Check you fit, and choose your nominator

Back to the short stages

You want the scholarship and you hold a degree. Now check your degree against both bodies' lines, and settle your nominator before you spend anything.

Do.

1. Read "Check that you can start" in Part 1 against your own papers: your degree class on your certificate, your NYSC certificate, your passport. The sentence for your degree and your nominator is your answer.
2. Choose your nominator from "Which nominator?" in Part 1, by your own case.
3. If you hold a 2:2 and a relevant postgraduate diploma, send the CSC the confirmation from Part 1 today. If you are disabled without a 2:1, send the CDPF the question from Part 1 with your registration today.
4. Pick your theme. The CSC's six development themes are: Science and technology for development; Improving population health, health systems and capacity; Promoting innovation and entrepreneurship; Strengthening peace, security & governance; Strengthening resilience & response to crises; Access, inclusion & opportunity. Your study and its impact must fit one of them. The CSC's page asks you to attribute your study to one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the form takes up to three. The CSC does not fund study for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas.
5. Through the Board, pick the Board's priority area for Nigeria that your study serves: Education, Health, Economic Growth and the Private Sector, Governance and Conflict, Climate and Environment, Water and Sanitation, Engineering, Science & Technology, Food and Nutrition, Humanitarian Disasters and Emergencies.

Where. Commonwealth Master's Scholarships, opens in a new tab on the CSC's site, with CSC development themes, opens in a new tab and Commonwealth Scholarships FAQs, opens in a new tab. The Board's call is the PDF Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) 2027/2028 UK Academic Year, opens in a new tab, opened from its card on the Federal Ministry of Education's home page, opens in a new tab. The old Board portal address that still appears in an old Ministry post no longer belongs to the Board; never use it. FAWE's call is Call for Nominations: Commonwealth Scholarships 2027, opens in a new tab.

What you need. Your degree certificate or statement of result, your NYSC certificate, your passport.

Cost and time. Free. One evening.

You are done when you have written down your nominator, your theme and, through the Board, its priority area; and, if Part 1 gave you the confirmation or the question, it is sent and saved.

If it goes wrong. If the CDPF has not answered by Monday 19 October, choose the CDPF, as Part 1 says. If the CSC answers that your postgraduate diploma does not count, go to Part 8. If the CDPF answers no, follow what Part 1 says for no.

From applicants who did it. Applicants say they found the CSC's window from the CSC and online, and the Board's call separately, about a week later in 2026. No account was found from a 2:2 or HND holder who went through the Board.

If the window has closed. Part 8, Stage C1.

Next. Choose three courses and apply to the universities (Stage 2), the same day.

The CSC's pages in this chapter were read on 7 and 10 October 2026; the Ministry's call and pages on 7 and 10 October 2026; FAWE's call on 10 October 2026.

Stage 2. Choose three courses and apply to the universities

Back to the short stages

You know your nominator. Now choose three courses and apply for them. On the first day, request your transcript (Stage 4) and message your referees (Stage 3) before you register on the universities' portals: the universities need both.

What each nominator needs from your universities.

• Through the Board: two admission letters by 20 October. The call asks "Admission into at least two (2) U.K. Institutions", and puts the "admission letter received from a UK Institution listed in the application form" in the upload you make by 20 October. Last year its interview list asked for an "Admission letter from any of the UK universities listed in the Commonwealth site", and said a candidate without its listed papers "need not to appear for the interview". Applicants say this is the rule they run out of time on.
• Through FAWE or another NGO: no admission to apply. The CSC says "a university admission/offer letter is not required at the application stage", but "You are strongly advised to seek admission to your proposed UK university at the time of, or as soon as possible after submitting your CSC application", and after selection it cannot confirm your scholarship without an unconditional offer. Apply to your three universities now all the same.

Step 1. Choose three courses from the CSC's list

Do. Choose three one-year taught Master's courses, at three universities on the CSC's list, in your order of preference. The order is fixed once you submit: the CSC "will not change the university or course (or the order of preference) of a provisionally selected candidate after the point of selection", and it can overrule your choice on the course's suitability and value for money. "If three choices are not included and the CSC are not able to place an applicant at the institutions included, the scholarship will not be able to proceed." So name three.

What the CSC funds. One-year taught Master's programmes only, full time, one degree. No MBA. No research Master's.

Where. The list of universities is UK Universities, opens in a new tab on the CSC's site (88 universities, from Aberystwyth University to York St John University, the list modified 6 October 2026). It prints no list of courses. To find the courses, the CSC points to Study UK (the British Council's course search), Steps to Postgraduate Study, Postgrad.com, Prospects, the Research Excellence Framework 2021 results, UCAS Postgraduate, Discover Uni and UKCISA.

How the panel reads your choices. The CSC grades how well your course and university have been researched, "including specific options and dissertation topics". Its panel writes: "All applicants must explain in some detail why they have applied to the courses and institutions listed on their application forms. It is insufficient only to say that the universities are excellent, or even that they are ranked xth on a global listing of universities." So for each course, write down now the modules and the dissertation topic you want, and how they answer the Nigerian problem you will work on.

Choose for speed, through the Board. No university in this guide decides a new application by 20 October. Leeds aims for ten working days once it holds every paper, so only a Leeds application complete by Tuesday 6 October could be decided by then. LSE averages eight weeks. Sussex begins to look at applications only in late November. Manchester opened its 2027/28 applications on 10 October 2026 and states no time. If you do not already hold two admission letters, read your row in "From today" before you pay any university fee.

Step 2. Apply to the three universities

Do. Apply on each university's own portal, for entry in September 2027, with every paper in: none of these universities decides before your file is complete. On each application, say in the funding section that you are applying for the Commonwealth Master's Scholarship, which closes on 20 October 2026, and through the Board, ask for a decision by that date.

Four examples, from the universities' own pages:

• The University of Leeds. Applications for 2027/28 opened on 1 October 2026, on its applicant portal (myleedsportal.leeds.ac.uk). The international deadline is typically 30 July 2027, earlier for some courses. "If you are also applying for a scholarship, ensure your application is submitted at least one month before the scholarship deadline", and indicate the scholarship deadline in the funding section "so we can try to prioritise your submission". It aims to decide "within ten working days if all necessary documents have been received". It names no application fee. It takes a Nigerian 2:1 as a 2:1 and a 2:2 as a 2:2. You need: your degree certificate and transcripts with the grade for each module (a partial transcript if you are still studying), a grading scale if your transcript does not show one, your English evidence if you hold it, and, depending on the course, a CV, references or two referees' contacts, and a personal statement of no more than one A4 page. An application not submitted is deleted after 200 days. Leeds does not permit deferrals. Example: Public Health (International) MPH, opens in a new tab, 12 months from September 2027, a 2:2 or above in a related subject with at least one year's full-time relevant experience, IELTS 6.5 with no part below 6.0, a transcript "signed and stamped", deadline 30 July 2027, international fee £30,100 (about ₦53.7 million, paid by the CSC if you are selected).
• The University of Manchester. Applications for 2027/28 open on 10 October 2026. Many courses have no closing date; check each course page. "Make sure that you use a personal email address when you register." It names no application fee. It generally asks a 2:1 or a GPA of 3.5 out of 5.0, and "For some courses, a good 2:2 bachelor's degree may be acceptable." You may need two references, and Manchester asks the referees directly through its referee portal. "We can't make you an offer until it's complete." Example: MSc Global Development (Poverty and Inequality), opens in a new tab, one year, a 2:1 in any discipline, international fee £30,500 (about ₦54.4 million); "the course may reach capacity before the official closing date of 31 August". Some popular courses run staged deadlines: MSc Global Development (Globalisation, Trade and Industry) takes applications received by 6 December 2026 for an update by 19 February 2027, then by 1 March, 4 May, 4 July and 23 August 2027.
• The University of Sussex. Sussex begins to look at applications in late November for entry the following September. The latest an international applicant should normally apply is two months before the course starts; high demand courses close earlier. It names no application fee. Example: Development Studies MA, opens in a new tab at the Institute of Development Studies, September 2027, international deadline 1 August 2027, a second class upper or a CGPA of 3.5 to 4.49 out of 5.0, in the social sciences or a related subject, a personal statement of about 800 words and a CV, preferably a year's development work, international fee £24,200 a year (about ₦43.2 million).
• LSE (the London School of Economics and Political Science). Applications for 2027/28 opened in October 2026. The application fee is £95 (about ₦169,000), paid by credit or debit card on its site, not refunded once your application is acknowledged. You can apply only once in the cycle, for up to two programmes in order of preference; more choices cost £105 (about ₦187,000). It does not process your application until both your referees' references have arrived, and averages eight weeks for a decision. "LSE expects all applicants to complete their application materials without the use of paid agents or other paid professional assistance." Upload a transcript PDF that is not password-secured; LSE asks for the secure version later if it offers you a place.

With a 2:2 (through FAWE or another NGO). Choose courses whose entry line takes your degree. Leeds's Public Health (International) MPH takes a 2:2 with at least a year's full-time relevant experience. Sussex's Development Studies MA and Manchester's MSc Global Development (Poverty and Inequality) ask a 2:1; Manchester says "For some courses, a good 2:2 bachelor's degree may be acceptable", so read each Manchester course's own entry line before you apply. List your Master's or postgraduate diploma, with its transcript, on every application.

English. The CSC asks no English test to apply. Your university decides. Leeds needs no further test from someone who studied in Nigeria for at least two years for a degree taught in English; otherwise WAEC WASSCE English at C6, or IELTS 6.5 overall, and for a Master's IELTS 6.5 with no part below 6.0. Manchester "can usually accept a high score in English in WAEC exams (if taken within the last seven years)", at B3 or B2 by course, and can waive the English requirement for a postgraduate whose degree from Nigeria was taught entirely in English: send Manchester your university's letter that your degree was taught in English, and you need no WAEC result there. Sussex's Development Studies MA lists IELTS 7.0 with at least 6.5 in each part, and WAEC or NECO English language at A1 to C6, and Nigeria is not on its list of countries exempt from English. If you use your WAEC English at Leeds, share the result through the WAEC website, which is the online verification, not the confirmation of result. WAEC's Results Verification, opens in a new tab portal lets the holder verify a result online, each PIN valid for a year and five uses (the page prints no single-PIN price); a confirmation of result that WAEC sends to a university abroad costs ₦39,000 a result, with a ₦13,000 scratch card, a sworn affidavit and courier charges on top. Your Nigerian university's letter that your degree was taught in English is, at UNILAG, "English as a Medium", ₦5,000. If a course needs IELTS, IDP Nigeria charges ₦299,000 for IELTS Academic on computer at a test centre, with results in 1 to 5 days; Leeds and Sussex take a result up to two years old, and Manchester one valid on your start date.

What you need. Your transcripts (Stage 4), your referees' names and emails (Stage 3), your personal statement for each university, your CV, your passport.

Cost. Leeds, Manchester and Sussex name no application fee. £95 (about ₦169,000) at LSE, by card. Before you pay LSE, check with your bank that your naira card pays online in pounds and what its foreign spending limit is: no official page can answer that for your card.

Deposits. Universities ask a self-funded international student for a tuition deposit before the CAS. Leeds's 2027/28 page prints no deposit figure yet (updated on 10 October 2026); last year it asked £2,000. Manchester asks at least £2,500, Sussex £5,000. Do not pay a tuition deposit while you wait for the CSC's result. Leeds advises an applicant who relies on a scholarship not to pay the deposit while she waits for the funding result, because she may not get it back. Once selected, you are exempt (Stage 11). Some Manchester courses ask an acceptance deposit within four to six weeks of the offer, and withdraw the offer if it is not paid; its page prints no exemption for a sponsored student. If an offer asks that, write to Manchester's admissions office the day it comes: say you have applied for the Commonwealth Master's Scholarship and are waiting for the result, and request that it holds the offer without the deposit. Keep the reply.

Time. Leeds aims for ten working days once it has every document. LSE averages eight weeks. Manchester and Sussex state no time.

You are done when you have submitted three applications, one for each course you will name on CSC Central, each with a written acknowledgement; and, through the Board, you hold two admission letters.

If it goes wrong. Through the Board, if you do not hold two admission letters by 20 October, you do not meet the Board's call this window (Stage 7, "Two letters by 20 October"). A woman chooses FAWE on the form instead, and anyone in TCEN's, the CDPF's or HALI's group chooses that NGO (Stage 7); anyone else goes to Part 8.

From applicants who did it. In September 2026 applicants were asking how to get two admissions by October. One applicant to a UK university wrote online in May 2026 of applying in the third week of April and holding a conditional offer by 6 May. Apply to the universities first, before you write the CSC form.

Same as Chevening and the DAAD. The same three applications serve Chevening, which asks for three courses and an unconditional offer from one by 8 July 2027. The DAAD's EPOS is applied for through the German university, not here.

If the window has closed. Part 8, Stage C6: time your admissions to the next call.

Next. Ask your referees (Stage 3), the same day.

The CSC's pages and the universities' pages in this chapter were read on 7 and 10 October 2026; IDP's on 7 October 2026.

Stage 3. Ask your referees

Back to the short stages

You have chosen your courses. Now ask your referees in full. Message them on the first day, the same day you request your transcript: the CSC takes only the letters you upload by its close, and applicants say referees are the slowest part.

Do.

1. Choose three referees. The form asks for "names and positions of three referees", and "One of the referees must be a current employer (if applicable)". At least two references must be uploaded with your application. If you work, your employer is one of the three, and your employer's letter is one of those you upload, with one or two from your lecturers. If you do not work, choose three lecturers.
2. Call each one this week. Ask for a reference written in their own words, signed, on institutional letterhead or in an email that clearly shows the sender's details, sent to you as a PDF.
3. Tell them what the CSC asks them to cover: how long and in what capacity they have known you; their view of your suitability for the scholarship and of the need for your subject of study in the UK; your ability to grasp concepts and reason analytically, your original thought, and your motivation and perseverance; your particular strengths and weaknesses; your potential to impact development in Nigeria; any other general qualities. The CSC's advice page says: "A five-line reference is unlikely to provide the level of support necessary."
4. Ask the same people for your university references. Manchester asks referees directly through its referee portal; LSE processes nothing until both references arrive.

Where. The rules are under Supporting documentation on Commonwealth Master's Scholarships, opens in a new tab, and in Advice for applicants, opens in a new tab.

What you need. Each referee's full name, position, institution, email and phone number.

Who counts. Universities prefer academic referees. LSE does not accept personal or character references from family or friends, or from someone who taught you below degree level; it takes two professional references if you have been out of school for five years or more. Leeds takes professional referees if you have been out of education for more than five years or apply on your work experience. TCEN wants at least two references "signed and on institutional letterhead".

Cost and time. Free. No official page states how long a referee takes. Ask in the first week.

You are done when you hold at least two signed PDF references on letterhead (your employer's among them if you work), and your third referee's name and position for the form.

If it goes wrong. If a referee goes silent, replace them the same day; the CSC takes no reference after its close and none sent by email or post. If a referee asks you to write the letter yourself, say no: the CSC wants the referee's own words.

From applicants who did it. Applicants say referees were the slowest part, and that they chased them in the last ten days before a close. Under the CSC's old system, before about 2022, the system emailed the referees; some advice online in 2026 still says referees submit directly. This window, the CSC's page says applicants "collect references ... then upload them in PDF format". Last year the Board's interview list asked for "Evidence of submission of at least two (2) referees' reports". Your submitted application with the letters uploaded is that evidence; print its references page with your form (Stage 8).

Same as Chevening. Ask the same referees for Chevening's two letters, which Chevening wants "no later than seven working days before your interview", from someone who is not a friend or relative.

If the window has closed. Part 8, Stage C4.

Next. Get your papers out (Stage 4), the same week.

The CSC's pages in this chapter were read on 7 and 10 October 2026; the universities' on 10 October 2026.

Stage 4. Get your papers out

Back to the short stages

You have asked your referees. Now get your Nigerian papers out, this week. The CSC refuses an application whose transcripts are missing or incomplete, and "will not accept supporting documentation submitted outside the online application system". Through the Board you also need your NYSC certificate and your birth certificate, and the Board asks for originals at its interview. Applicants say the transcript and the NYSC certificate are the two papers that stop Nigerians.

Step 1. Your transcripts

What the CSC asks. "Full transcripts detailing all higher education qualifications", with certified translations if not in English, every page, with "marks from all years of study, not just the final year". If you hold a Master's or a postgraduate diploma, the transcripts of that and of your first degree. "You cannot apply for the scholarship if you cannot obtain and submit transcripts yourself via the application system within the deadline. We do not correspond directly with your university or accept any documents via email or post." No CSC page asks for a sealed transcript sent by your university: it asks for your upload.

What the Board asks. "All university academic transcripts" uploaded, and, last year, "Original academic transcripts" at the interview.

Do. Request today, from your university's transcript portal, the copy your university releases to you yourself (often marked "Student's Copy"), with every year's marks and every page, and upload that copy: the CSC takes only what you upload and nothing your university sends it. Request also the official transcripts your UK universities ask for, sent to their own addresses or upload links.

Where, at five universities:

• University of Lagos, records.unilag.edu.ng, opens in a new tab. An official transcript "CANNOT be issued directly to individuals" and goes only to an institution's registrar or postgraduate dean, a scholarship board or an embassy, or is uploaded to an institution's own link with the link, username and password you give. For your own upload, apply for the Student Copy Transcript on the student portal (studentportal.unilag.edu.ng, "Student Academic Transcript" under Results); it is emailed to you and placed on the portal. Fees: transcript ₦10,000 (extra copies ₦1,000); soft copy by email ₦3,000; soft copy by file upload ₦15,000; English as a Medium ₦5,000; postage to Europe ₦5,000 by NIPOST or ₦20,000 by courier. The charges table prints no fee for the student copy. The Senate's notice of June 2023 puts the total for a transcript uploaded to an application portal at ₦25,000. Apply on a computer in Google Chrome, and track your application on the portal. Email only: records@unilag.edu.ng; visiting days Tuesday and Thursday, 10am to 2pm.
• University of Ibadan: undergraduates at academic.ui.edu.ng, postgraduates at apps.pgcollege.ui.edu.ng/transcript/. "Any personal address supplied for processing transcript will be treated as Student's Copy and as such watermarked." The portal's fee sheet prints ₦20,000 to a foreign address, ₦10,000 to a Nigerian address and ₦10,000 for a Student's Copy; the Records Unit page prints ₦7,000, ₦5,000 and ₦5,000, and the fees page ₦5,000, ₦3,000 and ₦3,000. Pay what the portal shows. Help line 080 2084 1489, record@stu.ui.edu.ng.
• University of Nigeria, Nsukka: iTranscript, opens in a new tab. ₦12,000 local, ₦25,000 foreign, sent by email by default. It does not take student copy requests: address the request to yourself, and it is delivered to you. Apply with the name on your admission file. Contact unn.itranscript@unn.edu.ng, 08059284511, 08168744236.
• Obafemi Awolowo University: tps.oauife.edu.ng, opens in a new tab, the only place to apply and pay; "Payment of cash to any individual, company or agent is prohibited." Transcripts requested for yourself are marked "Student Copy". Its public pages print no fee and no time. Enquiries transcript@oauife.edu.ng.
• Ahmadu Bello University: transcript.abu.edu.ng, opens in a new tab. Local e-copy ₦5,000, local hard copy ₦15,000, international e-copy ₦5,000, international hard copy ₦50,000. Processing takes 24 to 48 hours for e-copies and 5 to 7 days for hard copies. A personal copy, for your own records, is offered. Contact etranscript@abu.edu.ng, +234 (0) 8068085620 (also WhatsApp), Monday to Saturday, 8am to 6pm.

Your postgraduate diploma's or Master's transcript. The CSC wants it too. UI's postgraduate transcripts are at apps.pgcollege.ui.edu.ng/transcript/ (above). At the other universities, request it from your university's postgraduate school the same day you request your degree transcript.

If your university releases nothing to you. Write to its records office and request a transcript addressed to yourself, as UNN sends by default, and keep its answer: the CSC says that if you cannot get your transcripts and upload them yourself by the close, you cannot apply.

Cost. ₦5,000 to ₦25,000 a transcript at these five universities, more for courier copies. Pay only through the portal: UNILAG warns that "under no condition should applicants make payment to any individual or organisation under the pretext of fast track", and against "TOUTS who claim to be members of staff".

Time. ABU states 24 to 48 hours for e-copies and 5 to 7 days for hard copies. UNILAG treats applications "first-come, first-served". The others state no time.

Step 2. Your passport

Do. Have a valid passport. The CSC asks "a copy of a valid passport (or national ID card) showing a photograph, date of birth, and country of citizenship"; the visa needs a current passport (Stage 12). If you have none, apply now: a first Nigerian passport is applied for and paid for at passport.immigration.gov.ng, opens in a new tab. You need your NIN slip, a birth certificate or a declaration of age from a high court, your local government or indigene certificate and a passport photograph; you then appear at the passport office you chose for your photograph and fingerprints. The 32-page passport for 5 years is ₦100,000, and the 64-page passport for 10 years ₦200,000. A fresh application takes 42 days after enrolment; a re-issue 21 days. A passport does not come in time for this window's close if you apply for one now; your national ID card is the other paper the CSC takes.

Keep it valid. Applicants who did it say to keep your passport valid past the end of your course before the result comes. If you get a new passport after your CAS is issued, tell your university at once.

Step 3. Your NYSC certificate (through the Board)

What the Board asks. This year's call: "Evidence of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)." Last year's interview list asked for the "Original and photocopy of NYSC discharge/exemption Certificate", and its rules said a candidate without the listed papers "will not be accredited for the interview".

Do. Find your Certificate of National Service, Certificate of Exemption or Letter of Exclusion now: these are the three papers NYSC issues.

• An exemption certificate is collected from your own institution.
• An exclusion letter is printed online.
• An unclaimed certificate goes back to NYSC Headquarters two weeks after passing out. Collecting it costs ₦5,000 if five years or less, ₦10,000 for five to nine years, ₦20,000 for ten years and above.
• For a lost certificate, NYSC issues a letter of confirmation in its place, for ₦20,000.
• NYSC's Certification Department hotline is 08034313026.

If you are still serving. You will not hold the discharge certificate by the Board's date or its interview, so the Board is not your nominator this window (Part 1). A woman chooses FAWE, which asks for no NYSC paper.

Step 4. Your birth certificate (through the Board)

What the Board asks. A birth certificate, uploaded. If you have none, an adult (18 and above) applies to the National Population Commission for a Birth Attestation with a NIN and a court sworn affidavit, pays in the application, and downloads the certificate with the payment reference. An old certificate's digital copy comes through its Certificate Reissuance service. The NPC's page prints no fee and no time. FAWE and the other NGOs do not ask for it.

Step 5. Your name, the same on every paper

Do. Check that your name and date of birth read the same on your passport, your transcripts, your degree certificate, your NYSC certificate and your birth certificate. Fix a difference before you upload.

• UNN: "apply for your transcript with the name used to process your admission". A different name "will greatly delay the processing".
• NYSC allows a correction of name spelling, date of birth or class of degree only "within three (3) months from the date of Online Registration".
• A change of passport data after marriage, or the correction of an error, is applied for online with the Nigeria Immigration Service; the correction of data charge is ₦30,000.
• A paper not in English needs a full translation that UKVI can verify, with the translator's confirmation, the date, their full name, signature and contact details. The Board asks that every foreign certificate come with an official translation and evaluation; the Ministry's evaluation portal is ess.education.gov.ng, opens in a new tab, whose fees show only after you sign in.

Your degree certificate. Through the Board, last year's list asked for your original credentials at the interview. If you never collected yours, collect it now: at UNILAG an uncollected certificate carries a charge of ₦10,000 after the year following convocation, plus ₦5,000 for every further year, and a certificate with a spelling error that was your fault is re-issued for ₦35,000.

You are done when you hold, scanned clearly: every transcript with every year's marks, your passport's photo page, your degree certificate, and through the Board your NYSC certificate and your birth certificate; and your name reads the same on all of them.

If it goes wrong. If your university's portal is silent, write to the records email above with your payment receipt and request the date your transcript will be released. If it will not come by 20 October, the CSC refuses an application with no transcript: go to Part 8, and keep the transcript coming for the next window.

From applicants who did it. Applicants say universities that will not hand a transcript to the graduate, and slow records offices, stop more people than any rule. Graduates quoted in the Nigerian press in 2025 describe a transcript taking an hour on one university's portal, two to three weeks at another and about a month at a third. Start the transcript the day you decide. Serving corps members who applied through the Board say they were turned back at accreditation for want of the certificate.

Same as Chevening and the DAAD. The transcript and the passport you get out now serve your universities, Chevening and the DAAD. Chevening asks for no transcript, but your universities do.

If the window has closed. Part 8, Stages C2 and C3.

Next. Gather your examples (Stage 5), while the transcripts are coming.

The universities' portals, NYSC's and the NPC's pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026; the Nigeria Immigration Service's on 8 and 10 October 2026; the CSC's on 7 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 5. Gather your examples

Back to the short stages

Your papers are coming. Now gather, in one notebook, everything you have done that the form and the interview will ask about, before you write a word of the answers.

Do. Write down, each with its dates and what changed because of it:

1. Your qualifications: every university qualification, with its class or grade.
2. Your publications and prizes: the form asks for up to 10.
3. Your work: each job, its main responsibilities (the form allows up to 100 words each), and how the experience "supports and is relevant to the programme to be undertaken in the UK".
4. Your volunteering and leadership: the form asks how you have volunteered and where you have had the chance to show leadership.
5. The Nigerian problem you will work on: how big it is, with a Nigerian figure and its source; who it affects; the national development priority or capacity shortage it belongs to; and the CSC theme and, through the Board, the Board's priority area it fits (Stage 1).
6. Your evidence: the certificate, letter or link for each item. Last year the Board asked candidates to bring "Evidence of any special awards(s), prizes, academic publications and sample of work".

What the CSC grades. Three things, and the panel wants your answers linked to each:

• Your merit: your examination results, your transcripts, and your tutors' and referees' reports.
• Your study plan: what you want to learn and how it relates to your objectives, how well you have researched the course and the university, and, as a secondary point, whether you already hold an offer.
• Your development impact: the need, the outcomes you expect with their timeframe and who benefits, and how you will apply your new skills; secondary points are your leadership, your volunteering, a national development priority, your CSC theme and how the impact can be measured.

The Board's call grades on "Academic merit, Development impact on completion of the study and Quality of Study plan."

Where. Selection criteria, opens in a new tab and Advice for applicants, opens in a new tab on the CSC's site.

Cost and time. Free. Two or three evenings.

You are done when your notebook holds every item above with a date, and at least one example for each of the CSC's three things.

From applicants who did it. Two Commonwealth Scholars, one nominated by the Board, speaking online in September 2026, describe between them Development Impact answers built on local figures and one problem, tied to the development goals and kept on one theme across all four, with their publications, awards, volunteering and leadership as evidence. Applicants who went to the Board's interview say: carry every piece of evidence you have.

Same as Chevening. The same notebook feeds Chevening's four areas: leadership and influencing, building relationships, your course and the UK's priorities, and your career plan.

If the window has closed. Part 8, Stage C5.

Next. Write your answers (Stage 6).

The CSC's pages in this chapter were read on 7 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 6. Write your answers

Back to the short stages

You have your examples. Now write your answers in a document on your phone or computer first, then paste them into the form. The CSC: "It is recommended to prepare answers outside of the system and then adding them to the form once they have been finalised."

The questions and their limits, from the CSC's template form for 2027 (every box also shows a 4,000-character counter):

Do.

1. Write each answer to its limit, from your notebook. The panel: "Brief statements written in the Development Impact section is unlikely to be as convincing as a well-crafted argument that uses the full word count available."
2. In your study plan, explain in detail why each course and each university: their modules, their dissertation topics, and how they serve your plan. "Cutting and pasting text about a department, course, or institution from a website or brochure is insufficient", and the CSC can treat it as plagiarism. "Merely listing the options available for a Master's course is likewise insufficient."
3. Write plainly. "Applicants who are unclear or vague about what they intend to do, or who write using overly technical language, are likely to score poorly."
4. If one part of your academic record is weak, say why in your personal statement: "it is important that these are explained in the Personal Statement." If your first degree is a 2:2, say why, and show what your postgraduate qualification added. If that qualification is a Master's, say why you need a second one: the CSC "would not normally fund a second Master's degree" and asks you to justify it.
5. Make clear which qualification you are applying for.
6. Write every word yourself. The CSC decides "purely on the basis of the information provided in the application form". TCEN warns against "excessive or inappropriate use of AI"; Chevening prohibits AI-written answers outright; LSE can reject applications prepared with paid help.

Where. The template application form, opens in a new tab and the guidance document, opens in a new tab, both linked from the Master's page.

What the panel says it sees. "All of the CSC's scholarship schemes are highly competitive." Successful applicants "are those with strong academic grades"; many hold a first or a Master's distinction. "While applicants with upper second-class undergraduate degrees or a pass at Master's level do receive Commonwealth Scholarships ... [they] must ensure their plan of study and development impact statements are exceptional." "Every year many strong candidates are disqualified due to incomplete applications."

Who reads what. Your personal statement is seen by your nominator and the selection panel. Your answer on health and disability is not.

Cost and time. Free. A week of evenings.

You are done when every box has its answer, within its limit, in your own words, saved in a document you can paste from.

From applicants who did it. Winners say they used a Nigerian figure for the problem, named the organisations they would work with, gave a year by year plan, and named who benefits. The advice circulating in 2026 repeats one lesson: the course, the career plan and the impact must read as one story.

Same as Chevening. Chevening's essays ask about the same work, in its own four areas and to its own limits. Write each funder's answers to its own questions.

If the window has closed. The questions above are this window's; the next window's form comes with the window (Part 8).

Next. Apply to your nominator (Stage 7).

The CSC's template form was updated on 7 October 2026; its other pages on 7 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 7. Apply to your nominator

Back to the short stages

Your answers are written and your papers are scanned. Now meet your nominator's own rules, line by line, before you submit: the CSC selects only from the people nominators put forward, and each nominator runs its own selection. This stage is the Board's; "On FAWE" and "On TCEN, the CDPF or HALI" below are the same stage for those nominators.

Through the Board

What the Board's call asks. The 2027/28 call, issued by the Ministry's Department of Scholarship Awards and dated 10 September 2026, sets these lines for a Master's candidate:

• "A First Degree of at least Second Class Upper for Masters;"
• "Evidence of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)."
• "Admission into at least two (2) U.K. Institutions;"
• "All Foreign Certificates must be accompanied by official translation and evaluation."

And it sets out how to apply: "Click on EAS portal, register and complete the form online", which is CSC Central (Part 1); "Upload your scanned passport photograph, all university academic transcripts, birth certificate and admission letter received from a UK Institution listed in the application form"; "Submit your completed application form online on or before 20th October, 2026"; and "Create PDF version of the completed form, download and print one (1) hard copy for submission at the interview venue." It grades on "Academic merit, Development impact on completion of the study and Quality of Study plan."

Two letters by 20 October. This guide holds you to two admission letters in your hands by 20 October, because the call asks for "Admission into at least two (2) U.K. Institutions" and sets no date for them other than the online submission "on or before 20th October, 2026".

Do.

1. Tick each line against your papers: your degree certificate at second class upper or above, your NYSC certificate, two admission letters from universities on the CSC's list, both in your hands by 20 October.
2. Scan your passport photograph, your birth certificate and your admission letters, beside the transcripts and references you already hold.
3. Name the two universities that admitted you among your three choices on the form: the Board asks for the admission letter "received from a UK Institution listed in the application form".
4. Choose the Federal Scholarship Board as your nominating agency on CSC Central (Stage 8).
5. Upload the Board's papers on CSC Central with the CSC's (Stage 8), and print one copy of your submitted form for the interview.
6. Put your originals in one envelope for the interview: last year's list is in Stage 9.

Where. The call PDF, Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) 2027/2028 UK Academic Year, opens in a new tab, from its card on the Federal Ministry of Education's home page, opens in a new tab; the form on CSC Central, opens in a new tab. The Board's contacts, as its call prints them: fsb@education.gov.ng, 09124516750, 09082454557; Plot 245, Samuel Ademulegun Street (opposite Arewa Suites), Central Business District, Abuja.

What you need. Your degree certificate, your NYSC certificate, two admission letters, your birth certificate, your passport photograph, your transcripts, your references.

Cost. This year's call states no fee. Last year the Board's advert said: "Please application is free of charge and no money is required." Applying through the Board costs you your university application fees, your transcripts and, later, your trip to its interview.

Time. By 4pm in Lagos on Tuesday 20 October 2026: the Board prints no hour, and its application is the CSC's form, which closes then.

You are done when every line of the call is met by a paper in your hands, every Board paper is scanned, and the Board is the nominator you will choose.

If it goes wrong. If one of the Board's lines is not met by 20 October (the degree, the NYSC certificate or two admission letters in your hands), you cannot be nominated by the Board this window. A woman chooses FAWE (below); anyone in TCEN's, the CDPF's or HALI's group chooses that NGO (below); anyone else goes to Part 8. Never pay anyone who offers to get you onto the Board's list: the Board's application is free.

From applicants who did it. Applicants find the Board's call separately from the CSC's; in 2026 it came out about a week after the CSC opened. Last year's list asked for one photocopy of each paper, two passport photographs and no medical certificate.

On FAWE: the Forum for African Women Educationalists

What FAWE's call asks. "Call for Nominations: Commonwealth Scholarships 2027", posted 10 September 2026: "When completing your online application, you must select FAWE as your nominating agency." "All applicants must complete and submit the CSC application form through the Electronic Application System (EAS) by the deadline", Tuesday 20 October 2026. Documents: "proof of citizenship/refugee status, academic transcripts and references". The call names no separate form or essay, no degree class, no university admission, no NYSC paper and no interview.

Do.

1. Check that you meet the CSC's own lines (Part 1): FAWE adds none, so the CSC's degree line is yours.
2. Choose FAWE as your nominating agency on CSC Central (Stage 8).
3. Upload the CSC's three papers: your passport, your transcripts and at least two references.
4. Submit by 4pm in Lagos on 20 October.

Where. Call for Nominations: Commonwealth Scholarships 2027, opens in a new tab on FAWE's site; the form on CSC Central, opens in a new tab.

What you need. Your passport, your transcripts, two signed references, your answers.

Cost. Free: FAWE's call names no fee, and the CSC charges none.

Time. By 4pm in Lagos on Tuesday 20 October 2026. FAWE's call prints 16:00 GMT, which is 5pm in Lagos, but the CSC's form closes an hour earlier. The call gives no date for telling applicants; the CSC says its nominators nominate by December 2026, and its result comes by July 2027.

You are done when the CSC's confirmation email names your Applicant ID and you chose FAWE on the form.

If it goes wrong. For a problem with FAWE's call, write to fawescholarships@fawe.org. For a problem with the form, use the CSC's contact form (Stage 8). FAWE's call does not say whether it writes to the women it does not put forward, and the CSC says applicants who do not fit an NGO's group get no reply: your result comes from the CSC (Stage 10).

On TCEN, the CDPF or HALI

Do. Choose the NGO as your nominating agency on CSC Central, then do its own step:

• TCEN. Its question, in no more than 1,000 words, in Word, emailed with your Applicant ID to tcen.secretariat@kaleidoscopetrust.com by 4pm in Lagos on 20 October 2026. Its question asks you to describe one or two challenges LGBTI+ people face in your country or region, a specific example of your own work on one of them (where, when, with whom, what changed), and how the scholarship supports the next stage of that work. "We are unable to accept any applications that are not submitted in compliance with the process above, or that are submitted after the deadline."
• The CDPF. Your registration email by 20 October 2026, then, by 14 November 2026 (16.00 GMT, 5pm in Lagos), your details, a copy of your CSC application taken before you submit, and the three statements (Part 1).
• HALI. Your member organisation puts you forward, and HALI reviews the nominees its members send against the CSC's own lines, "focusing on the impact the nominee has had in their community and their plans post-award".

Where. TCEN: Scholarships, opens in a new tab. The CDPF: Commonwealth Scholarships, opens in a new tab. HALI: Commonwealth Scholarships, opens in a new tab.

Cost. Free.

You are done when the CSC's confirmation email has come and the NGO's own step is sent.

If it goes wrong. Send the NGO's step the day you submit, not the last hour: TCEN takes no late answer.

Next. Submit on CSC Central, with your nominator chosen (Stage 8).

The Ministry's call was read on 7 and 10 October 2026 and the Board's earlier adverts and notices on 10 October 2026; FAWE's, TCEN's, the CDPF's and HALI's pages on 10 October 2026.

Stage 8. Submit on CSC Central, with your nominator chosen

Back to the short stages

You meet your nominator's rules. Now open your account on CSC Central, fill the form, choose your nominator, upload, submit, and save your copy. Do it days before the close.

Step 1. Register on CSC Central

Do. Open CSC Central, opens in a new tab and register. The system emails you a passcode. Then set up the two-factor sign-in: by a code sent to your registered email ("Generate OTP", "Verify OTP", "REGISTER"), or with an authenticator app such as Microsoft Authenticator. You pass this step every time you log in. If you applied last year, register again for 2027/28: registering costs nothing, and the form you fill is this window's.

What you need. An email you check every day, and a smartphone or a second email account.

Keep your reference. When you complete the "enter your details" page, the CSC emails you an Application Reference Number (in the form 01234-SSP-UK-15) and a 22-character passcode. You need both to log back in. Keep that email safe.

Step 2. Fill the form and choose your nominator

Do. Fill each section from your document. Use the Save button often. Do not refresh the browser page: "Refreshing the browser window will cause candidates to exit the form and will result in any unsaved data being lost." Use the system's own back buttons, not the browser's; clicking the CSC logo returns you to the login screen.

Choose Federal Scholarship Board as your nominating agency (or FAWE, TCEN, the CDPF or HALI, if Stage 1 chose it). Choose one.

Upload, for the CSC: a copy of your passport (or national ID card) showing your photograph, date of birth and citizenship; your full transcripts; your references, at least two, as PDFs. If any of them is missing at the close, the CSC refuses your application.

Upload, for the Board: your passport photograph, your birth certificate and your two admission letters, all in your hands by 20 October, wherever the form takes further papers. Keep every original in your envelope: last year the Board checked every original at its interview (Stage 9).

Step 3. Submit, and save your copy

Do.

1. Preview your summary. "Applications may not be edited after submitting."
2. Submit before 4pm in Lagos on Tuesday 20 October 2026, and days before it if you can.
3. Save your copy at once. Use the system's "view a submitted application" function, create the PDF, and download it. The Board's call says: "Create PDF version of the completed form, download and print one (1) hard copy for submission at the interview venue." Print it now. The CDPF wants the same copy, taken before you submit.
4. Keep the confirmation email, which carries your Applicant ID.

Where. CSC Central, opens in a new tab. How to apply is on Commonwealth Master's Scholarships, opens in a new tab.

Cost. Free. "Please note that the CSC does not charge to apply for any of its scholarships or fellowships through its online application system."

Time. The CSC's close is 16:00 BST on Tuesday 20 October 2026, 4pm in Lagos, for every nominator.

You are done when you hold the CSC's confirmation email with your Applicant ID, a downloaded PDF of your submitted form, and one printed copy.

If it goes wrong. For a technical problem, use the CSC's Contact Us, opens in a new tab form, subject "I am experiencing technical issues with my application form", with your Applicant ID; replies come only in office hours, Monday to Friday. To reset your passcode, use the "Existing User" tab and "Reset Passcode". If the system is busy near the close, keep trying through the day; the CSC takes no late application.

If the window has closed. This stage waits for the next window (Part 8).

Next. Through the Board, watch for its interview notice (Stage 9), from the day after you submit. Through FAWE or another NGO, wait for the CSC's email (Stage 10).

The CSC's pages and its guidance document in this chapter were read on 7 and 10 October 2026; the Ministry's call on 7 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 9. The Board's interview

Back to the short stages

You have submitted, with the Board as your nominator. Now watch for the Board's interview notice, and go on the day it gives you with every paper on its list. The Board does not send each applicant an invitation; it posts a notice. Missing your day means no interview. Every Board notice in this guide (2021, 2023, 2025) held the interview in Abuja; this window's notice is not out yet.

Do.

1. Watch the Ministry's site. From the day after you submit, open education.gov.ng's search for "commonwealth", opens in a new tab every day, and the Ministry's Facebook page (Federal Ministry of Education, Nigeria) and its X account, @NigEducation, which the Board's adverts name. As at 11 October 2026 no notice for 2027/28 has been posted. Last year's was posted on 21 October 2025, for interviews from 3 to 7 November 2025.
2. Find your day. Last year the Board interviewed by zone of origin: Monday, South West and North West; Tuesday, North Central and South South; Wednesday, North East and South East. "No interview will be conducted for any candidate who fails to attend the interview on the date scheduled for their zone of origin."

3. Pack your envelope. Last year's list, for Master's candidates:

   • one hard copy of your submitted form;
   • all your original credentials, with one photocopy of each;
   • evidence that at least two referees' reports were submitted;
   • your original academic transcripts;
   • your original NYSC discharge or exemption certificate, with a photocopy;
   • two passport photographs;
   • evidence of any special awards, prizes, academic publications and samples of your work;
   • your first degree certificate, of at least second class upper;
   • an admission letter from any of the UK universities on the CSC's list.

   "Candidate without the above requirements, need not to appear for the interview." Any foreign certificate needs its official English translation and evaluation.

4. Go to accreditation first. Last year accreditation was at the Federal Scholarship Board's office, Plot 245, Samuel Ademulegun Street (opposite Arewa Suites), Central Business District, Abuja, and the interview at the hotel, "Ekiti House former (RoseBud Hotel, former Nanet Suites), Opp. Fed. Min. of Justice, Abuja". On the first day accreditation and interviews ran from 12.30pm to 6pm after an opening ceremony; on the other days from 9am to 6pm. "Candidates must ensure that they are duly accredited before the interview."
5. Read this window's notice whole the day it comes. Its list, its days and its venue are the ones you follow, not last year's.

What you need. Your envelope, your fare, and money for a night or two away.

Cost. No fee. Your travel and your stay are yours. No page in this guide prices the fare or a night in Abuja: price both the day the notice comes, with your transport company or airline and a hotel near the Central Business District.

Time. Last year, one day for each zone, with travel either side. The Board's interview weeks in earlier years: 29 November to 2 December 2021, 20 to 23 November 2023, 3 to 7 November 2025.

You are done when you have been accredited and interviewed on your day.

If it goes wrong. If no notice is on education.gov.ng by Monday 2 November 2026, call the Board on 09124516750 or 09082454557, or email fsb@education.gov.ng (last year's notice also gave fsbcws@education.gov.ng), and ask the date and venue of the 2027/28 nomination interview for your zone of origin. No page states them yet, and last year a candidate could be interviewed only on her zone's day.

From applicants who did it. A Commonwealth Master's scholar the Board nominated, speaking online in September 2026, names current affairs among the interview's questions.

On FAWE or another NGO. There is no Board interview. FAWE's call names no interview; each NGO runs its own selection. Go to Stage 10.

Next. Wait for the CSC's email (Stage 10).

The Board's notices in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 10. Wait for the CSC's email

Back to the short stages

You have been to the interview, or you submitted through an NGO. Now wait for the CSC's email, and watch your spam folder.

What happens now. Your nominator nominates its candidates to the CSC by December 2026. The CSC selects only from the nominations, and a nomination is not a selection. "Applicants can expect to hear the outcome of their applications by July 2027. We will contact all applicants by email and they should ensure all folders of their email accounts are monitored, including junk mail and spam folders. A scholarship offer may be withdrawn if a candidate is emailed but does not respond within a specified time."

The Board stays silent. The Board's page says nothing on telling candidates whether they were nominated, and the Ministry's site publishes no nominee list. Your result comes from the CSC alone.

Do.

1. Add every address ending in @cscuk.org.uk to your contacts. No CSC page names the address its result comes from, so search every folder, spam included, for "Commonwealth" each week.
2. Check your inbox, junk and spam folders every week from March 2027.
3. Answer any CSC email the day it comes.
4. Keep your passport valid, your NYSC certificate and transcripts in your envelope, and your university offers alive (Stage 11 needs an unconditional offer).

Cost. Free.

Time. Nominations by December 2026; the result by July 2027.

You are done when the CSC's email with your result has come.

If it goes wrong. If others from your interview have heard and you have not, use the CSC's contact form (About yourself: "I have applied for a scholarship"; Subject: "I have a query about my Master's application") with your Applicant ID: no page can tell you about your own application. The page states no reply time. The CSC's pages state no reserve list and no individual feedback.

From applicants who did it. Applicants say the Board does not write to its nominees: "You only get a mail from the CSC" (2025). They say provisional selection emails came about 5 May 2025, for the Master's; two weeks later one applicant knew of no PhD email. In 2025 applicants said that if nothing came within two weeks of others from the same interview hearing, they had not been selected.

Next. Your result (Stage 11).

The CSC's pages in this chapter were read on 7 and 10 October 2026; the Ministry's on 10 October 2026.

Stage 11. Your result, and what you do next

Back to the short stages

The CSC's email has come. Now act on it the same week.

If you are provisionally selected

"Provisionally Selected" means your scholarship is offered on condition that the CSC places you at the university for which you were selected.

Do.

1. Answer the CSC's email at once. It names your Programme Officer, your one contact at the CSC from now on.
2. Open My Tasks on CSC Central. Enter your email and your reference number, view each task, upload the papers or forms it asks, and submit it.
3. Send any missing papers on the CSC's list to your Programme Officer "as soon as possible".
4. Get your unconditional offer. "You must also send us a copy of your unconditional offer letter as soon as you receive it. We cannot confirm your scholarship until we receive this." Make sure you have applied to every course named on your form. Meet your offer's conditions early: at Leeds, an international student's conditions must be met six weeks before the course starts.
5. Meet the English and ATAS conditions on your offer now (Stage 12, Step 2): "any delays in fulfilling the conditions (including English language and ATAS) will cause a delay in your scholarship being confirmed or may prevent you from taking up the scholarship."
6. Book your TB test early (Stage 12, Step 1). From Nigeria you need one.
7. Wait for the Notification of Award, the CSC's formal offer, with an award acceptance form. Sign and return it. By signing you agree to return to Nigeria within a month of finishing your studies.
8. Send the Health and Disability Form. It comes before the Confirmation of Award, and asks about any disability and any provision you will need. Declare it now if you have one.
9. Wait for the Confirmation of Award, issued once every condition of the Notification is met. With it comes your cash card (Stage 13).

Never pay a tuition deposit or fee. "The CSC is responsible for paying your tuition fees. If your chosen university requests either a deposit or the full tuition fee, you should contact the university finance office and explain that you are a sponsored student. You must not pay any deposits or fees." If a deadline is close, write to your Programme Officer. Send your university a copy of your Notification of Award so it invoices the CSC. Leeds exempts a student with a final award letter from a recognised sponsor; Manchester takes a sponsor letter through its Sponsor Document Upload Form; Sussex names "British Commonwealth" among its recognised sponsors.

What you cannot change. "Can I change to a different course or university ...? No. The CSC selection committee's decision is final." If your first university rejects you for academic reasons, the CSC tries your second and third in turn; if it cannot place you at any of the three, your provisional selection is withdrawn. The CSC cannot normally agree to a deferment.

Other awards. Refer any other offer to your Programme Officer. "If you accept another award without declaring it to the CSC, the CSC reserves the right to withdraw your Commonwealth Scholarship." To decline the scholarship, write to your Programme Officer.

Time. "We cannot give you a specific date by which this will be done ... You do not need to check on progress with the Secretariat." Then the CSC invites you to a pre-departure briefing.

You are done when you hold your Confirmation of Award.

If you are not selected

Do.

1. Request what the CSC holds about you, if you want it. It keeps an unsuccessful applicant's data for up to 24 months from the close. "You have the right to request a copy of your personal data held by the CSC. There is no fee for this unless you make repeated requests for the same data. We will provide your data as soon as possible, at most within one month." Questions on this right go to the Data Protection Officer at the FCDO. Send the request itself on the CSC's Contact Us, opens in a new tab form, subject "I have a query about my Master's application", with your Applicant ID.
2. Keep your work. Your notebook, your references and your transcripts serve the next window (Part 8).
3. Keep your university places where you can. LSE lets an applicant who was unsuccessful, or could not take up a place, reinstate the application for the next cycle until 16 November 2026, reusing the documents sent, for £95 (about ₦169,000). Manchester's Global Futures Scholarships for African students take £19,000 off the overseas fee for self-funded students only, with an unconditional offer and the scholarship form by 20 April 2027.

From applicants who did it. Nigerians who applied more than once say they asked past scholars for help, tied the course to a Nigerian problem with figures, added evidence such as volunteering, publications and awards, carried all of it to the interview, and applied to more universities and other scholarships at the same time. A Commonwealth Scholar said online in 2026 that he was selected in his fourth cycle, after two rejections and a place on a reserve list. One winner of a Commonwealth Shared Scholarship (the CSC's other Master's scholarship, applied for through the UK university, not through the Board) was selected after six attempts.

Next. Your Student visa (Stage 12), once you hold your Confirmation of Award and your CAS.

The CSC's pages in this chapter were read on 7 and 10 October 2026; the universities' on 10 October 2026.

Stage 12. Your Student visa

Back to the short stages

You hold your Confirmation of Award. Now get your visa. "Please do not submit your visa application until you have received your Confirmation of Award (COA) from the CSC, and a Confirmation of Acceptance of Studies (CAS) from your university." Your university is your visa sponsor and issues the CAS; the CSC is your financial sponsor, and the Confirmation of Award is your proof of funding.

Step 1. Take your TB test

Do. Book a TB test at a clinic gov.uk approves in Nigeria. You need one because you are coming to the UK for six months or more from Nigeria, a listed country. "You will not be able to apply for your visa until you have received your medical certificate."

Where. The approved TB clinics are in Abuja, Benin City and Lagos only. Book your TB test and your biometrics (Step 3) in the same city so that you make one trip: Abuja or Lagos, where the visa centres are free. IOM, the International Organization for Migration, runs approved TB clinics at 55 Hassan Musa Katsina Road, Asokoro, Abuja; 1 Frederick Ilekhuoba Close, off Boundary Road, Benin City; and 1 Isaac John Street, GRA Ikeja, Lagos. In Lagos also Q-Life Family Clinic (Victoria Island), St. Nicholas Hospital (Lagos Island) and The Consultants Practice (Ikoyi). The list is on gov.uk's Tuberculosis testing in Nigeria, opens in a new tab.

What you need. Your passport, and proof that you paid. Pay by bank transfer before the appointment, with your passport number as the reference; cash is not accepted. IOM takes payment in naira at the UN exchange rate.

Cost. $94 (about ₦125,000) at IOM for anyone 11 or older; ₦120,000 at Q-Life, St. Nicholas or The Consultants Practice. You pay it; "The CSC will provide a contribution to this cost in one of your stipend payments once you have arrived in the UK." No CSC page states the amount.

Time. An appointment within a few days, or up to 10 days "especially during the UK student visa peak season between June and September". If you are clear, the certificate is issued on the day; inconclusive results "can take weeks, or even months". The certificate is valid for six months.

Step 2. Your CAS, your English and ATAS

Do.

1. Your CAS. Your university issues it after your offer is unconditional. Sussex starts issuing CAS six months before the course. A CAS can be used once. Check that your passport number on it is right; if you get a new passport after the CAS, tell your university.
2. English. Your university decides the level and how you show it, and states it on your CAS. Check your university's and your department's rule well before your start date.
3. ATAS. Some subjects need an Academic Technology Approval Scheme certificate before the visa. "Your university will know if your course requires an ATAS certificate", and your offer letter normally carries your subject's CAH3 code, your subject's code, printed on your offer. Nigeria is not on the exempt list. Apply as soon as you hold your offer, up to six months before the course, on the ATAS service, opens in a new tab, naming the "Commonwealth Scholarship Commission" as financial sponsor. It takes at least 30 working days (six weeks), with no fast track, and longer from April to August. The certificate is valid for six months. If refused, you wait 90 days to reapply for the same course. A postgraduate diploma needs none. Questions to ATAS@fcdo.gov.uk.

Step 3. Apply for the visa

Do.

1. Apply online from gov.uk's Student visa, opens in a new tab page, on the Student visa application, opens in a new tab, no earlier than six months before your course starts and within six months of your CAS.
2. Answer "yes" to "Do you have a Marshall, Chevening or Commonwealth Scholarship?" This waives the visa fee and the IHS. If you answered it wrongly and cannot change it, you may need to start a new application. You can edit the form only up to the IHS section.
3. Complete the IHS section and confirm that you have a "Chevening, Marshall or Commonwealth Scholarship". If you are asked to pay the IHS or the visa fee, do not pay: query it with the visa application centre at once and tell your Programme Officer. A payment is not reimbursed.
4. Upload your Confirmation of Award as your money evidence, with its password protection removed. As a full Commonwealth Scholar with no dependants you show no bank statements, and the 28-day money rule does not apply to you.
5. Choose your arrival date as a month before your course starts. Your visa is not issued with a start date more than a month before your course.
6. Prove your identity at a visa application centre. A Nigerian passport cannot use the ID Check app, so you book biometrics with VFS Global, the company that runs the UK visa centres in Nigeria. Book one of the three free centres: Abuja, Lagos (Ikeja) or Lagos (Victoria Island), Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00. Do not book a premium centre (Benin, Enugu, Ibadan, Kano or Port Harcourt): gov.uk says "In some locations you'll need to pay £76.50 for a standard appointment. You can choose to travel to a different visa application centre with free appointments, but you'll need to pay your own travel costs.", and no CSC page says the CSC repays the £76.50 (about ₦136,000). Take your passport; you collect it on the day.

What you need. Your passport; your CAS number; your Confirmation of Award; your TB certificate; your ATAS certificate if your course needs one; translations of any paper not in English.

Cost. Nothing for the visa or the IHS: the FCDO pays the £558 visa fee (about ₦995,000) and the IHS, £776 (about ₦1.38 million) a year. Your travel to the visa centre is yours: the CSC does not repay travel within Nigeria to a visa centre. Do not buy a faster decision: priority costs £500 (about ₦892,000) and super priority £1,000 (about ₦1.78 million), and no page says the CSC or the FCDO pays either.

Time. UKVI starts processing once you attend the visa centre, and decides a Student visa from outside the UK usually within 3 weeks, counted in UK working days. Do not book travel before the decision, and do not go back to the centre until you are contacted. You can be called to an interview to check that you are a genuine student and that your English is good enough.

You are done when the decision email grants your visa and you have set up your UKVI account to see your eVisa (free; you need your passport, your application number, and a phone and email). Keep the decision letter: your Programme Officer wants it after you arrive.

How long it lasts. For a course of 12 months or longer, your visa runs to four months after your course ends, and starts up to a month before it begins. Your visa allows up to 20 hours' work a week in term, but the CSC requires its approval first (Stage 14).

If it goes wrong. If your visa is refused, send your university a copy of the refusal notice at once and tell your Programme Officer. There is no full appeal from outside the UK. If you think the refusal was wrong on the evidence you sent, request an administrative review within 28 days of receiving the refusal. It costs £80 (about ₦143,000), takes no new documents, and "can take 12 months or more"; you cannot make a new application at the same time. "If you fail to secure and maintain immigration permission to study in the UK, this could result in the withdrawal of your award." Nigeria is not on the Student visa brake list (Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, Sudan).

If your family is coming. The CSC writes: "If your scholarship is less than 18 months long, you are advised not to bring your family to the UK with you". A Master's award is one year. Go alone. If your family comes anyway: the CSC pays none of their visa or IHS; each pays the £558 visa fee and the IHS, £776 a year; you must show £680 a month for each of them for up to 9 months outside London, or £845 in London, held for 28 days; their fares are yours; they apply on their own forms with your application number, and their visas end when yours does. gov.uk lets a taught Master's student bring family only as "a government-sponsored student", and its caseworker guidance does not name the Commonwealth Master's among its examples. No page settles whether you count, and the answer decides whether your family can apply at all: before anyone pays a fee, ask the CSC's welfare and immigration team (+44 20 7380 6783, welfare@cscuk.org.uk): "Am I a government-sponsored student for my family's Student dependant visas?" If yes, they apply as above; if no, they cannot come as your dependants.

From applicants who did it. No Nigerian Commonwealth Master's scholar's own account of the visa was found. Applicants say to keep your passport valid well past the course.

Same as Chevening. Chevening also pays its scholars' visa fee and contributes up to £75 to the TB test; the TB clinic, the visa centre and the form are the same.

Next. Travel to the UK (Stage 13).

The CSC's visa pages and handbook were updated on 10 October 2026; gov.uk's Student visa, TB, ATAS, IHS, processing and eVisa pages on 8 and 10 October 2026; VFS Global's centres on 8 October 2026.

Stage 13. Travel to the UK

Back to the short stages

Your visa is granted. Now have the CSC book your flight, activate your cash card, arrange your first nights, and fly.

Do.

1. Request your flight on the CSC travel provider's online booking form, at least four weeks before you travel. The CSC books one economy flight from your nearest major airport to the one nearest your university, and one standard class train or bus fare in the UK if needed. "Your travel can only be booked once you have received your visa." A flight you book yourself is not repaid. The provider named in the handbook is Diversity Travel, +44 161 300 8258. The handbook does not print where the online booking form is found, so when your Confirmation of Award comes, ask your Programme Officer for its link: it is the only form your flight can be booked on.
2. Activate your cash card. The CSC sends a pre-paid "cash card" with your Confirmation of Award. It credits the card only after you have booked through its provider, received your e-ticket, and confirmed you activated the card.
3. Arrange your accommodation. It is yours to arrange; the CSC holds none. Contact your university's accommodation office early. Do not pay for accommodation before you arrive: "The CSC is unable to reserve or pay a deposit for any accommodation on your behalf before you arrive in the UK." Once your scholarship is confirmed, the CSC can give a deposit deferral letter for university accommodation if the university accepts it; private landlords rarely do. After you arrive, the CSC can advance your stipend with its stipend advance form and a full-year rental agreement. Have confirmation of at least your first night.
4. Check your eVisa matches your passport and your airline booking, and that your passport is added to your UKVI account.
5. Arrive on time. Be in the UK for your award start date on your Notification of Award. You can arrive up to a month before a course longer than six months, never before the start date on your visa. Arriving after the start date needs your university's and your Programme Officer's approval first.

What to carry in your hand luggage. Your passport and visa; your ticket; your CAS and your Confirmation of Award; confirmation of your accommodation for at least the first night; your medical insurance and your TB report; cash for your first needs; your activated cash card; any medication; copies of your original transcripts; UK power adaptors.

Cost. The flight is paid by the CSC. Carry £200 (about ₦357,000) in pounds: "A sum of £200 should be sufficient." Your travel insurance is yours. Excess baggage is repaid only if your allowance is under 30kg: the cost of an extra 10kg or one piece, claimed within three months of arrival.

Time. Request the flight at least four weeks ahead. Your scholarship starts on the date on your Notification of Award or the day you arrive, whichever is later.

You are done when you land with your papers, your activated cash card and your first night's address.

If it goes wrong. The CSC offers no airport reception; your university's international office may meet you. For welfare and immigration, call +44 20 7380 6783 or email welfare@cscuk.org.uk.

Next. Arrival and your first term (Stage 14).

The CSC's handbook and FAQs were updated on 10 October 2026; gov.uk's Student visa and eVisa pages on 10 October 2026.

Stage 14. Arrival and your first term

Back to the short stages

You have landed. Now register with the CSC, open a bank account, register with a doctor, and start your course.

Do.

1. Your first stipend. On arrival the CSC credits your cash card with your first quarter's stipend, counted from your award's first day or your arrival, whichever is later. Some ATMs show the balance as £0.
2. Register with the CSC. Complete the CSC's registration form and send it to your Programme Officer with your eVisa share code (a code you get from your UKVI account to show your eVisa), your visa decision letter and your passport photo page, within three months of arriving, or you risk having your stipend suspended.
3. Open a UK bank account in your own name; a scholarship longer than six months needs one. Send your bank details on the CSC's bank account form within six weeks of arriving, never by email. After that your stipend is paid quarterly into your bank account, ahead of each quarter.
4. Empty your cash card. The handbook says to move all remaining funds to your bank account within two months in one chapter and within six months in another. Move it within two months.
5. Register with a GP, a local doctor, as soon as you can. The CSC does not cover private treatment.
6. Present your Confirmation of Award to your university's finance office to prove you are sponsored.
7. If you declared a disability, the CSC offers a full assessment of your needs and extra support after you arrive.

Your money in the year. The stipend: £1,712 a month (about ₦3 million), or £2,000 (about ₦3.6 million) in London, at the CSC's current levels; it includes an allowance for warm clothing and £85 (about ₦152,000) towards dental and optical costs. The CSC's FAQ for scholars, dated May 2026, still prints the 2025/26 rate of £1,452 a month (£1,781 in London) and a one-off warm clothing allowance of £522, and says the figure "may be reviewed before you arrive"; the Master's page's current levels are the ones to plan on. In December: your Thesis Grant of £225 (about ₦401,000) and your Study Travel Grant, whose amount is on your Notification of Award. Subscriptions to clubs and societies are yours.

The rules of the award.

• Live in the UK for the whole scholarship.
• Travel abroad at your own expense for no more than two weeks, and tell your Programme Officer before each trip.
• Send the CSC a report at the end of your first term and at the end of your scholarship; a report more than a month late risks your stipend.
• No paid work without the CSC's approval first: get your supervisor's or course leader's permission, send it to your Programme Officer, and only then start. Your visa allows up to 20 hours a week in term.
• "Your scholarship may be terminated at any time for reasons of unsatisfactory conduct, progress, or attendance".

Your first CSC event. The CSC holds an annual Connect and Collaborate event in central London for new Scholars, and invites you to its network, CS Connect, after you arrive.

You are done when your registration form is in, your bank details are with the CSC, and you are registered with a GP.

If it goes wrong. Money questions to finance@cscuk.org.uk; welfare and immigration to +44 20 7380 6783 or welfare@cscuk.org.uk; anything else to your Programme Officer.

From applicants who did it. No Nigerian scholar's account of the first stipend was found. Stipend figures quoted online (£1,190, £1,656) are old; the CSC's own page governs.

Next. When the course ends (Stage 15).

The CSC's handbook and FAQs in this chapter were read on 8 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 15. When the course ends

Back to the short stages

You have finished your course. Now go home, as you signed you would. "It is a condition of your Commonwealth Scholarship that you return to your home country on completion of the programme for which the award is offered."

Do.

1. Book your flight home at least eight weeks before your tenure ends, through the CSC's travel provider, or lose your airfare and baggage allowance. Your last quarter's stipend is held until you confirm the booking.
2. Leave on time. The FAQs: "Scholars must leave the UK within one month of the end of their scholarship tenure or one month after the end of their programme, whichever is earlier." The handbook: leave before your visa ends, and not in its last week. Plan to leave within the month after your course ends. You cannot stay on for a graduation ceremony after that.

No Graduate visa. The Graduate visa is gov.uk's visa for staying in the UK after a UK degree (two years if you apply by 31 December 2026, 18 months after that). The CSC does not let its scholars switch to it: "Switching to a graduate or other visa to remain in the UK is not permitted". gov.uk also asks a Graduate visa applicant whose fees and living costs were paid by a scholarship in the last 12 months for that sponsor's written consent.

The one exception: a fully funded PhD in the UK. The CSC agrees to a Master's Scholar staying on for a PhD only on a request with a letter of admission to a UK PhD, research that follows from your Master's, written support from your nominator, your signed undertaking to return home within three months of the PhD, and evidence of full funding for the whole doctorate. Partial funding is refused, and meeting the points does not by itself mean the request is granted. A further CSC scholarship is a new application.

What it opens and closes. Chevening does not take anyone who has studied in the UK on a UK government-funded scholarship, so it is closed to you afterwards. The CSC's Nigerian alumni association, COSFAN, is open to you.

Next. You are home, with your degree.

The CSC's handbook, FAQs and its further study guidance were updated on 10 October 2026; gov.uk's Graduate visa pages on 6 and 10 October 2026.

Part 4. What can stop you

These are the problems Nigerian applicants actually meet, in the order they meet them, and what you do about each.

Your deadlines

Write each date down the day it arrives.

What stops people, and what you do

A degree line you do not meet. Through the Board, a 2:2 (with or without a postgraduate qualification), an HND or a degree you have not finished does not qualify. A woman with a 2:1, or with a 2:2 and a related Master's, chooses FAWE. A 2:2 with a relevant postgraduate diploma meets the CSC's words, "a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master's degree)": a woman chooses FAWE; TCEN, HALI or the CDPF if you are in its group; a man in none of these groups has no nominator that lists Nigeria this window. Apply, and send the CSC the confirmation in Part 1 the same day. An HND, or a 2:2 with no postgraduate qualification, does not qualify through any nominator: Part 8, Stage C1 gives your next move (Part 1).

No UK admission letters by 20 October. This is where most applicants through the Board get stuck. Through the Board you need two in your hands by 20 October, and no university in this guide decides a new application in under ten working days. A woman chooses FAWE, which asks for none; anyone in TCEN's, the CDPF's or HALI's group chooses that NGO, which asks for none either. Anyone else goes to Part 8 and times the admissions to the next call (Stage C6).

No NYSC certificate. Collect it from NYSC Headquarters, or get a letter of confirmation for a lost one (₦20,000). If you are still serving, the Board is not your nominator this window; a woman chooses FAWE (Stage 4).

A transcript that does not come. Request it the day you decide, from the portal only, and pay no one to "fast track" it. If your university releases nothing to you, request a transcript addressed to yourself in writing. With no transcript at the close, the CSC refuses your application (Stage 4).

A name or date of birth that differs. Apply for your transcript in your admission name; correct NYSC records within their three months; change passport data with the Nigeria Immigration Service. Fix it before you upload (Stage 4).

A referee who vanishes. Replace them the same day. The CSC takes only letters you upload by the close (Stage 3).

Missing the CSC's hour. Submit days before 4pm in Lagos on 20 October, whatever hour your nominator prints. The system is busy in the last days and takes no late application (Stage 8).

No copy of your submitted form. Save and print it on the screen after Submit; the Board asks for a hard copy at the interview (Stage 8).

Missing the interview notice, or your day. Check education.gov.ng every day from the day after you submit. Last year no interview was held for a candidate who missed her zone's day (Stage 9).

Waiting for the Board to write. It does not. Only the CSC writes, by July 2027, sometimes to spam (Stage 10).

A university rejects you after selection. The CSC tries your second and third choices; if none places you, the selection is withdrawn. Keep every offer alive and meet each condition early (Stage 11).

A deposit demand. Never pay a tuition deposit as a scholar. Before selection, do not pay while you wait; after selection, send your Notification of Award and tell your Programme Officer (Stage 11).

A slow ATAS or TB result. Apply for ATAS the day your offer comes; book the TB test as soon as you are selected (Stage 12).

A refused visa. Tell your university and your Programme Officer at once; request an administrative review within 28 days if the refusal was wrong on your evidence (Stage 12).

People who sell help. "Applications for Commonwealth Scholarships are only managed directly by the CSC." The CSC warns of an organisation calling itself the "Commonwealth Exchange Scholarship Council", which is not its partner, and says it "will never ask applicants to attend in-person screening events as part of its scholarship selection process". The Board's interview is the Board's own nomination step, announced on education.gov.ng. Report fraud to fraud@cscuk.org.uk.

Part 5. If you already did some of this

Start at the first stage you have not finished.

You already hold a UK offer. Check that the university is on the CSC's list and the course is a one-year taught Master's, put it in your three choices, and apply for two more now (Stage 2). Through the Board, an admission letter counts towards its two, and both letters must be in your hands by 20 October: a second university applied to now is decided after 20 October (Stage 2, "Time"). Read your row in "From today" before you pay any fee.

You already hold your transcripts. Check they carry every year's marks and every page, for every university qualification (Stage 4), then start Stage 5.

You already hold an IELTS result. The CSC does not need it. Check it against each course's rule and its age: Leeds and Sussex take a result up to two years old, Manchester one valid on your start date (Stage 2).

You already hold a referee's letter. Check that it is signed, on letterhead or in an email showing the sender, written for this application, and covers the CSC's points (Stage 3).

You applied last year through the Board and heard nothing. First, check your degree against the Board's line. Last year its advert asked for "1st Class or 2nd Class Upper Division for Masters in his/her 1st Degree" and its interview list for "A First Degree of at least Second class Upper for Masters": a 2:2 holder, even with a postgraduate qualification, did not meet the Board's line, and this year's call keeps it. Second, did you go to the Board's interview in November 2025? The Board posted its notice on education.gov.ng and sent no email, and said a candidate without its listed papers "need not to appear". Third, the Board writes to no one; only the CSC writes. Then, this week:

1. Check your old email's spam and junk folders for the CSC's result.
2. If you want to know what the CSC holds about your application, request a copy: free, within a month; it keeps an unsuccessful applicant's data for up to 24 months (Stage 11).
3. Choose this window's nominator by your own case (Part 1): a woman with a 2:2 and a related Master's chooses FAWE; a 2:1 who meets every Board line chooses the Board again.
4. If you applied to LSE for 2026/7, reinstate it by 16 November 2026.

Then read your row in "From today": on 11 October 2026 there are nine days to 4pm in Lagos on 20 October. Register again on CSC Central for 2027/28; registering costs nothing.

You hold an HND, not a degree. No nominator takes an HND this window: the CSC and the Board ask for a first degree (Part 1, "Check that you can start"). An HND first needs a first degree: Coventry's top-up or Teesside's second or third year, which is paid study outside this guide. With that degree at a 2:1, or at a 2:2 with "a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master's degree)", the CSC's line opens to you (Part 8, Stage C1).

You hold a 2:2 and a relevant postgraduate diploma. It meets the CSC's words, "a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master's degree)", through FAWE, TCEN, HALI or the CDPF, never through the Board. Choose your nominator in Part 1, "Which nominator?", apply, and send the CSC the confirmation in Part 1 the same day.

You have submitted on CSC Central. Save and print your copy if you have not (Stage 8). Through the Board, start Stage 9; through an NGO, Stage 10.

You have been to the Board's interview. Start at Stage 10.

You are provisionally selected. Start at Stage 11.

You hold your Confirmation of Award. Start at Stage 12.

Your visa is granted. Start at Stage 13.

Part 6. The time, stage by stage

• Stage 1, the fit check: one evening; a reply from the CSC or the CDPF, no time stated.
• Stage 2, the universities: Leeds aims for ten working days once it has everything; LSE averages eight weeks; Sussex looks at applications from late November; Manchester states none.
• Stage 3, the referees: no time stated; ask in the first week.
• Stage 4, the papers: ABU 24 to 48 hours for an e-copy and 5 to 7 days for a hard copy; the others state none; a fresh passport 42 days after enrolment.
• Stage 5, the examples: two or three evenings.
• Stage 6, the answers: a week of evenings.
• Stage 7, your nominator: by 4pm in Lagos on Tuesday 20 October 2026; the CDPF's papers by 14 November 2026.
• Stage 8, submitting: by 4pm in Lagos on Tuesday 20 October 2026.
• Stage 9, the Board's interview: no notice yet; last year 3 to 7 November 2025, one day for each zone.
• Stage 10, the wait: nominations by December 2026; the result by July 2027.
• Stage 11, the result: no date given for the Notification of Award; the award is confirmed once every condition is met.
• Stage 12, the visa: a TB appointment within a few days (up to 10 in June to September); ATAS at least 30 working days; the visa usually within 3 weeks.
• Stage 13, travel: request the flight at least four weeks ahead; arrive up to a month before the course.
• Stage 14, arrival: bank details within six weeks; the registration form within three months.
• Stage 15, the end: the flight home booked eight weeks ahead; leave within a month of the course's end.

The whole journey: from the close on 20 October 2026 to the start of study in September or October 2027 is about eleven months, then one year of study.

Part 7. The money, all of it

Every amount in the order you meet it, for you alone, applying through the Board in this window.

The two rows leave out a passport, a replaced NYSC certificate, any IELTS test, LSE's fee, extra transcripts for your universities, and your accommodation, which you pay from your stipend after you arrive. Through FAWE or another NGO there is no interview trip.

What the scholarship pays. Your tuition fee in full; your Student visa fee, £558 (about ₦995,000); your IHS, £776 (about ₦1.38 million) a year; your economy flight to the UK and home; your stipend, £1,712 a month (about ₦3 million) or £2,000 (about ₦3.6 million) in London, at current levels, with £85 of it towards dental and optical costs; your Thesis Grant, £225 (about ₦401,000); your Study Travel Grant; a contribution to your TB test; and an assessment for extra support if you are disabled. For a single parent whose children live with her in the UK for at least three months: a child allowance of £622 a month (about ₦1.11 million) for the first child and £154 (about ₦275,000) for the second and third under 16, from the day they arrive.

Never yours to pay. A tuition deposit or tuition fee; the visa fee or the IHS (query any demand and tell your Programme Officer); a premium visa centre's £76.50 or a priority visa, which no page says the CSC repays; anyone who offers to apply for you. Applying to the CSC is free; this year's Board call states no fee, and last year's advert said its application was free.

Before your stipend. Until your first stipend lands on your cash card on arrival, the money is yours: your fees and travel above, and the £200 the CSC tells you to carry.

For each family member, if they come against the CSC's advice. The visa, £558 (about ₦995,000); the IHS, £776 a year (about ₦1.38 million), and for a visa of more than a year and up to 18 months a year and a half, £1,164 (about ₦2.08 million); money held for 28 days of £680 a month (about ₦1.21 million) for up to 9 months outside London, £6,120 (about ₦10.92 million), or £845 a month (about ₦1.51 million) in London, £7,605 (about ₦13.57 million); a TB test ($94 at IOM, or $49, about ₦65,000, for a child under 11; ₦120,000 or ₦60,000 at a Lagos clinic); and their fares. The CSC pays none of it.

Part 8. If the window has closed: the closed plan

After 4pm in Lagos on Tuesday 20 October 2026 the 2027/28 window is closed, and nothing can be added to it. If your row in "From today" sent you here before the close, the same plan is yours: it is the work that makes you ready on the day the next window opens.

When the next window opens. No page says yet. The CSC's Master's page speaks only of this window and prints no date, month or season for the 2028/29 call (updated on 11 October 2026). The CSC's own instruction is: "If a scholarship or fellowship is not currently open for applications on our website, please wait until the website is updated, as all relevant information will be made available then." The dates the pages give are past dates, not the next ones: this window opened on Tuesday 8 September 2026 and closes on 20 October 2026, and the Board's call came out on 10 September 2026; last year the Board's own window ran from 2 September to Tuesday 14 October 2025, and the year before from 10 September to Tuesday 15 October 2024.

In the app: the button reads Tell me when it opens. Tap it, and the app tells you when the CSC's Master's page posts the next window and when the Board's call appears on the Ministry's home page.

Do these stages now, in this order. Each one is the same work as the open-season stage it names, done without a deadline over it.

Stage C1. Check your fit for the next window

Back to the short stages

Do. Read Part 1, "Check that you can start", and choose your nominator by your own case. The lines are this window's: read them again on the Master's page and in the Board's call the day the next window opens, and act on what those pages say then.

• A 2:1 who missed this window for want of admissions or NYSC: your nominator is the Board next window; Stages C2 and C6 are the ones that decide it.
• A woman with a 2:2 and a related Master's or a relevant postgraduate diploma: FAWE, if its next call takes the CSC's line again.
• A 2:2 with no postgraduate qualification, or an HND: no nominator takes you on this window's lines. The CSC's line opens to a 2:2 with "a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master's degree)", through FAWE, TCEN, HALI or the CDPF, never through the Board. An HND first needs a first degree: Coventry's top-up or Teesside's second or third year, which is paid study outside this guide.

Where. Commonwealth Master's Scholarships, opens in a new tab; the Board's call from its card on the Federal Ministry of Education's home page, opens in a new tab.

Cost and time. Free. One evening.

You are done when your nominator is written down, with the lines you must meet.

Stage C2. Finish NYSC, and hold your certificate

Back to the short stages

Do. Through the Board, finish your service and collect your Certificate of National Service, or your Certificate of Exemption from your institution, or print your Letter of Exclusion (Stage 4, Step 3). An unclaimed certificate is at NYSC Headquarters: ₦5,000 to ₦20,000 to collect, by how long ago you passed out. A lost one: a letter of confirmation, ₦20,000.

Where. NYSC's Certification Department, 08034313026.

You are done when the original is in your envelope with a photocopy.

Stage C3. Get your transcripts and papers out

Back to the short stages

Do. Request your transcripts now (Stage 4, Step 1), the copy your university releases to you and the official ones your universities ask for, for every university qualification; get your passport if you have none (42 days after enrolment for a fresh one); through the Board, your birth certificate; and make your name the same on every paper (Stage 4, Step 5).

Cost. ₦5,000 to ₦25,000 a transcript at the five universities in this guide; ₦100,000 or ₦200,000 for a passport.

You are done when every paper is scanned and its original is in your envelope.

Stage C4. Ask your referees now

Back to the short stages

Do. Ask your three referees (Stage 3), one of them your employer if you work, and get signed PDF letters on letterhead now. In the month the next window opens, ask them to date the letters again.

You are done when you hold at least two signed letters.

Stage C5. Gather your examples, and keep adding

Back to the short stages

Do. Fill your notebook (Stage 5), and add to it through the year: each new job, volunteering, publication or prize, with its date and what changed.

You are done when each of the CSC's three things has at least one example, and you add as you go.

Stage C6. Choose your courses, and time your admissions to the next call

Back to the short stages

Do. Choose your three courses on the CSC's list (Stage 2). Through the Board you need two admission letters in your hands by its date, and this window's dates show how few universities can give one in time. For September 2027 entry, Leeds opened on 1 October 2026 and aims to decide in ten working days once your file is complete, so it could decide by mid-October; Manchester opened on 10 October 2026 and states no time; LSE averages eight weeks; Sussex begins to look at applications in late November. Last year the Board closed on Tuesday 14 October 2025. Only a university that opens early and states a fast decision can give you a letter by the Board's date.

So choose at least two universities whose own pages state the earliest opening and a decision time. No page says yet when they open for the next intake: open their applying pages every week from September. The day each opens, apply with every paper in, and say in the funding section that you are applying for the Commonwealth Master's Scholarship with its close. Leave out any university that cannot decide before the Board's date, and put one that can in its place.

If no second university can decide before the Board's date, the Board stays out of reach next window too: the Board's call holds you to two admission letters by its date (Stage 7, "Two letters by 20 October"). A woman then chooses FAWE; anyone in TCEN's, the CDPF's or HALI's group, that NGO.

An admission for September 2027 does not serve the next window's award, which is for study a year later: Leeds does not permit deferrals.

Cost. None named by Leeds, Manchester or Sussex; £95 at LSE.

You are done when two admission letters are in your hands by the Board's date.

Stage C7. Watch for the window

Back to the short stages

Do.

• Open the CSC's Master's page, its Scholarships and Fellowships page, opens in a new tab and its News page, opens in a new tab every week from August. The CSC offers applicants no newsletter or email alert; its official social accounts are the ones in its site footer: LinkedIn, Facebook (facebook.com/commonwealthscholarships) and YouTube.
• Open the Federal Ministry of Education's home page, opens in a new tab every week from August: this year's call was a card under its Highlights.
• In the app, tap Tell me when it opens.
• Talk to scholars who did it. The Nigerian alumni association, COSFAN (Commonwealth Scholars and Fellows Alumni Association, Nigeria), is listed on the CSC's alumni page with the email commonwealthalumninigeria@gmail.com. Its information sessions for people applying, run with the British Council Nigeria for the CSC, were last listed on the CSC's events page for 30 July 2024, online.

You are done when the next window is open, and you go back to "From today" with everything in your hands.

If you were not selected this window. Request what the CSC holds about you (Stage 11), keep your work, and reinstate an LSE application by 16 November 2026 if you made one. The amounts in Part 7 are this window's; the next window's are the ones its pages print then.

The CSC's pages in this part were updated on 10 October 2026, and the guide on 11 October 2026; the universities' pages on 10 October 2026; the Board's earlier adverts on 10 October 2026.

"Please note that the CSC does not charge to apply for any of its scholarships or fellowships through its online application system." (the CSC, updated on 7 October 2026). "Please application is free of charge and no money is required." (the Federal Scholarship Board's 2026/2027 advert of August 2025, updated on 10 October 2026).