PhD Funding for Moroccan Students Abroad (2026)

Search "Moroccan scholarship" and the two names that come back most often, AMCI and PASS, both fund study inside Morocco, not abroad. That's the central confusion in nearly every generic listicle aimed at Moroccan applicants, and it means an applicant can spend real time reading through a list built around a direction they're not actually going in. This post separates what genuinely sends a Moroccan student abroad from what doesn't, flags where the available figures are dated rather than quietly treating them as current, and covers the route most of these lists skip entirely: a professor at your target university funding you directly out of their own research budget.

AMCI and PASS: two scholarships named "Moroccan" that won't get you abroad

The Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation (AMCI) is the name that surfaces constantly in Moroccan-scholarship searches, and it's genuinely the opposite of what most of those searchers want: AMCI funds students from partner countries abroad to come study inside Morocco, not the other way around. A second name, PASS (the Bourse des Doctorants Moniteurs), does fund PhD-level study, paying roughly €650 a month for up to three years to doctoral student-monitors, with around 1,200 awards reported for a recent cycle, but that funding is for a doctorate inside a Moroccan public university, not abroad either. Both are real and worth knowing about on their own terms, but neither belongs on a list of routes to study outside Morocco, which is exactly where generic scholarship roundups keep putting them.

The actual outbound route: the Ministry's Bourses d'Études à l'Étranger

The program that does send Moroccan students abroad through the government runs through Morocco's Ministry of Higher Education, administered via ONOUSC (boursessup-etranger.onousc.ma), and its scope includes doctoral-level study. The most specific figures available during research for this guide, around 16,632 dirhams a year for a Master's or PhD student, a doctoral age limit around 35 as of the end of the application year, up to four years of doctoral funding contingent on the applicant's supervisor filing annual progress reports, and a rule against combining the grant with other national Moroccan funding, come from a description of the 2021-2022 cycle rather than a current one. That's old enough that the current amount and age limit could genuinely have changed, so treat this as a picture of how the program is structured rather than a number to build a budget around, and confirm the live cycle's terms directly on ONOUSC's own site.

Chevening: eligible, but Master's only

Morocco is a confirmed Chevening-eligible country, and that fact alone gets Chevening onto nearly every Moroccan scholarship list. What those lists frequently leave out, or bury, is that Chevening funds a one-year UK Master's degree only, a rule that applies globally and has nothing to do with Morocco specifically. If the goal is PhD funding, Chevening isn't a route to it at all, no matter how often it's listed alongside PhD-focused searches. For the essay structure and what each Chevening question is actually checking for, in case the Master's route fits your plan, see our guide to writing a Chevening personal statement.

Fulbright Morocco: confirm the degree level before you build a plan around it

The Moroccan-American Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange (MACECE) runs Morocco's Fulbright Foreign Student Program call locally. One source describes its track for Moroccan applicants in terms that point toward post-licence, Master's-level study, but this research couldn't confirm whether MACECE also runs a PhD-specific Fulbright track for Moroccan citizens the way the general global Fulbright Foreign Student Program does in some other countries. Rather than assume either way, confirm directly with MACECE which degree levels its current cycle is accepting before treating Fulbright as a PhD funding plan.

DAAD: a genuine PhD route, with a stipend figure worth double-checking

DAAD is a confirmed, genuine route for Moroccan PhD applicants, covering doctoral study in Germany. DAAD doctoral stipends have historically run in the range of roughly €1,200 to €1,400 a month, plus health insurance and travel allowances, the same figure our guide to finding a PhD supervisor in Germany uses, rather than a separate, lower figure that turned up in a Morocco-specific aggregator listing during this research and couldn't be verified against DAAD's own current rates. Confirm the live figure on DAAD's own site regardless of which number you've seen, since published rates do shift. For the full application mechanics, see our DAAD application process guide.

What doesn't apply at all: Commonwealth

Commonwealth Scholarships appear in enough generic "scholarships for African students" content that it's worth stating plainly: Morocco is not a Commonwealth member, so this program simply doesn't apply to Moroccan applicants, full stop, regardless of how a broader Africa-wide roundup frames it.

Erasmus Mundus and other globally open programs

Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's and the smaller number of joint doctoral programs it still funds are open to applicants from eligible countries worldwide, including Morocco, under the same standard rules that apply everywhere rather than any Morocco-specific provision. The same is true of Japan's MEXT scholarship, open globally through each country's local Japanese embassy. Neither surfaced with any Morocco-specific detail during the research for this guide, so treat them as generically available routes worth checking on their own global terms rather than assuming a Morocco-specific quota exists, and see our guide to the Erasmus Mundus motivation letter for why the joint doctorate track specifically has narrowed in recent years.

Presenting a Moroccan academic record in a cold email

Morocco's university grading runs on a 20-point scale, which doesn't map cleanly onto a US-style 4.0 GPA the way a simple percentage conversion might suggest, and a professor unfamiliar with Moroccan higher education won't automatically know whether a given mark is strong. Rather than presenting a self-converted GPA as a settled number in a first email, state your actual record as your transcript reports it, your mark out of 20, your degree, and your university, and let a professor read it in context rather than guessing at an approximate US equivalent. Our guide to converting the Moroccan grading system to a US GPA covers the actual conversion mechanics for cases, like a formal application, where a converted figure is genuinely required.

Why the named-scholarship pool isn't the whole picture

Every genuine route above, the Ministry's own outbound grant, DAAD, a confirmed Fulbright track once you verify the degree level, runs through a fixed pool decided once a year, and Moroccan applicants compete against every other qualified applicant for that limited pool. A professor at your target university funding you directly as a research or teaching assistant out of their own grant sits entirely outside that pool, decided individually by the supervisor's own budget and their assessment of fit with your background rather than a national selection committee. This matters more for PhD applicants specifically, since PhD funding is frequently guaranteed as institutional policy at universities in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia once a supervisor agrees to take you on, which makes direct outreach a realistic primary path rather than a backup behind named scholarships.

A realistic way to split your effort

• Stop treating AMCI and PASS as abroad routes. Both are real, both fund study inside Morocco, neither sends you abroad.
• Confirm ONOUSC's current terms before budgeting around old figures. The specific amount and age limit found during this research come from a several-year-old cycle description.
• Match the program to the degree level you actually need. Chevening is Master's only, DAAD and the Ministry's own grant both reach PhD level, and Fulbright's PhD eligibility for Morocco specifically needs direct confirmation from MACECE.
• Start professor outreach at the same time, not after. A government scholarship decision can take months, and running direct outreach in parallel means your plan isn't resting on a single fixed-pool outcome.

The realistic starting point for direct outreach

Professor outreach only works alongside scholarship applications if the outreach itself is specific enough to get a reply, a generic "I am interested in your research" email gets ignored about as often as a weak scholarship application gets rejected. GradScoutFunding finds professors filtered by field and country, confirms they're actively publishing, and drafts a personalized outreach email grounded in a real recent paper of theirs, for you to review and send yourself, it never sends anything automatically. No tool, this one included, can confirm in advance that a specific professor has funding available, only that they're actively working, publishing, and reachable. The free tier gives you 2 credits with no card required, and paid credit packs are one-time purchases that never expire.

Common questions