Global Affairs Canada international scholarships explained for the closed 2026-2027 cycle: Canadian institutions apply on students' behalf through My EduCanada, with the Study in Canada Scholarships and ELAP routes, values, and deadlines as published.
Applies in: CA
Start with the rule that decides everything else about Global Affairs Canada international scholarships: international students, researchers, and faculty cannot apply directly. Canadian host institutions must apply on their behalf. Only Canadian citizens and permanent residents can create an individual account to apply for scholarships. If you are an international student reading this guide, your route runs through institutions, not through a personal application to Global Affairs Canada. If you are staff at a Canadian post-secondary institution, your institution is the applicant.
A second fact shapes the whole guide. The application periods for the two programs described in detail here, the Study in Canada Scholarships and the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program, are closed for the 2026-2027 cycle: both program pages state that the application period is now closed. This guide therefore describes the closed cycle's published process honestly, as preparation for the next competition. It claims no current deadline, no open call, and no scholarship outcome. Check the program pages for the next competition before acting on any date in this guide.
Scholarships offered by Global Affairs Canada are applied for through the My EduCanada portal. Before applying, review the program guidelines for eligibility and whether you can apply directly or need a Canadian institution to apply for you. With a My EduCanada account, you can explore available scholarship opportunities, apply for scholarship programs you or your candidates qualify for, save an application and complete it later, and submit an online scholarship application.
To create a My EduCanada account, sign in using Global Affairs Canada Single Sign-On Services, with two options: sign in with a Canadian bank through Interac, or create a GCKey account, which is recommended for institutions. For the programs in this guide, the institution registers on My EduCanada and selects Institution for the account type. A student does not create an individual account to apply for these programs, because direct applications from individuals are not accepted.
For the 2026-2027 cycle, both programs below moved to an adjusted delivery model in which Canadian institutions are responsible for the selection of students. Two changes define that model. Selection at the program level is based on the institution's submission of a Management and Accountability Framework, outlining the measures and procedures the applicant will implement to ensure a fair and transparent selection process for scholarship recipients. The Privacy Notice Statement is the only supporting document required to be submitted by the institution on behalf of the student through the My EduCanada portal.
The Management and Accountability Framework is also the document that travels outside the portal. The institution sends it by email to Scholarships-Info-Bourses@international.gc.ca by the application deadline. Projects are selected based on the completeness and quality of the framework, measured against a fair and transparent selection process, eligibility of selected candidates, authenticity and maintenance of supporting documentation, broad representation of eligible countries and territories, and equitable gender participation. If an institution applies to both the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program and the Study in Canada Scholarships, a Management and Accountability Framework must be submitted for each scholarship program.
A scholarship project consists of one or more individual scholarships supporting short-term inbound mobility to a Canadian post-secondary institution. A project commences on the signing of a contribution agreement with Global Affairs Canada and must be completed no later than September 30, 2027. The total funding from Global Affairs Canada will not exceed $150,000 per project. Canadian institutions receive funding through a non-negotiable contribution agreement, must enter into an agreement with each selected student, and are responsible for disbursing the scholarship funds. Should planned mobility activities change, funding may be adjusted accordingly. Each project also carries $500 per implemented scholarship, where mobility occurs, to cover the Canadian institution's administrative costs, including an employer compliance fee paid to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, if applicable. Tuition is not an eligible expense and must be waived by Canadian institutions.
The Study in Canada Scholarships offer Canadian post-secondary institutions the opportunity to host international students from a diverse range of countries and territories for short-term study or research exchanges. The program is funded by Global Affairs Canada through the Academic Relations program, and aims to strengthen and diversify Canada's international linkages and partnerships. Only Canadian post-secondary institutions are eligible to apply on this call, and participating institutions are responsible for identifying and selecting eligible participants before submitting their application through the MyEduCanada portal.
To be eligible, applicant institutions must be a Designated Learning Institution and waive tuition fees for scholarship recipients. Scholarships may only be awarded to individuals who are citizens of the eligible countries and territories the program page lists: in Asia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Taiwan; in Europe, Türkiye and Ukraine; in the Middle East and North Africa, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia; and in Sub-Saharan Africa, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda. Recipients must be enrolled full-time at a post-secondary institution in an eligible country or territory, be paying tuition fees to that institution at the time of application and for the full duration of their mobility in Canada, and be able to complete all project activities no later than September 30, 2027.
Scholarships may not be awarded to individuals who hold or have a pending application for Canadian citizenship or permanent residency, who are already holding another grant or source of funding from Global Affairs Canada, through its legal name the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, or from a Canadian federal granting agency such as the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, or the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, with all additional sources of funding to be declared, or who are already enrolled in a degree, diploma, or certificate program at a Canadian post-secondary institution. Scholarship value and duration must be $10,200 for 4 months or one academic term for study or research at the college or undergraduate level, $10,200 for 4 months or one academic term at the graduate level, and $14,000 for 5 to 6 months at the graduate level. Failure to comply with the project parameters may affect funding.
The Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program enables eligible Canadian post-secondary institutions to award scholarships to students from Latin America and the Caribbean undertaking short-term study or research in Canada. Established by the Government of Canada in 2009, the program aims to foster the development of human capital and the next generation of leaders in the region, while strengthening Canada's institutional partnerships and deepening people-to-people ties with the Americas. It is funded by Global Affairs Canada through the Academic Relations Program. The same delivery model applies: only Canadian post-secondary institutions are eligible to apply, participating institutions are responsible for identifying and selecting eligible participants, and direct applications from individuals are not accepted.
Applicant institutions must be a Designated Learning Institution and waive tuition fees for scholarship recipients. Scholarships may only be awarded to citizens of the eligible countries and territories the program page lists: in the Caribbean, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos; in Central America, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama; in North America, Mexico; and in South America, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The same enrolment, tuition-payment, completion-date, and exclusion rules stated for the Study in Canada Scholarships apply. Scholarship value and duration must be $8,600 for 4 months or one academic term at the college or undergraduate level, $8,600 for 4 months or one academic term at the graduate level, and $12,400 for 5 to 6 months at the graduate level.
The application process consists of submitting one or more individual scholarship nominations through the My EduCanada portal, and sending the Management and Accountability Framework by email by the application deadline. The portal steps for Canadian institutions, as the program pages state them, are:
For the closed 2026-2027 cycle, the deadline for Canadian institutions to apply and email the completed Management and Accountability Framework was 11:59 p.m. EDT, March 31, 2026. The scholarship administrator communicated successful results to Canadian institutions in May 2026, and did not provide feedback for unsuccessful applications. Treat both dates as the closed cycle's record, not as dates for a current application.
Two practical points from the program pages help institutions and students avoid wasted work. The existence of a memorandum of understanding or exchange agreement is no longer an eligibility criterion, including for undergraduate mobility, although institutions may still rely on existing agreements to waive tuition and must retain the documents used in selecting recipients in their own records. And because institutions are now responsible for selecting the ultimate recipients, Scholarship Confirmation Letters are no longer issued by Global Affairs Canada: the confirmation letter must be issued directly by the institution. The earliest possible start date for scholarship recipients is at the signing of the contribution agreement.
If you are an international student who wants to be considered in a future cycle, work the institutional route in this order. First, confirm you are enrolled full-time at a post-secondary institution in a country or territory the program you are aiming at lists, and that you are paying tuition to that institution. Second, contact your home institution's international office and ask whether it works with a Canadian host institution on Global Affairs Canada scholarships, and what that host institution's internal selection process and internal deadline are: institutional deadlines fall before the national deadline, because the host institution must select, assemble, and submit the project. Third, if you plan research rather than coursework, identify a supervisor at the Canadian institution who will host the research, since the application is built around a host institution and a defined mobility project, not an open-ended placement. Keep every document the host institution asks for, including the signed Privacy Notice Statement, ready well before its internal deadline.
Do not pay anyone who promises a scholarship outcome, and do not treat a host institution's internal selection as a funding guarantee: under the delivery model, institutions select and submit, the administrator communicates results to institutions, and no feedback is provided for unsuccessful applications. If a future cycle opens, the program page for that cycle, not this guide, states the deadline, the values, and the eligible countries. Read it before assuming anything carried over from the 2026-2027 cycle.
Some figures and claims are deliberately not stated in this guide, because they could not be verified on an official Global Affairs Canada or EduCanada page. Do not rely on any item below unless you confirm it on the current program page first. Dates, values, and country lists for any future competition cycle were not stated, because the program pages describe the closed 2026-2027 cycle only; the next cycle's dates and figures must be read from the next call. Figures for other Global Affairs Canada scholarship programs beyond the two described in detail were not stated, because no guideline page for another program could be verified; use the EduCanada scholarship search to find each program's own page. A claim that these scholarships are fully funded was not made, because the program pages state values, eligible expenses, and the tuition waiver, but no program page states that all costs of an exchange are covered. Any statement about study permits, admission, or travel was not made, because those are separate processes with their own official pages and decisions. If any of these figures or claims is needed, verify it on the current EduCanada program page before relying on it.
No. International students, researchers, and faculty cannot apply directly for scholarships offered by Global Affairs Canada. Canadian host institutions must apply on their behalf. Only Canadian citizens and permanent residents can create an individual account to apply for scholarships, and direct applications from individuals are not accepted for the programs in this guide.
Start with the home institution and the Canadian host institution. The student stays enrolled full-time at a post-secondary institution in an eligible country and keeps paying tuition to that institution, while the Canadian host institution, which must be a Designated Learning Institution that waives tuition for recipients, identifies and selects eligible participants and submits the application through the My EduCanada portal.
No. Both program pages state that the application period is now closed for the 2026-2027 cycle. The deadline for Canadian institutions in that cycle was 11:59 p.m. EDT, March 31, 2026, and results were communicated to Canadian institutions in May 2026. This guide describes that closed cycle's published process so readers can prepare for the next competition, and no current deadline is claimed.
For Study in Canada Scholarships, $10,200 for 4 months or one academic term at the college, undergraduate, or graduate level, and $14,000 for 5 to 6 months at the graduate level. For the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program, $8,600 for 4 months or one academic term at the college, undergraduate, or graduate level, and $12,400 for 5 to 6 months at the graduate level. Total funding from Global Affairs Canada will not exceed $150,000 per project, and tuition is not an eligible expense because the host institution must waive it.
Scholarships may only be awarded to citizens of the eligible countries or territories listed on each program page, who are enrolled full-time at a post-secondary institution in an eligible country or territory, are paying tuition to that institution at the time of application and for the full duration of the mobility, and can complete all project activities no later than September 30, 2027. They may not be awarded to people who hold or have a pending application for Canadian citizenship or permanent residency, who already hold another Global Affairs Canada or federal granting agency grant, or who are already enrolled in a degree, diploma, or certificate program at a Canadian post-secondary institution.
No promise of either is made in this guide, and none is stated on the program official pages for it. The scholarship is a short-term study or research exchange: the student remains enrolled at the home institution and does not enrol in a Canadian degree, diploma, or certificate program. Admission, immigration, and travel requirements are separate processes with their own pages and decisions, and the scholarship administrator does not provide feedback for unsuccessful applications.