The Reach Oxford Scholarship is one of the few genuinely full undergraduate awards available to African students at a top-tier UK university. Several Oxford colleges fund it jointly for students from developing countries who, for political or financial reasons, cannot study for a degree in their own country and could not otherwise afford to study abroad.
Coverage runs for the whole degree, three or four years depending on the course, and includes tuition fees, college fees, a grant for living expenses and one return air fare each year. The annual flight matters for undergraduate awards specifically, since a three-year absence without home visits is a common reason students on partial funding struggle.
Eligibility is tied to the OECD Development Assistance Committee list, which covers most of the continent, but applicants should check their own country rather than assume inclusion. The academic bar is Oxford’s ordinary undergraduate standard, which is high and subject-specific, and the scholarship does not lower it. What the scheme adds on top is an explicit weighting of financial need and social commitment, and an expectation that scholars intend to return home after graduating. Medicine is the one subject excluded; every other Oxford undergraduate course is open.
The two-stage timeline is the single most common reason strong candidates fail. Applicants must first apply to Oxford through UCAS by 15 October 2026, the standard Oxford undergraduate deadline, which is earlier than most UK universities and falls more than three months before the scholarship application itself closes at noon UK time on 26 January 2027. A student who discovers the scholarship in December has already missed the gate, because the scholarship is only open to candidates who have been offered a place through the ordinary admissions round.
Prospective applicants for the 2027 intake should therefore treat mid-October 2026 as the operative deadline and work backwards from it, allowing time for admissions tests, written work submissions and interviews, which for Oxford run in November and December.
Application link: https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/fees-and-funding/oxford-bursaries-and-scholarships/reach-oxford
