What Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at University of Cape Town actually covers.
The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at the University of Cape Town (UCT) provides fully funded scholarships to academically talented young Africans from sub-Saharan Africa who are first-time undergraduate or postgraduate (Honours and Master's) degree-seeking applicants. UCT is Africa's leading research university and is consistently ranked among the top 200 universities globally. The scholarship covers full tuition, accommodation, meals, transport, books, health insurance, a personal allowance, academic and peer mentoring, cultural and transition support, career and internship opportunities, service learning, experiential learning, and leadership development training. UCT opens its annual call for Mastercard Foundation scholarship applications between July and September each year. The programme aims to develop a new generation of transformative leaders who will create and sustain positive change in Africa, leveraging UCT's world-class research environment, diverse faculty, and extensive international partnerships.
Who can apply.
Open to undergraduate, masters applicants seeking to study in South Africa. 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 September 30, 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.
Scholar Africa runs a link-liveness check on every listing before it goes live. Five additional checks (contact, organisation, winners, third-party, manual review) are on the roadmap. Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at University of Cape Town currently scores 4.0/10.
Verification details Click to expand
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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.