Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships 2027

Master's at a university in another low- or middle-income Commonwealth country

The Balme Library clock tower at the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra

Key facts

Funder: Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU)
Study in: Several countries
Level: Master's
Funding: Full
Closes: Next round not yet announced The 2026 cycle 2 round closed on 3 June 2026 and the ACU site shows it as closed. The ACU says cycle 1 opens in November or December each year, but dates for the next cycle have not been published yet.
Official site: acu.ac.uk

Checked on acu.ac.uk by Farouk Yahaya, 6 October 2026. Scholarly Dream is independent and not affiliated with this funder.

The Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships (QECS) fund a Master’s of up to two years at an ACU member university in a low or middle-income Commonwealth country. They are run by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and paid for by the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan endowment fund. The scheme is built on a South-South design: it is never hosted in high-income countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the UK, so a candidate might study in Rwanda, Kenya, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka or the Caribbean, depending on which universities are hosting that cycle.

The 2026 cycle 2 round closed on 3 June 2026 at 15:00 UTC. Dates for the next round are not yet confirmed.

Hillside view over Kigali, Rwanda, with rows of orange-roofed houses among trees and hills in the distance — Kigali, Rwanda. QECS host countries are all low or middle-income members of the Commonwealth.

Two cycles a year

QECS runs two application rounds each year because academic years start at different times across the Commonwealth. The host university you choose decides which round you apply in.

Diagram of two cycles. Cycle 1 opens in November or December, results in July of the award year, courses start July to October. Cycle 2 opens in March or April, results in October, courses start January to February. — When each cycle opens, reports results and starts teaching, according to the ACU.

If a university you want is missing from the current list, it may be in the other cycle. Only the universities and courses listed on the QECS page for the current cycle can be funded, so that list is the starting point for any plan.

What the scholarship pays

Full tuition fees
A living allowance (stipend) for the length of the award
Return economy flights to the host country
A one-off arrival allowance
A research support grant, on request only and subject to approval

The ACU does not publish allowance amounts; they are set out in each scholar’s award letter. Some things are left to you. Accommodation is not arranged, and the stipend is meant to pay for it. QECS does not process visas, so you work with your host university on that, and flights are booked by the QECS team only after you confirm you have your visa. University application fees are your responsibility. The ACU strongly discourages bringing dependants, since the allowance covers the scholar only.

Eligibility

A citizen of a Commonwealth country, or someone holding refugee status in one
Applying to study in a country other than your country of citizenship
A completed undergraduate degree at a minimum of 2:1 or equivalent, already awarded when you apply
A new student on a listed Master’s course of no more than two years, studied full time and in person
No age limit

Not at home, not even on another campus

You cannot hold a QECS in your own country. That extends to multi-country universities: if a university has a campus in your country of citizenship, you cannot apply to any of its campuses. A Jamaican applicant, for example, cannot use QECS at any campus of the University of the West Indies. Refugees apply as if they were citizens of the country that gave them refugee status.

You may submit more than one application, but only one per host university, so applying to universities in two countries is allowed.

The application

The online form on the myACU portal has sections for personal details, academic and employment record, course details, two references and three statements. The ACU advises including one academic reference; if you cannot, two professional referees are acceptable. Everything must be in English, documents must be uploaded before you submit, and nothing can be changed afterwards. Deadlines are not extended.

You also apply separately to the university for admission. You do not need an offer before applying for QECS, but the ACU encourages you to apply for the course before or at the same time as the scholarship.

How the statements map to the selection criteria

The selection committee scores applications against four criteria, and three of them match the three statements directly.

Part of the form	What it asks	Criterion it feeds
Transcripts and two references	Your grades and what referees say about you	Academic history and references
Statement 1: Plan of study	Why this course, this university and this country; how it fits your career	Plan of study
Statement 2: Development impact and post-study outreach	One problem at home, how the course helps you address it, and up to three UN Sustainable Development Goals	Development impact and post-study outreach
Statement 3: Creating networks	Networks you have built, what you achieved through them, how you will extend them	Creating networks

The ACU is blunt about one failure: if you write the same answer for each course and institution, or copy text from university websites, the application will not be considered. It also asks that AI tools be used, if at all, only to help express your own thinking, not to write the application.

Colombo at golden hour, with the tall green Lotus Tower rising above trees and high-rise buildings — Colombo, Sri Lanka, with the Lotus Tower. The ACU's QECS page quotes an alumnus who studied at the University of Colombo.

An annotated opening for Statement 2

The sample below is illustrative, with an invented applicant, and shows one way to open the development-impact statement.

Statement 2: Development impact and post-study outreach

1In Mzimba district, Malawi, about a third of the health centres where I have worked lose their vaccine stock at least once a year when the power fails.

2The MSc in Public Health Supply Chain Management at my chosen host university includes a module on cold-chain systems and a field placement with a national medical stores agency, which is the exposure I need.

3On return I plan to pilot a solar-backed stock monitoring rota with the district health office, where I am a pharmacy technician, and train the eight other technicians in the district.

4This aligns most closely with SDG 3 (good health and well-being) and SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy).

1One problem, in one place, which the applicant has seen first hand. The guidance asks for exactly one challenge.
2Named features of the course that address the problem. This also supports Statement 1.
3A concrete plan for sharing skills at home, with a role and a number of people.
4SDGs chosen to fit the plan, not listed for the sake of it. The form allows a maximum of three.

Strathmore University buildings in Nairobi, Kenya, with a red-roofed hall in front of multi-storey blocks and trees — A university campus in Nairobi, Kenya. Courses and subjects on offer depend on each cycle's host universities.

What assessors look for

QECS is less well known than Chevening or the Commonwealth Scholarships in the UK, which keeps the pool smaller, but places are limited and the assessment weighs your motivation for South-South study and your plans for your community as heavily as your grades.

Applicants who treat QECS as a fallback for a UK scholarship tend to struggle, partly because they cannot explain why studying in, say, India or Rwanda serves their goals, and assessors notice when an essay presents the host country as second best. The statements work better when they show the model was chosen deliberately, with a reason why that host country and programme suit your work. Network claims should be backed by specific examples of what you achieved with other people, and the outreach plan should name a sector, a problem and a role.

The ACU says many applications fail for avoidable reasons: not following instructions, not meeting the course’s own entry requirements (including any work experience), missing or thin references, and incomplete grade details. It recommends uploading an official transcript.

Aerial view of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with high-rise towers rising above lower buildings and highways in a light haze — Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Check the current cycle's list for which countries are hosting.

How to apply

Open the ACU QECS page and review the universities and courses hosting in the current cycle.
Check the course’s own entry requirements, including English language tests, on the university’s website.
Apply to the university for admission, before or alongside the scholarship where possible.
Create a myACU account and complete the QECS form: records, course details, two references and the three statements, written separately for each university you apply to.
Submit before the published deadline. Results come in July for cycle 1 and in October for cycle 2.

Applicants set on a particular Western university, or who cannot connect the South-South model to their goals, may be better served by Chevening, Commonwealth Scholarships in the UK or country-specific awards. Our guide to writing a motivation letter helps with the statements. Host lists and deadlines change each cycle, so confirm the current details on the official ACU site before applying.