How to Find Scholarships and Funded Positions on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is more than a job site. Professors announce funded PhD positions there, universities post scholarship calls, and current scholars share deadlines and advice. Some of these posts never appear on scholarship websites. With a few days of deliberate searching, your feed starts bringing these opportunities to you.

Step 1: Prepare your profile first

When you contact someone, they will look at your profile. Add a clear photo, a headline that states your field and goal (for example “MSc Chemistry graduate seeking PhD positions in materials science”), your education, projects and any publications.

Step 2: Search scholarship terms for a few days

Type these into the LinkedIn search bar, choose the Posts filter and sort by latest:

• fully funded scholarship
• [your field] scholarship, for example chemistry scholarship
• open positions
• PhD position [your field]
• master’s scholarships
• PhD scholarships
• research assistant position

Repeat this every day for several days. Open the useful posts, save them and react to them.

Step 3: Let the feed learn what you want

LinkedIn shows you more of what you interact with. After a few days of searching and engaging, scholarship posts begin to appear in your feed, including posts from people you do not follow. To strengthen this:

• Follow universities, research institutes and scholarship providers in your target countries.
• Follow professors and labs in your field.
• Follow hashtags such as #scholarships, #PhDposition and #fullyfunded.
• Connect with current scholars from your country.

Step 4: Verify before you apply

Anyone can post on LinkedIn, so confirm every opportunity on the official university or programme website. Be careful with posts that ask for payment, send you to unofficial forms or promise guaranteed admission. Our guide to finding fully funded scholarships lists more scam warning signs.

Step 5: Act quickly and keep records

Funded positions posted by professors can close within weeks. Save each post, note the deadline in a spreadsheet and prepare your documents with our scholarship application checklist. If the post invites questions, send a short, specific message that mentions your background and the position. Our guide on emailing professors explains how to write it.

What kind of opportunities to expect

You will usually find more funded PhD and research positions than taught master’s scholarships, because supervisors recruit directly. Master’s applicants should also follow the pages of programmes such as Erasmus Mundus and DAAD, and their national scholarship bodies.

A 15-minute daily routine

• 5 minutes: run two or three searches and sort by latest.
• 5 minutes: save and react to relevant posts.
• 5 minutes: check one opportunity on its official website and add it to your tracker.

Results depend on your field and profile, but consistent searching puts more openings in front of you than waiting for one website to list them. You can also browse our scholarship database by country, degree level and funding type.

A profile that can be read in one minute

Professors, recruiters and scholarship staff look at a profile for a few seconds. Make these five parts clear:

• Photo: a plain, recent picture of your face. No group photos.
• Headline: who you are and what you want. For example: "BS Chemistry graduate | Water quality research | Looking for a funded MSc in environmental science".
• About: three or four lines with your field, your best result and your goal.
• Education and projects: your degree, grade, final-year project and any research, with one or two results each.
• Featured: a link to a project report, poster, portfolio or published paper, if you have one.

Use the same facts and dates as your CV. A panel member who searches your name should find the same person your application describes.

Who to follow

• The official pages of scholarships on your shortlist
• Universities and departments you want to join
• Professors and research groups in your field
• Current scholars and alumni from your country
• International organisations that offer internships and fellowships

Follow fifty good sources, not five hundred random ones. Your feed becomes a daily list of real openings.

How to check a post before you trust it

1. Open the link. Does it lead to an official website of a university, government or known organisation?
2. Find the same call on the official site yourself, without using the link in the post.
3. Check the year and the deadline. Old posts are shared again long after a call has closed.
4. Look at who posted it. A real professor’s profile shows a university, publications and a history.
5. Never pay anyone to "process", "reserve" or "guarantee" an award or a position.

How to message a scholar or a professor

Short, polite and specific messages get answers. Long messages and "please guide me" do not.

Hello [Name],

I am a final-year pharmacy student from [city], and I plan to apply for [scholarship] this year. I read your post about your experience as a scholar. May I ask one question: how early did you contact your referees before the deadline?

Thank you for your time.
[Your name]

• Ask one clear question that a search engine cannot answer.
• Do not ask a stranger to review your documents or to recommend you.
• For professors, a formal e-mail is usually better than a LinkedIn message. See our guide on how to e-mail professors.
• If there is no reply after a week or two, move on politely.

What to post yourself

You do not need to post every day. A few useful posts a year show that you are active in your field: a summary of your final-year project with one chart, a conference or workshop you attended and what you learned, a course you completed and how you used it, or a short note on a paper you read. Write in simple language, and credit your team and supervisor.

Privacy and safety

• Do not post photos of your passport, ID card, visa, offer letter or boarding pass.
• Do not share your date of birth, home address or bank details in public or in messages.
• Be careful with offers that arrive suddenly from people you do not know.
• Real organisations write from official e-mail addresses and do not ask for fees by message.

What LinkedIn cannot do

LinkedIn helps you discover opportunities and people. It does not replace the official page, and it will not show you everything. Many scholarships are never posted there, and many posts contain old dates. Use it together with official scholarship websites, university pages and a calendar of usual opening dates.

From a LinkedIn post to a real application: an example

1. You see a post that says a university has funded PhD positions in water engineering, with a deadline next month.
2. You do not apply through the post. You open the university’s own website and find the same call. If you cannot find it, you stop there.
3. On the official page you read who can apply, what is paid, the closing date and the documents.
4. You save the official link, not the post, in your tracker.
5. You look at the profile of the professor named in the call, read one recent paper and note how it connects to your project.
6. You apply through the official portal. If the call invites questions, you send one short, specific message.

The post only helped you to find the opportunity. Every fact you used came from the official source.

Common mistakes on LinkedIn

• Commenting "interested" under posts: nobody selects candidates from comments. Open the link and apply.
• Sending the same message to fifty professors: general messages are ignored. Five specific messages work better.
• Trusting screenshots: dates and amounts in images are often from an old cycle.
• Sharing personal documents: never send your passport, your certificates or money to someone you met through a post.
• Scrolling instead of applying: set a timer. LinkedIn is for finding opportunities, and the real work happens in your documents.

Words that funded positions use

Funded research positions are often not called “scholarships”. Search for the words that employers and universities actually use:

• English: PhD position, doctoral candidate, PhD researcher, early-stage researcher, studentship, research assistant, graduate assistantship.
• German: Doktorand or Doktorandin, wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin or Mitarbeiter (research associate posts that often include a PhD).
• Dutch: promovendus or PhD candidate.
• French: doctorant, contrat doctoral, thèse financée (funded thesis).
• Nordic countries: doctoral student or PhD fellow, often advertised as salaried posts.

Combine these with your field, for example “PhD position hydrology” or “doctoral candidate machine learning”.

Search tricks that save time

• Use quotation marks for exact phrases, such as “fully funded”.
• Combine words with AND or OR, for example “PhD position” AND “remote sensing”.
• Exclude words with NOT, for example scholarship NOT undergraduate, if you want only graduate awards.
• Use the date filter to see posts from the past week or month.
• Try the Jobs section too. Many universities post PhD and research assistant roles as jobs.

Use university alumni pages

Many universities have a page on LinkedIn that lets you see where its graduates work and what they studied. You can use this in two ways. First, search the page of a university you want to join, and look for people from your country who studied there. Second, search your own university’s page for graduates who now study abroad. A short, polite message to one or two of them can give you practical advice that no website offers.

Building a network over months

A useful network grows slowly. Each week, follow one or two relevant pages, read their posts and react to the ones that teach you something. Each month, send one or two thoughtful connection requests with a short note. Over a year, your feed becomes a stream of relevant opportunities, and you will know people who can answer questions about programmes, supervisors and life in your target country.

Writing a post about your project

A short post about your own work can attract the attention of professors and recruiters. A simple structure:

1. one sentence on the problem you worked on;
2. two or three sentences on what you did and the method you used;
3. one result, with a number or a picture such as a chart;
4. thanks to your supervisor and team, with their permission to be named.

Keep it factual and short. Do not share confidential data, and check your university’s rules before you publish unpublished results.

When a professor posts a position

If a professor advertises a funded position, read the full call on the official university site first. Then follow the application route the call gives, which is usually a portal or an email address, not a LinkedIn message. If the post invites questions, send one short message or email that names the position, gives your degree and your most relevant experience in two lines, and asks one specific question. Attach nothing unless they ask.

Keeping your profile and CV in step

When you update your CV, update your profile the same day. Check that degree titles, dates, job titles and project names match exactly. If you are applying for a specific scholarship, you do not need to name it on your profile, but your headline and About section should reflect the field and goal in your applications.

Using LinkedIn for different study levels

Bachelor’s applicants

Fewer bachelor’s scholarships are advertised on LinkedIn. Use it mainly to follow government scholarship pages, such as Türkiye Bursları or GKS, and universities that interest you. Talk to current international students about daily life and costs.

Master’s applicants

Follow the official pages of Erasmus Mundus programmes, DAAD, Chevening and similar awards, and the programmes you plan to apply to. Alumni of these scholarships often share their experience, which helps you prepare essays and interviews.

PhD applicants

LinkedIn is most useful here. Follow professors and research groups, search for funded positions with the words above, and keep your profile focused on your research skills and outputs.

Professionals and postdoctoral applicants

Follow research centres, foundations and international organisations that offer fellowships, and use your network to ask colleagues about calls in your field.

A weekly LinkedIn checklist

• Run your saved searches and sort by latest.
• Verify one new opportunity on its official website and add it to your tracker.
• Remove any post from your list that you could not verify.
• Send at most one or two thoughtful messages or connection requests.
• Update your profile if anything has changed in your CV.

What to do with what you find

Finding an opportunity is only the first step. For each verified call, copy the official link into your tracker, note the closing date and the documents, check your eligibility on the official page, and decide within a week whether to apply. If you decide not to, delete it from your list. A short, active list of real opportunities is far more useful than a long list of saved posts you never act on.

Your headline and About section: examples

These invented examples show clear, honest profiles for different goals:

• PhD applicant: “MSc Physics | Thin-film solar cells | Seeking a funded PhD in materials science”. About: “Master’s graduate with a thesis on perovskite stability and two conference posters. Skilled in X-ray diffraction and Python data analysis. Looking for a PhD position in renewable energy materials.”
• Master’s applicant: “BS Economics | Data analyst at a research NGO | Applying for master’s programmes in public policy”. About: “Two years analysing household survey data for poverty programmes. Interested in evidence-based social policy.”
• Professional: “Civil engineer | Water supply projects | Interested in climate-resilient infrastructure”.

Each headline says who you are and what you want, in words that someone searching for candidates would use.

Frequently asked questions

Do scholarship panels check LinkedIn?

Most selection is based on your application. Still, interviewers, professors and employers may search your name, so keep your profile accurate and professional.

Do I need a paid account?

No. Searching posts, following pages and sending connection requests with a short note are enough for this purpose.

Should I connect with professors?

Follow them first, and read what they post. Send a connection request with a note only when you have a real reason, such as a position they advertised.

How much time should I spend?

Fifteen minutes a day is enough. Spend the rest of your time on the applications themselves.

What words should I search for PhD positions?

Try “PhD position”, “doctoral candidate”, “studentship” and “research assistant”, combined with your field. In some countries, search the local word too, such as “promovendus” in the Netherlands or “doctorant” in France.

Can I apply through a LinkedIn post?

Use the official application route given on the university’s own website. A post is only a pointer to the real call.

Are scholarship pages on LinkedIn official?

Some are run by the scholarship provider and some are not. Check that the page links to the provider’s own website, and confirm every detail there.

Should my profile mention that I am looking for a scholarship?

You can say you are seeking a funded master’s or PhD position. This helps the right people find you. Avoid sounding desperate, and keep the focus on your skills.

Can I use LinkedIn to find referees?

No. Referees should be people who already know your work, such as your teachers and managers. LinkedIn can help you stay in touch with them.