Heydar Aliyev Grant 2027:

Azerbaijan pays Pakistani students a monthly allowance, covers their tuition, and flies them home once a year. It also stops paying in July and August, and it will not accept an application you send yourself.

Both of those facts come from the programme’s own call document, and neither appears in the articles ranking for it today. Here is the whole thing, checked.

What this actually is

Azerbaijan’s president created the Heydar Aliyev International Education Grant Program by decree on 8 July 2023. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Science and Education run it together.

Most Pakistani sites call it the “Azerbaijan Government Scholarship”. That name gets you to roughly the right place, but the official channel on Azerbaijan’s admission portal is listed under the Heydar Aliyev name, so use it when you apply.

It funds full-time study at four levels:

Medicine sitting inside a fully funded government grant is unusual, and it is the reason this post belongs next to our medical and health sciences scholarships page rather than buried in a country list.

Can Pakistanis apply?

Yes. The call opens the grant to citizens of OIC member states, Non-Aligned Movement member states, Small Island Developing States, and countries sharing “common cultural, ethnic and historical ties” with Azerbaijan. Pakistan belongs to both the OIC and the NAM, so two separate doors apply.

Azerbaijani citizens cannot apply. The precise country list sits in an annex we could not read, so confirm your place on it with the embassy before you build a year around this.

What it pays

Run the arithmetic the honest way. Ten payments of 800 AZN come to 8,000 AZN a year, roughly US$4,700. Over a four-year medical degree that is a serious amount of money, and it still leaves two months every summer with no allowance arriving.

Plan for that gap before you go. Either you save across the ten paid months, or you go home on the annual flight and spend the summer in Pakistan, which is what the flight timing quietly suggests.

Eligibility criteria

1. Citizenship of a qualifying country. OIC member, NAM member, a Small Island Developing State, or a country with common cultural, ethnic and historical ties to Azerbaijan. Pakistan qualifies twice over.

2. Not an Azerbaijani citizen. The call excludes them outright.

3. A government nomination. This is the rule that decides everything, and the next section covers it in full.

4. Full-time study only. Every funded level runs full-time.

5. A programme on the approved list. Preparatory, bachelor’s including general medicine, master’s including medical residency, or doctoral.

6. Registration on the SIACAS portal, at portal.edu.az, once you hold a nomination. You choose the Heydar Aliyev International Education Grant admission channel there.

The two stages, and why most people miss stage one

The call states it plainly: direct applications are not accepted.

Stage 1 is a nomination. Your own government nominates you, through its ministries or through the Azerbaijani embassy. In the 2025-2026 cycle this closed on 15 May 2025 at 6 PM Baku time.

Stage 2 is the portal. Only nominated candidates register on SIACAS. In that cycle it closed on 15 June 2025 at 6 PM Baku time.

And the sentence everyone needs to read twice: nomination does not guarantee a scholarship. Stage one gets you into the competition. It does not win it.

So the practical route into this grant is not a form. It is finding out, early, which Pakistani authority handles the nomination and when its internal cut-off falls. That cut-off always sits before Azerbaijan’s, never on it. If you have been through Stipendium Hungaricum, where a Pakistani sending authority sits in the middle in exactly the same way, you already understand the shape of this.

The deadline moved, and it may move again

A month earlier, between two consecutive cycles. The 2026-2027 announcement also went up on 11 February 2026, which left about two months from announcement to deadline.

Treat mid-April as your planning date for 2027-2028, start the nomination conversation in January, and check the portal every few weeks from February. Anyone who reads a 2025 article and works to 15 May will miss by a month.

Step-by-step application process

Step 1, from January: find the nominating authority. Contact the Azerbaijani embassy in Islamabad and ask which Pakistani ministry handles Heydar Aliyev nominations and what its internal deadline is. Ask whether Pakistan nominated candidates in the last cycle. Write the answers down, because nobody publishes them.

Step 2: pick your level and programme. Medicine applicants should name general medicine at bachelor’s level or medical residency at master’s level, since both sit inside the grant explicitly.

Step 3: ask about the language preparatory course. The grant covers it, which suggests some programmes run in Azerbaijani rather than English. Confirm the language of your specific degree before you commit, because a covered preparatory year still costs you a year.

Step 4: assemble documents early. Degree certificates, transcripts and whatever attestation the nominating ministry asks for. Our personal statement guide applies to the motivation material, and the strongest line in any of these is a specific problem at home that the degree addresses.

Step 5: submit the nomination before the ministry’s cut-off. Not Azerbaijan’s. The ministry’s.

Step 6, once nominated: register on SIACAS at portal.edu.az and choose the Heydar Aliyev International Education Grant channel. Confirm your registration rather than assuming it went through.

Step 7: budget for July and August. Two months a year without an allowance, every year of your degree.

If the nomination route closes to you

Two other fully funded routes take applications directly, with no ministry in the middle. Türkiye Bursları is an OIC country, runs one annual window, and accepts candidates without IELTS. CSC China runs through universities and embassies and funds medicine too. If an English test is your obstacle rather than the nomination, start with our scholarships without IELTS list.

FAQ

Is this the same as the Azerbaijan Government Scholarship?

In practice, yes. Azerbaijan’s own portal and admission channel use the name Heydar Aliyev International Education Grant Program. Most listicles use the generic name.

Can I apply directly?

No. The call says direct applications are not accepted. Your government nominates you in stage one, and only then do you register on the SIACAS portal.

Does a nomination mean I have the scholarship?

No. The call states that nomination does not guarantee a scholarship. It puts you in the competition.

Is Pakistan eligible?

Yes. The grant covers OIC and NAM member states, and Pakistan belongs to both. Confirm against the official annex, which we could not read.

Can I study medicine on it?

Yes. General medicine at bachelor’s level and medical residency at master’s level both appear in the call.

How much is the monthly allowance?

800 AZN, about US$470, paid for ten months a year. July and August carry no payment.

Do they pay for my flights?

One international economy return flight to and from Baku each year.

What is SIACAS?

Azerbaijan’s admission portal at portal.edu.az, where nominated candidates register in stage two and select the Heydar Aliyev admission channel.

When does the next cycle open?

The 2026-2027 announcement appeared on 11 February 2026 with a 15 April 2026 deadline. Expect a similar pattern for 2027-2028, and begin in January.

Is the degree taught in English?

The grant funds a language preparatory course, which implies some programmes run in Azerbaijani. Confirm the language of your specific programme before accepting a place.