Gates Cambridge International Scholarship

The Gates Cambridge Scholarship funds full-time postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge for outstanding students from outside the UK, including South Africa. Established through a major gift from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it is one of the most prestigious international postgraduate scholarships available.

Cambridge awards around 80 of these scholarships each year to applicants from around the world, across any subject the university offers. The programme looks for academic excellence combined with a genuine commitment to improving the lives of others.

Because funding is applied for within the same application as your Cambridge postgraduate application, this scholarship rewards students who have already done the work of identifying the right Cambridge course and building a strong case for admission.

Gates Cambridge covers the full cost of studying at Cambridge, including tuition fees, a maintenance allowance for living costs, airfare, and additional discretionary funding for things like fieldwork or conferences.

Because the scholarship is genuinely full-cost, recipients can focus entirely on their studies without needing to secure additional funding or take on part-time work to cover living expenses.

This scholarship funds study exclusively at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. There is no alternative institution option, since the scholarship and the university admission process are directly linked.

Because Cambridge offers postgraduate degrees across nearly every discipline, South African applicants are not limited to a narrow set of fields, provided they can secure admission to their chosen course.