Applications are now open for the 2026/27 Mandela Rhodes Scholarship Programme: Fully funded for young Africans to study in South Africa

Ednah Carrick March 10, 2026

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Closing Date: 14 April 2026

Applications are now open for the 2026/27 Mandela Rhodes Scholarship Programme: Fully funded for young Africans to study in South Africa

Applications for the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship Programme are open.

The Mandela Rhodes Scholarship combines financial support with a transformative leadership development programme designed to challenge you, grow you, and connect you with a network of young African changemakers who share your ambition.

The Mandela Rhodes Foundation looks for emerging leaders who align with the Mandela Rhodes Foundation’s core principles: leadership, reconciliation, education, and entrepreneurship.

Overview

The Mandela Rhodes Scholarship is a life-changing leadership journey. The scholarship combines financial support with a leadership programme that will challenge you, grow you, and connect you to young African changemakers – just like you.

The leadership development programme

The programme is built on the Mandela Rhodes Foundation founding principles of reconciliation, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership, and a belief that leadership begins with inner transformation. The Mandela Rhodes Foundation aim to keep Nelson Mandela’s legacy alive by equipping young African leaders with the competence and courage to transform the continent into a place where everyone has equal opportunity to thrive. The programme is delivered primarily through a series of week-long residential workshops which you will attend during your time in residence.

Financial support

The Mandela Rhodes Scholarship offers comprehensive funding for the core costs associated with your studies. It covers tuition for a one-year Honours degree or a two-year Masters degree in any field at a recognised South African institution of higher education. This includes tuition and registration fees, allowances for study materials, research, and medical aid, accommodation and meals, personal allowance and economy class travel to and from your home country to your South African university at the beginning and end of your degree.

How are Mandela Rhodes Scholars selected?

The Mandela Rhodes Foundation look for young leaders who aspire to the principles below and who have demonstrated the potential to live them out.

Leadership

Do you aspire to be a visionary leader who has moral authority? Do you see leadership as more than just personal ambition – as a way to pursue the advancement of equality and freedom, human rights and human dignity? And do you want to guide and inspire others to reach their full potential?

Reconciliation

Do you believe that reconciliation – combined with reparation – is the key to harnessing an imperfect past to develop a more just world? And are you prepared to start the process by looking at your own internal landscape?

Education

Do you have excellent academic results but believe that your education should not only benefit you but make a difference for others? And do you agree that intellectual excellence must be accompanied by character and a rounded personality?

Entrepreneurship

Do you want to see Africa take its rightful place as an equal and competitive presence in the global world? Have you demonstrated individual effort, innovation and creativity to this end?

Are you ready to grow?

To benefit from the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship Programme you must be curious about doing the personal, internal work of leadership. This means a commitment to developing self-awareness by engaging with difficult parts of yourself, an openness to learning from the diversity and differences in your cohort, and a willingness to explore and embrace complexity within yourself, others, and the systems around you.

For scholars from outside South Africa…

Important: Applicants from outside South Africa may need to complete SAQA verification to start their studies at a South African university. Please see the relevant FAQs on the official page.