International students planning to begin their studies in Ireland in the 2026 academic cycle now have a major funding opportunity on the table. The College of Science and Engineering at the University of Galway has officially opened its Global Scholarships for the 2026–2027 intake, offering a wide range of merit-based and excellence scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes.
This opportunity is designed for high-achieving international applicants who hold, or are about to receive, an offer to study in science, engineering, computing, or related disciplines, and it will remain available throughout the 2026 cohort admission cycle.
What Kind of Opportunity Is This?
This is a tuition-focused international scholarship scheme that supports non-EU students admitted to undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes across multiple schools within the College of Science and Engineering. Rather than a single award, the scheme includes guaranteed merit scholarships for successful applicants and highly competitive Excellence Scholarships with significantly higher values, making Ireland a more affordable study destination for 2026 entrants.
What the Scholarships Offer?
For undergraduate applicants, most programmes across science, engineering, computing, and mathematics offer automatic merit Global Galway scholarships worth €5,000 per year, with selected programmes also providing Excellence Scholarships valued at €10,000 per year. Some schools offer multiple Excellence awards per programme, increasing the chances for top-performing students.
Postgraduate taught applicants are also well covered. Most master’s programmes offer merit scholarships ranging from €2,000 to €5,000 per year, alongside Excellence Scholarships worth €10,000 per programme. These awards apply to high-demand fields such as biotechnology, biomedical science, artificial intelligence, data analytics, cybersecurity, engineering, sustainability, environmental science, robotics, and health-related data sciences.
In addition, students from the United States may benefit from region-based IDEA Scholarships, which provide a 15% tuition fee reduction per year for selected undergraduate applicants referred through IDEA (Philadelphia).
Do You Qualify?
Applicants are considered for these Global Galway scholarships if they are international (non-EU) students applying to eligible undergraduate or postgraduate taught programmes within the College of Science and Engineering, hold or are in the process of securing an offer from the University of Galway, meet the academic entry requirements for their chosen programme, and submit a complete application through the university’s official application portal. For IDEA Scholarships, US applicants must be formally referred by IDEA and have this noted on their application.
No separate scholarship application is required for most awards, as eligible students are automatically assessed once an offer is issued.
Programme Coverage Under This Scholarship
The University of Galway Global Galway scholarships cover a broad academic spectrum, including but not limited to agricultural science, biomedical and biopharmaceutical sciences, genetics and genomics, biotechnology, computer science, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, software development, civil, mechanical, electrical and biomedical engineering, robotics, environmental and marine sciences, physics, zoology, financial mathematics, data science, and interdisciplinary science degrees.