The Lester B. Pearson International Student Scholarships at University of Toronto 2026

The Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship is the University of Toronto's flagship award for incoming international undergraduates - and one of the largest of its kind in Canada. It's a full four-year scholarship covering tuition, books, incidental fees, and residence, given to around 37 students a year out of a global applicant pool spanning nearly 190 countries.

For Indian students, the most important thing to understand is that you cannot apply for this scholarship on your own. It works entirely through school nomination: your secondary school nominates exactly one student per year. So the real first step for an Indian applicant isn't filling out a scholarship form - it's finding out from your school counsellor or principal whether your school is already registered with U of T's Pearson program, and if not, getting your school to apply to join before the nomination window closes. Only after your school nominates you, and you separately apply for undergraduate admission to U of T, do you get access to the scholarship application itself.

U of T has also flagged fraudulent emails from people posing as agents offering to help with Pearson applications for a fee - the university does not work with agents or third parties on this scholarship, so any such offer to Indian applicants should be treated as a scam.

To be considered for the Pearson Scholarship (for September 2027 entry), you must:

• Be an international student who will require a Canadian study permit (this covers Indian nationals)
• Be in your final year of secondary school in 2026/27, or have graduated no earlier than June 2026
• Be starting your first undergraduate program at U of T in September 2027 (students already in post-secondary studies, or starting in January 2027, are not eligible)
• Be nominated by your current secondary school - schools may nominate only one student each year, and unverified schools must apply to join the program before they can nominate
• Separately submit a University of Toronto undergraduate admission application, since the scholarship is tied to your first-choice program at the time of the decision
• Complete the Pearson Scholarship application (accessible only after nomination and after submitting the U of T admission application) with all required documentation
• Not use generative AI tools (ChatGPT or similar) anywhere in the scholarship application - U of T disqualifies applicants found to have done so

Full Funding , Tuition fee + Books + Incidental costs + Full residence support

• Full coverage of tuition, books, incidental fees, and residence support for four years of undergraduate study at U of T
• Restricted to first-entry undergraduate programs at the University of Toronto only
• Access to the Pearson Program Office (under U of T's Centre for International Experience), which runs enrichment and support programming exclusively for Pearson Scholars throughout their degree
• Entry into a genuinely global cohort - recent classes have represented dozens of nationalities, giving Indian scholars an unusually international peer network from day one