Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at SciencesPo 2025

Fully Funded

Deadline: 1st December 2025

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The Application Deadline has past

October 22, 2024
5:55 am

Application Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at SciencesPo is now open

The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program strives to provide access to quality and inclusive education to young people from Sub-Saharan Africa. By 2030, as part of an ambitious new strategy (Young Africa Works), the Foundation aims to enable 30 million young Africans to secure dignified and fulfilling employment.

Since 2017, Sciences Po is the only institution in continental Europe to partner with the Mastercard Foundation. Since then, it has been an instrumental member of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, offering a world-class education in the humanities and social sciences that pairs rigorous academic standards with proven expertise in preparing students for the globalised job market.

For its second strategic phase (2024 – 2034), the goal of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at Sciences Po is to support 1,450 students and young professionals who demonstrate academic excellence, strong leadership potential and a commitment to achieving change in Africa, but who face significant financial barriers to higher education.

The Program shares and promotes the values of inclusion, leadership and access to education championed by the Mastercard Foundation. To do so, it builds on Sciences Po’s historic commitment to excellence, social diversity and equal opportunities.

By opening the doors to top academic programmes and equipping each Scholar with transferable personal skills they can take into the job market, the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program aims to train a new generation of change-makers. Graduates of the Program are driven by a desire to make a real and lasting impact on the foremost issues facing the African continent.

Leadership: students should demonstrate leadership potential. Whether through their own initiatives or those offered at Sciences Po, students are encouraged to instigate or contribute to projects, events and activities.

Impact: students are encouraged to think about how their actions can have a lasting, positive influence on their community and society. Every year, the Program’s Impact Award gives students the opportunity to harness their entrepreneurial flair and think practically about a real-world project to be funded by the Program.

Collective thinking: community spirit is a core value of the Program. We encourage Scholars to put the collective before the individual and to mutually support one another through joint projects, activities, mentoring and more

Students receive the scholarships and financial aid throughout the two years of their Master’s programme.

You can apply to any of the Master’s degree programmes offered at Sciences Po’s seven Graduate Schools.

Admissions timeline for the 2025-2027 Program

Application platform opens: September 2024
Application deadline for Master’s programmes and the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program: 1st of December 2024
Sciences Po admissions decisions released: mid-February 2025
Scholarship allocation decisions released: from March 2025
Master’s programmes begin: end of August 2025

Eligibility

You must meet all of the following criteria to be eligible for the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program:

Hold citizenship in a country within Sub-Saharan Africa. Candidates who hold a second citizenship from the European Economic Area are not eligible.
Have completed or be currently enrolled in a Bachelor’s degree programme at one of Sciences Po’s institutions of reference (see the list of institutions).
Or have completed or are currently enrolled in a training foundation or mentoring programme offered by a bridging programme organisation partnering with the Mastercard Foundation (see the list of institutions).
Be in genuine need of funding for your higher education (please note: documents proving your financial situation will be required for your application).
Show a commitment to achieving change in Africa, particularly in the areas of public policy and major political, environmental and societal transitions.
Be under 35 when you begin your Master’s programme.
Not already hold or be completing a Master’s degree.
Be applying for a two-year Master’s programme at one of Sciences Po’s seven Graduate Schools. Applicants for one-year Master’s, dual degrees or joint Master’s programmes are not eligible for the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program.

Benefits

Scholarships cover the full cost of tuition and living expenses in France, throughout the recipient’s time studying at Sciences Po.

Tailored support

In addition to funding tuition, Sciences Po provides Scholars with a range of tailored resources to support their studies and facilitate their transition into employment. Specifically, Scholars have access to:

- Support in the run-up to leaving for France, tailored support when they arrive, and an official welcome programme to help them integrate in their first few weeks.
- Housing in Paris reserved for Mastercard Foundation Scholars.
- Personalised support throughout their studies, ensuring every student has the best possible experience at Sciences Po.
- Careers support: guidance to help students identify their professional aspirations; a careers fair focusing on employment and internship opportunities in Africa; access to the university’s business incubator (FR) and its network of employers and alumni working in Africa; opportunities to attend careers support workshops, conferences, etc.
- A mentoring programme co-run with the Africa Division of Sciences Po Alumni.
- Access to the wide range of general resources Sciences Po provides to guide students through every step of their studies.

Eligible Regions: Sub-Saharan Africa.

Application Process

To be selected for the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, you must first be accepted onto a Master’s programme at one of Sciences Po’s seven Graduate Schools.
From September 2024, applications for Sciences Po Master’s programmes and for the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program will be handled through a single procedure and platform. You will need to apply for your chosen Master’s programme and the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program via the international graduate admissions procedure.

For Further Queries: If you have a question you would like to ask, including admission queries, please use their official QA section on their website.

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