Scholarships in China for International Students (2027)

If you're a student in Pakistan — or India, Bangladesh or Nepal — China should be on your shortlist, and not just because it's close to home. The Chinese Government Scholarship (CSC) is one of the largest fully funded scholarship systems on earth: it pays your tuition, puts a roof over your head, covers your medical insurance and sends you a monthly stipend, for full Master's and PhD degrees. Around it sit a small number of genuinely elite fellowships — a fully funded China Studies master's at Peking University, and 400 fully funded PhD places in Hong Kong — that most students in our region never hear about until the deadlines have passed.

This page collects every China opportunity currently live on Dare To Dream, verified against the official details: two fully funded degree scholarships, one fully funded PhD fellowship, and one honest short-programme option in Shanghai. One warning before you read on: China rewards early movers. The Yenching Academy closes on November 30, the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship on December 1, and the biggest CSC batch at NPU opens November 1 — so the next few weeks matter more than the next few months.

A note on how we label things: where a programme below is fee-paying rather than funded, we say so plainly. On Dare To Dream, we always label funding honestly.

China scholarships and opportunities open now

Listed by deadline, soonest first.

1. Fudan International Winter Session — Shanghai

Deadline: November 9, 2026 (11:00 Beijing time, for non-Chinese passport holders) · Fee-paying short programme — tuition CNY 15,000 · View on Dare To Dream

Let's be honest first: this is not a scholarship. It's a 3-week winter programme at Fudan University in Shanghai (December 21, 2026 – January 8, 2027), with English-taught courses in Artificial Intelligence, Business & Economics, Science & Technology, Society & Politics, and Chinese language and culture — no Chinese required. You pay CNY 15,000 tuition and arrange your own accommodation, and in return you get city tours, company visits, an official Fudan certificate and a transcript. As a short, CV-building taste of studying in China before you commit to a degree, it's a legitimate option — just budget for it as a purchase, not an award.

2. Yenching Academy Scholarship — Peking University

Deadline: November 30, 2026 · Fully funded Master's · View on Dare To Dream

The Yenching Academy is Peking University's flagship international college, and its scholarship is a full fellowship for a Master's in China Studies: full tuition, accommodation at Peking University, a monthly stipend, one round-trip travel allowance and field-study costs. The bar is high and honest — you'll need a strong bachelor's record (final-year students graduating by August 2027 can apply), IELTS 7.0 or TOEFL iBT 100, and two academic recommendation letters from full or associate professors. If you're at a partner university, you must complete your university's internal pre-selection first, so check that date today, not in late November.

3. Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS)

Deadline: December 1, 2026 · Fully funded PhD fellowship · View on Dare To Dream

Hong Kong runs one of the most generous PhD schemes in the world: 400 fellowships for 2027/28 across 8 universities, paying an annual stipend of HK$344,400 (about US$44,150) plus a HK$14,400 yearly conference and travel allowance for up to 3 years, with most universities also waiving tuition for awardees. It's open to all nationalities, and the application is a two-step sprint on a single day: the initial RGC application by 12:00 noon HKT on December 1, then your full university application by 11:59 pm HKT the same day. One rule to respect: you may submit only ONE application — duplicates are disqualified.

4. NPU Chinese Government Scholarship — CSC University Program, Type B

Final deadline: February 28, 2027 · Fully funded Master's & PhD · View on Dare To Dream

This is the CSC route our students ask about most: a fully funded scholarship for Master's (2–3 years) and PhD (3–4 years) study at Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in Xi'an — a top engineering university famous for aeronautics, astronautics and marine technology. The award covers full tuition exemption, free on-campus accommodation or a subsidy, comprehensive medical insurance, and a monthly stipend of RMB 3,000 (Master's) or RMB 3,500 (PhD). Two honest details: international airfare is generally not covered, and you apply in batches — Batch 1 runs November 1 to December 31, 2026 and Batch 2 runs January 1 to February 28, 2027 (17:00 Beijing time). You apply through both the NPU portal and the CSC system on campuschina.org, choosing Program Category Type B and Agency Number 10699. Age limits: under 35 for Master's, under 40 for PhD.

Also watch: the wider CSC system

NPU above is one door into the Chinese Government Scholarship — the house is much bigger. The same CSC system also runs a Type A (bilateral) route, where students are nominated through a dispatching agency in their home country, and Type B university-programme awards at universities across China. Every route is applied for through the CSC's official system at campuschina.org, and each university publishes its own agency number and batch dates. If NPU isn't your field, start from the CSC portal and the Chinese university you actually want — and read our guide to fully funded scholarships 2027, where the NPU CSC sits in the full worldwide deadline order.

Explore Chinese universities on Dare To Dream

• Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), Xi'an — Double First-Class engineering university; its profile shows IELTS 6.5 and tuition of 40,000 RMB before scholarship funding, and links directly to the CSC scholarship above.
• Comparing destinations? Our guides to scholarships in Japan and scholarships in South Korea cover the other two big East Asian systems, and the full university profiles directory grows every week.

How to apply for scholarships in China

1. Pick your route first. Yenching and HKPFS are single-institution fellowships with their own portals; CSC is a system — you choose the university and programme, then file through both the university and campuschina.org.
2. Respect the two-portal rule for CSC. An application on only one portal is an incomplete application. For NPU, that's the NPU admission portal plus the CSC system with Type B and Agency Number 10699.
3. Prepare certified documents early. Degree certificates, transcripts, a study plan and two recommendation letters take weeks to assemble; our guide on preparing scholarship documents helps you build the file once and reuse it everywhere.
4. Mind the batch rhythm. CSC awards are decided in batches. Applying in Batch 1 (November–December) means your file is read while the most places are still open.
5. Apply through official portals only. Every D2D post links the official programme page. No agent can "release" a CSC award for a fee — if someone claims otherwise, walk away.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Chinese Government Scholarship really fully funded? For the NPU Type B award listed above, yes for the core costs: full tuition exemption, free on-campus accommodation or an accommodation subsidy, comprehensive medical insurance (800 CNY per year), and a monthly stipend of RMB 3,000 for Master's or RMB 3,500 for PhD students. The honest exception is international airfare, which is generally not covered — budget for your own flight.

I want to study in China but not at NPU. Can I still use CSC? Yes. NPU is one university inside the CSC system. Other Chinese universities run their own Type B university-programme awards with their own agency numbers and deadlines, and the Type A bilateral route runs through dispatching agencies in your home country. All applications go through campuschina.org — start from the university you want and follow its official announcement.

Do I need to speak Chinese for these scholarships? Not for the programmes above. English-taught CSC programmes at NPU require proof of English proficiency (Chinese-taught ones require HSK), Yenching teaches in English and asks for IELTS 7.0 or TOEFL 100, and Hong Kong's PhD programmes are English-medium. Learning Mandarin still helps daily life enormously — but it is not the entry ticket here.

Can final-year students apply? For Yenching, yes — if you graduate by August 2027. For CSC at NPU you must hold the required degree for your level (bachelor's for Master's, master's for PhD) and meet the age limits: under 35 for Master's applicants and under 40 for PhD applicants.

Keep exploring

• See every China listing and more in the full Dare To Dream opportunities database.
• Planning the whole 2027 season? Use the deadline-ordered fully funded scholarships 2027 hub so nothing closes while you're not looking.
• Widening the net across Asia? Read our guides to scholarships in Japan and scholarships in South Korea.

Dare To Dream verifies every listing against official sources. Deadlines and stipends above are copied from the individual scholarship pages — always confirm final details on the official programme page before applying.