Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarships at University of Edinburgh 2026

The Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarships are funded by the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission (CSC), dependent from the UK government's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

They are aimed at candidates from low and middle-income who would like to undertake part-time, distance learning study on eligible postgraduate programmes offered at Universities in the UK.

Table of Content

• Summary
• Benefits
• Requirements
• Application Deadline
• How To Apply

Summary

• Application DeadlineMarch 31, 2026
• Study LevelMasters
• SponsorUniversity of Edinburgh
• City to studyEdinburgh
• School to studyUniversity of Edinburgh
• Eligible CountryAll Countries

Benefits

Each scholarship will cover full tuition fees and will be tenable for up to five years of part-time study.

Requirements

To apply for a Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarship, candidates must: 

• Be a citizen of or be granted refugee status from an eligible Commonwealth country, or be a British Protected Person.
• Be permanently and continually resident in an eligible Commonwealth country.
• Hold a first degree of at least upper second class (2:1) standard. A lower qualification and sufficient relevant experience may be considered in certain cases.
• Be unable to afford to study the programme without this scholarship.

All candidates must also provide at least one reference.

Please note: While holding an offer to study a programme of your choice is not a condition to be awarded the scholarship, you will also need to secure an Unconditional Offer to study a programme before you can start studying. We advise you to start the university application process as soon as possible. 

Before applying, please be sure to read the Scholar eligibility and Eligible countries sections on the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission website. 

Application Deadline

How To Apply

To become a scholar, you need to apply to both:

• the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission for your opportunity to be awarded a Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarship

• the University of Edinburgh to secure an offer to study an eligible programme of your choice

These application processes are separate, and they don’t need to happen in any particular order, but you must be successful in both application processes to become a scholar.

Please note that it is in your interest to secure an offer with the University of Edinburgh as soon as possible, as we will prioritise nominating scholarship candidates that hold unconditional offers.

• Applying for a programme at the University of Edinburgh You can apply for programmes through our Degree Finder.  

You will secure an unconditional offer if:

• You demonstrate you meet our entry requirements by supplying all supporting documentation. In most cases this will include English level competency documentation. Read more about this here 

• Your application is competitive relative to the application pool.

IMPORTANT – Apply for your programme of interest as soon as possible with all the supporting documentation as it can take up to 28 working days for an application to be processed. You will not secure the necessary unconditional offer unless you provide all the necessary supporting documentation, such as that demonstrating English level competency. 

Applying for the Commonwealth Distance Learning Master’s Scholarships:

• You can apply for a scholarship at the CSC’s website. Information on how to apply can be found here. The deadline for application to the 2026 CSC scholarships is 31st March 2026.

• Before applying, please be sure to read the Eligibility Information on the Commonwealth Scholarships webpage. You must include all supporting documentation when submitting your application.

For more details, visit University of Edinburgh Scholarship webpage