Find Canada Scholarships

Find Canada Scholarships for your studies

You have applied for or already obtained your Canada student visa; now it is time to find Canada scholarships for your studies. Canadian federal and provincial governments and many post-secondary institutions offer international students numerous scholarship awards, grants, or bursaries to finance their education. These are different from government student loans which must be paid back. Scholarships, grants and bursaries are based on academic merit, financial need, or other qualifiers, but you don’t have to pay it back.

Read more about How to get Canada student visa and Find Canada Universities & Colleges.

To help you to find Canada scholarships for your studies, AfriCanada.com will outline for you the basic and important steps to take in your search. We then provide you links to the best resources, tools and forms to easily find Canada scholarships by various categories such as field of study, schools, provinces, and more.

Get motivated and spend time to search

Like all good FREE things, scholarships do not come knocking on your door. You have to look for them. The first step on your scholarship journey is to motivate yourself to find Canada scholarships for your studies and to devote time and effort to the search. The minimum wage in Canada ranges between $11 to $15 an hour. Consider that in that same one hour you could potentially find Canada scholarships worth hundreds of dollars towards your education.

Don’t neglect smaller awards

Every international student would love a big scholarship that covers tuition, flights, accommodation and even upkeep. Unfortunately, there aren’t many such huge scholarships available, and the few available are extremely competitive. But instead of focusing only on one $12,000 award you are likely to be far more successful if you also devote much of your time to several awards in the $2,000 to $3,000 range.

TIP: Best strategy is to apply to lots of smaller awards in addition to the few big ones too. They are less competitive and can really add up!

Apply for students loans too

The Canadian government offers many full-time and part-time students loans through the Canada Student Loans Program if you can show that you are in financial need. International students in Canada have access to student loans on the same terms as Canadian citizens or permanent residents. 

The Government of Canada will give you a loan (if you’re eligible). You can’t apply for a specific amount. They just give you an amount that they determine through a number of factors, like your family income, tuition costs, etc.

The best part about a loan from the government is that you don’t have to pay anything until you graduate. Nothing. You just need to make sure you have a smart budget so you don’t spend the entire loan amount too early in the school year.

To make it easier, the Government of Canada and most provincial and territorial governments work together to give you grants and loans. Click the various programs below:

• In Ontario, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador the Government of Canada and provincial governments work together to provide Integrated Student Loans
• In Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Canada Student Loans and Grants are available alongside provincial or territorial student financial assistance 
• In Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Quebec, Canada Student Loans are not available. They have their own student loan programs
• In Yukon, only Canada Student Loans and territorial Grants are available to permanent residents

Top Find Canada Scholarships tools

Due to the wide range of scholarships available in Canada, it is important to research scholarships individually. Eligibility criteria and application process may differ widely — for example, some scholarships may require an essay or references from teachers or employers. Other scholarships may be based solely on grades, sporting achievements, or other extracurricular activities.

Below we have listed for you some of the top tools to find Canada Scholarships. Here you ill find searchable databases of thousands of awards available to international students in Canada. Each tool has everything you need to know to apply for an award. For example, monthly views gives you an idea of the competition; renewable means you keep receiving the award each year if you continue to qualify; automatic consideration means you don’t have to apply for the award directly: you’re added to the list when you apply to the school; deadline information tells you the last day to submit an application… and more.