As you all might know, Chevening Scholarship is a fully funded scholarship to study in the UK. Studying in the UK can be a wonderful opportunity as the universities have quality education with worldwide recognition. We all know that the UK is the second most popular destination for international studies after the US. This scholarship will help you achieve your dream!

Why Chevening scholarship?

If studying in the UK is your dream and you are confused about which scholarship you should apply to, Chevening scholarship is one of the best ways to go. It offers scholarships to students from 144 countries and is funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It gives an incredible opportunity, for scholars with leadership qualities from around the world, by providing full or part funding for the full-time courses at postgraduate level. You can apply to this scholarship to study at any university in the UK. Apart from the scholarships, Chevening offers fellowships as well. Chevening Fellowships are different from scholarships as they are offered to mid-career professionals already in leadership and influential positions for further development in their respective fields.

Read More: Pros and Cons of studying in Europe

Chevening scholarship Eligibility criteria

This scholarship can be obtained if you meet the below-mentioned requirements:

  1. You should exhibit leadership qualities and proven track record of professional excellence.  
  2. You should be a citizen of a Chevening-eligible country.
  3. You should hold a degree equivalent to a good UK second-class honors degree 2:1.
  4. You should be willing to return to your home country for a minimum of two years after your scholarship has ended.
  5. You should meet the Chevening English language requirements before the specified deadline.
  6. You should apply to three different eligible UK university courses and have received an offer from those universities.
  7. You should have two-three years of work experience in your chosen profession.

You cannot apply for this scholarship if:

  1. You hold British or dual British citizenship.
  2. You are an employee or a former employee or a relative of a former employee of  Her Majesty’s Government (since July 2014) or a staff member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
  3. You have previously received funding from any other UK government scholarship program.

Read More: The Complete guide on selecting a University of your choice 

Chevening Scholarship amount

If this scholarship program provides part funding, then it covers only the tuition fees or a stipend or an allowance. A full Chevening scholarship includes:

  1. Payment of tuition fees.
  2. The cost of an entry clearance (visa) application only for you.
  3. Travel fare to and fro from your country by an approved route only for you.
  4. An arrival allowance and departure allowance.
  5. A monthly living allowance or stipend that depends on whether you are staying inside or outside of London.

Note: Chevening scholarship program funds full tuition fees for all Master's courses except for MBA programs. It provides only £18,000 for MBA tuition fees. 

Guidelines for the Chevening scholarship application

Applying to the Chevening scholarship is not an easy task. It takes an immense amount of effort from the scholar. You can apply for the Chevening scholarship by following the below guidelines:

  1. Chevening Scholarships can only be applied through online mode.
  2. You can register on the Chevening website and receive notifications of applications.
  3. The application form has no automatic save function, so you should save regularly as each session closes after 60 minutes.
  4. The Chevening scholarship application form will ask you to provide details of Academic IELTS, Pearson PTE Academic or TOEFL iBT test including the scores that you achieved for each component and your test report or certificate number.
  5. The Chevening scholarship application form will ask you to state three UK universities and courses in order of your preference.
  6. Two valid references in letter format written in English should be uploaded to your application form in PDF format and should be within 5MB.
  7. Your contact details should be entered as accurately as possible.
  8. The Chevening scholarship application form asks a set of questions which should be answered by you and each answer should not exceed 50 words.
  9. After applying for the scholarship, the shortlisted candidates will be asked to attend the interview.

Chevening Scholarship termination

The Chevening scholarship can be terminated in the event of:

  1. Dismissal from the university.
  2. Breach of UK law and practices.
  3. Failure to make progress in studies.
  4. Misconduct, whether in connection with your study or otherwise.

Winner's experiences

Zoia Pavlenko from Ukraine, a Chevening Scholar, who pursued her Masters in Environmental Engineering at the University of Nottingham, shares her experience. She says that the Chevening scholarship has made her ambitious and widened her horizons and gave her exclusive contacts throughout the world. She also adds that the Chevening scholarship awakened her to the world full of possibilities and she feels that life is too short to catch them all.

Fernandes Wanda, 2012-13 Chevening Scholar, says that coming from Angola where English is taught as a foreign language, his first and foremost challenge was the application process itself. After getting shortlisted for the Chevening interview, he had to face yet another challenge of qualifying the English language test. He says that his Chevening life in London was an amazing experience. He was an active member of the London Chevening Scholars network. He also adds that the important part of the Chevening scholarship application process is to apply to a  UK university and secure admission with them in order to obtain the Chevening scholarship.

Read More: Everything you need to know about CommonWealth Scholarship

If you can give any suggestions to the Chevening scholarship aspirants, you can share them below in the comment sections. Also can find other UK scholarships here.

Source: Winner's experience: Zoia Pavlenko, Fernandes Wanda

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