SOAS, part of the University of London, has teamed up with the Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust to open applications for the 2026 Allan and Nesta Ferguson Scholarships. It’s basically a top-tier funding opportunity designed specifically for seriously talented African students who’ve got what it takes to make a real difference back home once they finish their studies. The whole point is to use substantial financial support to break down the walls that keep brilliant people out of world-class UK higher education, so that money doesn’t get in the way of genuine academic talent.The 2026 award is pretty thorough, built to handle the big expenses that come with studying somewhere expensive like London.

Each scholarship is worth £32,500, and there are two of them available.

It’s only for the 2026/2027 academic year, 

Who Can Actually Apply

This thing is seriously competitive, and there are some pretty specific requirements you need to hit:

• You’ve got to be a citizen of an African country and actually living there right now. If you’re in a low-income or lower-middle-income nation according to the World Bank, that works in your favor.
• Your undergraduate degree needs to be First-Class Honors or.
• You don’t technically need an official admission offer by the scholarship deadline, but you do need to have already applied to a Master’s program at SOAS. You’ll need to have the offer locked in by the time the selection panel reviews your stuff.
• Your English has to be up to university standards. Fair warning though, this scholarship doesn’t cover pre-sessional English courses, so you’ve got to be ready to jump straight in.

Criteria

• A panel of three senior academics will go through your application carefully. They’re looking at three main things:
• What your former professors say about you in their references.
• Your personal statement, basically a really compelling piece about what you’re trying to achieve and how you could genuinely impact the African continent.

How to apply

First, you submit your online application for whichever Master’s degree you’re interested in. Pro tip: do this at least six weeks before the scholarship deadline hits (so around late December or early January) so the department has breathing room to process everything.

Then you fill out the actual Ferguson Scholarship application form online.

Everything’s due by February 6, 2026, at 23:59 UK time. Actually, the scholarship portal closes at midday that day, so getting stuff in early is really your best move.