Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at Makerere University

The program is deliberately designed around inclusion rather than pure academic ranking. Eligible categories include young people who completed secondary school in a refugee-hosting community, refugees and internally displaced persons, young persons living with disabilities, members of ethnic groups underrepresented in Uganda's higher education system, and other Ugandan youth facing financial hardship. At least 70% of scholarships each cycle are reserved for young women, reflecting the Foundation's broader gender-equity mandate across its scholar programs worldwide.

For the Master's track, the program is explicitly open to applicants who completed their undergraduate education in any African country, not only Ugandans, making it one of the few substantial postgraduate funding routes into a Ugandan public university for students who studied for their first degree elsewhere on the continent. Applicants must not already hold another scholarship (including the Government of Uganda scholarship), must not be pursuing or have completed a Master's degree already, and must demonstrate both financial need and a track record of leadership or community service engagement.

Beyond tuition, the scholarship is holistic: recipients receive mentoring, leadership development, internship placements, and wellness support alongside their academic funding, an approach the Mastercard Foundation applies across all its partner universities from Makerere to McGill, AUB, and EARTH University. The goal is not just to fund a degree but to prepare 'Transformative Leaders' who return to contribute to their communities and to Africa's development.

Makerere University itself is East Africa's oldest and most internationally recognized public university, founded in 1922, with strong programs across medicine, engineering, agriculture, social sciences, and the humanities. For a Pakistani or other international student who has already completed undergraduate studies in Africa, or who is otherwise exploring lower-cost, English-medium postgraduate study routes outside the traditional US/UK/Europe circuit, this program is a legitimate, fully verifiable, no-fee entry point into a respected regional university.