StudyDesk Scholarships
About the award
The Singapore International Graduate Award (SINGA) is a collaboration between the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and Singapore’s universities — the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) — for international students pursuing a PhD in science and engineering in Singapore.
It is one of the rare genuinely bond-free, fully-funded PhD routes: tuition, living costs, travel and settling-in are all covered, and scholars simply research. Note the naming honesty point behind this article: the queue source called it "Singapore Government Scholarships 2026" — that is a vague aggregator title, not a real scheme. The real scheme is SINGA, the 2026 cycle is closed, and the live cycle is the August 2027 intake.
What the award pays
- Full tuition fees for up to 4 years of PhD study.
- Monthly stipend of S$2,700, rising to S$3,200/month after passing the PhD Qualifying Examination.
- One-time airfare grant of up to S$1,500.
- One-time settling-in allowance of S$1,000.
- Priority for on-campus accommodation in the first year.
- No service bond.
Eligibility
- Nationality: open to all international graduates with a passion for research and excellent academic results. Singapore citizens, Singapore permanent residents, and applicants who have previously studied in Singapore are not eligible.
- Study level: graduates applying for PhD programmes in biomedical sciences, physical sciences, engineering, or computing and information sciences.
- Language: a good command of written and spoken English.
- References: good reports from academic referees (two recommendation reports are mandatory).
- Fields: research-oriented PhD tracks across the sciences and engineering.
Documents you will need
- Copy of a valid passport or national ID.
- Recent passport-size photograph.
- Bachelor’s and/or master’s academic transcripts and certificates (with certified English translations where needed).
- CV/résumé and a statement of purpose or research proposal.
- Two recommendation letters, submitted online by the referees themselves before the deadline (applications with fewer than two reports are not considered).
- GRE/TOEFL/IELTS/GATE scores are optional — but the host university may request them at the admission stage.
How to apply
- Confirm the intake on A*STAR’s official scholarships page before you start (the dedicated SINGA URL is currently unavailable — use the A*STAR scholarships home page linked below).
- Register an account on the A*STAR applicant portal and select the "Singapore International Graduate Award (SINGA)".
- Browse the research projects and rank up to 3 preferred projects/supervisors — this ranking is part of the application.
- Complete the application form and upload all documents.
- Line up your referees early and make sure both reports are submitted online before 1 December 2026, 23:59 (GMT+8).
- Submit and track — no hard-copy mailing is accepted; everything is online.
FAQs
Yes — full tuition for up to 4 years, a S$2,700–S$3,200/month stipend, up to S$1,500 in airfare and a S$1,000 settling-in allowance, with no service bond.
Singapore citizens, Singapore permanent residents, and anyone who has previously studied in Singapore.
PhD studies commence in August 2027; the application deadline is 1 December 2026. There is also a January 2028 intake (A*STAR and NTU only) with a 1 June 2027 deadline.
Not for the SINGA application itself — but the host university may request test scores during admission, so keep them ready if you have them.
You browse the listed research projects and rank up to 3 preferred projects/supervisors in the application.
A*STAR restructured its site and the old dedicated SINGA URL returns a 404. The scheme is confirmed as live on A*STAR’s BII graduate-research page and its scholarships home page — start there.
Verified 18 Oct 2026: SINGA’s existence confirmed live on official A*STAR pages (a-star.edu.sg/bii/join-us/graduate-research lists SINGA as a collaboration between A*STAR, NTU, NUS and SUTD; a-star.edu.sg/ime/careers lists it under International Students > Graduate). The widely-quoted dedicated SINGA URL returned HTTP 404 today, so all benefit and deadline figures (full tuition up to 4 years; S$2,700 rising to S$3,200 after the Qualifying Examination; S$1,500 airfare; S$1,000 settling-in; no bond; deadlines 1 Dec 2026 / 1 Jun 2027) are corroborated across 5+ independent sources and explicitly flagged as third-party-published — readers are told to re-confirm on the official A*STAR site. The queue’s "Singapore Government Scholarships 2026" title was a vague aggregator label, not a real scheme — the article is honestly titled for SINGA.
