How do you find masters scholarships in the UK or Australia?

Direct answer: The official pages read here cover four schemes: Chevening, the Commonwealth master's scholarships, Australia Awards and the UK Master's Loan. Only two of them look open to a Vietnamese citizen living in Vietnam, and each has a return condition, which the table below sets side by side.

Sources for each row: Chevening, n.d.-a to n.d.-d; Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK, n.d.; Australia Awards Vietnam, n.d.; GOV.UK, n.d. The Master's Loan row is a loan rather than a scholarship, and it is included because its page turns up in the same searches.

Campbell and Neff (2020) reviewed the research literature on international scholarships for students from the Global South. They write that "this study identified and reviewed 105 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters published from years 2010 to 2019" (Campbell & Neff, 2020, p. 824). The same review names skills and human capital among the rationales behind such programmes, which is one way to read why schemes like these ask for work experience before and a return home afterwards.

Direct answer: Chevening lists Vietnam as a country it recruits from, and Australia Awards runs a Vietnam-specific round. Chevening describes its awards as fully funded for a one-year UK master's (Chevening, n.d.-b). The Commonwealth master's scholarships are limited to citizens of listed Commonwealth countries, and the list read here did not include Vietnam.

Chevening's page for Vietnam states that applications for the 2027/28 round are closed (Chevening, n.d.-a). The scheme page says its scholarships "are fully-funded" (Chevening, n.d.-b), and the eligibility page asks for an undergraduate degree that qualifies you for a UK master's programme and a commitment to "returning to your home country (country of award)" for at least two years after the award (Chevening, n.d.-c). The itemised cover (tuition, stipend, flights) was not on the pages read, so check Chevening's own FAQ before you budget.

For the Commonwealth route, the Commission's page asks applicants to be a citizen of, or hold refugee status in, an eligible Commonwealth country, or be a British Protected Person (Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK, n.d.). Vietnam is not a Commonwealth member, and the list we read did not include it. Lists change between rounds, so check the current one. The same logic is set out for the PhD scheme in Can Vietnamese students apply for a Commonwealth PhD scholarship?

Australia Awards is the Australia-based route in this reading. Its Vietnam site said that applications for Master's study for the 2027 intake opened on 1 February 2026 and closed on 30 April 2026 (Australia Awards Vietnam, n.d.). Dates for the 2028 intake were not found, so any claim that the cycle repeats each year is an assumption until the site posts them.

Direct answer: Because the awards and loans behind those titles are tied to nationality or residence. The GOV.UK Master's Loan page asks for UK or Irish nationality, or settled status, together with three years of living in the UK or nearby territories. A Vietnamese applicant living in Vietnam is not the person that page is written for.

The page states the test directly: "you're a UK national or Irish citizen or have settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme or indefinite leave to remain" (GOV.UK, n.d.). It adds a residence test of three years in a row in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. The page has no sentence about international students, so the point is what its conditions describe, not a rule the page states about you.

The practical habit is to read the eligibility box before the headline figure. If a page for "Master's scholarships home students" or any similarly titled award names a nationality, a residence period or a fee category you do not have, set it aside and move on. The wider habit of reading eligibility rules as descriptions of the intended applicant is covered in What do PhD scholarship eligibility rules describe?

Direct answer: Both ask for about two years of work before the degree and a commitment to go home afterwards. Chevening asks for at least 2,800 hours of work experience and two years back in your home country. Australia Awards Vietnam asks for 24 months of relevant full-time work in Vietnam and two years of work there after study.

Chevening's work-experience page says: "You must have at least 2800 hours of work experience, acquired after the completion of your undergraduate degree" (Chevening, n.d.-d). Its eligibility page also asks for an undergraduate degree that qualifies you for a UK master's programme (Chevening, n.d.-c).

Australia Awards Vietnam asks candidates to "have at least 24 months' relevant full-time work experience in Vietnam as of 30 April 2026", with 12 months for rural disadvantaged applicants, and to "commit to return to work in Vietnam for at least two years after you finish your course in Australia" (Australia Awards Vietnam, n.d.).

Direct answer: MAAS gives feedback on the scholarship essays and personal statements you write yourself. It is advisory: you draft, revise and submit your own documents, and no award or result is promised, because the selection panel decides. Use the sessions to test whether your essay answers the question the scheme asked.

MAAS Admissions Consulting works on strategy, structure and the story your application tells, and reviews each draft you produce. For a scheme such as Chevening, that means checking that your essay answers the question the panel asked and that your work history is described in the terms the scheme uses. The student chooses what goes in and signs off every document. Related guides that sit alongside this one are Who screens an Australia PhD scholarship first, versus Taiwan's? and Can you do a PhD with a taught master's?.