African Union and Pan African Scholarships for University Study

What Pan-African scholarships mean

The African Union (AU) does not run one central scholarship desk that African students apply to directly. Instead, it backs specific institutions and programs that run their own admissions and funding. The two most established are the Pan African University (PAU) and the Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme. Both exist to keep talented African students studying within Africa instead of looking abroad by default.

Pan African University: institutes across four countries

PAU is an AU initiative that runs postgraduate study through specialized institutes hosted at established universities in different regions. The Pan African University Institute of Science, Technology and Innovation (PAUSTI) is hosted at Jomo Kenyatta University in Kenya. The Pan African University Institute of Water and Energy Sciences (PAUWES) is hosted at Abou Bekr Belkaïd University in Algeria. The Pan African University Institute of Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences (PAUGHSS) is hosted in Cameroon, and the Pan African University Institute for Life and Earth Sciences (PAULESI) is hosted at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.

Each institute runs master's and PhD programs in its specialization and offers scholarships to admitted students covering tuition, a monthly stipend, and accommodation support. You apply through the PAU admissions portal for the institute matching your field, not through a general African Union application. Admission is competitive and open to nationals of AU member states, with priority given to spreading places across different regions of the continent rather than concentrating them in one country.

Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme

The Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme is funded under the Pan-African Programme and managed in partnership with the African Union Commission. It does not fund individual applications directly. Instead, it funds consortia, groups of universities from different African countries that jointly bid for a grant, and those consortia then advertise and select scholarship recipients for master's, doctoral, and staff mobility places within their partnership.

This means the scheme is not always open for applications everywhere. A new round opens only when a consortium wins a grant and starts recruiting, and the call is usually posted on the partner universities' own websites and on the Association of African Universities' listings rather than on a single central portal. If you want to use this route, follow universities in your field of interest and watch for their mobility scheme announcements directly.

Preparing a competitive application

Both routes are more competitive than a typical national scholarship because they draw applicants from across the African Union's member states rather than one country. Strengthen your application with a clear personal statement tied to the institute's specialization, strong reference letters from lecturers who know your work, and any regional or cross-border experience you already have, such as previous study, work, or volunteering in another African country.

Apply as soon as the call opens rather than close to the deadline. Consortium-run programs like the mobility scheme often have small cohorts, sometimes only a handful of places per partner university, so late applications compete for a shrinking pool of slots.

Where the funding has limits

Places on both routes stay limited relative to demand. PAU admits only a set cohort per institute each year, and mobility scheme places depend entirely on which consortium holds a live grant, so a subject area without an active consortium has no mobility scheme place open at that time. Build a backup plan, such as a national government scholarship or a university-specific bursary, rather than relying on one continental route alone.

Other regional scholarship channels

Regional economic blocs also run smaller academic mobility initiatives alongside the AU-linked routes, funding study between member states within a specific region rather than across the whole continent. These blocs typically publish calls through their own secretariat rather than through the African Union, so check your regional bloc's education or human capital development department directly if a continent-wide scheme like PAU or the mobility scheme does not fit your field.

University-level bilateral agreements, negotiated directly between two African universities without AU or EU funding behind them, offer another route into study in another African country, usually with a tuition waiver rather than a full scholarship. Ask your home university's international office whether it holds such an agreement with a university in your target country.

Who is eligible

Eligibility for both routes generally requires you to hold citizenship of an AU member state, hold or be completing a first degree relevant to your target program, and meet the specific host university's academic entry requirements. Some mobility scheme places specifically exclude applicants already resident in the host country, since the goal is genuine cross-border mobility within Africa.

How to apply

For PAU, apply through the admissions portal of the specific institute matching your field during its open call, usually once a year ahead of the academic intake. For the Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme, check the African Union education directorate page for funded consortia, then apply directly through the lead or partner university listed for that project.