Chevening OCIS Fellowship 2027 at Oxford for Professionals

The Chevening Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Fellowship places mid-career professionals at OCIS for a period of research. It is not a degree programme: fellows come with a question they already work on and use the time and the Oxford setting to develop it.

Who can apply

Eligibility is defined by nationality and by career stage. Applicants from Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia and Türkiye can apply. The fellowship is for professionals rather than students, and a minimum of five years of work experience is required. The subject range is wide, covering economics, health and medicine, the humanities, the natural sciences, public policy and governance, and the social sciences, so what matters is the relevance of the research question rather than the discipline it sits in.

What the fellowship covers

Six fellowships are awarded. Each includes a five-month period of research at OCIS, living expenses for the duration, return economy airfare, and an allowance package for research-related activities. That last item is worth noting: it funds the work itself, not only the stay, which matters for a project that needs archives, travel within the United Kingdom or specialist material.

Deadline

Applications close on 6 October 2026. Chevening runs its schemes to fixed calendars and does not extend them, so the date should be treated as final rather than indicative.

Before you apply

Because this is a professional fellowship, the strongest applications connect the research to what the applicant does in their working life and to what they will do with the result afterwards. Chevening as a whole selects for future influence, not academic promise alone, so the question of what changes in your country because you spent five months at Oxford belongs at the centre of the application rather than at the end of it.