Every January a particular message starts circulating in Bangladeshi student groups: Turkey is giving full scholarships, apply now, everything free. Some of that is true. Türkiye Bursları really does pay tuition, housing, health insurance and a monthly stipend, and it really is free to apply. What the forwarded message never carries is the part that decides whether you are eligible at all — an age ceiling, a grade floor, and a stipend that reads very differently once you convert it into taka.
So this is the plain version of the Türkiye Bursları scholarship for Bangladeshi students planning the 2027-28 intake: what the Turkish government itself publishes, what it does not publish yet, and the two steps that winners still have to complete after the award email arrives.
Türkiye Bursları is a fully funded Turkish government scholarship covering tuition, dormitory, health insurance, a one-time flight and a monthly stipend of 6,500 TL (bachelor's), 9,500 TL (master's) or 13,000 TL (PhD). Applications are free and run 10 January to 20 February on the published calendar. Winning it does not replace the student visa from the Turkish Embassy in Bangladesh.
What does Türkiye Bursları actually cover?
More than most "fully funded" labels survive. Türkiye Bursları publishes its package as: university and department placement, a monthly stipend, the tuition fee itself, health insurance, accommodation, a one-year Turkish language course, a once-off flight ticket, and access to academic and cultural programmes.
Two details inside that list matter more than the headline. Accommodation in state dormitories is provided to undergraduate scholars for the full duration of study, but to graduate students only for the first year — after that, a housing allowance replaces it, published as 6,000 TL a month for students in Istanbul and Ankara and 5,000 TL elsewhere. And the Turkish language course is not optional decoration: awardees who do not already hold a C1-level Turkish proficiency certificate must attend the one-year course, even when the degree itself is taught in English. That adds a year to your plan, and it is the single most common thing students miss when they build a timeline.
If you do not hold a C1 Turkish certificate, your four-year bachelor's becomes five years in Türkiye — one year of language, then the degree. Plan your age, your family's finances and your BMDC or professional timeline around five, not four.
How much is the stipend in taka, really?
Here are the published Turkish lira figures converted at a mid-market rate of 1 TRY ≈ 2.51 BDT, read on 27 September 2026. The conversion is ours, not the Turkish government's, and the lira moves — treat the taka column as an order of magnitude, not a promise.
| Level | Stipend | Approx. BDT | Dorm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Associate / Bachelor's | 6,500 TL | ≈ ৳16,300 | Full duration |
| Master's | 9,500 TL | ≈ ৳23,900 | Year 1 only |
| PhD | 13,000 TL | ≈ ৳32,700 | Year 1 only |
| Merit track | Double the above | — | As above |
Read that table next to the fact that tuition, dormitory and health insurance are already paid for, and the stipend stops looking like a salary and starts looking like what it is: pocket money for food, transport and books in a country where the student is not paying rent in year one. It is liveable. It is not money you can send home, and it is not money that covers a family emergency.
When do applications open for the 2027-28 intake?
The published application calendar is a recurring annual one and carries no year label, which is useful to know before anyone sells you a "2027 deadline". As published, the general application period runs 10 January to 20 February, evaluation takes March and April, interviews run April to June, and results are announced in early August.
Two other tracks sit alongside it. The Success Scholarship, for students already studying in Türkiye, opens October to November. The Research Scholarship runs in four windows across the year, each with its own results month.
Not yet published: at the time of writing, Türkiye Bursları has not posted a dated 2027-28 application calendar or a 2027-28 stipend schedule. The dates and amounts above are what the site publishes as of 27 September 2026. Turkish lira amounts have historically been revised upward between cycles, so expect the TL figure to change and confirm both on the official site before you plan around them.
Am I eligible — what are the age and grade limits?
This is where most forwarded messages fall apart, because Türkiye Bursları screens on age before it ever looks at your essay.
| Level | Age | Min. grade |
|---|---|---|
| Associate / Bachelor's | Under 21 | 70% |
| Master's | Under 30 | 75% |
| PhD | Under 35 | 75% |
| Medicine, dentistry, pharmacy | As above | 90% |
| Research scholarship | Under 50 | — |
The under-21 ceiling for bachelor's applicants is strict, and it is the reason a large share of Bangladeshi HSC graduates who wait a year or two find the door already closed. If you finished HSC this year and you are eighteen or nineteen, this is your window — not next year's problem.
Two groups are excluded outright: Turkish citizens and people who have lost Turkish citizenship, and anyone already enrolled in a Turkish university at the same level they are applying for.
There is also a separate merit track with a higher bar: a general weighted average of 90%, plus TOEFL iBT 80 or IELTS 6.5 at undergraduate level and TOEFL iBT 90 or IELTS 7.0 at master's and PhD level. Merit scholars receive double the standard stipend. Note carefully that these language scores are published for the merit programme — the standard scholarship states no general language minimum, though individual programmes taught in English may require one.
What documents does the application ask for?
Everything is uploaded into the Türkiye Scholarships Application System. Nothing is couriered, nothing is notarised at this stage, and the process is free and available in eight languages.
Document checklist
- A valid identity document — ID card or passport
- A photograph taken within the last one year
- National exam results, if you have them
- Diploma or temporary graduation certificate
- Academic transcript
- International test scores — GRE, GMAT, SAT — if your chosen programme requires them
- Language proficiency certificates if your chosen programme requires them
- PhD applicants only: a research topic proposal and a written sample of your research
Türkiye Bursları states plainly that applying is free of charge and is done by the candidate in the TBBS portal. Any Bangladeshi agency quoting an "application fee" or a "processing fee" for the scholarship itself is charging you for something the Turkish government gives away. Paying for genuine help with your programme choice, your research proposal or your documents is a different matter — but know which one you are buying.
If I win the scholarship, do I still need a visa?
Yes. The award letter is not a visa, and this trips up more scholarship winners than any other single step.
Türkiye maintains a full embassy in Bangladesh — the Embassy of the Republic of Türkiye in Dhaka, on its own government domain, with a consular section working Sunday to Thursday, 09:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00, and a 24/7 consular call centre on +90 312 292 29 29. That is unusually good news by the standards of the countries we research: no New Delhi trip, no phantom mission invented by an aggregator site, no concurrent accreditation to untangle.
After arrival there is a second step — the student residence permit, applied for through the migration authority's e-ikamet system. Its published document list includes the signed application form, passport copy showing identity and entry records, four biometric photographs taken within the last six months on a white background, a declaration of sufficient funds, the residence-card fee receipt, valid health insurance matching the permit duration, and proof of where you will live, which for most scholars is the dormitory certificate.
Does the Bangladesh apostille work for Türkiye?
Yes. Türkiye has been a contracting party to the 1961 Apostille Convention since 29 September 1985, and it is not among the twelve states that objected to Bangladesh's accession, which took effect on 30 March 2025. So an apostille issued by Bangladesh's Apostille Authority is the correct authentication route for your certificates — you do not need the old consular legalisation chain, and you should not pay anyone to run one.
That said, the scholarship application itself asks only for uploads. The apostille matters later, at enrolment and at the residence-permit stage, and for any professional registration you may need afterwards. Do not buy apostilles in January for an award you have not received in August.
Verify before you rely on it: stipend amounts, the application window and the eligibility thresholds are all subject to change between cycles and were read from turkiyeburslari.gov.tr on 27 September 2026. Confirm each on the official site — and in the case of the visa, with the Turkish Embassy in Bangladesh — before making any financial or travel commitment.
What do we see go wrong at Eduvisa?
The pattern we see most is timing, not merit. Students hear about Türkiye Bursları in February, when the window is closing, and rush an application with a programme ranking they picked in an evening. The application is free, so there is no financial cost to that — but a weak ranking wastes the one shot in the cycle, and for a bachelor's applicant sitting at twenty, there may not be another cycle.
The second pattern is the language year. Families budget for four years of a "free" degree and are genuinely surprised when the plan turns out to be five. It is still an excellent deal — but a five-year deal, and that changes what a younger sibling's schooling or a parent's retirement looks like.
Neither of those is something a blog post can fix for you individually. Which programmes suit your transcript, whether your grades convert above the threshold, how to write a research proposal that survives a PhD panel — that is case work, and it is what we sit down and do with students in the office.
Related guides: our full Türkiye student visa guide from Bangladesh and how to write an SOP that actually reads like you. Worth bookmarking directly: the official Türkiye Bursları site.
Under 21 and holding a decent HSC result?
Then this is a live option for you right now, and the window is narrower than you think. Bring your transcript in and let us check your percentage against the published thresholds, talk through which programmes and universities to rank, and map the language year into a realistic plan for your family. The application is free — the thinking behind it is where the work is.
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