ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has retained its position as the world’s leading recipient of Erasmus Mundus scholarships for a fifth straight year, with students once again securing the highest number of selections under the European Union-funded postgraduate programme.
According to the latest Erasmus Mundus selection-cycle data shared through official Erasmus+ channels, Pakistani students secured 98 fully-funded scholarships in the 2026 cycle, placing the country ahead of all other participating nations, The News reported.
South Asian countries dominated the highly competitive scholarship programme, with Bangladesh ranking second with 80 scholarship recipients, followed by India with 75. The United States and Italy completed the top five with 68 and 67 scholarship winners, respectively.
Overall, 1,872 fully-funded scholarships were awarded to students from 135 countries in the latest cycle.
The Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters programme is regarded as one of the world’s most competitive international scholarship schemes, offering students the opportunity to pursue joint master’s degrees across multiple European universities with all major expenses covered.
The achievement also follows strong performances in previous years. In 2025, a total of 114 Pakistani students secured scholarships under the Erasmus+ Joint Masters programme from a global pool of 2,176 selected candidates representing 137 countries.
Similarly, in 2024, Pakistan produced 189 Erasmus Mundus scholarship winners out of 2,603 students selected worldwide from 137 countries.
The Erasmus Mundus programme, funded by the European Union under Erasmus+, supports academic mobility and cross-cultural learning by enabling students to study in multiple European countries during the course of their degree programmes. It covers tuition, travel, visa costs and living allowances.
