Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program

The program specifically targets young people who show strong academic promise and leadership potential but who face significant financial, social, or systemic barriers to accessing higher education. Priority is placed on women, refugees and displaced youth, people with disabilities, and students from rural or conflict-affected communities. Currently, 71% of active scholars are young women, reflecting the program's deliberate push to close gender gaps in African higher education.

Funding is comprehensive: full tuition, accommodation, books and learning materials, a living stipend, travel to and from the host institution, and structured mentoring, leadership training, and career support that runs alongside academic study. The program is explicitly not just a tuition waiver - it builds a support ecosystem so scholars can graduate and then re-invest their skills back into their home communities, a principle the Foundation calls 'give-back.'

Because each partner university runs its own admissions and scholarship selection, eligibility details, deadlines, and available degree levels vary from campus to campus. Some partners (such as ALU) offer only undergraduate awards; others extend to Master's level. PhD-level funding is generally not available under this program. Applicants typically must first gain admission to a partner institution and then be nominated or auto-considered for the Mastercard Foundation award as part of that same application.

The Foundation's goal is to reach 100,000 scholarships by 2030, having already disbursed roughly $6.5 billion (USD) toward education and economic transition programs across Africa. For students who cannot afford international or even in-country tuition, this remains one of the most reliable full-ride pathways into a globally recognized degree without the debt burden typical of self-financed study abroad.