What Columbia University SIPA International Fellows Program actually covers.
The Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) International Fellows Program provides stipends to graduate students from all degree programs at Columbia University who are selected to engage in globally focused academic and professional development activities. The program is open to graduate students of all nationalities, and fellows receive a stipend for each semester of participation. SIPA is Columbia's flagship school for international affairs, development, and public policy, ranked among the top five in the world for its field. Its curriculum spans energy and environment, economic and political development, human rights, international security, and urban policy, and its location in New York City — the home of the United Nations and a global finance hub — gives students unparalleled access to practitioners, policymakers, and organisations shaping the world's agenda. For African students in particular, SIPA has long been a gateway institution: its African studies resources, faculty expertise on African governance, development economics, and conflict resolution, and its networks with African governments and the African Development Bank make it an outstanding place to develop careers in international affairs. SIPA institutional scholarships do not discriminate by citizenship and are awarded based on a mix of merit and financial need. Scholarship awards average approximately half of tuition costs. The Fall 2026 International Fellows application opened in March 2026 with an April deadline. African students who have been admitted to Columbia SIPA are strongly encouraged to apply for every available funding stream simultaneously.
Who can apply.
Open to masters applicants seeking to study in United States. Eligible nationalities are listed below.
46 more eligible countries — full list available on the official application page.
Every academic discipline is accepted.
This programme does not restrict by field. Research proposals across humanities, sciences, engineering, agriculture, and medicine are all accepted.
Four steps to a complete application.
Scholar Africa is a discovery and tracking platform — the application itself is submitted directly through the official provider site. The steps below mirror our HowTo schema.
Check eligibility
Confirm your nationality, academic level, and field of study match the criteria above.
Eligibility checklist
Prepare documents
Transcripts, recommendation letters, personal statement, and a valid passport.
Document checklist
Submit the application
Submit before April 24, 2026 via the official portal.
Submission checklist
Track your application
Use your Scholar Africa dashboard to monitor status and deadline reminders.
Post-submission checklist
What we checked, when we checked it.
Every scholarship on Scholar Africa goes through six checks (link, contact, organisation, winners, third-party, manual review). Columbia University SIPA International Fellows Program currently scores 0.0/10.
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Other scholarships worth a parallel application.
Same eligibility window or destination. Many strong applicants apply to three or four programmes per cycle.