Chevening Scholarship 2028/29: Eligibility, Essay Questions and Deadline

The Chevening Scholarship is the UK government’s award for a one-year master’s degree at any UK university. It pays your tuition, a monthly living allowance, a return economy flight and your visa fee, and it is open to citizens of most countries outside the UK, the EU and the US, including nearly every African country. You need at least two years (2,800 hours) of work experience after your first degree, and you must go home for two years after the course.

The 2027/28 round opened on 4 August 2026 and closed at 11:00 UTC on 6 October 2026, so that window has gone. The Chevening Scholarship deadline for the 2028/29 round is 6 October 2027, with applications opening around 4 August 2027. That gives you close to a year to build the work record, the course list and the four essays this guide walks through.

Chevening Scholarship at a glance

What the Chevening Scholarship covers

A full award, according to the August 2026 terms and conditions, pays for:

• Tuition fees for one eligible master’s course. For MBAs the Chevening contribution is capped at £22,000, and you pay any balance.
• A monthly personal living allowance, set at a higher rate for London than for the rest of the UK. Chevening does not publish the amounts; they are reviewed each year.
• An arrival allowance paid when you land, and a departure allowance at the end.
• One economy return flight to the UK by an approved route, booked under Chevening’s travel policy.
• Your own visa application fee and up to £75 towards a tuberculosis test where the visa needs one.
• A travel top-up for London events if you study outside London.

Some awards are partial and pay tuition only or allowances only. Universities are expected to carry at least 20% of the tuition cost, which is why the course finder matters: a course outside the agreement may be withdrawn.

Costs Chevening does not cover

• Dependants: no money, visa support or flights for a spouse or children. Chevening advises scholars not to bring them.
• Resits and resubmission fees.
• University application fees and English test fees before you are selected.
• Anything beyond 12 months. Extensions of up to three months for a dissertation are possible only in exceptional cases.

Chevening Scholarship eligibility

Chevening’s eligibility page lists these as rules you must all meet:

1. Citizenship: be a citizen of a Chevening-eligible country or territory. For an award from an ODA-eligible country, such as Nigeria, Ghana or Kenya, you must also live in an ODA-eligible country.
2. Return: commit to living in your home country for at least two years after the award ends.
3. Degree: hold an undergraduate degree that gets you into a UK master’s, completed at least two years before the application deadline. You may apply before the certificate arrives, but you need it by interview.
4. Work: at least 2,800 hours of work after that degree.
5. Courses: apply to three different eligible UK courses and hold an unconditional offer from one of them by the offer deadline (8 July 2027 for the current round).

Who cannot apply

• British or dual British citizens (with narrow exceptions for British Overseas Territories and BN(O) holders in Hong Kong).
• People living in the UK when they apply.
• Anyone who has already studied in the UK on a UK government scholarship.
• Current staff, or staff within the last two years, of a UK government department, the British Council or a partner UK university, and their immediate relatives.
• Former Chevening Fellows, until five years after the fellowship ended.

There is no age limit, and an existing master’s degree does not rule you out. You must also apply from your country of citizenship, even if you work elsewhere.

How the 2,800 hours are counted

Paid, unpaid, full-time, part-time, remote, voluntary and internship work all count, as long as it came after your first degree. The form takes up to 15 roles and adds up the hours for you. Do not list the same job twice or give unrealistic weekly hours; Chevening names both as common reasons for rejection. If you are a few hundred hours short, wait a year.

Chevening essay questions and how to answer each one

The form has four essay questions. Chevening’s assessment criteria page describes them as leadership and influence, professional relationships, your course and university choice, and your career plan. Each carries equal weight. Several 2026 applicant guides report a limit of 300 words per answer for the current form (earlier rounds allowed 500), so plan for 300 and check the counter on the live form. Write in English, in full sentences, and in your own words. Chevening states that it screens for AI-generated text and plagiarism and will disqualify applications that use it.

1. Leadership and influence

Selectors want one or two real situations where you took the lead and changed what other people did or thought, with a result you can point to. A job title is not required. A teacher who got a school to adopt a reading programme, or a junior analyst who convinced a team to change a process, both qualify.

• Structure: situation in two sentences, what you did (use “I”), how you brought people with you, and the measurable outcome.
• Show influence: name the resistance you faced and how you won people over.
• Avoid: quoting definitions of leadership, listing five weak examples, or describing what “we” did without your part.

A workable opening: “In 2024 our clinic lost a third of its antenatal patients after fees rose. I proposed a pay-in-instalments scheme, and had to persuade a sceptical finance officer first.”

2. Professional relationships and networking

This question asks how you build and keep working relationships and what those relationships have produced. Chevening’s own advice is to use work or volunteering examples and to explain how you would use the Chevening network and contribute to it as an alumnus.

• Pick one relationship or network and show how you started it, kept it going and used it to get a result.
• Make it two-way: what did the other side gain from you?
• Look forward: name the kind of people in the UK and in the alumni network you want to work with, and why.

3. Your first-choice course and the UK

Current guidance asks you to focus on your first-choice course and link it to one of the UK’s priority areas for Chevening: growth and prosperity, climate resilience, security and stability, or inclusive and effective societies.

• Be specific: name two or three modules, a lecturer, a research centre or a placement, and say what skill each gives you.
• Connect the gap: explain what you cannot learn at home and how this course fills that gap.
• Tie it to a priority area in one clear sentence.
• Avoid: copying the university’s marketing text, praising the UK in general terms, or presenting the master’s as a step to a PhD.

4. Career plan

Selectors want a realistic plan with short, medium and long-term goals tied to a real problem in your country. Chevening’s reading committees have said that linking goals to the UN Sustainable Development Goals helps.

Keep it believable. “Become Minister of Health” without steps reads badly. “Lead the digital records rollout across 40 primary health centres in my state by 2032” reads well.

How to apply for the Chevening Scholarship

1. Check eligibility: confirm your country is on the list, count your work hours and confirm your degree finished at least two years before the deadline.
2. Shortlist three courses: use Chevening’s course finder to pick three different eligible one-year master’s courses, ideally at three universities.
3. Choose two referees: professional or academic contacts, not relatives or friends. You only upload their letters if you reach interview.
4. Draft offline: write the four essays in a separate document, edit them and paste them into the form.
5. Complete the online form: personal details, passport details, education (up to 15 entries), work history (up to 15 entries), courses, referees, essays and consent. Keep your access code safe.
6. Submit before 11:00 UTC on the deadline day. Convert the time to your own time zone.
7. Apply to your universities soon after submitting, so you have time to get an unconditional offer.

What happens after you apply

Expect the 2028/29 round to follow the same pattern a year later. The interview is a panel discussion that returns to your four essays, so re-read them before you go. Transcripts are not accepted in place of the original degree certificate at the document stage.

Common mistakes that sink applications

• Applying with fewer than 2,800 hours, or counting work done before graduation.
• Choosing the same course at the same university twice, or a course that is not eligible.
• Leaving the university applications too late to get an unconditional offer by July.
• Writing generic essays that could belong to anyone, or letting AI write them.
• Applying from a country other than your country of citizenship.
• Paying an agent. Chevening is free and does not endorse paid application services.

Who should apply, and who should wait

Apply if you have two or more years of work with at least one solid leadership story, a clear reason to study in the UK and a plan you would follow at home. Wait if you graduated less than two years before the deadline, need funding for a spouse or children, want a PhD or two-year master’s, or plan to stay in the UK after your course. Chevening forbids switching visas and asks for all the money back if you break the return rule.

Chevening compared with similar UK scholarships

For a wider list of awards open to applicants from Africa, see our guide to scholarships for African students. If you are lining up referees, our recommendation letter guide shows what a strong letter contains.

Chevening Scholarship FAQs

When is the Chevening Scholarship deadline for 2028?

The 2028/29 round closes on 6 October 2027 at 11:00 UTC, based on this year’s date. The 2027/28 round closed on 6 October 2026.

Do I need IELTS for Chevening?

Chevening itself has no English requirement. Your UK university sets its own, and some accept other proof such as a degree taught in English.

Can I apply for Chevening without work experience?

No. You need at least 2,800 hours of work after your undergraduate degree, which is roughly two years full time. Voluntary and part-time work count.

Can I bring my family on a Chevening Scholarship?

Chevening gives no money, visa support or flights for dependants and advises scholars not to bring them.

Sources and updates

Checked on 25 October 2026 against Chevening’s official pages: the eligibility criteria, the application criteria, the application timeline, the online application system guide, the common errors page and the August 2026 scholarship terms and conditions, all on chevening.org. The 4 August to 6 October 2026 window was also reported by Business Today and AllAfrica. Chevening does not publish stipend amounts, and the 300-word essay limit comes from applicant guides, so confirm it on the live form. The Scholars4Dev listing for this award still describes the 2014/15 round, with a December deadline and about 700 awards. We will update this page when the 2028/29 round opens.

Jude Chinecherem

I am Jude Chinecherem, a final-year MBBS student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I know what it feels like to want an education your family cannot afford. When my parents could not pay for my schooling, I had to learn how to find scholarships and work the system out on my own, with nobody to guide me. I came out the other side, and now I share everything I learned so the next student does not have to figure it out alone. This is the advice I wish someone had given me back then.