Chevening Scholarship 2027/28: Eligibility, Deadline and Tips

Chevening Scholarships is a government programme based in the United Kingdom. Its main award, Chevening Scholarships 2027/28: One-Year UK Master's (closed), pays for a one-year master's degree in any subject. Time is short. Applications for the 2027/28 round close on 6 October 2026 at 11:00 UTC, and a separate research route for experienced professionals, Chevening OCIS Fellowship 2027 at Oxford for Professionals (closed), closes on the same day.

What Chevening pays for

The master's scholarship is fully funded. It covers university tuition and a stipend for living costs during the 12 months of study, which means the award pays for the course itself and for your life in the United Kingdom while you take it. Chevening's own wording is that the funding leaves you free to focus on your professional goals.

The subject is open. A public health officer, a lawyer, an agronomist and a software engineer compete for the same award, and none of them has to squeeze a career plan into a list of priority fields.

The study happens in person. You move to the United Kingdom for the year, so this is not a distance-learning option that you can combine with your current job at home.

Who can apply from Africa

Applicants from 53 African countries are eligible for Chevening Scholarships 2027/28: One-Year UK Master's (closed): Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, DR Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The list is long, but it does not include every African country. Find yours on it before you spend your evenings on the application.

The second condition is work experience. You need at least two years of it. Count those years from the start and end dates in your CV rather than from memory, because a shortfall that you discover after submitting cannot be repaired within the same round.

The round is not limited to Africa. The eligible list also covers countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas, so you compete in a global pool of candidates.

Key dates for the 2027/28 round

• 4 August 2026: applications for the master's scholarship opened.
• 6 October 2026 at 11:00 UTC: applications for the master's scholarship close.
• 6 October 2026: applications for the OCIS fellowship close. Check the exact closing time on the official page.
• 2027/28: the academic year of the 12-month master's.
• 2027: the year of the five-month OCIS fellowship.

The 11:00 UTC cut-off is the trap. Across most of the continent it falls in the late morning or early afternoon, not at midnight, so your real deadline arrives many hours before the calendar day ends.

In local time, 11:00 UTC on that day is:

• 11:00 in Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone
• 12:00 in Nigeria, Algeria and Tunisia
• 13:00 in South Africa, Zambia and Rwanda
• 14:00 in Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania

Submit at least a day early. Busy portals can slow down near a global deadline, and a failed upload in the final hour leaves you no time to recover.

How to build a strong application

Start with the course, not with the application form. Pick UK master's programmes that lead directly to the job you plan to do next, and make sure you can explain that link in plain language to a reader who has never visited your country.

Write about results, not duties. Many applications list responsibilities and stop there. Show what changed because of your work: a service that reached more people, a budget you managed, a team you trained or a policy you helped draft. Use your own figures and make sure every one of them can be checked.

Gather the evidence of your work history early. Contracts, employer letters and payslips take time to collect, and they let you confirm, before you apply, that your record covers the two-year minimum.

Draft offline. Write your answers in a document and leave them alone for a day. Then cut every sentence that could appear in someone else's application, ask a colleague who knows your field to read the final version, and paste the answers into the form only when they are finished.

If power cuts or unstable internet are common where you live, plan the final session in a place with a reliable connection and a charged laptop. Save a copy of every answer outside the portal as you go.

Keep one eye on the clock throughout. An excellent application submitted after the cut-off is not considered.

The OCIS fellowship: a second Chevening route

Chevening OCIS Fellowship 2027 at Oxford for Professionals (closed) is a different kind of award. It is a five-month research fellowship at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in the United Kingdom, aimed at professionals with at least five years of experience, and it offers six places.

Eligibility is narrow. Applicants must come from Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia or Türkiye. The accepted fields are economics, health and medicine, humanities, natural sciences, public policy and governance, and social sciences.

The package suits a research stay rather than a degree. Each fellowship includes the research period at OCIS, living expenses for the whole fellowship, a return economy airfare and an allowance for research-related activities. Its deadline is also 6 October 2026. If you are weighing the two routes, decide early.

With only six places, a narrow and well-defined research question is easier to defend than a broad programme of work. Propose something you can finish in five months.

Frequently asked questions

When is the Chevening 2027/28 deadline?

The master's scholarship closes on 6 October 2026 at 11:00 UTC. Applications opened on 4 August 2026.

Is Chevening fully funded?

The master's scholarship is. It covers tuition and a stipend for the 12 months of study. The OCIS fellowship pays living expenses, a return economy airfare and a research allowance for its five months.

How much work experience do I need?

You need at least two years for the scholarship and at least five years for the OCIS fellowship.

Can I study any subject?

Yes, for the scholarship, which accepts any field. The OCIS fellowship is limited to the six fields listed above.

Can I study online from home?

No. Both routes take place in the United Kingdom, in person.

Is my country on the list?

If you are applying from Africa, check the 53 countries listed above before anything else.

Read the full rules on the official Chevening website before you submit, and keep a shortlist of other scholarships and fellowships as a backup in case this round does not go your way.