The Felix Scholarship pays gifted students with limited means to take a postgraduate degree in the UK. An anonymous founder set it up in 1991, and the Felix Trustees now run it with three partner universities: the University of Oxford, the University of Reading and SOAS University of London.
Most awards go to Indian nationals. Since 2001 the scheme has also funded students from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and 16 countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Each of the three universities now holds one award for applicants from outside India.
Each university runs its own awards and shortlists from its own offer holders. Scholars are expected to return home after the degree and put it to work there.
Benefits & funding
- Full tuition fees, living costs and a return flight home, for the length of the course.
- Oxford: 100% of course fees for the full fee-liability period, a grant for living costs and one return flight between India and the UK.
- Reading: international-rate tuition fees, a maintenance stipend of around £17,894, and allowances for clothes, books and a return flight home; awards last up to three years, depending on eligibility.
- SOAS: tuition fees, living costs and a return air fare in full; neither SOAS Felix route covers pre-sessional courses.
- About 20 scholarships are awarded each year across the three universities.
- No extra allowance is paid for a spouse.
Eligibility
- An offer of a place on a full-time master’s or PhD at Oxford, Reading or SOAS, in any subject except medicine.
- Outstanding academic merit and demonstrated financial need.
- Scholars are expected to return to work in their home country after the degree.
- Indian applicants: Indian nationals with at least a first-class bachelor’s from an Indian university or comparable institution. SOAS exceptionally accepts an upper-second bachelor’s with a first-class master’s.
- At Oxford, Indian applicants must be Indian nationals who are ordinarily resident in India and must not hold a degree from a university outside India, except for study undertaken while receiving a Felix Scholarship. At Reading and SOAS, Indian applicants must not currently live or study outside India, must not have studied outside India for a year or more (Reading exempts Felix alumni), and must not hold a degree from a university outside India.
- At SOAS, applicants cannot already hold the degree they are applying for (a master’s for a master’s award, a PhD for a PhD award). Past holders of an Indian university PhD scholarship are ineligible, and Felix master’s alumni with a distinction may apply for PhD funding.
- Oxford non-Indian award: one a year, for a non-Indian student ordinarily resident in a country other than India that the OECD DAC List of ODA Recipients classes as a Least Developed Country or Other Low Income Country.
- Reading non-Indian award: one master’s-level award for a student from a developing country, aimed mainly at candidates from Africa. It requires a first-class bachelor’s and no degree from a university outside the home country.
- SOAS non-Indian award: one award for nationals of a developing country who live in their home country, with priority for Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Iraq and the Palestinian territories. It requires a first-class bachelor’s for a taught master’s or a first-class master’s for a PhD, and no earlier study of a year or more outside the applicant’s country.
- Married applicants may apply, but the scholarship does not support a spouse.
Can you apply?
Here's who can apply
Decoded from the official rules. A free account checks them against your passport, degree and age in seconds.
Residence required
Afghanistan · Angola · Bangladesh · Benin · Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cambodia · Central African Republic · Chad · Comoros · DR Congo · Djibouti
+ 129 more
Eritrea · Ethiopia · Gambia · Guinea · Guinea-Bissau · Haiti · Kiribati · Laos · Lesotho · Liberia · Madagascar · Malawi · Mali · Mauritania · Mozambique · Myanmar · Nepal · Niger · Rwanda · Senegal · Sierra Leone · Solomon Islands · Somalia · South Sudan · Sudan · Tanzania · Timor-Leste · Togo · Tuvalu · Uganda · Yemen · Zambia · North Korea · Syria · Algeria · Bhutan · Bolivia · Cabo Verde · Cameroon · Republic of the Congo · Côte d'Ivoire · Egypt · Eswatini · Ghana · Honduras · India · Iran · Jordan · Kenya · Kyrgyzstan · Lebanon · Micronesia · Mongolia · Morocco · Nicaragua · Nigeria · Pakistan · Papua New Guinea · Philippines · Samoa · São Tomé and Príncipe · Sri Lanka · Tajikistan · Tokelau · Tunisia · Ukraine · Uzbekistan · Vanuatu · Vietnam · Zimbabwe · Albania · Argentina · Armenia · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belize · Bosnia and Herzegovina · Botswana · Brazil · China · Colombia · Costa Rica · Cuba · Dominica · Dominican Republic · Ecuador · El Salvador · Equatorial Guinea · Fiji · Gabon · Georgia · Grenada · Guatemala · Guyana · Indonesia · Iraq · Jamaica · Kazakhstan · Kosovo · Libya · Malaysia · Maldives · Marshall Islands · Mauritius · Mexico · Moldova · Montenegro · Montserrat · Namibia · Nauru · Niue · North Macedonia · Palau · Panama · Paraguay · Peru · Saint Helena · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Serbia · South Africa · Suriname · Thailand · Tonga · Türkiye · Turkmenistan · Venezuela · Wallis and Futuna · Palestine
Education required
Bachelor · Master
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Application process
- 1Apply for a full-time master’s or PhD at Oxford, Reading or SOAS. Oxford has no separate Felix form: a course application submitted by the relevant December or January deadline for the course is considered automatically.
- 2At Reading, do not fill in a Felix application form at first; follow the university’s own Felix procedure.
- 3At SOAS, complete the programme application first, then apply for the scholarship through the admissions portal by the scholarship deadline. Late or incomplete applications are rejected.
- 4After confirmed offers, each university draws up a shortlist. Indian shortlists go to the Felix selection committee; non-Indian candidates are chosen by their university.
- 5Shortlisted Indian candidates receive a letter with the date and venue and interview for about 30 minutes in New Delhi or Bangalore, at their own expense. Reading also allows video interviews, and SOAS’s non-Indian candidates interview online with the Felix Trust.
- 6Successful candidates hear directly from their university; unsuccessful candidates are not notified.
Program timeline
Oxford course deadlines that trigger Felix consideration (vary by course)
Each December/January
SOAS scholarship deadline for 2026–27 entry, 12 noon UK time
Mar 2, 2026
Shortlisting
March–April 2026
Interviews
April–May 2026
Final decisions (SOAS)
June 2026
Courses start; Reading allows no deferral
September–October 2026
not yet published
2027–28 Felix dates at Reading and SOAS