Scholarships and Student Funding in Mauritania

State support for students in Mauritania

The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MESRS) runs the main channel of domestic student funding, providing a stipend to students enrolled at public institutions such as Universite de Nouakchott Al Aasriya. The stipend is tied to registration at a recognized public program and academic standing, and it works alongside the near-free tuition public universities already charge. Contact your faculty's student affairs office or MESRS directly for current stipend terms, since eligibility and amounts get set and adjusted through ministry decisions rather than published in one fixed schedule.

Scholarships for study abroad

Beyond domestic support, MESRS regularly publishes calls for applications, known locally as appel a candidatures, for scholarships offered by partner governments and institutions. Recent examples posted on the ministry's site include a Morocco-funded Master's program in Space Sciences and Technologies for the 2026/27 intake, scholarship offers from Brazil for Master's and doctoral study, an excellence scholarship track with Mexico, the Korea Global Scholarship Program from South Korea, scholarships from Thailand, and a China scholarship track run through a UNESCO partnership MESRS . These calls open and close on their own schedules, so check the ministry site regularly rather than assuming a fixed annual window.

Regional destinations for Mauritanian students

Language and historical ties send large numbers of funded Mauritanian students to nearby Arabic and French-speaking countries. Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia host Mauritanian students on government scholarships and through direct university partnerships, and degrees from these systems align with the LMD framework used in Mauritania. Senegal, sharing a border and long-standing academic links with Mauritania, is another common destination, particularly for veterinary science through the regional Ecole Inter-Etats des Sciences et Medecine Veterinaires in Dakar.

Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia, offer scholarships tied to religious and Arabic-language study, and Al-Azhar University in Egypt remains a long-standing destination for Mauritanian students pursuing Islamic studies, often through dedicated Al-Azhar scholarship allocations for African students. Turkey's government scholarship program, Turkiye Burslari, is open to Mauritanian applicants across a wide range of fields and covers tuition, housing and a monthly stipend for accepted students.

How to apply

• Watch the MESRS website and its social media channels for new calls for applications, since scholarship deadlines get announced case by case.

• Prepare your Baccalaureat certificate, transcripts and, where required, a Licence or Master's transcript translated into the scholarship's working language.

• For bilateral government scholarships, apply through the relevant embassy in Nouakchott in addition to any MESRS coordination step, since embassies often run their own parallel application process.

• Check language requirements early. French, Arabic or English proficiency tests get requested depending on the destination country and program.

• Confirm what a scholarship actually covers, tuition only or tuition plus housing and a stipend, before you commit to a program abroad.

Degree recognition through CAMES

Mauritania is a member state of CAMES, the Conseil Africain et Malgache pour l'Enseignement Superieur, the regional body that accredits degree programs and validates qualifications across Francophone Africa. A CAMES-recognized degree from a partner country transfers more easily back into Mauritania's job market and public sector than one from an unaccredited program, so check a foreign university's CAMES status before enrolling on a scholarship.