ARES Scholarship 2027 in Belgium

If you are a young professional from a select African country with two or more years of work experience and decent French, this is one of the most underrated fully funded scholarships in Europe right now. Most blogs explain it badly. They miss the work experience requirement. They miss the French language reality. They miss which African countries qualify and which do not.

You came to the right page. By the end of this guide, you will know if ARES is genuinely your scholarship, when to submit, and the one thing that quietly disqualifies most applicants every year.

What the ARES Scholarship really is

The ARES Scholarship is run by the Académie de Recherche et d'Enseignement supérieur (ARES), the higher education body of the French-speaking Federation Wallonia-Brussels in Belgium. It funds international students and young professionals from selected developing countries to study at French-speaking Belgian universities.

About 200 scholarships are awarded each year. The funding is genuinely complete: full tuition, monthly living allowance, return airfare, settling-in allowance, visa costs, insurance.

Here is the part nobody says clearly. The ARES Scholarship is not a regular master's scholarship for fresh graduates. It funds three specific types of programmes:

• Specialised bachelor's (one-year top-up after a regular bachelor's)

• Specialised master's (one-year advanced master after a regular master's)

• Continuing education programmes lasting 2 to 6 months

These are short, focused, professional-development programmes. They are designed for working adults coming back to upgrade their skills, not for 22-year-olds fresh out of university.

If your goal is a full two-year master's degree from scratch, ARES is the wrong scholarship. Look at VLIR-UOS Scholarships instead, which fund full-length English-taught master's programmes at Flemish universities.

ARES Scholarship 2027 eligibility (the honest filter)

You qualify if all of these are true:

1. You are a permanent resident and currently working in one of the 31 ARES eligible countries. Not just a citizen. A resident, in the country, working there.

2. You hold a relevant prior degree. For specialised bachelor's programmes: a regular bachelor's degree (Bac+3 / 180 ECTS equivalent). For specialised master's and continuing education: a regular master's degree (Bac+5 / 300 ECTS equivalent).

3. You have at least two years of relevant professional experience in your field after completing your previous degree. This is non-negotiable. Fresh graduates with zero work experience are not eligible.

4. You can study in the language the programme is taught in. Most ARES programmes are in French. A few are partly in English. You must demonstrate written and spoken competence in the language of your chosen course.

5. You have not previously held an ARES scholarship. This is a one-time opportunity per person.

6. You can complete a one-year programme and return to your home country. The scholarship is built around the idea that you take your new skills back to where they are needed.

That number three filter, the work experience requirement, is the one that catches young applicants every year. If you finished your master's last year and immediately started applying, you do not yet qualify.

ARES Scholarship eligible countries 2027 (and which African countries qualify)

The ARES scholarship is restricted to specific developing countries. The 2026-2027 list was:

Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, DR Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe.

Asia and Latin America: Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, Peru, Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Vietnam, and the Palestinian territories.

Read that African list again, carefully. Nigeria is not on it. Ghana is not on it. Egypt is not on it.

If you are Nigerian, Ghanaian, or Egyptian, save your time. ARES is not your scholarship. Your better fits are the Master Mind Scholarship for Flanders (open to all nationalities except Russian), the Mandela Washington Fellowship for the United States, or the DAAD Scholarship for Germany.

For applicants from the 20 eligible African countries, ARES is open and worth a serious look.

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What the ARES Scholarship covers in 2027

Selected scholars receive:

• Full tuition and registration fees at the host Belgian institution

• A monthly living allowance covering accommodation, food, and daily life in Belgium

• One round-trip economy airfare per academic year between your home country and Belgium

• A settling-in allowance to cover your initial relocation expenses

• A return allowance paid when you complete your studies and go home

• Indirect mission costs (small but useful, covers things like local transportation between cities for academic activities)

• Travel insurance and health coverage for the duration of your stay

• Visa application support

The package is comfortable. You will not be wealthy, but you will not be scraping by either. Many scholars send modest remittances home during their stay.

The French language reality (not optional)

This is the biggest filter most blogs skip. The ARES programmes are run by French-speaking Belgian universities. The bulk of teaching, assignments, and exams happen in French.

A handful of programmes accept English, but they are the minority. The application form itself asks you to declare your competence in the language of instruction of your chosen programme.

If your French sits at intermediate level or below, you have two options:

• Spend the next six to nine months actively building your French to at least a B2 level (Common European Framework). Online courses, Alliance Française classes, French-language reading and listening, conversation partners. This is a real investment of time.

• Look at English-medium scholarships instead. The VLIR-UOS Scholarship (English-taught Flemish programmes), the SBW Berlin Scholarship, and Erasmus Mundus are all stronger fits if French is not workable for you.

Knowing some French also helps with daily life in Belgium, even outside class. Belgium is officially trilingual (Dutch, French, German), and the French-speaking regions where ARES universities sit (Wallonia and Brussels) operate primarily in French.

How to apply for the ARES Scholarship 2027 step by step

The whole application happens online through the GIRAF platform on the ARES website. Do not apply by email. ARES has explicitly warned that any request to pay or submit by email is a phishing scam.

Here is the order that works:

Step 1: Wait for the 2027 call to open. Based on the pattern of past years, the next ARES call is expected to open around early August 2026. Watch ares-ac.be for the official announcement.

Step 2: Read the official call document carefully. When the call opens, ARES publishes a "Reference Document" listing every eligible programme for that year. Read it. Choose one programme that fits your background and career goals. You can only apply for one programme per cycle.

Step 3: Confirm you meet all eligibility criteria. Country of residence, work experience, prior degree, language level. Do not skip any line.

Step 4: Create your GIRAF account. The platform validation can take a few hours to a few days. Do not leave this to the last week.

Step 5: Prepare your application documents. Typically you will need a CV, motivation letter, copies of your degree certificates and transcripts, proof of professional experience (employer letters, job certificates), proof of language competence, and references from your employer or academic supervisors.

Step 6: Submit your application through GIRAF before the deadline. The deadline is hard. Late applications are not accepted under any circumstances.

Step 7: Wait for the outcome. The selection process takes several months. If shortlisted, you may be contacted for additional information or an interview. Final results are usually communicated by early 2027 for September 2027 start.

ARES Scholarship 2027 deadline and timeline

Here is the expected timeline for the 2027 cycle, based on the official 2026 cycle pattern:

• Early August 2026: ARES 2027 call opens

• Mid-September 2026: Application deadline at 12:00 Belgian time (UTC+1)

• October 2026 to January 2027: Selection committee reviews applications

• February 2027 to March 2027: Shortlisted applicants contacted

• April 2027 to May 2027: Final selection results

• September 2027: Programme starts in Belgium

The application window is short. About six weeks from open to close. If you wait until the call opens to start preparing your documents, you will be in a panic. Start preparing your CV, motivation letter, and reference contacts now. Update them as soon as the call opens with the specific programme you choose.

Real questions African applicants ask about ARES

What to do in the next 60 days

If ARES 2027 is genuinely your target and you fit the eligibility, here is your plan:

• This week: confirm you are from an eligible country, you have two years of work experience after your most recent degree, and your French is at B2 level or above.

• Next 14 days: update your CV to highlight measurable impact in your current and previous roles. Identify two referees who can speak to your professional work, and brief them.

• Next 30 days: start drafting a strong motivation letter. Tell a clear story about what problem in your country you want to address with the skills you will gain from this programme.

• By early August 2026: have all your documents ready. The moment the call opens, you can review the programme list, choose, and submit within the six-week window.

• By mid-September 2026: submit. Do not wait until the final day. GIRAF slows down in the last hours.

A final honest note

The ARES Scholarship gets less hype than VLIR-UOS, less prestige than Erasmus Mundus, and less attention than DAAD. That is exactly why it is undervalued. Two hundred fully funded spots per year, for a one-year focused programme in a European country with affordable living costs, with a real chance for an African professional who fits the profile.

If you are from an eligible country, have the work experience, and your French is real, this is one of the cleanest fully funded scholarship paths in Europe. Apply.

If you are not eligible because of your country or your French level, do not waste a single day on this application. Switch focus to one of the alternatives we linked above and put your energy where it can actually win.