Full & Partial Scholarships for Bangladeshi Students: 2027 Complete List

If you've been comparing scholarship guides and getting confused about which deadlines are still open, you're not alone. Several ranking pages right now quote conflicting dates for the same scholarship cycle; one source says a deadline was in October 2025, another says July 2026, for what's supposedly the same round. At Sunrise Education Consultants, we check every deadline directly against the scholarship's own official page or embassy announcement before publishing it, so this guide tells you precisely what's open right now, what's closed, and what to prepare for next, along with the difference between full and partial funding and how to build an application that actually competes.

Quick answer: As of September 2026, Chevening's 2027-2028 cycle is open and closes on 6 October 2026. Fulbright's 2027-2028 cycle already closed on 11 July 2026, with the next round expected in the first half of 2027. Commonwealth Scholarships' 2027/28 dates hadn't been published as of this writing. Beyond these three major programs, Bangladeshi students can pursue Erasmus Mundus, DAAD, MEXT, CSC, Türkiye Bursları, and Stipendium Hungaricum, along with partial, university-specific awards in almost every country. Full scholarships typically cover tuition, living stipend, travel, and insurance; partial scholarships cover only part of that, usually just tuition or just a percentage discount.

What's Open Right Now (Live Status, September 2026)

Rather than listing every scholarship with a vague "check the website for deadlines," here's the actual current status of the major programs, verified directly against each program's own source:

If a guide you're reading doesn't specify which academic year's cycle a deadline refers to, treat that as a warning sign; scholarship cycles are frequently named ambiguously (a "2027 scholarship" might mean the 2026-27 academic year or study starting in 2027), and this is exactly where a lot of the confusion in search results comes from.

Full vs. Partial Scholarships: What's the Actual Difference

These terms get used loosely, so here's what they concretely mean:

• Full (fully funded) scholarships cover tuition, a monthly living stipend, travel to and from your destination, and health insurance. Chevening, Fulbright, Erasmus Mundus, MEXT, CSC, and Türkiye Bursları all fall into this category.

• Partial scholarships cover only one component, most commonly tuition alone, or a percentage discount on tuition (25%, 50%, 75% are common tiers), without a living stipend. Many university-specific merit awards and regional grants, like Italy's DSU scholarships, fall here; you're still responsible for living costs yourself, which is worth factoring into your overall budget.

• Tuition waivers are a specific type of partial funding, common at universities in the USA and Canada for strong applicants, where the tuition portion is waived but living costs and fees remain your responsibility.

Understanding which category a scholarship falls into before you apply prevents a common and costly mistake: assuming an award covers your full year abroad when it only covers tuition, and discovering the gap after you've already committed to a university offer.

Fully Funded Scholarships for Bangladeshi Students

Each of these is genuinely competitive, and each has its own specific eligibility profile, which is why the eligibility table below matters more than the funding amount alone when deciding where to focus your effort.

Partial Scholarships and University-Specific Grants

Not every path to affordable study abroad requires a full scholarship. Several strong partial options exist:

• DSU regional scholarships (Italy): cover tuition and sometimes include a living stipend, tied to Italy's ISEE income-assessment system; we cover this in detail in our Italy public university tuition guide.

• GREAT Scholarships (UK): typically GBP 10,000 toward tuition, offered by British Council partner universities.

• University merit scholarships: offered directly by individual universities in the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia, ranging from 10% to 100% tuition reductions based on academic profile; these don't require a separate government application, just strong grades and test scores at the point of admission.

Eligibility at a Glance

How to Build a Competitive Application

1. Start your essays 3 to 6 months before the deadline. Scholarship committees read thousands of applications, and generic essays are rejected within minutes of review. Specificity about your career plan and why a particular country or program fits it matters more than polished language.

2. Contact your referees early, ideally the same month you start your own application. Most systems, including Chevening's, only notify referees once you've submitted your own application, and they're often given only a few weeks to respond, so starting late puts your entire application at risk regardless of how strong your own sections are.

3. Secure your university offers before the scholarship deadline where required. Chevening specifically requires an unconditional offer from at least one of your three chosen courses by a set date; missing this technicality can disqualify an otherwise strong application.

4. Tell one coherent story across every essay. Committees explicitly flag contradictions between different essay sections as a rejection signal; your leadership example, your career goal, and your reason for choosing that specific country should reinforce each other, not read as separate, disconnected answers.

5. Apply to more than one scholarship where your profile fits multiple programs. A candidate eligible for both Chevening and Commonwealth, for instance, improves their overall odds by pursuing both rather than betting everything on a single highly competitive award.

Country-by-Country Scholarship Guidance

Scholarship strategy differs meaningfully by destination. We've covered the specific visa, tuition, and funding landscape for each major destination separately: see our guides for studying in the USA, UK student visa and tuition fees, and Italy's public university tuition system, each of which includes destination-specific scholarship detail beyond the global programs listed here.

Common Mistakes That Get Applications Rejected

• Submitting generic essays that could apply to any country or any scholarship, without specific reference to the program's mission or your concrete plan.

• Missing the unconditional offer deadline for scholarships like Chevening that require it as a separate, earlier milestone from the main application deadline.

• Waiting until the deadline is close to contact referees, leaving them without enough time to write a thoughtful, specific recommendation.

• Confusing which academic year a cycle refers to, applying based on an outdated deadline found on an unofficial source rather than the scholarship's own website.

• Assuming a "scholarship" is fully funded without confirming coverage, and later discovering it only covers tuition, leaving a living-cost gap that derails your budget.

How Scholarships Fit Your Overall Budget

Even a partial scholarship changes your total cost picture significantly. For a full breakdown of what studying abroad actually costs by country, including how a tuition-only award changes your bottom line, see our Cost of Studying Abroad from Bangladesh guide, which lays out realistic annual totals across five major destinations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Chevening still open for the 2027 intake?

Yes, as of this writing, Chevening's 2027-2028 cycle is open and closes on 6 October 2026 at 11:00 UTC. This is directly confirmed on Chevening's official website.

Has the Fulbright scholarship deadline for Bangladeshi students passed?

The 2027-2028 Fulbright Foreign Student Program cycle closed on 11 July 2026. The next cycle is expected to open in the first half of 2027, so it's worth beginning to prepare your documents and English test scores now.

What is the difference between a full and partial scholarship?

A full scholarship covers tuition, a living stipend, travel, and insurance. A partial scholarship typically covers only one of these, most commonly tuition alone or a percentage discount, leaving other costs to be self-funded.

Do I need work experience to apply for these scholarships?

It depends on the program. Chevening requires 2,800 hours (about 2 years) of post-graduate work experience. Fulbright and Commonwealth generally prefer but don't always strictly require it, while Erasmus Mundus and MEXT typically don't require work experience at all.

Can I apply for more than one scholarship at the same time?

Yes, and it's generally a good strategy if your profile genuinely fits multiple programs' eligibility criteria. Just ensure each application is tailored specifically to that program rather than reused generically across applications.

Written & reviewed by Sunrise Education Consultants, helping Bangladeshi students secure scholarships and plan their study abroad funding since 2014. Explore our Scholarship Arrangement service for personalized matching and application support, or browse our full range of services and book a free consultation with a Sunrise counsellor to start your scholarship application.

Sources: Chevening official Bangladesh page (chevening.org); U.S. Embassy Dhaka official Fulbright Foreign Student Program announcements; Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. Deadline information should be reverified against each program's official page before publication and periodically thereafter, since scholarship cycles open and close throughout the year.