Chevening Scholarships

Chevening Scholarship 2024 – Guide for Successful Application

Dear readers, today, I’d like to breakdown one of the most popular scholarships for international students, the UK Chevening Scholarship. The UK Chevening Scholarship is a full scholarship for international students to come and study at top universities in the United Kingdom. The application process is fairly time-consuming but quite straightforward and I will provide insights related to Chevening Scholarship requirements and tips in the sections below. (Update: Chevening Scholarship 2024 will be opened for application in September 2023.)

Brandon from Study Success

Chevening Scholarship 2024 Overview

Chevening Scholarship 2024

Overview of the Chevening Scholarship for International Students

The Chevening Scholarship is a globally recognized scholarship program that offers full financial support to outstanding individuals from around the world who wish to pursue a postgraduate degree in the United Kingdom. It is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and aims to develop future leaders, influencers, and decision-makers who will contribute to their home countries’ progress upon returning after their studies.

The scholarship covers a wide range of academic disciplines, allowing recipients to choose from thousands of courses offered by leading UK universities. In addition to financial assistance, the scholars gain access to a robust network of alumni, professional development opportunities, and exclusive events to enhance their skills and knowledge.

Chevening Scholarship Requirements

Applicants are selected based on their academic excellence, leadership potential, and commitment to make a positive impact in their respective fields and communities. The selection process involves a rigorous application, including submitting essays, providing references, and attending interviews. Successful candidates demonstrate a clear vision of how they will utilize their UK education to contribute to their home countries’ development.

Eligibility Criteria for Chevening Scholarship 2024

There’s two key elements when it comes to your Chevening Scholarship eligibility. Firstly, you need to have two years of full-time work experience or equivalent. If you do not have this, you are essentially not eligible for the scholarship.

Chevening Scholarship Work Experience Requirement

Chevening Scholarship requires that applicants have two years of work experience (Check out the detailed explanation HERE). You do not need to have completed two years of full-time work. It could be in the form of part-time or voluntary experiences. However, your professional experiences must add up to two years of full-time work experience equivalent. Another way to look at this is through the minimum number of hours worked. The Chevening Scholarship website stated 2,800 hours as the minimum hours of work required to be eligible.

Chevening Scholarship Other Eligibility Requirements

  • Be a citizen of a Chevening-eligible country or territory. (Check HERE to check for your country’s Chevening Scholarship eligibility.)
  • Return to your country of citizenship for a minimum of two years after your award has ended.
  • Have completed all components of an undergraduate degree that will enable you to gain entry onto a postgraduate program at a UK university by the time you submit your application. This is typically equivalent to an upper second-class 2:1 honors degree in the UK but may be different depending on your course and university choice.
  • Apply to three different eligible UK university courses and have received an unconditional offer from one of these choices by 13 July 2023.

How To Apply for Chevening Scholarship 2024?

Chevening Scholarship application usually opens on August or September of any year and takes about eight months for the whole application and selection process.

Chevening Scholarship Deadline and Timeline

For Chevening Scholarship 2024, the application is expected to open on September 2023 (Check HERE). Once opened, the application will remain open for around 3 months before the program stopped accepting applications. The initial selection process will take 2-3 months before shortlisted applicants will be contacted for interviews and further documents. Interviews will take place over 1-2 months at the British Embassies of the respective countries and then final results will be announced about 2 months after the interviews.

Chevening Scholarship 2024 Application Process

Step-by-step Chevening Scholarship 2024 application process is a multi-layer process in which you will need to be shortlisted to go through to the next stage.

Step 1: Initial Documents Preparation, UK Courses Application and Submission

When you start your application process, you should do the following things.

  • Go to the official Chevening Scholarship page of your country of citizenship and open an application account for the online application form. (Note that you can choose to download application form offline and fill in accordingly.)
  • Input your personal details correctly.
  • Answer the questions from the application form accordingly.
  • Apply for three Master’s degree programs and include them in your application form.
  • Upload the correct documents requested by the application.
  • Recheck the application form and submit.

Step 2: Interview Shortlisting and Further Documents Submission

Once you are shortlisted for an interview, you will receive a notification (call or email) from the British Embassy to prepare for an interview scheduled at a specific date and to provide two letters of recommendation as well as education documents.

  • Finalize a date for interview with the British Embassy of your country.
  • Provide two letters of recommendation (preferably, one academic and one professional) to the selection committee.
  • Provide relevant educational documents to the selection committee.
  • Perform the interview at a scheduled date. (Further tips for interviews in the following sections)

Step 3: Final Results

  • Final results will be announced after 1-2 months from the interview date.
  • You will need to receive at least one “unconditional” offer from the three courses that you applied in Step 1 to be able to accept the scholarship.
  • You will then require to attend some briefings before going off to UK to start your study.

Letters of Recommendations for the Chevening Scholarship

Only once you are shortlisted for an interview, you will be asked to provide two letters of recommendations. Ideally, you should provide one from your academic referee and one from professional referee.

A. Letter of Recommendation from Academic Referee

Your academic letter of recommendation should cover your competence and capacity regarding your study, intellectual capability and curiosity. A strong academic letter of recommendation will provide assurance to the selection committee that you will be able to follow the course structure in the UK and fit in well within the broader academic committee involving diverse backgrounds.

B. Letter of Recommendation from Professional Referee

Your professional letter of recommendation should discuss your professional maturity, ambition and work ethics. These will provide the selection committee with your future potential from the professional point of view.

You can check our complete guide on how to write letters of recommendation HERE.

Tips for a Successful Chevening Scholarship Application

Here are some Chevening Scholarship tips for application from previous winners.

1. Take your time.

The entire process will consume some time but in our opinion, it’s well worth it given the number of awards it gives out. This scholarship is particularly suitable and recommended for applicants from non-developed countries such as Nigeria, Myanmar, etc. So take your time, make sure your application form is well thought out with quality answers and make sure to provide all the requested supporting documents.

2. Apply for the right course that fits your Scholarship story.

You’ll be asked about your future plan and goals as part of the scholarship application. It’s vital that the course that you choose aligns with your goal and future plan. Let’s say if you are and want to be an impactful teacher, you should go for teaching or topics that you are passionate about teaching like history, biology, etc. If you are an inspiring social entrepreneur, you should go for the master’s degree in entrepreneurship or public health. Think about the whole application from a big picture and make sure your future plan and the rest of the application are fully aligned.

3. Provide a strong future plan on how the scholarship will help you achieving your goal or dream. (Key to success!)

Not only this is critical for your overall application, this part will be also key for your interview. Be very clear and specific about how the Chevening scholarship can help achieve your future goals. E.g., if your goal is to become an impactful teacher in a certain topic, then provide details how the scholarship and the study at the institution and course you have chosen will help you become that person you want to be. If you want to become a social entrepreneur, lay out details on how the study in UK and the scholarship can help you become the social entrepreneur you want to be. Check out our personal statement tips that could help you with this.

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