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International Excellence Scholarships 2026

We have 500 scholarships, worth either £3,000, £6,000 or £16,000 available to support eligible international students.

The awards recognise and reward high academic achievement for students applying to study a taught Masters course starting in September 2026.  

At Leeds, we welcome international students from over 140 countries or regions to our multicultural campus. Our International Excellence Scholarship supports students to fulfil their potential and join our diverse community.

We also offer undergraduate and International Foundation Year scholarships for international students.

Eligibility criteria

To apply for an International Excellence Scholarship, you must:

  • be classified as an international student for fee purposes;
  • have a conditional or unconditional offer for an eligible taught Masters course starting in September 2026;
  • be self-funded or partially-funded;
  • demonstrate an excellent academic track record, and be predicted to achieve or have achieved a minimum  of a Bachelor’s degree with a 2:1 (hons) or equivalent;
  • show excellent professional and personal skills evidenced through work experience and/or extracurricular activities.

Excluded courses

The following Masters courses are not eligible for the International Excellence Scholarship:

 How to apply

You will only be able to apply for this scholarship once you have a conditional or unconditional offer for a Masters course. 

If you have an offer for multiple courses at the University of Leeds, you will need to submit a separate scholarship application for each course.

Apply now

To apply, you will need to complete the application form, which will take around 15 minutes to complete. You will not be able to save your progress, so make sure you have all the information ready before you begin.

Make sure you have your:

  • University of Leeds student ID
  • University of Leeds application ID number
  • 100-word (600 characters, including spaces) personal statement explaining why you have chosen to study at Leeds and why you believe you should be considered for the scholarship.

Apply for the scholarship

Application deadline

There are two application rounds for this scholarship.

Application round one

  • Apply by 5pm GMT on 27 February 2026.
  • You will be notified of the outcome by 27 March 2026.

Application round two

  • Apply by 5pm BST on 15 May 2026.
  • You will be notified of the outcome by 12 June 2026.

Terms and conditions

  • This scholarship can be combined with our International Regional Scholarship or external funding as long as this does not exceed 100% of your tuition fees. You may also be able to combine this scholarship with a School or Faculty scholarship.
    • Please check the terms and conditions of any other scholarships that you have received to ensure that they can also be combined.  
  • If you are applying through an International Partner Agreement and are offered more than one University of Leeds scholarship, you can only accept one scholarship (this will be whichever award represents the highest value). 
  • The scholarship award cannot be deferred to the following year and is non-transferable to other courses at the University of Leeds.
  • This scholarship is paid as a fee reduction for your first year of study only and can only be used as a fee reduction. It cannot be used towards other costs, including but not exclusive to maintenance or accommodation costs.   

Questions about the International Excellence Scholarships

If you have any questions about these scholarships, please email the Admissions Enquiries team at study@leeds.ac.uk.