UNESCO Co-Sponsored Fellowships Programme 2024-2025

About the Programme

With a view to promoting the human resource development and capacity building of developing countries and to enhancing international exchanges in the field of education, culture, communication, science and technology and the friendship among peoples of the world, the Government of the People’s Republic of China has placed at the disposal of UNESCO for the academic year 2024-2025, under the co-sponsorship with UNESCO, seventy-five (75) fellowships for advanced studies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. These fellowships will be open to candidates from 135 developing Member States in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe and Arab region.

Tenable at a selected number of Chinese universities, these fellowships are intended for students and scholars who plan to pursue advanced studies or undertake individual research with periodic guidance from the assigned supervisors in China for a duration of one year. The study programmes will be taught in English or Chinese, subject to the available fields of study at the selected universities. Candidates applying for the Chinese-taught programmes should have acquired certain level of Chinese proficiency before taking up research or studying in their fields of interest. Selected candidates will undertake their studies in the host universities as visiting scholars, either at general or senior level. For more information, please refer to http://www.csc.edu.cn/studyinchina or www.campuschina.org.

The beneficiary countries of UNESCO-China Fund-in-Trust (CFIT) Project are encouraged to submit candidates in the relevant fields of study in Education. Given the high priority that UNESCO places on Gender Equality, Africa and SIDS, women candidates and candidates from Africa and SIDS are strongly encouraged to apply. 

Invited Member States

AFRICA – 46 Member States:
Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC – 38 Member States:
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Cook Islands, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, Niue, Palau, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Viet Nam

ARAB STATES – 13 Member States:
Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Yemen

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBEAN – 26 Member States:
Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Venezuela

EUROPE – 12 Member States:
Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine 

Available Study Programmes

Please visit the official web page of China Scholarship Council (CSC) for the fields of proposed studies at the selected chinese universities: http://www.campuschina.org/universities/index.html

Eligibility Requirements

Candidates must be the nationals from the above-mentioned invited Member States , fulfilling the following eligibility requirements:

• Candidates applying for General Scholar Programmes must hold a high school diploma and should not be older than the age of forty-five (45); and those who apply for Senior Scholar Programmes must be master’s degree holders or an associate professor (or above) and not older than the age of fifty (50).
• English proficiency is required. For those who apply for Chinese taught General / Senior programmes, his/er Chinese proficiency must reach HSK Level 3.
• Be in good health, both mentally and physically.
• Meeting the admission requirements of the applied universities in terms of academic ability, language proficiency and other relevant criteria.

How to Apply?

Step 1:
Read carefully the Application Guidelines for UNESCO/China Co-Sponsored Fellowships Programme 2024-2025 to understand the requirements for eligible candidatures and the procedures for the submission of application.

Step 2:
Contact the National Commission for UNESCO of your country to enquire the application procedures at national level. Click here for the contact information of the National Commissions for UNESCO.

Applicants are encouraged to contact in advance with their target Chinese universities and apply for an admission or pre-admission from the universities. Applicants with admission documents will be prioritized during the fellowship selection. If you have received the pre-admission or admission letters from by the time of submission, please attach the letters in your supporting documents.

Step 3:
Submit your online application, along with the required supporting documents in the Chinese Government Scholarship Information System (http://www.campuschina.org) as mentioned in the Application Guidelines.

Please refer to the Instructions for Online Application for UNESCO/China – the Great Wall Co-sponsored Fellowships Programme, for a explicit guidance on online application submission.

Step 4:
Submit your online application form and the supporting documents to the National Commission for UNESCO of your country.

NOTE: As National Commission for UNESCO of the invited countries will select and transmit the applications of nominated candidates to UNESCO Paris Headquarter by 10 March 2024 at the latest, applicants are advised to submit their application to the National Commissions as early as possible.

Step 5:
As soon as you are informed by the National Commission for UNESCO of your country that you are nominated as a candidate for this programme, you should communicate your the online application form, the serial number of your application and a photocopy of your passport to thegreatwall@unesco.org. 

Note: Only applications nominated by the National Commission will be accepted by UNESCO. It is mandatory for each nominated candidate to submit his/er application in the Chinese Government Scholarship Information System before the application deadline. Application without online registration will not be considered.

Step 6:
Letters of nomination, copies of the online Application Forms and passports of the nominated candidates should be submitted to UNESCO by National Commissions by 10 March 2024 at the latest. Candidates who submit incomplete applications, or submit the online applications beyond this deadline won’t be considered.

Submission and Selection of Candidates

Due to the intergovernmental character of UNESCO, individual applications will not be accepted by UNESCO. Only applications endorsed by the National Commissions for UNESCO will be considered. Applicants should submit their application documents through the National Commissions. 

The National Commission of invited Member States will select qualified candidates and transmit to UNESCO the Letters of nomination, along with the online Application Forms and the photocopies of passports of the nominated candidates.

The selection of fellowship recipients will be made by the concerned Chinese universities, and approved by the Chinese authorities and UNESCO taking into consideration gender equality and diversity. The National Commissions for UNESCO of the selected fellows will be duly informed by UNESCO.