The Aga Khan money is real, but half of it is a loan
It is also the scholarship most often named wrongly for this field. The prize every architecture student has heard of is for finished buildings, not for students. The Foundation does fund postgraduate study, Pakistan is on its list, and you repay half of what you receive.
9 routes · checked 18 October 2026
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture is not a scholarship
It is a prize for completed buildings, given every three years to architects and project teams for work already built. Students cannot apply to it, and we listed it as a scholarship ourselves until this week. The row below names the Aga Khan Foundation International Scholarship Programme, which is the one students can actually apply for.
Two conditions on the Aga Khan scholarship that change the sums
The award is half grant and half loan. You repay fifty per cent, with a service charge, starting six months after you finish. It also cannot be used for study in the United Kingdom or Russia, which rules it out for four of the other routes on this page. The 2026-2027 cycle has closed and the Foundation says the next one opens in early 2027.
The nine routes
Each row links to the guide that covers that route in full. Where a route sets no single date, this page says what decides yours.
| Guide | Route | Country | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth Scholarship | Architecture at UK universities | United Kingdom | 20 Oct 2026 |
| Chevening Scholarship | One-year master’s, architecture and urban planning | United Kingdom | Opens in August, closes in early October. |
| Aga Khan Foundation ISP | Postgraduate, half grant and half loan | Not the UK or Russia | The next cycle opens in early 2027. Applications go through the local office. |
| ETH Zurich ESOP | Master’s in architecture | Switzerland | Tied to the ETH master’s admission round. |
| TU Delft Excellence Scholarship | MSc architecture and the built environment | Netherlands | Apply to the MSc first. The scholarship follows that application. |
| KU Leuven scholarships | Architecture and human settlements | Belgium | Decided from your programme application. |
| Chalmers scholarships | Architecture and urban design | Sweden | Tied to the Swedish national admission round. |
| Erasmus Mundus | Architecture joint masters across two or three countries | Europe | Varies by joint programme, usually autumn to January. |
| DAAD Scholarship | Architecture master’s and PhD | Germany | Varies by programme. Each DAAD course sets its own date. |
Start here
The guides that cover this field as a whole, rather than one route.
Fully funded scholarships for architecture students
The main guide, with what each route pays and who it accepts.
9 scholarships
Engineering scholarships
Civil and structural routes overlap with architecture on several schemes.
Related field
Building your portfolio and CV
Architecture panels read a portfolio as well as a CV. Both are judged.
Documents
Read the Aga Khan sums before you choose. A half-loan award can still be the better offer, because it carries no nationality quota and no return condition. But compare it against a full grant honestly: on a two-year master’s, repaying half plus a service charge is a real debt, and it starts six months after you finish whether or not you have work. Our guide on hidden costs sets out how to run that comparison.