Gates Cambridge Scholarship 2027-28: full funding, apply by 8 Dec or 6 Jan

Start with the deadline, because Gates Cambridge does not have one and that is how people lose the year.

There are two application rounds, and the earlier one is not yours.

The October round is for applicants who are **both** US citizens **and** currently resident in the United States. Its deadline is Wednesday 14 October 2026. If you are applying from India, that round is closed to you, and the date on it is the single most misread thing on the Gates timeline page.

Your round is the international round, and its deadline is: "Dependent on your course – either Tuesday 8th December 2026 or Wednesday 6th January 2027 (see Course Directory)."

Which of the two applies to you depends entirely on the course you are applying for. Gates Cambridge is aligned with the University's own postgraduate funding competition, so you must apply by the Course Funding Deadline shown for your course in the University Course Directory — it is in the column on the right of the course page. Look it up before you plan anything else.

The cut-off is 12:00am (midnight) GMT on your date. That is the very start of the day, not the end of it. Midnight GMT is 5:30am in India, so if your deadline is 8 December, your real working deadline is the evening of 7 December India time. That conversion is our arithmetic, not the Trust's, but getting it wrong costs you a day you did not know you were spending.

All your documents, including references, must be in by that moment.

Can an Indian student apply?

Yes. Gates Cambridge does not publish a country-by-country list; its eligibility is written as a nationality test, and this is the line in full:

> You can apply for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship if you are: a citizen of any country outside the United Kingdom

There is no country exclusion list anywhere on the eligibility page. India qualifies under that sentence. The alumni community is described as spanning 112 countries.

Who this is for, and who it is not for

This is a heavily contested international award — around 80 scholarships a year across every subject at Cambridge, with roughly 55 of those in the international round that Indian applicants compete in, and about two-thirds going to PhD students. Most readers of this site will not be candidates, and that is worth saying plainly rather than after a fortnight of essays.

If you need help with college fees in India, the NSP and state schemes on this site will serve you far better. If you are an Indian graduate with a strong research record already thinking about a PhD or a one-year Master's at Cambridge, this is one of the largest awards available to you.

Which courses qualify

You must be applying to pursue one of:

- A PhD, full-time or part-time (the part-time PhD is a continuing pilot)
- An MLitt, full-time
- A one-year postgraduate course, full-time, with exceptions

Which courses do NOT qualify

This list is longer than people expect, and it removes several of the courses Indian applicants most often have in mind:

- Any undergraduate degree, including a second BA
- MASt courses
- Part-time degrees other than the PhD
- Master of Business Administration (MBA)
- Executive MBA and Global EMBA
- Master of Finance (MFin)
- Executive Master of Accounting
- Business Doctorate (BusD)
- Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE)
- MBBChir Clinical Studies
- MD Doctor of Medicine
- Graduate Course in Medicine (A101)
- Master of Conservation of Easel Painting

If you are already at Cambridge

Current Cambridge students can apply for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship for a **new** postgraduate course — an MPhil student applying for a PhD, for instance. Current Gates Cambridge Scholars can also apply for a second scholarship for a new degree. All current Cambridge students are considered in the international round.

What you cannot do is fund a course you have already started. If you are part-way through a PhD, Gates Cambridge cannot pay for the remainder of it.

What the money covers

The core components, paid in full:

- The University Composition Fee at the appropriate rate for your student type
- A maintenance allowance for a single student — £22,050 for 12 months at the 2025-26 rate, pro rata for courses shorter than 12 months. For PhD scholars the award runs up to four years
- One economy single airfare at the beginning of the course and one at the end
- Inbound visa costs and the cost of the Immigration Health Surcharge

That rate is the one the Trust publishes and labels as 2025-26. It is not a promise of what a 2027 entrant will receive, and we are not going to guess at the 2027-28 figure.

Discretionary funding you can apply for on top:

- Academic development funding, from up to £500 to up to £2,000 depending on the length of your course, for conferences and courses
- A Dependent Children Allowance — up to £12,184 a year for one child, up to £17,375 a year for two or more. Note there is no funding for a partner
- Fieldwork: you may apply to keep your normal maintenance allowance while on fieldwork as part of your PhD. Other fieldwork costs are expected to come from the Composition Fee
- Maternity and paternity funding: you may apply to intermit for up to six months and keep the maintenance allowance during that time
- Hardship funding for unforeseen difficulties

What is not covered

Bench fees, scientific equipment and similar academic resources. The Trust expects your Cambridge department to cover those as core course costs. If you are heading into a lab-based PhD, ask the department about bench fees early.

Two money rules that catch people

- If you win a fee award from a public authority such as UKRI, you must accept it. The Trust will then not pay your fee, or may share the fee and maintenance costs
- If you are receiving a salary from an employer, or hold another substantial scholarship, the Trust reserves the right to reduce or not pay the maintenance allowance. You are expected to tell them as soon as you are awarded anything else

How you are judged

Four criteria, in the Trust's own order:

- Outstanding intellectual ability
- Reasons for choice of course
- A commitment to improving the lives of others
- Leadership potential

The third and fourth are not decoration. The programme describes its mission as building a global network of future leaders committed to improving the lives of others, and it selects on that.

The timeline after you apply

- Applications open: September 2026, exact date to be confirmed by the University
- Your deadline: 8 December 2026 or 6 January 2027, by course
- Departmental ranking: December to February
- All applicants notified of the outcome: by early March 2027
- Selection panels: Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 March 2027
- Scholarships offered: by early April 2027
- You have 72 hours from the offer to accept it

That last line is not a typo. Have your decision thought through before the email arrives.

One more funding route

The Trust points applicants to the University's other funding as well, at student-funding.cam.ac.uk. A Gates application does not stop you being considered for those, and the course funding deadline is generally the same date.

Before you start

The order of operations that actually works: find your course in the University Course Directory, read its Course Funding Deadline, check the course is not on the excluded list above, then work backwards from that date. Everything else on this page is secondary to getting those two facts right.

Dates checked on 19 August 2026. Deadlines move without notice, so confirm on the official page linked above before you apply.