El-Yurt Umidi is Uzbekistan's answer to Bolashak: a state foundation that pays for citizens to take a degree abroad and expects them back afterwards. It covers tuition, visa, insurance, flights home once a year, rent and living costs, and books.
For open competition, either QS or THE global top 300 qualifies, alongside the approved specialist list. The degree-specific QS/THE split applies to exam-free full-tuition-grant quotas, not to general eligibility. Top 300 exam-free awards cover only transport and housing.
The programme is aimed at fields the state is trying to staff: STEM throughout, then energy, transport, urbanisation, architecture and construction, agriculture and water, geodesy, alongside public administration, medicine and education.
Two rules catch people out. If another programme is already covering your costs in full — Chevening, Fulbright, Erasmus Mundus, DAAD, KOICA and JICE are named explicitly — you cannot apply here. And scholars are barred from taking paid work alongside their studies, with study-related volunteering the only exception.
The return obligation is long: five years of full-time work in Uzbekistan after a bachelor's, three after a master's, five after a doctorate, beginning within a month of coming home. It is secured by a four-party contract signed with the foundation, an employer and financial guarantors, so this is a commitment made before departure rather than a promise made on return.
Rounds open on no fixed calendar. Each is announced on the foundation's site at least a week ahead, with applications then accepted online for about a month, so the site is worth watching rather than diarising.
The competition regulations and the scholarship holder obligations were checked on 15 September 2026.
Ranking source: the Uzbek-language competition regulations, clauses 9–10 and 21–24, distinguish these routes; the open-competition rule names QS and THE, not ARWU or US News.