Chevening: a funded UK master's, from Nigeria

This guide is for a Nigerian graduate who wants to do a one-year master's in the UK on the Chevening Scholarship and has never applied for anything like it. It takes you from your degree to your first term in the UK, one stage at a time: what you have just done, what you do now, where, what it costs, how long it takes, and what comes next. Start with "Where the window stands today". While the window is closed, it sends you to "From today" and the closed plan; on the day the Nigeria page reads open, it sends you to "When the next window opens", which tells you, from the days left, whether you can still finish. Then read Part 1 once from top to bottom, and come back to the stage you are on. Every fee, date and rule in it comes from the official page that sets it, and the guide was read whole on 12 October 2026. Where a page has not yet said something for the next window, the guide says so. A line that names the window that closed on 6 October 2026, or an earlier one, gives that window's date or rule only to show what has changed; it is never the next window's. Where a line says "scholars who did it say", it is what Nigerians report from their own applications, not a rule.

Where the window stands today

On 12 October 2026, the day this guide was read whole, Chevening's window for Nigeria is closed. The Nigeria page reads: "Applications for 2027-2028 Chevening Scholarships are now closed." That window opened on 4 August 2026 at 11:00 UTC and closed on 6 October 2026 at 11:00 UTC, which is 12 noon in Lagos. Chevening's own timeline said: "You will not be able to access the online application system after this date." Nothing can be added to it.

If you submitted by 12 noon in Lagos on 6 October 2026, you are waiting, and your universities' clocks are running. Go to Stage 9. Your dates are in the table below, and they are this window's own dates.

If you did not submit, you are in the closed season. Find your row in "From today" below, then do the closed plan under it: the preparation that puts everything in your hands on the day the next window opens.

If the Nigeria page reads open on the day you read this, go straight to "When the next window opens: what you can still finish".

When the next window opens. No page says yet (updated on 12 October 2026). The Nigeria page says only: "Keep an eye on our channels to be the first to know when applications open again." No Chevening page prints a date or a month for the 2028-2029 window. The last window opened on 4 August 2026 and ran nine weeks; that is the last window's date, not the next one's. In the app, tap Tell me when it opens: the app tells you the day the Nigeria page reads open, with its close and the hour in Lagos. Watch the pages yourself as well (Stage 7).

Open today, with the same work. Two other funded master's routes are open on 12 October 2026, and the work you do for Chevening serves them ("If you are also applying for the Commonwealth Master's or the DAAD", Part 1).

• The Commonwealth Master's Scholarship, the UK's other government-funded one-year master's, closes at 16:00 BST on Tuesday 20 October 2026, which is 4pm in Lagos: eight days from 12 October. It takes a 2:1, or a 2:2 with a relevant postgraduate qualification; through the Federal Scholarship Board a 2:2 does not qualify at all (its call asks "A First Degree of at least Second Class Upper for Masters"), and through FAWE a 2:2 qualifies only with a relevant postgraduate qualification. Through the Federal Scholarship Board, Nigeria's nominator for it, you need two UK admission letters and your NYSC certificate by 20 October; with no admission letter in your hands today, the Board is out of reach this window. A woman can still finish through FAWE (the Forum for African Women Educationalists), which asks no admission letter and no NYSC certificate. Open the Commonwealth Master's guide today and find your row in its own "From today".
• The DAAD's EPOS scholarships for postgraduate courses in Germany close at three of their courses (Heidelberg's Master of Science in International Health, Freiburg's MSc Environmental Governance and Oldenburg's SuRE) on 15 October 2026: three days from 12 October. They ask at least a Second Class Upper and at least two years of relevant work after your degree.

What has changed since the earlier windows. Applicants still repeat rules from earlier windows. Those windows opened in August or September and closed in November (2017, 2022 and 2023, in the accounts of the time); the last one ran from 4 August to 6 October 2026, and closed at 12 noon in Lagos. Older accounts print the degree line as a 2:1; Chevening's Eligibility criteria page today asks "an undergraduate degree that qualifies you for a UK master's programme", and the FAQ calls that "typically" a 2:1 while sending you to each university, so the line your three courses print is the one that governs you ("Check that you can start", Part 1). Until 2023 Chevening's own blog counted work done before or during your degree, freelancing and self-employment, and 2,800 hours gathered in under two years; today's pages count only work after your degree, in four kinds, over at least two years. In 2017 Chevening asked its own English result by July; it has asked none since 2020. Older accounts say a scholar can stay on in the UK after the course; a Chevening scholar goes home for two years (Stage 15).

From today: what you can still do, by what you hold

Chevening's own clock is stopped until the next window opens. The clocks running today are your universities' own deadlines and the two funded routes above. Find the row for what you hold today.

Where these clocks come from.

• The universities. Each sets its own deadline and decides in its own time (Stage 2, Step 2). Edinburgh's rounds carry an undecided application forward to the next round, and each round wants "a complete application by the application deadline with all supporting documentation uploaded, including references and transcripts". Manchester says "We can't make you an offer until it's complete".
• The offer deadline. "The deadline to receive and submit at least one unconditional UK university offer is 17:00 BST (UK time) on 8 July 2027." "The only acceptable condition is financial (e.g., paying a deposit)."
• The hours. "Applicants must meet the minimum work experience requirement before submitting their application." Hours earned after you submit do not count for that window.
• The degree's age. "You must have finished your undergraduate studies at least two years before our application deadline, even if you have not yet received your certificate."

The closed plan: what you do now for the next window

Do these in this order. Each is a stage of Part 3, done without a deadline over it. When the next window opens, only Stages 7 and 8 are left.

1. This week. Count your hours and check your degree's age (Stage 1). Chase your degree certificate, and request your Student's Copy transcript, the copy your university releases to you for your own records (Stage 4). Renew your passport if it will not last to the November after your course starts (Stage 4).
2. This month. Choose your three courses on Chevening's course finder, each one whose entry line your degree meets (Stage 2, Step 1). Ask your two referees for their yes and their work contacts (Stage 3). Start your notebook of examples (Stage 5).
3. The months after. Draft your four answers (Stage 6), and add to your notebook as you go.
4. When your universities open for the 2028 intake. Apply to your three courses, and send each its official transcript (Stage 2, Step 2; Stage 4, Step 2).
5. From the start of July, every week until it opens. Watch the Chevening pages, and tap Tell me when it opens in the app (Stage 7). The last window opened on 4 August 2026. On the day the Nigeria page reads open, go to "When the next window opens" below.

If you are short of hours, follow the same order: none of it needs the hours. Ask your referees for their letters only in the season you apply.

When the next window opens: what you can still finish

When the Nigeria page next reads that applications are open, it prints the closing date and hour, as it did for the last window ("Open for applications until 6 October 2026, at 11:00 (UTC)"). Count the days from today to that hour in Lagos (11:00 UTC is 12 noon in Lagos), and find your row. Chevening asks for no papers to submit: "No documents are required to be uploaded in order to submit an application to Chevening." What decides whether you can finish is your hours, your degree's age, your three courses, your two referees' names, and your four answers. You need no university offer to submit.

If you open this guide with three days left to a future close, you can finish only if your 2,800 hours are already done, your three courses are chosen from the finder, your two referees' names and contact details are in hand, and your four answers are drafted in a document today. Register today, paste your answers in and check every page. Submit at least three days before the close. If you open this with fewer days left, submit at least one full day before the close, never on the last morning: the close is 12 noon in Lagos. With three days left, that day is today. If any one of those is missing, you cannot finish that window: go to the closed plan, and the window after is yours.

Where these times come from.

• The hours. "Applicants must meet the minimum work experience requirement before submitting their application." Hours you will earn after the close do not count for this window (Stage 1).
• The papers. Nothing is uploaded to submit; the degree certificate, your ID and the two reference letters are uploaded only if you are shortlisted, at least seven working days before your interview (Stage 10).
• The courses. You list three courses from the course finder; you need no university offer to submit: "It is up to you whether you apply for your courses before or after submitting your Chevening application." The offer comes by the offer deadline (Stage 11).
• The close. "No. Extensions will not be granted under any circumstances." The system logs you out after 15 minutes without activity, so you write your answers in a document first (Stage 6).
• The answers. Scholars who were selected say they started their answers before the window opened; one who edited hers the night before the close says she nearly did not apply (Stage 6).

Part 1. Before you start

What the scholarship is

The Chevening Scholarship is the UK Government's scholarship for a one-year taught master's at a UK university, "Funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and partner organisations". Nigeria is one of its countries. In Chevening's own list, a scholarship pays:

• your tuition fees, paid by Chevening straight to your university after you arrive;
• economy travel to the UK and back, by an approved route, for you only;
• an arrival allowance, paid once you have arrived in the UK;
• the cost of your Student visa application, for you only, and the immigration health surcharge (the yearly charge for the UK's National Health Service), which the FCDO pays for you;
• up to £75 (about ₦134,000) towards your TB test;
• a departure allowance, paid with your last stipend;
• a travel top-up allowance;
• a monthly stipend, your living allowance, "to cover accommodation and living expenses", higher in the London area. No Chevening page prints the stipend's amount; your award letter states it (Stage 14).

The course must be full-time, start in the autumn term (usually September or October), be a taught master's (not a research MRes), lead to a master's degree, and be in the UK. It cannot be part-time or distance learning, shorter than nine months or longer than 12 months, a PhD, or taught with more than one month outside the UK. You name three such courses, at three universities, in your order of preference. The one diploma Chevening takes is Oxford's postgraduate diploma in Diplomatic Studies.

In return you sign that you will go home: "You must return home for a period of at least two years following the completion of your scholarship."

Applying is free. Chevening says: "Applying for a Chevening Scholarship is free: You do not need to pay anyone to apply, and Chevening does not endorse or work with third parties who charge for application support or advice."

If you hold a 2:2 or an HND, or fewer than 2,800 hours of work after your degree, read Check that you can start first: it gives you the answer for your case.

The bodies you will deal with

Chevening is the UK Government's scholarship, funded by the FCDO, the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and by partner organisations. The Chevening Secretariat runs it from the UK: it screens the applications, processes your award letter, pays your stipend, and its Welfare and Immigration team answers your visa questions once you are selected (welfare@chevening.org). After selection you also have a programme officer at the Secretariat, your contact for your award.

The British High Commission in Abuja is the UK Government's office in Nigeria. For Chevening it interviews the shortlisted applicants, selects the scholars, stamps and signs your award letter, and holds the pre-departure briefing. Its address is Plot 1137, Diplomatic Drive, Central Business District, Abuja, and its phone numbers are +234 (0)20 12770780, 0781 and 0782. "Public access to embassies, high commissions and consulates is by appointment only."

No nominator. You apply to Chevening yourself, on its own application system. No Nigerian body stands between you and Chevening, and nobody can submit for you. The lines you meet are Chevening's own and your three courses' own, and where they differ the stricter governs you (next).

Your UK universities give you the place on the course. You apply to each one yourself, on its own website: "Your Chevening application does not constitute an application to your chosen courses." An offer is conditional when the university still wants something from you, such as a certificate or an English result. It becomes unconditional when you have met every condition. Chevening accepts only one condition on your offer, a financial one such as a deposit. Once your offer is unconditional, the university gives you a CAS, a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies: an electronic record with a 14-digit reference number that you must have before you can apply for your visa.

Chevening's partners are universities and organisations that fund extra Chevening awards. Choosing a partner's course does not change your funding, and Chevening says fewer applicants compete for partner awards (Stage 2).

The Home Office, through UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), gives you the Student visa, the visa for studying in the UK. VFS Global runs the UK visa application centres in Nigeria, where you give your fingerprints and photo. With the visa comes the immigration health surcharge (the IHS), the charge for UK healthcare paid when a visa is applied for; for a Chevening scholar the FCDO pays it.

The Graduate route is the UK visa that lets a graduate stay and work in the UK after a UK degree. It is closed to a Chevening scholar: "No, Chevening Scholars cannot apply for a Graduate route visa." (Stage 15.)

Check that you can start

Two sets of lines decide whether you can apply: Chevening's own, and the entry lines of the three courses you name. On your degree, Chevening sets no class of its own and sends you to the universities, so each course's line is the stricter, and it governs you. On your work, Chevening's 2,800 hours govern. In this guide a Second Class Upper (2.1, a UK 2:1) is written "a 2:1", and a Second Class Lower (2.2, a UK 2:2) "a 2:2". Here is the answer for your case.

• A 2:1 or a first. You qualify on your degree: Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester take a Nigerian Second Class Upper as their 2:1, and every course in this guide takes a 2:1. What decides you is your 2,800 hours and your degree's age, below.
• A 2:2. You qualify only if each of the three courses you name is one whose own page takes a Nigerian 2:2. In this guide those are Birmingham's MPH Public Health, Leeds's Public Health (International) MPH and the postgraduate courses at Coventry, Northumbria and Teesside (each line below). A course whose page asks a 2:1 does not take you, so Chevening cannot fund you on it.
• An HND. You do not qualify: no university page in this guide takes an HND for a taught master's, so an HND is not "an undergraduate degree that qualifies you for a UK master's programme". Get a degree first; your two years and your 2,800 hours then count from the day it is finished.
• Fewer than 2,800 hours after your degree. You do not qualify until the day you hold them, gathered over at least two years: "Applicants must meet the minimum work experience requirement before submitting their application." Hours you will earn after the day you submit do not count.

Your degree, in Chevening's words. "Hold an undergraduate degree that qualifies you for a UK master's programme." Chevening's FAQ adds: "This is typically equivalent to an upper second-class (2:1) honours degree in the UK. Please contact individual universities to check if your qualification meets their entry requirements." No Chevening page names a 2:2, a lower second or an HND. The universities' own pages answer it, and here is what they say for a Nigerian degree.

• A 2:1. Birmingham: "Most taught Masters programmes require a minimum of an upper second class degree (2.1) with a minimum GPA of at least 3.0/4.0 or 3.5/5.0", from "a Bachelor degree (minimum 4 years and/or level 400)". Manchester: "a minimum class of 2:1 or a minimum GPA of 3.5/5.0". Leeds converts class for class: "If we ask for 2.1, you need: 2.1". Edinburgh's Master of Public Health asks "A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in a relevant subject area", and prints no Nigerian conversion; take a Nigerian 2:1 as its 2:1, as Leeds and Manchester do. Each course also names the subjects it takes.
• The courses that take a 2:2, from their own pages. Birmingham's MPH Public Health, which asks a 2:1 and adds: "Applicants with a 2:2 degree plus relevant work experience may be considered". Leeds's Public Health (International) MPH, opens in a new tab, 12 months full-time, which takes "a Second Class Honours degree or above in medicine, health, social sciences, or other relevant disciplines together with a minimum of one-year (full-time) relevant experience in health or related sectors", and Leeds reads a Nigerian degree class for class ("If we ask for 2.2, you need: 2.2"). For the 2027 intake its deadline is 30 July 2027 ("The deadline for applications is 30 July 2027."), its international fee £30,100 (about ₦53.7 million, paid by Chevening if you are selected), and IELTS 6.5 overall with no less than 6.0 in each part if you need a test; a Nigerian degree taught in English needs none. Leeds does not permit deferrals: "Please note that we do not permit deferrals." Coventry, for its postgraduate courses: "Students who hold a Bachelor degree at 2:2 or 55% and above". Northumbria: "Bachelor degree from a government recognised University: Lower second class or CGPA 2.4/5.0". Teesside: "Completion of a 4 year bachelors degree with a minimum of 2.2". Manchester says "for some courses, a good 2:2 bachelor's degree may be acceptable", so a Manchester course is one of yours only if its own page names a 2:2.
• The courses that do not. Edinburgh's Master of Public Health (a 2:1 only); Manchester's MSc International Development: Public Policy and Management ("a First or Upper Second (2.1)"); and most Birmingham taught courses (its general line, above). A course whose page names only a 2:1, or names no class below it, is not one of your three.
• An HND. Birmingham's entry point is "a Bachelor degree (minimum 4 years and/or level 400)". Coventry places the HND under its undergraduate top-up degree; Teesside takes an HND into the second or third year of an undergraduate degree; Northumbria into year 2 or 3 at "2.5/4.0 GPA or Lower credit". With an HND, the first step is one of those degrees.
• A master's already. "Please note that having a master's degree does not prevent you from applying for a second master's degree in the UK."
• Still in your final year. "No. ... You must have already graduated from your degree at the time of application." You can list a course or training you are still completing in your application.

When your degree was finished. "You must have finished your undergraduate studies at least two years before our application deadline, even if you have not yet received your certificate. However, you will need to have your certificate by the time of your interview." For the window that closed on 6 October 2026, Chevening wrote: "you must have completed your undergraduate degree by October 2024". For the next window, count two years back from the close its page prints.

Your work: 2,800 hours. "You must have at least 2800 hours of work experience, acquired after the completion of your undergraduate degree." "You must have acquired this experience over a minimum of two years." Chevening adds: "This is roughly equivalent to two years of full-time work, based on a 35-hour work week." Full-time employment, part-time employment, voluntary work, and paid or unpaid internships count. You enter up to fifteen periods, and each is counted "by multiplying the number of weeks worked by the number of hours worked per week". The hours must be done before you submit. Stage 1 counts them with you.

The NYSC year and SIWES. No Chevening page names the NYSC, national service or SIWES. Today's pages count only the four kinds of work above, "acquired after graduating from your undergraduate studies". SIWES is part of your degree, so it is before graduation and does not count. Whether the service year counts, no page answers, and the applicants' inbox on Chevening's Contact us, opens in a new tab page answers only log-in queries, so there is no one to ask. This guide's direction, then: count your hours without your service year. If you reach 2,800 without it, the question does not touch you. If you reach 2,800 only by counting it, you risk the rejection Chevening gives an application short of hours: wait until you reach 2,800 without it (Stage 1).

Your English. Chevening sets no English test: "Chevening does not require you to submit an English language score as part of your application." So your universities' English lines govern you, and you must meet each before the offer deadline, because Chevening does not allow a pre-sessional English course as a condition. You fill the form in English: "Applicants must complete the application form in English." An application not in English is refused. For a Nigerian graduate, from the universities' own pages:

• Birmingham: no test: "Nigerian nationals with a degree from Nigeria or another English speaking country (as on the University's approved list) are not required to submit an English Language test."
• Leeds: no test if you studied in Nigeria for at least two years for a degree taught in English.
• Manchester: it "can waive the English requirement for students who can demonstrate that their degree from Nigeria was taught entirely in English", or take WAEC English at B3 or B2 (by course) taken within the last seven years.
• Edinburgh: your degree counts only if it is from one of its eight approved Nigerian universities (ABU, Covenant, OAU, Abuja, Ibadan, Ilorin, Lagos and UNN) and is "no more than five years old at the start of the month in which your programme of study begins"; otherwise you sit a test.
• Coventry, Northumbria and Teesside: Coventry takes "WAEC English minimum C" or IELTS 6.5; Northumbria takes WAEC or NECO at C6 and says "We do not accept studying in English Medium as evidence of English Language"; Teesside takes WAEC A1 to C6.

Stage 2 has each course's own test scores, if you need one.

Other UK government funding. Before you apply: "You cannot apply for a Chevening Scholarship if you have previously received funding from another UK government scholarship programme to study in the UK", and you cannot apply if you "Have previously studied in the UK on a UK government-funded scholarship". A UK undergraduate degree alone does not bar you, but "if you have already received financial benefit from the UK government, you cannot apply for a Chevening Award." While you hold the award, the terms of August 2026 say: "You must not accept any other form of UK government funding during your scholarship and should not normally accept additional funding for purposes already covered by Chevening." Other money is allowed only within one line: "You may accept or retain additional funding or other benefits not specifically covered by your Chevening Scholarship up to £10,000 on approval of the Chevening Secretariat" (£10,000 is about ₦17.84 million), and "You may continue to be in receipt of a salary from your previous employer during your scholarship." So a Commonwealth Master's, held now or before, closes Chevening to you, and the two cannot be held together.

Your nationality and where you live. You are a citizen of a country Chevening covers; Nigeria is one. You live in a country that Chevening lists for official development assistance (ODA), as Nigeria is; this "does not have to be the country of citizenship, but all applicants must show a clear intention to support their country of award". If you live outside Nigeria when you apply, you explain your circumstances in the application. You cannot apply if you live in the UK when you apply, or if you hold British or dual British citizenship.

Your age. "There is no upper age limit". Your age does not matter to Chevening.

Who cannot apply.

• An employee, an immediate relative of an employee, or a former employee within the last two years (counted from the opening of applications) of a UK government department, the British Council, a partner UK university, or any of their wholly owned subsidiaries; also British Council programme contractors and their relatives. Immediate relatives are parents or step-parents, brothers and sisters or step-siblings, children or step-children, and a spouse, civil partner or unmarried partner of at least two years.
• Anyone who has studied in the UK on a UK government-funded scholarship, or received funding from another UK government scholarship programme (above).
• A past Chevening Scholar cannot apply for another Chevening Scholarship; a past scholar may apply for a Chevening Fellowship five years after finishing.
• A refugee in a country Chevening does not cover.

Your passport. "You can submit your application without a valid passport. However, you will be required to bring a valid passport or official photo identification to your interview at the British embassy or high commission if selected." Start it now if you have none (Stage 4).

Your job. "If you are currently employed, you do not need to resign from your position in order to submit a Chevening application. You are advised to discuss your application with your employer and it is your responsibility to ensure that they will release you if you are selected for a Chevening Scholarship."

The money. Chevening asks nothing to apply. Its terms say an award goes ahead only on "the availability of sufficient funds and the Scholar's ability to procure relevant UK entry clearance (a visa) and receive medical clearance."

If you meet every line, start Stage 1 today. If you miss one, your row in "From today" tells you what moves it.

The route this guide walks, and why

The window for Nigeria closed on 6 October 2026, so for most readers the next step is the closed plan: the six stages that make you ready before the next window opens. This guide walks those six first (Stages 1 to 6), then the window as Chevening's pages describe it, from registering on the application system to your first term (Stages 7 to 15). Here is why this order is right.

The work that takes longest is the work you do not control. Your 2,800 hours, your degree certificate from your Nigerian university, two referees who know your work, and an unconditional offer from a UK university all take months. None of them can be finished in a nine-week window by someone who starts on the day it opens.

Scholars who were selected say they started before the window. One began "working on her essays before applications even opened", because "the Chevening application format rarely changes"; another says "One year is not too early." Most Nigerians who have written about being selected applied two to five times; a few won on their first application. Those who won on a later attempt say they changed their evidence between attempts (new work, new results, new awards), not their wording, because Chevening gives no feedback to rebuild from.

What it asks of you. No fee to Chevening. Your own money only for your papers, a trip to your interview if you are shortlisted, your TB test, and your first days in the UK (Part 7). Two years at home after the course. And a result that is never certain: nothing you do or buy can make you sure of a place. Chevening selects few from many, so prepare the Commonwealth Master's and the DAAD in the same season, with the same papers and examples (below).

If the window is open when you read this, do the same stages in the same order, faster: "When the next window opens" at the top of this guide gives your row by the days left, and every stage from 1 to 6 carries a line "If the window is open" with what changes. Submit at least three days before the close. If you open this with fewer days left, submit at least one full day before the close, never on the last morning: the close is 12 noon in Lagos (Stage 8).

The season

The last window. The 2027-2028 window opened on 4 August 2026 at 11:00 UTC and closed on 6 October 2026 at 11:00 UTC, both 12 noon in Lagos. Chevening's timeline printed the hour twice with "Please make sure you check what time 11:00 UTC is in your time zone." The hour in Lagos is 12 noon because Lagos is one hour ahead of UTC.

After its close. Chevening's reading committees assess the applications from mid-October to January; the shortlist comes in mid-February; interviews run from March to April; results come from mid-June (the FAQ says "from early June"); the unconditional offer is due by 17:00 BST on 8 July 2027 (5pm in Lagos); and studies begin in September or October 2027.

In a closed season. Do the closed plan at the top of this guide: Stages 1 to 6, each the same work you would do in an open window, done without the deadline over it.

The next window. No page says yet (updated on 12 October 2026). Watch for it, and tap Tell me when it opens (Stage 7).

If you are also applying for the Commonwealth Master's or the DAAD

The Commonwealth Master's Scholarship (from the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK, the CSC, also funded by the FCDO) and the DAAD's EPOS scholarships (the German Academic Exchange Service's scholarships for development-related postgraduate courses in Germany) ask for much of the same work. Do it once.

• What is open now. On 12 October 2026 the Commonwealth Master's is open until 16:00 BST on Tuesday 20 October 2026, 4pm in Lagos. Through the Federal Scholarship Board, Nigeria's nominator for the Commonwealth Master's, you also need two UK admission letters and your NYSC certificate by that date; read the "From today" table in the Commonwealth Master's guide before you start it. Three DAAD EPOS courses close on 15 October 2026: Heidelberg's Master of Science in International Health, Freiburg's MSc Environmental Governance and Oldenburg's SuRE. You apply for EPOS to the German university, not to the DAAD: "Applications have only to be sent to the respective course directly!"
• Your degree. Chevening takes a degree that a UK university accepts for the master's you choose (below). The CSC asks "a first degree of at least upper second-class (2:1) honours standard, or a lower second-class degree and a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master's degree)". The DAAD's office for Nigeria asks a "Bachelor's Degree graded at least Second Class (Upper Division)", "far above average results (upper third)" in the DAAD's own entry, and a most recent degree "obtained within the last six years". So a 2:2 with no postgraduate qualification opens Chevening only, and only through a course that takes a 2:2.
• Your work. Chevening asks at least 2,800 hours after your degree, over at least two years, done before you submit. The CSC asks no work experience: "Employment experience is not a requirement to apply for Commonwealth scholarships." The DAAD asks "at least two years of relevant work experience at the time of the application and after completion of your first university degree", with certificates of employment from your employers and a letter of recommendation from your current employer. The dates and weekly hours on those certificates are the figures you enter on Chevening's form.
• Your papers. The CSC needs "Full transcripts detailing all higher education qualifications", every year's marks, uploaded by you by its close. Chevening takes no transcript: at the interview stage it wants your official degree certificate, "Please note that undergraduate degree transcripts will not be accepted". Your UK universities want your transcript. So the transcript you get out for the CSC (Stage 4) serves your universities; the certificate is the extra paper Chevening needs.
• Your referees. The CSC wants at least two signed reference letters uploaded with your application. Chevening wants two letters addressed to the British High Commission in Nigeria, uploaded only if you are shortlisted. Ask the same two people once, in the first week, for both letters, each addressed as its funder asks (Stage 3).
• Your English. Neither the CSC nor Chevening asks an English test to apply: "The Chevening English language requirement was removed in 2020", and "The CSC does not require any candidates to take an IELTS (English language) test." Your universities set their own English rule for each course (Stage 2); for the DAAD, each German course sets its own.
• Your three courses. The CSC takes up to three choices in order; Chevening asks three courses at three universities and one unconditional offer by its deadline. One set of UK university applications serves both. The DAAD takes up to three EPOS courses in Germany, each applied to directly, with "one identical motivation letter" to each.
• Your examples. The CSC grades merit, study plan and development impact; Chevening assesses four areas: leadership and influencing, building professional relationships, your course and the UK's priority areas, and your career plan. The same notebook of what you have done, with dates and results, feeds both (Stage 5). Write each funder's answers to its own questions.

What one result does to another. You can apply to all three, but you cannot hold two at once, and either UK award closes the other UK one for good.

• Chevening does not take anyone who has "previously studied in the UK on a UK government-funded scholarship", and the Commonwealth Master's is FCDO-funded. So a Commonwealth Master's closes Chevening to you afterwards.
• The CSC does not take anyone who has already studied at master's level at a UK institution. So a Chevening master's closes the Commonwealth Master's to you afterwards.
• While you hold Chevening: "You must not accept any other form of UK government funding during your scholarship".
• The CSC: "Other scholarships, awards, or bursaries that cover the same costs may not be held concurrently."
• The DAAD: "A second scholarship from an international provider of up to EUR 603 will not have an effect on your DAAD scholarship. If the second scholarship exceeds this amount, the excess amount shall be deducted from the DAAD scholarship." EUR 603 is about ₦903,000.

If you are offered two, choose before you accept, and tell the other funder at once (Stage 11).

Part 2. The whole journey on one page

Before the window: the six preparation stages.

Stage 1. Check you fit, and count your hours. Your degree, its date, and your 2,800 hours after it, period by period. Free. One evening.

Stage 2. Choose your three courses and apply to the universities. Three one-year taught master's courses on Chevening's course finder, at three universities, in your order. In the closed season you choose the courses now and apply to each university when it opens for your intake; in an open window, you apply in the window or the weeks after. No application fee at Birmingham, Manchester or Edinburgh's Master of Public Health. Edinburgh's rounds each give a decision date.

Stage 3. Ask your two referees. Two people who know your work, not a friend or relative, each writing to the British High Commission. Free. Ask now; the letters are uploaded only if you are shortlisted.

Stage 4. Get your papers out. Your degree certificate first (Chevening wants the original at the interview stage), your transcript for the universities, your passport, and your name the same on each. ₦5,000 to ₦50,000 a transcript at the five universities in this guide (₦50,000 is ABU's international hard copy), plus a courier; ₦100,000 or ₦200,000 for a new passport. From a day to months.

Stage 5. Gather your examples. What you have done in each of Chevening's four areas, each with its numbers and what changed. Free. Two or three evenings, then add as you go.

Stage 6. Write your answers. Four answers, in your own words, written in a document first. The questions and their word limits open with the window. Free. Weeks of evenings, started before the window.

In the window.

Stage 7. Watch for the window, and register. Your email and phone on the application system, the checker's questions, and your access code. Free. One sitting.

Stage 8. Fill the form and submit. Your details, your work periods, your three courses, your two referees, your four answers. Free. Days before the close at 12 noon in Lagos.

Stage 9. Wait for the shortlist. Reading committees assess from mid-October to January; the shortlist in mid-February. Free.

Stage 10. The interview. Book your interview time, upload your ID, your degree certificate and two reference letters at least seven working days before, and go to the British High Commission's panel, at the place and in the format your booking confirms. Your fare and your stay. March to April.

Stage 11. Your result, the offer deadline and your award letter. From early or mid-June. If conditionally selected: the task list, one unconditional offer by the offer deadline (17:00 BST on 8 July 2027, 5pm in Lagos, in the window that closed on 6 October 2026), your final choice of university, then your Final Award Letter by August.

Stage 12. Your Student visa. Your TB test the day you are conditionally selected, ATAS if your course needs it, your CAS, then the visa from Nigeria with your fingerprints and photo at a visa centre in Abuja or Lagos. The visa fee (£558, about ₦995,000) and the health surcharge are paid for you; the TB test is yours: $94 (about ₦125,000) at IOM or ₦120,000 at a Lagos clinic, with up to £75 back later. A decision usually within 3 weeks, up to 3 to 4 weeks in summer.

Stage 13. Travel to the UK. The pre-departure briefing and your cash card in Nigeria, your flight booked by Chevening's travel agency after your visa, and £200 (about ₦357,000) in your pocket.

Stage 14. Arrival and your first term. Your first stipend on your cash card a day after you land, a UK bank account by the end of October, a GP, your university registration and Chevening's orientation event.

Stage 15. When the course ends. Fly home more than a week before your visa ends, and live in Nigeria for at least two years. No Graduate route.

The money. Chevening asks no fee. Up to your result you pay only your transcripts for your universities (₦5,000 to ₦50,000 a transcript at the five universities in this guide, plus a courier), your degree certificate if you never collected it, a passport if you have none, any English test a course asks for, and, if you are shortlisted, your trip to the interview. After selection you pay your TB test ($94, about ₦125,000, at IOM, of which Chevening repays up to £75 later), your travel to the TB clinic and the visa centre (two trips if you live outside Abuja and Lagos), your trip to the pre-departure briefing, and the £200 (about ₦357,000) Chevening recommends for your first days. Chevening pays your tuition, your visa (£558, about ₦995,000), your health surcharge, your flights and your monthly stipend. Never pay a tuition deposit before you are selected. Part 7 has every figure.

The time. From the day the window opens to your first term is about fourteen months: in the window that closed on 6 October 2026, it opened on 4 August 2026, the shortlist was set for mid-February 2027, interviews for March to April, results for mid-June, and studies begin in September or October 2027. One scholar describes the application, from the essays to the result, as about ten months. Your preparation before the window takes as long as your slowest paper and your hours.

If the window is open when you read this, the order is the same: Stages 1 to 6 as fast as your row in "When the next window opens" allows, then Stages 7 and 8 before the close. Stage 4's papers can wait until after you submit: they are needed only if you are shortlisted.

Part 3. Stage by stage

Stage 1. Check you fit, and count your hours

Back to the short stages

You want the scholarship and you hold a degree. Now check your degree and your work against Chevening's lines, and count your hours exactly, before you spend anything or write a word.

Do.

1. Your degree. Read "Check that you can start" in Part 1 against your certificate. Write down your class and the date your degree was finished (the date on your statement of result or certificate). The line is: finished "at least two years before our application deadline".
2. Your hours. List every job, internship and period of voluntary work since that date, one line each, oldest first. For each, write the employer, your job title, the start and end dates, the number of weeks you worked and your hours a week. Multiply weeks by hours for each line, and add the lines. The form does the same sum: "Your entries will be calculated automatically by multiplying the number of weeks worked by the number of hours worked per week."
3. Check the total and the span. You need at least 2,800 hours, "acquired over a minimum of two years", all after your degree, and all done before you submit.
4. Check the exclusions. You have not worked for a UK government department, the British Council or a UK partner university in the two years before the window opens, and nor has an immediate relative; you have not studied in the UK on a UK government-funded scholarship (Part 1).

How Chevening counts. Its common-errors page: "Common mistakes include not meeting the minimum hours, incorrectly entering the number of weeks worked, entering the same work experience more than once, or providing unrealistic work hours." Chevening counts hours "typically 35-60 hours per week, 40-50 weeks per year". So enter your real weekly hours, only the weeks you actually worked, each period once, and two jobs at the same time as two lines only if you truly worked both.

What counts. Full-time employment, part-time employment, voluntary work, and paid or unpaid internships, all after your degree. Up to fifteen periods. Your work need not match your course: "If your course choices are not related to your work experience, you will need to explain why you want to make a career change", by showing the skills you gained and how your background supports your studies and your goals (Stage 6).

What does not count today. Work before or during your degree, and SIWES, which is part of your degree. Until 2023, Chevening's own blog counted work "from before, during, or after your undergraduate degree", freelancing and self-employment, and 2,800 hours in under two years; that blog is withdrawn, and today's pages count only work after your degree, over at least two years, in the four kinds above. Leave your NYSC year out of your count, as Part 1 explains.

What you need. Your degree certificate or statement of result, your letters of appointment, contracts or payslips showing the dates and your weekly hours, and a notebook or spreadsheet. Chevening asks no proof of your work with the application: you give "the name of your employer(s), job title(s), and dates of employment", and at the interview stage your references are verified by the British High Commission.

Where. Chevening eligibility criteria, opens in a new tab, Work experience, opens in a new tab and Common application errors, opens in a new tab on chevening.org.

Cost and time. Free. One evening.

You are done when you have written down your degree class and its date, your work periods with their weeks and weekly hours, and a total of at least 2,800 hours after your degree, "acquired over a minimum of two years".

If you are short of hours. You cannot apply until you have them: "If you do not have the required level of work experience, your application will be rejected", and Chevening's advice is to "wait for a future application cycle". Work out the gap: 2,800 less your total. At 35 hours a week, every 35 hours is a week. For example, with 1,900 hours you are 900 hours short, about 26 weeks of full-time work at 35 hours a week, or 23 weeks at 40. Keep working, or add part-time, voluntary or internship hours after your degree, and write down the date you will reach 2,800 and two years from your first period. That date decides your window: the first window whose close falls at least three days after it is yours. Meanwhile, do the closed plan at the top of this guide: that work does not need the hours, and it takes months too. Ask your referees for the letters only in the season you apply.

If your degree is under two years old. Count two years forward from the date it was finished. If that date falls after the next window's close, that window is not yours; prepare for the one after.

If you hold a 2:2 or an HND. You qualify only if each of the three courses you name is one whose own page takes a Nigerian 2:2. In this guide those are Birmingham's MPH Public Health, Leeds's Public Health (International) MPH and the postgraduate courses at Coventry, Northumbria and Teesside: Part 1 gives each line, and Stage 2 has you choose them. An HND does not qualify: get a degree first, and count your two years and your 2,800 hours from the day it is finished.

If the window is open. Do this tonight. If your total will be under 2,800 on your submit day (the day you will submit, by the rule in Stage 8), or your degree is under two years old at the close, stop: this window is not yours.

Same as the DAAD. The DAAD counts "at least two years of relevant work experience at the time of the application and after completion of your first university degree", backed by your employers' certificates of employment. The same list of periods, with dates and hours, serves both.

Next. Choose your three courses (Stage 2, Step 1).

The chevening.org pages in this chapter were read on 7 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 2. Choose your three courses and apply to the universities

Back to the short stages

You fit, or you know the date you will. Now choose three courses and apply for them. Chevening funds only a course at a UK university that offers you a place, so this stage decides whether there is anything to fund.

Step 1. Choose three courses on Chevening's course finder

Do.

1. Pick one field that follows from your work and your career plan (Stage 6 asks you to explain the link).
2. Find three courses in that field on the finder, at three different universities: "Choose three similar courses at three different universities for more flexibility." Search by the course's name, not the department's. Courses Chevening does not fund do not appear in the search.
3. Check each against Chevening's rules: full-time; starts in the autumn term (usually September or October); a taught master's, not an MRes; 9 to 12 months long; in the UK, with no more than one month taught abroad. Chevening "will not support a course that is longer than 12 months in any form", and "Chevening Scholarships cover full-time courses only."
4. Read each course's entry rule against your degree class (Part 1), and its English rule (Step 2). With a 2:2, list only a course whose own entry requirements name a 2:2, a lower second or a Nigerian 2.2, or a Leeds course that asks a 2.2. A course that names only a 2:1, or names no class below it, is not one of your three. Part 1 names the ones in this guide: Birmingham's MPH Public Health (with relevant work experience), Leeds's Public Health (International) MPH (with at least one year of full-time relevant work in health or a related sector), and the postgraduate courses at Coventry, Northumbria and Teesside. Check each in the finder.
5. Put them in your order of preference. Your first choice is the one your course answer (Stage 6) is written about.
6. Look at the partner awards. Chevening's partners fund extra awards at their universities: "Chevening partners offer additional scholarships and every year, some go unfilled", and Chevening says fewer applicants compete for partner awards. Choosing a partner's course does not change your funding. Chevening's partners for Nigeria include the University of Birmingham, the University of Leeds, University College London, SOAS, the University of Cambridge, Trinity College, University of Oxford, Cranfield University, Lancaster University, Loughborough University, the University of Bristol, the University of Warwick, the University of Bath, the University of Nottingham, Nottingham Trent University, the University of Exeter, the University of Glasgow, the University of Southampton, the University of Sussex, the University of Surrey, the University of Reading, the University of Kent, the University of York, the University of Leicester, the University of Bradford, the University of Dundee, the University of Stirling, the University of South Wales, Swansea University, Cardiff University, Bangor University, Robert Gordon University, Queen Mary University of London, Royal Holloway University of London, Brunel University London, Bournemouth University, the University of Bedfordshire, the University of Portsmouth, Birmingham Newman University, Goodenough College, International Students House, Lloyd's Register and the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust. Click each partner's profile for any course rule it sets. Birmingham's own page says it funds about 10 extra Chevening-Birmingham partner awards each year, and that about 5,600 Chevening applicants chose Birmingham.

The course rules that catch people.

• London campuses. A London campus of a university based elsewhere only "if that exact course is unavailable at the university's main campus".
• The MBA. Chevening caps an MBA's tuition at £22,000 (about ₦39.2 million), and you pay the rest.
• The 20%. "Most UK universities contribute 20% towards tuition fees for Chevening scholars." At a university that does not, you can be asked to take another of your choices, or pay the difference yourself.
• Pre-sessional English. "Pre-sessional courses to meet your university's English language requirement or other conditions are not permitted and will result in losing your Chevening Scholarship for that course." So choose courses whose English rule you meet now (Step 2).

A course missing from the finder. Check the course's exact name and spelling first; most "missing" courses are already there. If it is truly missing, Chevening has a missing course form on the finder's page. The page states no reply time, so do not build your three choices on a course that is not in the finder.

Where. Find a course, opens in a new tab (Chevening's course finder), Choosing a UK university course, opens in a new tab, and Our partners, opens in a new tab. The finder's data comes from Postgrad Solutions and "may not always be 100% accurate at the time of search"; "Candidates are responsible for checking that the courses they list in their application meet the criteria for Chevening funding", so read each course's own page too.

You are done when you have three courses written down in order, each in the finder, each whose entry rule your degree meets, each with its English rule and the month its applications opened for the September 2027 intake.

From scholars who did it. The mistake scholars and advisers name most after the essays is three courses in different fields: "Your first choice cannot be 'MSc Public Health' the second 'MSc Cyber security'" (a scholar on her own early applications, 2026).

Step 2. Apply to the three universities

When. "It is up to you whether you apply for your courses before or after submitting your Chevening application. What's important is that you don't miss any UK university deadlines". You need one unconditional offer from your three by the offer deadline (17:00 BST on 8 July 2027 in the window that closed on 6 October 2026).

• In the closed season, your intake is the September or October after the next window's results: an award from the next window is for study in the autumn of 2028. Choose your three courses now (Step 1). Apply to each university when it opens its master's applications for that intake: Manchester opened its 2027/28 applications on 10 October 2026, so watch for 2028/29 from the autumn of 2027. Do not apply now for September 2027 entry: some courses accept no deferred entry (Manchester's MSc International Development: Public Policy and Management says "Applications for deferred entry are not accepted for this course").
• A university not yet open. You can name it on Chevening's form all the same: "Scholars can choose any university for their Chevening Scholarship, even if applications are not yet open at their chosen university, or they have not yet been accepted onto a course."
• In an open window, apply in the window or the weeks after it: "Some courses only accept applications until they are full, so applying early is crucial."

Do. Apply on each university's own website: "You need to apply directly to each of your chosen universities through their websites." Selecting courses on Chevening's form does not apply to them. Chevening lists what a university asks:

• a letter of motivation or personal statement;
• English language test results (unless your Nigerian degree counts; see English below);
• proof of previous qualifications, "(e.g., undergraduate degree transcript and graduation certificate)";
• academic and professional references (Stage 3).

Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester each ask for these; their own lines are below. In each application's funding section, say that you are applying for the Chevening Scholarship.

Four examples, from the universities' own pages. They are for September 2027 entry, the intake of the window that closed on 6 October 2026; for the 2028 intake, no page has printed its dates yet (updated on 12 October 2026), so read the same pages when they open. With a 2:2, of these four only Birmingham's MPH and Leeds's MPH are yours (Step 1).

• The University of Birmingham. No application fee for postgraduate taught courses, and "you can apply for as many courses as you wish", but you can accept one offer. For overseas applicants: "2 July 2027 Application deadline for most postgraduate taught courses"; "30 July 2027 Deposit deadline"; "30 August 2027 Last date for meeting conditions"; "3 September 2027 Latest date to issue CAS for September starters"; some programmes set their own. Its entry point for a Nigerian is a bachelor's degree of at least four years (or level 400), and "Most taught Masters programmes require a minimum of an upper second class degree (2.1) with a minimum GPA of at least 3.0/4.0 or 3.5/5.0". English: "Nigerian nationals with a degree from Nigeria or another English speaking country (as on the University's approved list) are not required to submit an English Language test." Nigeria team: africa@contacts.bham.ac.uk. International applicants send "official transcripts of your qualifications translated into English and showing the subjects and grades obtained". Example: Public Health MPH, opens in a new tab, 1 year full-time, a 2:1 in a subject relevant to public health, with a 2:2 and relevant work experience also looked at, IELTS 6.5 with no less than 6.0 in any band if you need a test, international fee £31,500 (about ₦56.2 million, paid by Chevening if you are selected). The course page prints a deadline of 27 August 2027 for applicants who need no visa, and for an applicant who needs a visa, as one from Nigeria does: "2 July 2027 Application deadline for international students requiring a visa. We will close applications as soon as the programme is full." (updated on 12 October 2026). Anyone who accepts a Birmingham offer must tell it of any unspent criminal conviction within 14 days. Birmingham is a Chevening partner.
• The University of Edinburgh. Example: Master of Public Health, opens in a new tab, 1 year, starting September 2027. "There is no fee to apply to this programme." (Some programmes in its College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences charge an application fee before they look at your application; the page prints no amount.) Entry: "A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in a relevant subject area such as medicine, nursing, social science, biomedicine, or other related discipline." It applies in rounds, each with a decision date: apply by 11 December 2026 for a decision by 31 December 2026; by 19 February 2027 for 5 March 2027; by 16 April 2027 for 30 April 2027; by 18 June 2027 for 2 July 2027. "If you don't hear from us by the award deadline, your application is carried forward to the next admissions round", and it must be "a complete application by the application deadline with all supporting documentation uploaded, including references and transcripts". One reference with the application; a personal statement of no more than 3,500 characters (about 500 words), "tailored" to each programme you apply to; no more than five applications from the same person. Edinburgh warns that copying, having someone else write your statement, or using AI apps such as ChatGPT can be treated as fraud. IELTS Academic 7.0 with at least 6.5 in each part if you need a test. Edinburgh estimates living costs in Edinburgh at £18,504 a year (£1,542 a month) for 2026-2027. No page read prints the 2027 overseas fee. "If you need a visa, apply early enough to allow time for the visa application process. This can take several weeks or months."
• The University of Leeds. Leeds reads a Nigerian degree class for class ("If we ask for 2.2, you need: 2.2"), and "Applicants who have studied in Nigeria for at least two years to complete an undergraduate degree or one year to complete a Masters degree, where the medium of instruction was English, are not required to undertake further English language tests." "We aim to make decisions within ten working days if all necessary documents have been received." Example: Public Health (International) MPH, opens in a new tab, 12 months full-time, starting September 2027. Entry: "a Second Class Honours degree or above in medicine, health, social sciences, or other relevant disciplines together with a minimum of one-year (full-time) relevant experience in health or related sectors". IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in each part, if you need a test. "The deadline for applications is 30 July 2027." "Your degree transcript must be signed and stamped." International fee £30,100 (about ₦53.7 million, paid by Chevening if you are selected). "Please note that we do not permit deferrals." Leeds is a Chevening partner.
• The University of Manchester. "Applications for our 2027/28 master's programmes will open on 10 October 2026." Many courses have no closing date; check each course page. It names no application fee. A Nigerian applicant generally needs "a bachelor's degree from a recognised institution with a minimum class of 2:1 or a minimum GPA of 3.5/5.0", and "for some courses, a good 2:2 bachelor's degree may be acceptable." Its School of Environment, Education and Development asks "a minimum degree class of 2:1, GPA 3.0/4.0, GPA 3.5/5.0 or 60-69%". You may need two references, asked from your referees directly through its referee portal; you get a user ID by email after you submit; "We can't make you an offer until it's complete"; upload evidence of meeting your offer's conditions to its self-service portal; and bring all your original documents when you register. Example: MSc International Development: Public Policy and Management, opens in a new tab, 1 year, a First or 2:1 in any discipline, IELTS 6.5 with no part below 6.0 if you need a test, international fee £30,500 a year (about ₦54.4 million). It runs staged deadlines: an application received by 6 December 2026 is updated by 19 February 2027; by 1 March 2027, by 2 May 2027; by 4 May 2027, by 18 June 2027; by 4 July 2027, by 30 July 2027; by 23 August 2027, by 31 August 2027. It asks your degree certificates and transcripts, an English certificate "if available at the time of application", and your CV. "Applications for deferred entry are not accepted for this course." If you applied before, you "should demonstrate how your application has improved".

English, course by course. Chevening sets none; your university does, and it must be met before the offer deadline, because Chevening does not allow a pre-sessional course.

• Birmingham: no test for a Nigerian national with a Nigerian degree. If you sit one anyway, the certificate must be no more than two years old on your start date, only your most recent score counts, and IELTS must be the Academic test.
• Edinburgh: its list of approved universities in Nigeria names Ahmadu Bello University, Covenant University, Obafemi Awolowo University, the University of Abuja, the University of Ibadan, the University of Ilorin, the University of Lagos and the University of Nigeria. Nigeria is not on gov.uk's list of countries whose nationals need not prove their English, so a degree from one of these counts as your English evidence only if it is "no more than five years old at the start of the month in which your programme of study begins". A degree from another university needs your own evidence that it was "taught and assessed in English". IELTS Academic and TOEFL iBT must be "no more than two years old on the 1st of the month your programme starts", met "in a single test"; no IELTS One Skill Retake, no IELTS General. Edinburgh adds that meeting its English requirement when you apply can make your application "more competitive".
• Manchester: "we can waive the English requirement for students who can demonstrate that their degree from Nigeria was taught entirely in English", and it "can usually accept a high score in English in WAEC exams (if taken within the last seven years)", B3 or B2 by course. A test result must be valid on your course's start date.
• Leeds: no further test for anyone who studied in Nigeria for at least two years for a degree taught in English; otherwise WAEC WASSCE English at C6 or IELTS 6.5 overall.
• Coventry, Northumbria and Teesside (the 2:2 courses in Part 1): Coventry takes IELTS 6.5 overall with at least 5.5 in each part, or "WAEC English minimum C"; Northumbria takes WAEC or NECO at C6, and "We do not accept studying in English Medium as evidence of English Language"; Teesside takes WAEC at A1 to C6 or NECO at A1 to C5.

If a course you want needs a test, IDP Nigeria charges ₦299,000 for IELTS Academic on computer at a test centre. The IELTS partners recommend that a result shows your English for "a maximum period of two years", and you can send it free by post to up to five organisations, or by e-delivery to as many as you like.

Deposits. Universities ask an international student for a tuition deposit before the CAS: Birmingham £3,000 (about ₦5.35 million) "at the point of accepting an offer to study on a public health programme", Edinburgh £1,500 (about ₦2.68 million) for a full master's (£2,500, about ₦4.46 million, at its Business School), Manchester at least £2,500 (about ₦4.46 million), payable only once the offer is unconditional. "Chevening will not pay this deposit and it is your responsibility to secure your university offer." Do not pay a deposit before you are selected: "Any payment of deposits is at your own risk." Each of these universities waives the deposit for a fully funded scholar: Birmingham when you hold a scholarship and have given it the evidence, Edinburgh when you give "acceptable evidence of a sponsorship or full scholarship covering your tuition fees by the deposit payment deadline", and Manchester on a sponsor letter from a recognised sponsor uploaded to its Sponsor Document Upload Form. Your evidence is your Final Award Letter (Stage 11). A university may also hold the deposit "if they are aware that you are waiting for your Chevening Award to be confirmed". Before you are selected, write to the university the day an offer asks a deposit: say you have applied for the Chevening Scholarship, give the dates of its results, and request that it holds your offer without the deposit. Keep the reply.

If you paid a deposit and your visa is refused. Birmingham refunds it unless the refusal is for "a fraudulent application"; Edinburgh unless it is for a fraudulent application, insufficient funds or incorrect documents; Manchester unless it "was due to fraudulent documents".

Manchester's acceptance deposit. Some Manchester programmes ask an acceptance deposit within "typically four to six weeks from the date of your offer", and "If you don't pay your acceptance deposit by the deadline included in your offer letter, your offer of a place will be withdrawn." Your offer letter says whether yours does. If it does, write to Manchester the day it comes, as above.

Accept your offers. "Yes, accept the offer made to you by your chosen university unless it requires a financial commitment. You must be able to withdraw at a later date if you are not selected for Chevening."

What you need. Your transcript (Stage 4), your degree certificate or statement of result, your referees' names and work emails (Stage 3), a personal statement written for each course, your CV, your passport details.

Cost. None named by Birmingham, Manchester or Edinburgh's Master of Public Health. Your transcripts (Stage 4). An English test only if a course needs one.

Time. Edinburgh decides each round by its own date. Manchester and Birmingham state no time. Two scholars who wrote about it say every university they applied to offered them a place; neither gives the number of weeks.

You are done when:

• in the closed season, you have three courses written down in order, each whose entry rule your degree meets, each with its English rule and the month its applications opened for the September 2027 intake;
• in an open window or after you submit, you have submitted three applications, one for each course you name on Chevening's form, each acknowledgement email saved.

If it goes wrong. If a course closes before you apply, choose another in the finder. If one of your courses is discontinued after you submit to Chevening: "we recommend that you apply for an alternative course", keep the university's notice, and tell your interview panel, which must authorise the change. If no university offers you a place by the offer deadline, you cannot hold the award.

If the window is open. You need no offer to submit. Choose your three courses this week (Step 1), then apply to the universities in the weeks after you submit.

Same as the Commonwealth Master's. The same three university applications serve the Commonwealth Master's, which takes up to three choices in order. Through the Federal Scholarship Board you need two admission letters by its own date; the Commonwealth Master's guide has them.

Next. Ask your two referees (Stage 3).

The chevening.org pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026; the universities' pages on 10 October 2026; IDP's on 7 October 2026.

Stage 3. Ask your two referees

Back to the short stages

You have chosen your courses. Now ask the two people who will write for you. You name them on Chevening's form; their letters are uploaded only if you are shortlisted, at least seven working days before your interview. Your universities want references much sooner.

Do.

1. Choose two referees. "two professional referees, two academic referees, or one of each." "A referee should be someone who knows you in a professional or personal capacity, but not a friend or relative." Choose people who know your work and can speak to your leadership: a manager, a head of department, a lecturer who supervised you.
2. Call each one this week. Tell them you are applying for Chevening and for three UK master's courses. Ask for two things: a reference for each university, when its system asks for one, and a Chevening letter that you will upload if you are shortlisted.
3. Tell them what Chevening's letter must say. It must "Be addressed to the British embassy/high commission in the applicant's country or territory", so to the British High Commission in Nigeria; and "Include your contact details (address, email, phone number), the length of time you've known the applicant, the capacity in which you know them, and when you last had regular contact." It should speak to your leadership and networking skills, your personal and interpersonal qualities, and your ability to complete a demanding master's in the UK. Chevening's words: "leadership and networking skills, personal, and interpersonal qualities, and their ability to complete a demanding academic programme in the UK". It must be in English, or carry a notarised English translation in the same file. Chevening's FAQs: no letterhead and no handwritten signature are needed, and "No, you cannot write your own reference."
4. Tell them what each university asks. Edinburgh asks one reference for its Master of Public Health; a work reference from a line manager can take the place of an academic one "if it is a while since you graduated"; your referee's contact "must not be a personal email address"; "Your referees should aim to have their references ready within 5 working days of you submitting your application"; it emails each referee once, and a reference you upload yourself "must be printed on headed paper, dated, and have a handwritten signature". Manchester's referee portal asks your referees directly. So give each referee's work email, never a Gmail or Yahoo address.
5. Keep their details. Full name, position, organisation, work email, phone number and address, for the form.

Where. References, opens in a new tab on chevening.org.

What you need. Each referee's full name, position, contact details, and how long and in what capacity they have known you.

Cost and time. Free. No page states how long a referee takes. Ask in the first week; the letter itself is due only at the interview stage.

You are done when both referees have said yes, you hold their contact details, and they know the two letters each funder and university wants.

If it goes wrong. If a referee goes silent, choose another and ask them the same day. Chevening allows other referees in place of the two you named if those cannot provide a letter, and you explain the change at your interview. Chevening will not chase them: "Chevening won't contact your referees for you, you must collect and upload the references yourself. However, the British embassy or high commission may later contact them for verification."

From scholars who did it. One Nigerian scholar names a mentor who wrote her letters across five applications (2025).

If the window is open. You need only their names and contact details to submit. Get those today; ask for the letters after you submit.

Same as the Commonwealth Master's. The CSC wants at least two signed reference letters uploaded with its application by its close, "signed and either on institutional letterhead or an email clearly showing the sender's details". Ask the same two people for both; Chevening's letter is addressed to the British High Commission, so it is a second letter, not the same file.

Next. Get your papers out (Stage 4), the same week.

The chevening.org pages in this chapter were read on 7 and 10 October 2026; the universities' on 10 October 2026.

Stage 4. Get your papers out

Back to the short stages

You have asked your referees. Now get your papers out, starting this week. Chevening asks for nothing to submit an application. If you are shortlisted, it asks you to upload, at least seven working days before your interview, your photo ID, your undergraduate degree certificate and your two reference letters. Your universities want your transcript to make you an offer. Nigerian certificates and transcripts can take months.

Step 1. Your degree certificate, first

What Chevening asks. "Your undergraduate degree certificate. This must be an official document from your university proving your degree and grade. Please note that undergraduate degree transcripts will not be accepted. We require the original documents which do not need to be translated into English." You can apply before your certificate is issued, but "you will need to have your certificate by the time of your interview". No Chevening page takes a statement of result or a provisional certificate in its place.

Do. Find out this week whether your certificate has been issued and whether you hold it. If you never collected it, collect it now from your university's records office. If it has not been issued, write to your registrar today, with your matriculation number and year of graduation, and ask the date it will be ready; no page but your university's registry can give it. If that date falls before the interviews of the window you plan to apply in (March to April, in the last window), apply in that window and go back every month until you hold it. If it falls after, you cannot make the interview uploads in that window: apply in the window after, and do the closed plan meanwhile.

• University of Lagos: a certificate not collected in the year after convocation carries a charge of ₦10,000, plus ₦5,000 for every further year. A certificate with a spelling error that was your fault is re-issued for ₦35,000; one with the university's error, at no cost. The Certificate Unit: certificateunit@unilag.edu.ng.

You are done when you hold your original degree certificate, scanned clearly.

Step 2. Your transcript, for your universities

What your universities ask. Birmingham wants "official transcripts of your qualifications translated into English and showing the subjects and grades obtained". Edinburgh wants a transcript for each degree, showing your name, your university, every course taken, every grade, and the degree awarded with its class: "You should contact your institution's academic registrar or registry department (or equivalent) and ask them to issue your academic transcript. We do not accept personal electronic copies of your student record." Manchester wants your degree certificates and transcripts with the application. Chevening itself takes no transcript.

Do. Now, request your Student's Copy and check that it shows every course, every grade and your class, and that your name matches your passport. Request each official transcript the day each university's application gives you its admissions address or upload link (Stage 2, Step 2). Where a university takes your own upload, request the copy your university releases to you as well.

Where, at five universities:

• University of Lagos, records.unilag.edu.ng, opens in a new tab. An official transcript "CANNOT be issued directly to individuals" and goes only to an institution's registrar or postgraduate dean, a scholarship board or an embassy, or is uploaded to an institution's own web link, for which "You are expected to provide the link, username and password". Fees: transcript ₦10,000 (extra copies ₦1,000); soft copy by email ₦3,000; soft copy by file upload ₦15,000; English as a Medium ₦5,000; postage to Europe ₦5,000 by NIPOST or ₦20,000 by courier. The Senate's notice of June 2023 puts the total for a transcript uploaded to an application portal at ₦25,000. The student copy, for your own records, is on the student portal under Results ("Student Academic Transcript"). Apply on a computer in Google Chrome, track your application on the portal, and pay only through it: "under no condition should applicants make payment to any individual or organisation under the pretext of fast track". Email only: records@unilag.edu.ng; visiting days Tuesday and Thursday, 10am to 2pm.
• University of Ibadan: undergraduates at academic.ui.edu.ng, postgraduates at apps.pgcollege.ui.edu.ng/transcript/. "ONLY transcript request with institutional or organizational destination address will be treated as official"; a personal address is treated as a Student's Copy and watermarked. The portal's fee sheet prints ₦20,000 to a foreign address, ₦10,000 to a Nigerian address and ₦10,000 for a Student's Copy; two other UI pages print lower figures. Pay what the portal shows: "All fees are payable through the Transcript Processing Portal", and pay nobody else. Help line 080 2084 1489, record@stu.ui.edu.ng.
• University of Nigeria, Nsukka: iTranscript, opens in a new tab, ₦12,000 local, ₦25,000 foreign, sent by email by default; hard copies cost extra for the courier. Apply "with the name used to process your admission": a different name "will greatly delay the processing of your transcript", and a mistake in your matriculation number "GREATLY delays" it. Contact unn.itranscript@unn.edu.ng, 08059284511, 08168744236.
• Obafemi Awolowo University: tps.oauife.edu.ng, opens in a new tab, the only place to apply and pay: "Payment of cash to any individual, company or agent is prohibited." Official transcripts go to an institutional email address; one requested for yourself is marked "Student Copy". Its public pages print no fee and no time. Enquiries transcript@oauife.edu.ng.
• Ahmadu Bello University: transcript.abu.edu.ng, opens in a new tab. Local e-copy ₦5,000, local hard copy ₦15,000, international e-copy ₦5,000, international hard copy ₦50,000. Processing takes 24 to 48 hours for e-copies and 5 to 7 days for hard copies. Contact etranscript@abu.edu.ng, +234 (0) 8068085620 (also WhatsApp), Monday to Saturday, 8am to 6pm.
• Any other university: if your university is not listed here, find its transcript page on its own website, apply and pay only there, send the official copy to each UK university's admissions address or upload link, and keep the receipt.

Translations. Chevening "does not require university transcripts to be translated. However, some UK universities may require a certified translation of your transcript documents." A Nigerian transcript in English needs none.

Cost. ₦5,000 to ₦50,000 a transcript at the five universities in this guide (₦50,000 is ABU's international hard copy), plus a courier. You send one to each of your three universities. Pay only through the portal.

Time. ABU states 24 to 48 hours for e-copies and 5 to 7 days for hard copies. The others state no time.

Step 3. Your passport

Do. Hold a valid Nigerian passport. At the interview stage Chevening takes either as your ID: "Acceptable forms of ID are your passport or national ID card." After selection it wants your passport, valid for at least three months after your award begins, and the visa needs it (Stage 12). If you have none, apply now at passport.immigration.gov.ng, opens in a new tab: you need your NIN slip, a birth certificate or a declaration of age from a high court, your local government or indigene certificate and a passport photograph, and you appear at the passport office you chose for your photograph and fingerprints. The 32-page passport for 5 years is ₦100,000, and the 64-page passport for 10 years ₦200,000. A fresh application takes 42 days after enrolment; a re-issue, 21 days.

Keep it valid. Chevening: "Your passport should ideally be valid for the entirety of your award. We can accept your passport if it is valid until the November after your course starts." If yours will not last that long, renew it now, before you apply. Chevening strongly advises renewing in Nigeria when a passport will not cover the course, and says that renewing "before the start of your award" is at your own risk; renewed now, the same passport serves your application, your CAS and your visa. A new passport after your CAS means telling your university at once (Stage 12).

Step 4. Your name, the same on every paper

Do. Check that your name and date of birth read the same on your passport, your degree certificate, your transcript and your Chevening form. Your CAS is made from your passport, and "If there are any discrepancies between the information used by the university to generate the CAS and your application form, then your visa application may be refused." Fix a difference before you register.

• On Chevening's form: "It is not possible to make any changes to your application after you've submitted it." If you are invited to interview, you can raise a change with the panel, but only to "personal data", never to your essays, courses or work.
• On your transcript: at UNN, the name used at your admission.
• On your passport: a change after marriage, or the correction of an error, is applied for online with the Nigeria Immigration Service, with your birth certificate or declaration of age, an application letter, a newspaper notice, your state of origin certificate, a court affidavit and your passport data page (and, after marriage, your marriage certificate). The correction of data charge is ₦30,000.

You are done when:

• in the closed season, you hold your degree certificate (the original in your envelope, scanned clearly), a passport valid to the November after your course starts, and your Student's Copy transcript checked; and your name reads the same on all of them;
• when your universities open, your official transcripts are requested to each university, each receipt kept.

If it goes wrong. If your certificate will not be ready by the interview stage (from mid-February), you cannot complete the interview's uploads: chase it monthly from today, in writing. If a transcript portal is silent, write to its records email with your payment receipt and ask the date your transcript will be released; only the records office can give it. If that date falls after a university's round or deadline, apply to that university in its next round, or choose another course in the finder whose deadline it meets.

From scholars who did it. Nigerian graduates have told the press that transcripts took months, and in one case two years, and that files went missing. Start the certificate and the transcript the day you decide.

If the window is open. Nothing here is needed to submit. Request your transcript and chase your certificate the day after you submit.

Same as the Commonwealth Master's and the DAAD. The CSC needs your full transcripts uploaded by you by its close; the DAAD's EPOS wants copies of your degree certificates and "your full set of transcript of records". The transcript you get out now serves your universities, the CSC and the DAAD; the certificate serves Chevening and the DAAD.

Next. Gather your examples (Stage 5), while your papers are coming.

The universities' portals and the Nigeria Immigration Service's pages in this chapter were read on 8, 9 and 10 October 2026; the chevening.org pages on 10 October 2026.

Stage 5. Gather your examples

Back to the short stages

Your papers are coming. Now write down, in one notebook, everything you have done that your four answers and your interview will ask about, before you write a word of the answers.

The four areas. Chevening assesses you in four areas and asks you to put four questions to yourself before you begin:

1. "Do I have good examples of my leadership and influencing skills?"
2. "Do I have good examples of building professional relationships to achieve positive outcomes?"
3. "How will my chosen course give me the skills to address pressing challenges linked to UK priority areas?"
4. "How will my career plan support my ambitions to drive positive change?"

"You will be assessed against your ability to answer questions in each of these four areas in your Chevening application."

Do. For each area, write two or three things you did, each with:

• the date and where;
• what you did yourself, not what your job required;
• the people involved and how you brought them along;
• what changed, with a number (people reached, money saved, time cut, a policy adopted);
• the evidence (a letter, a report, a link, an award).

For area 3, the UK's priorities. Chevening names four: "Promoting growth and prosperity", "Building climate resilience", "Strengthening security and stability" and "Supporting development for more inclusive and effective societies". Write down which one your work and your first-choice course serve, and the Nigerian problem behind it.

For area 4, your career plan. "Have a short, mid, and long-term career plan which has clear, measurable goals", and show that you are willing to work with the UK.

Where. Chevening application criteria, opens in a new tab on chevening.org.

What you need. A notebook, and your letters, reports, certificates and links for each example.

Cost and time. Free. Two or three evenings, then add to it through the year: each new job, project, result or award, with its date.

You are done when each of the four areas has at least two examples with a result.

From scholars who did it. A Nigerian scholar writing in 2026 says she looked up what the UK funds in Nigeria and tied her work to it. The mistake named most often is describing a job's duties or a title in place of a change you led.

If the window is open. One evening: one example for each area, with its result.

Same as the Commonwealth Master's and the DAAD. The same notebook feeds the CSC's development impact and personal statements and the DAAD's letter of motivation. Write each funder's answers to its own questions.

Next. Write your answers (Stage 6).

The chevening.org pages in this chapter were read on 7 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 6. Write your answers

Back to the short stages

You have your examples. Now write your four answers, in your own words, in a document on your phone or computer, before the window opens. You paste them into the form in Stage 8.

The questions and their word limits live in the application system and open with the window. No public Chevening page prints them: the online application system page says only that the form has four essay questions with word limits, "Take note of the word limits and make sure you answer in English." The day the window opens, register (Stage 7), read the four questions and their limits, and fit your drafts to them.

What each answer must do, in Chevening's words.

• Your course answer: "Show that you've researched your three chosen courses and, focusing your answer only on your first choice course, explain how it connects to your background, career aspirations, and the impact you hope to make." "Describe how specific modules or areas of study will equip you with the skills and knowledge needed to achieve your goals."
• Your career answer: a short, mid and long-term plan "which has clear, measurable goals", and your willingness to collaborate with the UK.
• Your leadership and relationships answers: your own examples from Stage 5, each with what you did and what changed.
• A career change: if your courses are not related to your work, explain why you are changing, the skills you carry over, and how your background supports your studies and goals.

Do.

1. Draft each answer from your notebook, one example, told with its result.
2. Name your first-choice course and two or three of its modules in your course answer.
3. Write every word yourself. "The use of AI software to generate answers in Chevening applications is strictly prohibited." "Chevening uses tools and software to identify fraud, plagiarism, and AI-generated answers in applications", and applications "are first screened using our plagiarism tool".
4. Have one person who knows your work read your drafts for clarity. Nobody writes them for you.
5. When the window opens, cut each answer to its limit.

Where. Chevening application criteria, opens in a new tab and How to apply to Chevening, opens in a new tab on chevening.org.

What you need. Your Stage 5 notebook, your three courses with their modules, and a document to write in.

Cost and time. Free. Weeks of evenings, started before the window.

You are done when you hold four drafted answers in a document, each in your own words, ready to fit to the limits on the day the window opens.

From scholars who did it. Scholars who were selected say they started before the window opened and had others read their drafts; every first-hand account of help describes it as free and personal. One scholar says her early, "beautifully worded" essays failed; those who won later "crafted my essays afresh" with new experience and awards. Accounts from different years give different word limits: the limits are the form's own, on the day it opens.

If the window is open. Register today (Stage 7), read the questions and limits, and write to them now.

Same as the Commonwealth Master's. The CSC's form has its own questions and limits (its development impact in four parts, career plans, study plan, personal statement). Write each funder's answers to its own questions; never paste one into the other.

Next. Watch for the window (Stage 7).

The chevening.org pages in this chapter were read on 7 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 7. Watch for the window, and register

Back to the short stages

Your six preparation stages are done or started. Now watch for the window, and register on the application system the day it opens.

Watch. From the start of July, a month before the last window opened (4 August 2026), open these pages every week: Chevening's Nigeria page, opens in a new tab, its Application timeline, opens in a new tab and its Apply, opens in a new tab page. When the 2027-2028 window was open, the Nigeria page read "Applications for 2027-2028 Chevening Scholarships are now open!" and "Open for applications until 6 October 2026, at 11:00 (UTC)", and its "Apply today" button went to the online application system (ASAMS) at asams.chevening.org/apply. The Nigerian press carried the British High Commission's statement on the opening of the 2027-2028 window on 3 to 5 August 2026.

In the app: the button reads Tell me when it opens. Tap it, and the app tells you the day the Nigeria page reads open, with the close and its hour in Lagos. The day it does, go to "When the next window opens" at the top of this guide and find your row.

What the Nigeria page says you need. "To meet our eligibility criteria; Feel confident that you can write a compelling application; Have an email address and phone number; Make a note of your unique access code for the online application system, you will need this at each stage of the application process".

Do, the day the window opens.

1. Register. "First, you'll be asked to read and consent to the Chevening terms and conditions and Privacy Notice. Next, you'll be asked to register your email address and mobile phone number." Use an email you check every day and a phone number you will keep: a lost access code is recovered by a text to that number.
2. Answer the eligibility questions. "You will find out immediately if you passed or failed the eligibility checker." You have three attempts: "If you are unsuccessful after your third attempt, we recommend you apply again next year." So answer from your Stage 1 notes, slowly, once. Register and take the checker only once your 2,800 hours are done: no page says whether the checker asks the hours you hold on the day you register. In the window that closed on 6 October 2026, Chevening's public readiness check asked: "Did you complete your undergraduate degree before the end of October 2024?", "Have you or any of your immediate relatives been employed by the UK government or the British Council since August 2024?", and "Do you have sufficient English language skills to write a successful application in English, conduct a Chevening interview in English, and study for a master's degree in the UK?" The next window's questions carry its own dates.
3. Keep your access code. The system gives you an access code "unique to you. You must keep your unique access code somewhere safe." It has eight characters, and you need it at every stage, the interview booking included. Write it where you keep your passport.
4. Read the four questions and their word limits (Stage 6), and fit your drafts to them.
5. Add the system's email address to your contacts: chevening.awards@notifications.service.gov.uk. The system sends your links from it; if an activation email does not come, look in your spam or junk folder and add the address to your allow list.

Where. How to apply to Chevening, opens in a new tab on chevening.org, and the application system at asams.chevening.org/apply, opens in a new tab.

What you need. Your email address and mobile number, your Stage 1 notes, and your four drafts.

Cost and time. Free. One sitting to register and pass the checker.

You are done when you have passed the eligibility questions and written down your access code.

If it goes wrong. If you fail the checker but believe you meet every line, check your answers against Part 1 before your next attempt; after the third, Chevening's advice is to apply in the next window. Chevening's applicants' inbox, on its Contact us, opens in a new tab page, "is only monitored for queries related to logging in to the online application system": write to it only about logging in.

If the window is open. Register today.

Next. Fill the form and submit (Stage 8).

The chevening.org pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 8. Fill the form and submit

Back to the short stages

You are registered. Now fill every section, paste in your answers, and submit, days before the close.

The form's sections, in Chevening's words: personal details; immigration details; education history (up to 15 entries); work history (up to 15 entries); programmes of study (your top three UK master's choices); referees (the names and contact details of two); the four essay questions with their word limits; and equal opportunities. Then: "Consent to the scholarship conditions outlined on the application form. Click 'submit application' and 'confirm submission'."

Do.

1. Enter your work periods from your Stage 1 notes: each employer, job title, dates, weeks and weekly hours, each period once.
2. Enter your education. You can list a course or training you are still completing: "Yes, applicants can list ongoing academic courses or training in their Chevening application."
3. Enter your three courses in your order of preference, each exactly as the course finder names it (Stage 2).
4. Enter your two referees' names and contact details (Stage 3).
5. Paste your four answers from your document, each within its limit, in English.
6. Save every page before you leave it. "You will be logged out of the system if you are inactive for 15 minutes, so remember to save your progress as you work through each stage!" You can come back as often as you like during the window, through the links the system emails you.
7. Check every page, then submit. Click "submit application", then "confirm submission".

What you upload. Nothing: "No documents are required to be uploaded in order to submit an application to Chevening." If you are shortlisted, you upload your papers then (Stage 10).

The rules of the form.

• "You can only submit one Chevening Scholarship application during each application period." If both the scholarship and a Chevening Fellowship are open in Nigeria, you can apply for both in the same cycle, but you cannot accept both.
• "No. Extensions will not be granted under any circumstances."
• There is no paper form: "You must submit online through the online application system."
• You can change anything before you submit, nothing after: "It is not possible to make any changes to your application after you've submitted it." At an interview you can raise a change to your personal details only.
• Inside the window you can withdraw and start again, but "withdrawing your application will remove all your details from the system", and a withdrawal "is final, applications that have been withdrawn cannot be reinstated".

When. Submit at least three days before the close. If you open this with fewer days left, submit at least one full day before the close, never on the last morning: the close is 12 noon in Lagos. That is 11:00 UTC, and after it "You will not be able to access the online application system".

Where. The application system, from the Nigeria page's "Apply today" button.

What you need. Your access code, your Stage 1 notes, your three courses, your two referees' details, and your four answers.

Cost and time. Free. An evening to enter and check everything once your answers are written.

You are done when you have clicked "submit application" and "confirm submission" before the close, and written down the date.

What happens next. "Applications are first screened using our plagiarism tool, and then sifted and checked against our eligibility criteria." Independent reading committees then assess each application against the FCDO's, Chevening's and the region's objectives and your potential to meet them. Scored candidates go to the British High Commission, which interviews and selects.

If it goes wrong. If you cannot log in, write through Chevening's Contact us, opens in a new tab page, whose applicants' inbox answers only log-in queries. If you see a mistake after you submit, you cannot change it; if it is your name, date of birth or address, raise it at the interview.

From scholars who did it. One scholar says she nearly did not apply and edited and submitted "a night before the deadline"; she was shortlisted. Two selected scholars describe answers begun long before the window opened.

If the window is open. This is your stage, once your row in 'When the next window opens: what you can still finish' allows it.

Same as the Commonwealth Master's. The CSC's form is a separate application on its own system, CSC Central, with its own close, and its own nominator. Nothing you submit to Chevening reaches the CSC.

Next. Wait for the shortlist (Stage 9).

The chevening.org pages in this chapter were read on 7 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 9. Wait for the shortlist

Back to the short stages

You have submitted. Now wait, and use the months.

What happens now. In the window that closed on 6 October 2026, the reading committees assess the applications from mid-October 2026 to January 2027. In mid-February 2027, "Applicants shortlisted for interviews" are told by email. Interviews take place from March to April 2027. The next window's timeline prints its own dates.

Do.

1. Watch your email, spam and junk folders included, from the start of February.
2. Keep applying to your universities (Stage 2). Chevening asks for at least one unconditional offer by its offer deadline whatever happens at the interview, and the panel asks the status of your applications.
3. Chase your degree certificate (Stage 4) until it is in your hands: if you are shortlisted, you upload it at least seven working days before your interview.
4. Tell your referees that their letters will be needed within days if you are shortlisted (Stage 3).
5. Re-read your four answers. The interview asks about them.

Where. Your email, and the Application timeline, opens in a new tab.

Cost. Free.

Time. About four months from the close to the shortlist.

You are done when the shortlist email has come, or the email telling you that you were not shortlisted.

If you are not shortlisted. Keep your notebook and your drafts, add new work and results through the year, and do the closed plan for the next window (Stage 11, "If you are not selected", has what to do in the year between).

Next. The interview (Stage 10).

The chevening.org pages in this chapter were read on 7 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 10. The interview

Back to the short stages

You are shortlisted. Now book your interview time, upload your papers at least seven working days before it, and prepare.

Step 1. Book your interview time, the day the invitation comes

Do. Chevening calls it "The first, and most crucial thing to do upon receiving an invitation to interview": book your interview time on the online application system (ASAMS). Log in with "the eight-character unique access code that you were provided when you started you first Chevening application." Times are given first come, first served, and "You will have until the booking deadline displayed on the system and in your interview invitation" to book one.

If you have lost your access code. On the login page, choose "Recover your code", enter the phone number you registered with, with the correct country code, and choose "Request code". A text brings a six-digit recovery code; entering it gives you a new eight-character access code. This works "only ... once you have been invited to an interview". If no text comes, write to your local Chevening team at the email in your invitation.

Where and how. The place and the format of your interview are confirmed when you book your time. You are interviewed by the British High Commission for Nigeria: "Applicants must be interviewed by the Embassy or High Commission from the awarding country." "Where necessary and practical, interviews can take place online". No page names the city or the format for Nigeria before you book; your booking confirms both. The British High Commission's address in Abuja is Plot 1137, Diplomatic Drive, Central Business District, Abuja.

If you need an adjustment. If you declared a disability on your application, your local Chevening team emails you. If you did not, and now need an adjustment, write to the team at the email in your invitation "at least seven working days before the interview date".

Step 2. Upload your three papers, at least seven working days before

Do. Upload these to the application system: "You must complete these tasks at least one week (seven days) before the scheduled date of your interview", and Chevening's application system page says the two letters must be in "no later than seven working days before your interview date". Seven working days is the stricter; count it back from your interview day, leaving out Saturdays and Sundays, and upload by then.

1. Your ID. "Acceptable forms of ID are your passport or national ID card."
2. Your degree certificate. "Upload your undergraduate education certificate/diploma. Please note that undergraduate transcripts will not be accepted."
3. Your two reference letters (Stage 3), as two separate files, or sent by your referees to your local Chevening team directly. Chevening's references page says: "Failure to do so will result in your application no longer being considered for a Chevening award." If one of your named referees cannot write, another may, and you explain the change at the interview.

You see your uploads before you submit them: "You will have the opportunity to confirm the correct documents have been uploaded prior to submitting."

Step 3. Prepare, and go

What the panel does. "Your interview will be a competency-based panel assessment conducted in English. The panel will include representatives from the British embassy or high commission". Competency-based means the panel asks you to discuss the examples you gave in your form: "The interview will be an opportunity to discuss some of the information you provided in the application form." "The panel will also ask about your three course choices and the status of your UK university applications." There is no presentation. You attend one interview in a window ("Applicants can only attend one interview"). An interview in an earlier window does not count against you: "results from previous years will not be taken into account" (Stage 11).

Be ready to talk about, in Chevening's words: "The examples you've provided in your essays"; "How a Chevening Scholarship will help you achieve your goals for impact"; "Your three course choices and the status of your UK university applications".

What to take. "You will need to take your passport or another form of ID." Your invitation tells you whether any reference is missing and must come with you.

Who pays. You: "Applicants are expected to cover the full costs of attending the interview including travel and overnight accommodation if necessary." Price your fare and a night away the day your booking confirms the place.

If you cannot attend. Give the Secretariat at least two working days' notice. "Only in exceptional circumstances will an additional appointment be made available. Failure to attend your interview may result in your withdrawal from the application process." Nobody can go for you: "No, you must attend in person."

Changes at the interview. You can raise a change to your name, date of birth, citizenship or address. A change of course is allowed only "In exceptional circumstances"; if one of your courses has been discontinued, tell the panel and show the university's notice: "Your interviewers must authorise any university or course changes."

After the interview, do not wait. "Applicants must apply to the three university courses as early as possible and upload any unconditional offers they receive to the online application system."

Where. What to do before your Chevening interview, opens in a new tab and How to succeed at your Chevening interview, opens in a new tab on chevening.org.

What you need. Your access code; your passport or national ID card; your degree certificate; two reference letters; your four answers, printed; your fare and money for a night away.

Cost. No fee. Your fare and your stay are yours.

Time. Interviews run from March to April.

You are done when you have been interviewed.

If it goes wrong. If your certificate is not in your hands seven working days before, upload nothing else in its place: Chevening names only the certificate, and transcripts are refused. If your booking deadline passes before you book, write at once to the local team at the email in your invitation.

From scholars who did it. A Nigerian scholar selected on her fifth application prepared with mock interviews with a friend (2025).

Next. Your result (Stage 11).

The chevening.org pages in this chapter were read on 7 and 10 October 2026; the British High Commission's gov.uk page on 10 October 2026.

Stage 11. Your result, the offer deadline and your award letter

Back to the short stages

You have been interviewed. Now wait for your result, then act on it the same week.

When it comes. "All candidates applying for a Chevening Scholarship will be informed of the outcome of their interview by email from mid-June." Chevening's FAQ says "from early June", and "results are released gradually, so you may receive your results sooner or later than others and this does not reflect the status of your application." Watch your email from the start of June. "Please do not contact your local British embassy or high commission regarding the status of your application."

There are three results: conditionally selected, reserve, and not selected.

If you are conditionally selected

Do, by the deadline in your result email. "To confirm your scholarship, you must complete your task list by the deadline provided in the email informing you of the outcome of your application. If you fail to meet this deadline, you may be withdrawn from the process." You open your tasks through the "unique verification link" in that email and your eight-character access code.

Step 1: the tasks.

1. Accept the conditional award and its terms. By signing you agree to the terms and conditions (August 2026 version): "Once an acceptance form has been signed, this confirms that you agree to these terms and conditions and are bound by them."
2. Upload your offer letters: "at least one unconditional offer (or conditional on funding only)", and the status of all three applications. Upload the offers you hold by your task list's date. In the window that closed on 6 October 2026, your unconditional offer is due by 17:00 BST on 8 July 2027 (5pm in Lagos), or by your task list's date if your email gives an earlier one; the next window's timeline prints its own date.
3. Give your passport details. It "must be valid for at least three months after your award begins", must "match the country of application you originally applied to", and cannot be a diplomatic passport.
4. Give your health information: "provide details of any health conditions or disabilities"; a disability brings an extra form.
5. Book your TB test today (Stage 12, Step 1): "Once you have received your conditional offer email from Chevening, you should immediately organise your TB test as the process can take several months."

Step 2: your university. Confirm your final choice from "at least one validated unconditional (or conditional on finance only) course offer(s)". "Once you make your selection, you will not be able to change it." Your university then completes a placement form: "wait up to two weeks". You sign a client care letter, which "authorises the Chevening Secretariat's Welfare and Immigration team to provide immigration advice".

Step 3: your Final Award Letter. You sign the Final Award Letter, which "outlines the award agreement between you and the FCDO", with your "funding and programme dates, details you'll need when applying for your student visa". It is issued once your papers are in and your university has confirmed your course; the Secretariat processes it and sends it to the British High Commission, "who will stamp and sign it before sending you the official copy". "Your FAL will be issued to you by Chevening by August." "You should not apply for your visa until you have received your final award letter."

The offer deadline. "The deadline to receive and submit at least one unconditional UK university offer is 17:00 BST (UK time) on 8 July 2027", which is 5pm in Lagos. "The only acceptable condition is financial (e.g., paying a deposit). You must ensure you meet all other university requirements before the Chevening deadline." Chevening cannot change your university's conditions or hurry its decision: "It is your responsibility to meet their conditions."

Your deposit. Chevening does not pay a deposit. Send your university your Final Award Letter the day it comes: Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester each waive the deposit for a fully funded scholar on that evidence (Stage 2). If you paid one already, it shows as a credit once Chevening pays your fees, and you "contact your university directly" for a refund. If no course will give you an unconditional offer without a deposit you cannot pay, Chevening's answer is to "apply for an alternative course".

A contribution of your own. "If you are required to make a personal contribution to your tuition fees, it will be written in your final award letter", and "Your university will invoice you directly". That happens on an MBA above the £22,000 cap, or at a university that does not give Chevening scholars its 20% (Stage 2).

Other money while you hold the award. From the terms of August 2026:

• "You must not accept any other form of UK government funding during your scholarship and should not normally accept additional funding for purposes already covered by Chevening."
• Tell your programme officer "as soon as possible" if you are offered, or are applying for, other funding after you are selected.
• "You may accept or retain additional funding or other benefits not specifically covered by your Chevening Scholarship up to £10,000 on approval of the Chevening Secretariat." £10,000 is about ₦17.84 million.
• "You may continue to be in receipt of a salary from your previous employer during your scholarship."
• The FCDO can reduce or withdraw an award where you benefit from "other significant awards, bursaries, prizes or earned income", and Chevening's FAQ adds: "Scholars are not usually permitted to have more than one sponsor."

If you cannot start this year. "Applications to defer awards will only be granted in the case of pregnancy" (or a birth in the 26 weeks before the course starts). Anyone else who cannot take up the award "must normally withdraw from the programme and re-apply the following year." A deferred scholar who wants a different course contacts the British High Commission, which decides.

Contact. CheveningSupport@chevening.org for your tasks (for your task list after selection, not the log-in inbox); welfare@chevening.org for immigration.

Where. What to expect after your Chevening interview, opens in a new tab and Next steps for Chevening applicants, opens in a new tab on chevening.org.

Cost. Free. A deposit only if you choose to pay one, at your own risk.

Time. Your task list by the date in your result email; the placement form up to two weeks; your Final Award Letter by August.

You are done when you hold your Final Award Letter, stamped and signed, and your unconditional offer.

If you are a reserve candidate

You are on a waiting list: "Should a place become available, you may be offered a Chevening Scholarship." "Upgrades will only be offered where funding is available, at the discretion of the FCDO." Reserve candidates are "notified by email by August".

Do. Get an unconditional offer (or one conditional on finance only) and upload it by the deadline in your result email, or "you may be withdrawn from the process": an upgrade comes only with that offer in hand. Do not pay a deposit to hold a place: "Any payment of course deposit is made at your own risk."

If you are not selected

Do.

1. Plan without feedback. Chevening's results page says: "Due to the volume of applications we receive, we are unable to provide feedback on applications or interviews." An older FAQ sends you to the Secretariat, but the only applicants' inbox on its Contact us, opens in a new tab page answers log-in queries alone. Rebuild from your own evidence (below).
2. Apply again in the next window. Your result does not follow you: an independent reading committee reads each year's applications, "and therefore results from previous years will not be taken into account." After an interview that did not succeed, Chevening encourages you "to read our application guidance and apply again in future".
3. Use the year between. Go back to Stage 1. Add new work and results to your notebook (Stage 5); rewrite your answers from the new evidence, not from last year's text (Stage 6); keep your three courses or replace one that did not suit you (Stage 2); ask your referees for updated letters (Stage 3): the same referees are acceptable, though updated letters are recommended.
4. Apply in the same season to the Commonwealth Master's and the DAAD where you meet their lines (Part 1).

From scholars who did it. Nigerians who have written about being selected mostly applied more than once: one on her fourth application, who wrote in 2026: "It's not about your frequency, but about your strategy"; one on her fifth (2025); one who called it "a three-year journey" (2026). Those who won changed their evidence between attempts, had others read their drafts, and practised the interview. One scholar selected in 2026, from Uganda, wrote that she was chosen on her first try.

Next. Your Student visa (Stage 12), once you hold your Final Award Letter and your CAS. Your TB test starts now.

The chevening.org pages and the terms and conditions (August 2026) in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 12. Your Student visa

Back to the short stages

You hold your Final Award Letter and an unconditional offer. Now get your visa. "As a Chevening scholar, you will need to apply for your own student visa. Chevening cannot apply on your behalf." Two papers come first: "Check that you have your Final Award Letter (FAL) from Chevening and your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) from your university. You will not be able to apply without these." Your university is your visa sponsor and issues the CAS; the FCDO, through the British High Commission, is your financial sponsor, and your Final Award Letter is the proof.

Step 1. Take your TB test

Do. Book a TB test at a clinic gov.uk approves in Nigeria, the day your conditional selection email comes. You need one because you are coming to the UK for six months or more from Nigeria, a listed country, and a Student visa application without a valid certificate is refused. Chevening: "Once you have received your conditional offer email from Chevening, you should immediately organise your TB test as the process can take several months." The earliest you can apply for the certificate is six months before you intend to travel.

Where. Your TB test comes in June, the week your conditional selection comes; your visa appointment (Step 3) comes after your Final Award Letter and your CAS, so it is a second trip. Make both in the same city, Abuja or Lagos: the TB clinics are in Abuja, Benin City and Lagos only, and the free visa centres are in Abuja and Lagos only. If you live elsewhere (Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Enugu or Kano, for example), travel to Lagos or Abuja for both. The visa centre in your own city charges £76.50 (about ₦136,000), which Chevening does not repay. IOM, the International Organization for Migration, runs approved clinics at No. 55 Hassan Musa Katsina Road, Asokoro, Abuja; No. 1 Frederick Ilekhuoba Close, off Boundary Road, Benin City; and No. 1 Isaac John Street, G.R.A. Ikeja, Lagos. In Lagos also: Q-Life Family Clinic, Plot 155a Prince Ade Odedina Street, Victoria Island; St. Nicholas Hospital, 57 Campbell Street, Lagos Island; The Consultants Practice, 25 Raymond Njoku Street, off Awolowo Road, Ikoyi. The list, with each clinic's phone, email and bank details, is on gov.uk's Tuberculosis testing in Nigeria, opens in a new tab.

What you need. Your passport, and the transfer receipt for the fee. "Cash payment will not be accepted by the examining centre." Pay by bank transfer to the clinic's account before your appointment, with your passport number as the reference. IOM takes naira, converted at the UN exchange rate on the day you pay (Cost); St. Nicholas also takes payment on its website; The Consultants Practice has a naira and a dollar account; Q-Life gives its payment details when you book.

Cost. $94 at IOM for anyone 11 or older, about ₦125,000 at the CBN rate of 19 October 2026; IOM takes it in naira at the UN exchange rate of the day you pay, before the examination; ₦120,000 at Q-Life, St. Nicholas or The Consultants Practice. You pay it first; Chevening gives "A contribution of up to £75 for TB testing" (about ₦134,000), paid "a few months after you have arrived in the UK".

Time. "You can expect to get an appointment within a few days of your request", but "At busy times you may have to wait 10 days for an appointment, especially during the UK student visa peak season between June and September." If you are clear, the certificate is issued on the day. "TB testing results can take weeks or even months if the results are initially inconclusive." The certificate lasts six months from your chest X-ray.

Step 2. Your CAS, your English and ATAS

Your CAS. "A CAS is an electronic document generated by your university after you have met all the requirements and have accepted an unconditional offer to study at that institution." Birmingham sends it "no earlier than six months before the start of your programme". Chevening cannot get it for you or hurry it: "Your programme officer cannot intervene nor can they ask the university to expedite the process." When it comes, check it against your passport: your personal details, the 14-digit reference number, the university's sponsor licence number, your course title and its start and end dates, the tuition fee, and the assessment of your English. "If there are any discrepancies between the information used by the university to generate the CAS and your application form, then your visa application may be refused." A CAS is valid for six months from the day your university creates it, and "it can only be used once". If you get a new passport after you gave your details to your university, tell the university at once.

Your English. For a master's, the visa needs English at level B2, and "your university can choose how to assess this". Your CAS states it. Chevening: "For most universities, including all publicly funded universities, you can select yes" to the form's question on whether your university made its own assessment, and then "you do not need to submit any English language certificates". If your CAS says something else, write to welfare@chevening.org.

ATAS. Some subjects need an Academic Technology Approval Scheme certificate before the visa. Chevening's own instruction is: "Check with your university to find out if your course requires you to have Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) clearance for your visa application." So write to your university's admissions team the day you accept its offer: "Does my course need ATAS? What is its CAH3 code?" Your offer letter normally carries your subject's CAH3 code, the code ATAS goes by. If the answer is yes, apply the day you also hold your conditional selection email (below); if no, there is nothing more to do. Nigeria is not on the list of nationalities that do not need it. Apply as soon as you hold your university offer and your conditional selection email, on the ATAS service, opens in a new tab. gov.uk: "Student and researcher ATAS applications take at least 20 working days to process. During April to September, it can take at least 30 working days to complete." You apply in the summer, so count 30 working days (six weeks). "There is no 'fast track' service". It is free. It is valid for six months. "Do not apply for multiple ATAS certificates - if you do, you will be penalised"; if you are refused, you wait 90 days to apply again for the same course; and an application with "false or unverifiable information produced by AI" is refused. A postgraduate diploma needs none. Questions to ATAS@fcdo.gov.uk. "Chevening cannot intervene with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to speed up the process of obtaining an ATAS certificate."

Step 3. Apply for the visa

When. "Before you travel to the UK; No more than six months before the start date of your course as indicated on your CAS; No later than six months after your CAS was issued". From the country where you normally live: Nigeria. Nobody can apply for you: "No, Chevening staff or staff at the British Embassy or High Commission cannot apply for your visa."

Do.

1. Start the form from gov.uk's Student visa, opens in a new tab page: "you will first need to register your e-mail address and create a password". The form signs you out after 25 minutes without activity.

2. Fill it as Chevening's step-by-step guide says:

   • your given names first, then your family name, exactly as in your passport;
   • your permanent address in Nigeria;
   • "organised group": "Please select no.";
   • your travel date: "The earliest date you can come to the UK is one month before the start date on your CAS." If you do not know it yet, choose the date one month before your course starts;
   • your qualification: RQF Level 7 or SCQF Level 11;
   • the fees box: "Please enter the 'total academic fee' for your course in this box, not just the percentage Chevening is paying";
   • your financial sponsor: write "Chevening Scholarship", with the British High Commission's details;
   • your English: "Select 'YES' here if your CAS indicates that your university has made its own assessment of your English language ability", and choose English as the language of any interview;
   • any refusal of a UK or other visa, declared "even if visa refusals were subsequently overturned". A deception can bring a ban "for up to 10 years".
3. Answer "Yes" to "Do you have a Fulbright, Marshall, Chevening or Commonwealth Scholarship?" "Selecting 'yes' will allow you to bypass the payment pages for both the visa fee and the immigration health surcharge." You still fill the health surcharge section: "you still need to provide your details in the next step. This will ensure that you are given an IHS number, which you will need in order to access the National Health Service once you are in the UK." The screen then shows that you have £0 to pay. Save the email with your IHS number: you need it when you register with a doctor. The power behind the waiver is in the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations 2018, which let the official deciding your application waive the fee for "a candidate for, or holder of, a scholarship funded by Her Majesty's Government"; gov.uk's own surcharge page names no scholarship, so the waiver shows only on Chevening's pages and in the form's question.
4. Check everything before the health surcharge section. "it is not possible to amend your answers once you have continued to the IHS section". If you find an error after that, write to welfare@chevening.org before you cancel anything.
5. Answer the money questions as a fully funded scholar: "yes" to "Will you be receiving money from an official financial sponsor for your continuing studies?"; "no" to a student loan; "no" to money from yourself or your parents. "You can upload your FAL twice and tick both boxes in this case."
6. Add the line Chevening gives you under additional information: "As a recipient of a Chevening scholarship, all course fees and living costs are paid by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office as per the final award letter which includes a partnership contribution from [insert university]".
7. Book a standard appointment at a free visa centre and upload your documents yourself, free, on the centre's portal. A Nigerian passport cannot use the ID Check app, so you give your fingerprints and photo at a UK visa application centre run by VFS Global: Abuja, Lagos (Ikeja) or Lagos (Victoria Island), Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00. The premium centres (Benin, Enugu, Ibadan, Kano, Port Harcourt) charge a user pays fee of £76.50 (about ₦136,000), and "Chevening will not be able to cover the cost of this fee if there is another VAC in your country that you can attend where no fee applies." Documents left for the centre's staff to upload cost a fee Chevening does not repay. On the portal, upload your Final Award Letter under "Sponsor Evidence"; leave "Employment Evidence" empty. Rescheduling with VFS is free.
8. Go to your appointment with your passport. "you MUST take your passport with you to your appointment. Your passport will be scanned at the VAC and returned to you on the same day." Take a printed copy of your Final Award Letter.
9. Fill Chevening's survey from the link in your confirmation pack after your appointment: "This will allow us to flag your application with UKVI directly." Chevening "has no influence over the speed or outcome of the visa process", and you share nothing about your application with anyone else.

The money rule, for a scholar. "The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is what UKVI calls an official financial sponsor, and if you are a fully-funded scholar, your Final Award Letter is evidence of the funding you will receive for your course fees and living costs." A student relying on official financial sponsorship does not show money held for 28 days. Your letter shows your name, the sponsor (the British High Commission), its date, your university, the length of the sponsorship and the amount, on letter-headed paper, signed. If you received it by email, "remove the password protection from the FAL".

On a part award, an MBA cap or a fee contribution. You show the balance yourself, held for at least 28 days, the 28 days ending no more than 31 days before you apply. For a visa applied for from 30 November 2026, the living money is £1,203 a month outside London and £1,570 a month in London, for up to nine months (£10,827, about ₦19 million; £14,130, about ₦25.2 million), and you show what your award does not cover. Chevening's advice for a fee contribution: pay it to your university and ask the university to update your CAS, so that you need to show no further financial evidence. On the form, a part award scholar answers "yes" to the official sponsor question and chooses "I am not being wholly sponsored".

What you need. From Chevening's document checklist:

• your CAS number ("This does not need to be submitted as a physical copy at your visa appointment");
• your original current passport, valid for your travel date with one full blank page (never a diplomatic or official passport: Chevening says a scholarship is not an official posting);
• your previous passports, as your travel history;
• your TB certificate;
• your Final Award Letter, printed;
• financial evidence, only on a part award;
• your ATAS certificate, if your course needs one;
• certified translations of any paper not in English (each with the translator's confirmation, the date, their full name and signature, and their contact details);
• the papers used to get your CAS (transcripts, references), only if your university is not listed as "Student sponsor - Track record" on the register of licensed student sponsors.

Cost. Nothing for the visa or the surcharge: the visa fee is £558 (about ₦995,000), and the health surcharge for a student is £776 (about ₦1.38 million) a year, which for a 12-month course's visa of about 17 months comes to £1,164 (about ₦2.08 million); the FCDO pays both. Do not pay either: "as a Chevening Scholar you should not need to pay for your application". Your travel to the TB clinic and the visa centre is yours. Do not buy a faster decision: priority costs £500 (about ₦892,000) and super priority £1,000 (about ₦1.78 million), and Chevening repays neither, nor any other optional service.

Time. gov.uk: a Student visa from outside the UK is usually decided within 3 weeks, counted in UK working days from your visa centre appointment. Chevening: "it can take up to 3 - 4 weeks and sometimes longer", summer being the busiest time. "You should not book your travel until you get a decision on your visa application." Do not go back to the centre until you are contacted. You can be interviewed when you give your fingerprints, in English, "about the course you will be doing and the university you will attend", and called to a longer "credibility interview" on your course and modules, your university, your education, your visa history, your money and your plans after study. "your application is likely to be refused if you are asked to attend an interview and you do not do so without providing a reasonable explanation."

You are done when the decision email grants your visa and you can see your eVisa in your UKVI account. You get no sticker in your passport: you "receive instructions from UKVI to create a UKVI account where you can view your eVisa". To create it you need a phone number and email you can sign in with, your passport, your visa application number (the GWF or UAN), and a smartphone for the identity app. It is free. Check your name, date and place of birth, picture, "your immigration permission, as a Student, the start and end dates", and link your passport to the account: "airlines and UK Border Force will check your immigration status electronically". If a detail is wrong, submit an eVisa correction application. Do not open a second UKVI account if you already have one.

How long the visa runs. For a course of 12 months or longer, from one month before your course starts to four months after it ends: "For example, if your course is 12 months long and ends on 30 September 2027 then your visa should expire on 30 January 2028." "You cannot ask for it to end later." "You must not travel to the UK before the start date given on your visa, no matter when your course starts."

If it goes wrong.

• A refusal. "contact your university sending them a copy of the refusal notice as a matter of urgency", and send a copy to welfare@chevening.org. There is no full appeal from outside the UK. If the refusal was wrong on the evidence you sent, ask for an administrative review within 28 days of the decision. gov.uk charges £80 (about ₦143,000); Chevening's visa PDF still says there is no fee: pay what gov.uk asks. You cannot add new documents; "Currently, it can take 12 months or more"; and a new visa application cancels the review. Your CAS can be used once. Nigeria is not on the Student visa brake list (Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, Sudan).
• Asked to pay the visa fee or the surcharge. Stop, pay nothing, and write to welfare@chevening.org the same day.
• Withdrawing. You can withdraw by contacting UKVI; the fee is refunded only if UKVI has not started.
• Your award and your visa. The award goes ahead only on your "ability to procure relevant UK entry clearance (a visa) and receive medical clearance".

If your family is coming. Chevening's terms: "There is no provision for dependants of Chevening Scholars. Scholars are advised not to bring dependants to the UK. The Chevening programme provides no financial or pastoral support for dependants and will not endorse the visa applications of, nor provide travel for, dependants." Your stipend has no amount for them. The Immigration Rules allow your partner and children to come with "a Student who has received a scholarship or sponsorship from a Government", and the Home Office's caseworker guidance names "Chevening Scholars" among the UK Government's schemes. So they can apply, at your cost alone:

• each applies separately, online, as your partner or child, with your application number;
• each pays the £558 visa fee and the health surcharge (£1,164, about ₦2.08 million, each, for a visa of about 17 months);
• each shows money held for at least 28 days, the 28 days ending within 31 days of applying: £680 a month (about ₦1.21 million) for up to 9 months outside London, £6,120 (about ₦10.92 million); or £845 a month (about ₦1.51 million) in London, £7,605 (about ₦13.57 million). Chevening's sponsorship does not cover them, so the 28-day rule applies to them;
• each needs a TB certificate: $94 (about ₦125,000) at IOM, or $49 (about ₦65,000) for a child under 11; ₦120,000 or ₦60,000 at a Lagos clinic;
• their flights are yours;
• "their visa will end on the same date as yours."

The Welfare and Immigration team cannot advise your family; your university's international student adviser can. Go alone, as Chevening advises, unless you can pay all of this yourself.

Who answers your visa questions. "contact the Welfare and Immigration team at welfare@chevening.org". "the Chevening team's advisors are accredited to give immigration advice within the IAA guidelines". Send copies of the papers your question is about.

Same as the Commonwealth Master's. The TB clinics, the visa centres and the form's scholarship question are the same; the CSC's scholars upload their Confirmation of Award where you upload your Final Award Letter.

Next. Travel to the UK (Stage 13).

Chevening's visa pages, its Applying for a Student visa 2026 PDF (correct as of 2 July 2026), its Student Visa Step by Step Guide and Document Checklist (25 June 2026) and gov.uk's Student visa, TB, ATAS, surcharge, processing, review and eVisa pages were read on 8 and 10 October 2026; VFS Global's centres on 8 October 2026.

Stage 13. Travel to the UK

Back to the short stages

Your visa is granted. Now go to the pre-departure briefing, collect your cash card, have your flight booked, find your first room, and fly.

Do.

1. Go to the pre-departure briefing at the British High Commission. "You must attend the pre-departure briefing at the British embassy or high commission in your home country." Your invitation gives the place and the date. Price the trip the day it comes, as you did for the interview.
2. Collect your cash card. "Your first stipend payment will be credited to your cash card, which will be distributed at your pre-departure event." The High Commission gives you the contact details for collecting it. Activation instructions come by email "once your scholarship is confirmed and prior to your arrival". "The funds will be credited one day after your arrival in the UK." Report a lost card to your programme officer at once; a replacement costs a fee taken from your money.
3. Have your flight booked. "Flights must be booked through our nominated travel agency, Diversity Group International (DGI)": a single journey, economy, by the "most cost-efficient route", from the airport nearest your home. The agency invoices the Secretariat. You can send DGI the travel booking form before your visa, but "they will not be able to confirm your flight until you have sent them a copy of your visa". A flight you book yourself is not repaid. A transit visa, if your route needs one, is yours to arrange.
4. Find your accommodation. "it is your responsibility to find accommodation", starting "as soon as you receive your Final Award Letter (FAL)". "You should not pay a deposit until your scholarship has been confirmed and you are happy with the property. Any deposit payment is made at your own risk". The Secretariat cannot pay or repay a deposit and "is not able to act as a guarantor"; you can show your Final Award Letter as proof of income. Housing problems: welfare@chevening.org.
5. Choose your arrival date. "Scholars typically arrive in the UK one or two weeks prior to their scheduled course start", never before the start date on your visa. Your first stipend is counted from your course's start date, not your arrival.
6. Check your eVisa shows your passport, and that your details match your airline booking.
7. Take out travel insurance. "Chevening does not provide travel insurance", and its terms "strongly advise" insurance for your travel to and stay in the UK.

What to carry. Your passport; your visa (the eVisa linked to your passport); your Final Award Letter; your travel itinerary and travel insurance; your medicine until you register with a doctor; a UK three-pin plug adapter; a warm coat and an umbrella. "A sum of GBP 200 is recommended for your first few days." If you or your family together carry £10,000 or more in cash, you must declare it to UK customs. At the border your passport and visa are checked, and you are usually asked why you are coming.

Where. Chevening's Travel policy, opens in a new tab, Travel to the UK, opens in a new tab and Accommodation in the UK, opens in a new tab pages.

Cost. The flight is paid by Chevening. Carry £200 (about ₦357,000). Excess baggage is paid by you to the airline. Your insurance is yours. Your family's flights are yours.

Time. Request your flight once your visa is granted; arrive one or two weeks before your course.

You are done when you land with your passport, your Final Award Letter, your activated cash card and your first night's address.

If it goes wrong. Visa, travel or housing problems before you fly: welfare@chevening.org.

Next. Arrival and your first term (Stage 14).

The chevening.org pages and the terms and conditions in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026; gov.uk's cash and border pages on 10 October 2026.

Stage 14. Arrival and your first term

Back to the short stages

You have landed. Now register with your university, open a bank account, register with a doctor, and meet Chevening.

Do.

1. Register at your university as it instructs, with your originals: Manchester says "You need to bring the originals of all documents with you when you register as a student." Show your Final Award Letter to the finance office: "Chevening will pay your tuition fees directly to your university after you have arrived in the UK", and "your university will invoice the Chevening Secretariat directly".
2. Your first stipend. It lands on your cash card one day after you arrive and covers your September and October stipend and your arrival allowance. "You will not receive your next stipend until the end of October." After that it is paid into your UK bank account at the end of each month for the following month.
3. Open a UK bank account and send its details to your Programme Officer-UK on the BACS form, Chevening's form for your UK bank details. "Stipend payments may be withheld if a bank account is not opened by the end of October." Online banks such as Monzo or Revolut are accepted.
4. Register with a GP, a local NHS doctor, on the NHS's Register with a GP surgery, opens in a new tab. The NHS page says you need no ID, proof of address or proof of immigration status, and that registration usually comes within 5 days of the surgery getting your details; Chevening says you may be asked for proof of your student status and address with your IHS number, so take them.
5. Meet Chevening. Go to the site visit to "Meet your Programme Officer-UK and fellow Chevening Scholars", and to the Orientation event: "You must participate in the Chevening Orientation event at the beginning of your award." Missing it, or the Farewell event at the end, without a reason Chevening accepts (your course, ill health, a serious personal matter, or a date outside your scholarship), told to your programme officer at least a week before or within two days after, costs "a £100 penalty" (about ₦178,000) taken from your stipend.

Your stipend and what it covers. "Your stipend is intended to cover reasonable living costs in the UK while you are studying full time and is calculated to cover your basic expenses only": your accommodation, meals, personal expenses, phone, daily travel and course materials. The rate is higher in the London area; your award letter states your monthly rate, and the rates are "subject to annual review". No Chevening page prints the amount. You pay NHS charges for prescriptions (in England), dental treatment and opticians from it; Chevening does not fund private medical insurance. Clubs and societies are yours.

The rules of the award. From the terms of August 2026:

• "You must not transfer to any other educational institution." A change of course only with your programme officer's permission, asked within two weeks of the course start date.
• No fees are paid for resits or resubmissions.
• You may not be outside the UK for more than 30 days in total over the whole scholarship; beyond that your stipend is suspended until you return. Tell your programme officer at least two weeks before you travel, and tell them of any absence of more than four days from your place of study.
• Send your programme officer evidence of your immigration status when asked; keep to every condition of your visa.
• The award can be ended for misconduct, poor progress, dismissal by your university, a breach of UK law or your visa, or false documents, and you then repay what was paid, unless certified ill health is the cause or the FCDO excuses you. Bribery brings a ban of "up to five years".

Work. "Scholars at publicly funded universities and private providers with a track record of compliance can work up to 20 hours per week during term time, and can work full time during official vacation periods and after their course has finished." For a one-year master's, term time "is usually from September to September", the dissertation included. Every job must be "authorised by your Programme Officer at the Chevening Secretariat". You may not be self-employed (no consulting or freelancing) or take a permanent full-time job.

Protect your visa. Enrol at the university that issued your CAS; check the work conditions on your eVisa; do not claim public funds; keep copies of your eVisa and passport page and every letter from the immigration authorities; attend your course and hand in your work on time; report a change of address to your university and the immigration authorities; stay out of trouble with the police. If you leave your course early, "the Home Office may curtail your visa to 60 days".

Where. Chevening's Arriving in the UK, opens in a new tab, Planning your finances, opens in a new tab and Working in the UK, opens in a new tab pages.

Cost. Free, apart from your living costs from your stipend.

You are done when your university registration is complete, your bank details are with Chevening, you are registered with a GP, and you have been to the Orientation event.

If it goes wrong. Money, visa or welfare problems: your Programme Officer-UK, or welfare@chevening.org. A lost cash card: your programme officer at once.

Next. When the course ends (Stage 15).

The chevening.org pages and the terms and conditions in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026; the NHS's page on 7 October 2026.

Stage 15. When the course ends: home for two years

Back to the short stages

You have finished your course. Now go home, as you signed you would.

The rule. "You must return home for a period of at least two years following the completion of your scholarship." "If you do not remain resident in your home country for two years following completion of your Scholarship, this will be treated as a breach of a scholarship condition and you will be liable to pay back all monies paid to you during the course of your scholarship." The Secretariat "will not allow repayment of scholarship funds to bypass this requirement". "You must not apply to switch to any other visa category or extend your current visa on completion of your studies." Once you are home, tell the British High Commission.

No Graduate route. "No, Chevening Scholars cannot apply for a Graduate route visa. When you accept a Chevening Award, you agree to return home for two years at the end of your scholarship." The Graduate visa is gov.uk's visa for staying in the UK after a UK degree; gov.uk also asks an applicant whose fees and living costs a scholarship paid in the last 12 months for "a letter from your scholarship or sponsorship provider approving your application", and the Secretariat cannot give any letter of support for a scholar to stay on to work or study in the UK. Applicants still repeat that a scholar can "stay back after their masters"; for a Chevening scholar that is wrong.

Do.

1. Book your flight home by the deadline in your July "Scholargram", through Chevening's travel agency, to leave more than a week before your visa ends. The FAQ says "no later than one week before your visa end date"; the travelling home page says to book "for more than one week before your visa end date": the stricter is the one to follow. "You will not be permitted to book a flight after your visa expiry date under any circumstances."
2. Between your course's end and your flight, you can work full time, but "you will not be in receipt of a monthly stipend from Chevening after your course ends". Your departure allowance "will be paid with your final stipend payment".
3. If you leave the UK for a short trip in this time, "you may not be allowed to re-enter the UK on your student visa, unless you can show you are re-entering the UK for study-related purposes".
4. Your graduation. "Your Student Visa will not be extended to cover attendance at a graduation ceremony that takes place after your visa end date."
5. Your immigration advice ends with the award: "Once your award has finished, the Chevening Welfare and Immigration Team will not be able to provide you with any further immigration advice."

Where. Chevening's Travelling home after your award, opens in a new tab page.

Cost. Your flight home is booked through Chevening's travel agency; your departure allowance comes with your last stipend.

You are done when you have left the UK before your visa ends and told the British High Commission you are home.

What it opens and closes. You cannot hold another Chevening Scholarship; you can apply for a Chevening Fellowship five years after you finish. The Commonwealth Master's is closed to you, because you will have studied at master's level in the UK.

From scholars who did it. A Nigerian scholar back home in 2026 plans to keep up outreach to schools and communities, and says: "I have so much more to meaningfully contribute to my country".

Next. You are home, with your degree.

The chevening.org pages, its FAQ and the terms and conditions in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026; gov.uk's Graduate visa pages on 6 and 10 October 2026.

Part 4. What can stop you

These are the problems Nigerian applicants actually meet, in the order they meet them, and what you do about each.

Your deadlines

Write each date down the day it arrives. The dates marked "2027-2028 window" are the window that closed on 6 October 2026; they are your dates if you applied in it. The next window's page prints its own.

What stops people, and what you do

Hours you do not have. "If you do not have the required level of work experience, your application will be rejected." Chevening's own 2023 blog said that most of the applications it turned away in 2022 for missing its rules had missed the work requirement. Count them as Stage 1 says, leave your NYSC year out of your count, as Part 1 explains, leave out anything before or during your degree, and if you are short, wait for the window after you reach 2,800 (Stage 1).

A degree that is too new. Finished less than two years before the close, it does not qualify yet. Count forward and prepare for the window your degree fits (Stage 1).

A degree a UK course does not take. With a 2:2, you qualify only if each of the three courses you name is one whose own page takes a Nigerian 2:2. In this guide those are Birmingham's MPH Public Health, Leeds's Public Health (International) MPH and the postgraduate courses at Coventry, Northumbria and Teesside. An HND does not qualify until you hold a degree (Part 1).

A job that bars you. You, or an immediate relative, worked for a UK government department, the British Council or a UK partner university in the two years before the window opened. Wait until two years have passed (Part 1).

Failing the eligibility questions three times. After the third, Chevening's advice is to apply in the next window. Answer from your Stage 1 notes, once (Stage 7).

Three courses in different fields. Scholars and advisers name it as one of the commonest mistakes. Choose three similar courses at three universities (Stage 2).

A course that asks a 2:1, or an English test you have not passed. Chevening allows no pre-sessional English course as a condition, and no offer condition but money. Choose courses whose rules you meet now (Stage 2).

Answers that describe a job, not a change. The mistake scholars name most. Each answer is one example, what you did, and what changed, with a number (Stages 5 and 6).

Answers written by someone else, or by AI. "The use of AI software to generate answers in Chevening applications is strictly prohibited", and Chevening screens every application for plagiarism and AI-generated answers. Write every word yourself (Stage 6).

The last morning. No extension, a 15-minute logout, and a close at 12 noon in Lagos. Submit at least three days before (Stage 8).

A degree certificate that does not come. You must hold it by the interview, and a transcript is refused in its place. Chase it monthly from the day you decide; at UNILAG an uncollected certificate costs ₦10,000 plus ₦5,000 a year (Stage 4).

A name that differs. Nothing can be changed after you submit except personal details, raised at the interview; and a CAS that differs from your passport can bring a visa refusal. Make your name the same on every paper before you register (Stage 4).

A referee who vanishes. Ask another the same day, and explain the change at your interview. Chevening will not chase them (Stage 3).

Missing the interview uploads. Missing them ends your application. Upload at least seven working days before your interview (Stage 10).

A lost access code. Recover it by text from the login page once you are invited; keep your registered phone number (Stage 10).

No unconditional offer by the offer deadline. Without one, Chevening cannot give you the award, and a reserve cannot be upgraded. Apply to your universities early and meet every condition but money before the deadline (Stages 2 and 11).

A deposit demand. Never pay one before you are selected; after selection, send your Final Award Letter (Stage 2, Stage 11).

A university that does not give Chevening its 20%, or an MBA above £22,000. You pay the difference or take another of your choices (Stage 2).

A slow TB result or ATAS. Book the TB test the day your conditional selection email comes; apply for ATAS the day you hold your offer (Stage 12).

A visa refusal. Tell your university and welfare@chevening.org at once; ask for an administrative review within 28 days if the refusal was wrong on your evidence (Stage 12).

Being charged the visa fee or the surcharge. Pay nothing; write to welfare@chevening.org (Stage 12).

More than 30 days out of the UK, or work without approval. Your stipend is suspended, or your award ended. Ask your programme officer before every trip and every job (Stage 14).

Staying on. Not open to a Chevening scholar: no Graduate route, no switch, and two years at home, or you repay everything (Stage 15).

People who sell help. "Applying for a Chevening Scholarship is free: You do not need to pay anyone to apply, and Chevening does not endorse or work with third parties who charge for application support or advice." Advisers selling "winning essays", reviews and mock interviews were active online through the 2026 window. Report fraud involving Chevening staff or scholars to HOPM@chevening.org, and fraud involving a British embassy or high commission also to reportingconcerns@fcdo.gov.uk or +44 (0)1355 843747. Complaints go to HOPM@chevening.org, acknowledged within 2 working days and decided within 10.

Part 5. If you already did some of this

Start at the first stage you have not finished.

You applied in the window that closed on 6 October 2026. You are waiting. Start at Stage 9: keep applying to your universities, chase your degree certificate, and tell your referees.

You were shortlisted or interviewed in an earlier window and not selected. You can apply again, once in each window: "results from previous years will not be taken into account." Plan without feedback: Chevening's results page says it cannot give any (Stage 11). This week:

1. Check that you still meet every line in Part 1, with your hours counted to the next close.
2. Add to your notebook what you have done since your last application (Stage 5): new work, new results, new awards.
3. Rewrite your four answers from that evidence, not from last year's text (Stage 6). No page says whether the plagiarism screen flags your own text from an earlier window, so write each answer afresh.
4. Keep or replace your three courses (Stage 2); a course applied to before may ask you to "demonstrate how your application has improved", as Manchester's does.
5. Ask your referees for updated letters: the same referees are acceptable, though updated letters are recommended (Stage 3).
6. On 12 October 2026, the Commonwealth Master's was open until 16:00 BST on Tuesday 20 October 2026 (4pm in Lagos), and three DAAD EPOS courses until 15 October 2026. If you meet their lines (Part 1), open their guides today.
7. Prepare for the interview from now, not from the invitation. The panel asks about the examples in your essays, how the scholarship serves your goals for impact, and your three courses and the status of your university applications (Stage 10, Step 3). Practise each answer out loud with someone who knows your work.

No page says whether your last window's access code and account still work in the next window. It is a log-in query, the one kind of question the applicants' inbox on Chevening's Contact us, opens in a new tab page answers, so write to it the day the window opens: "I applied in the 2027-2028 window. Does my access code still work for this window, or do I register again?" If it says your code works, sign in with it; if it says register again, or no reply has come within three days, register again with the same email and phone number (Stage 7).

Scholars who were selected on a later attempt say they changed their evidence, not their wording, had others read their drafts, and practised the interview with someone.

You hold fewer than 2,800 hours. You cannot apply until you hold them. Work out the date you reach 2,800 over at least two years (Stage 1); the first window whose close falls at least three days after it is yours. Meanwhile, do the closed plan at the top of this guide, and ask your referees for the letters only in the season you apply.

You hold a 2:2. You qualify only if each of the three courses you name is one whose own page takes a Nigerian 2:2. In this guide those are Birmingham's MPH Public Health, Leeds's Public Health (International) MPH and the postgraduate courses at Coventry, Northumbria and Teesside: Part 1 gives each line, and Stage 2 has you choose them. Reach your 2,800 hours (Stage 1), and write each example with what you did and what changed, with a number (Stage 5). For the Commonwealth Master's, through the Federal Scholarship Board a 2:2 does not qualify at all: its call asks "A First Degree of at least Second Class Upper for Masters". Through FAWE, as a woman, a 2:2 qualifies only with a relevant postgraduate qualification. The DAAD asks a Second Class Upper. So with a 2:2 and no postgraduate qualification, Chevening, from its next window, is the only one of the three you can apply for (Part 1).

You already hold a UK offer. Check that the course is in the finder and starts in the autumn of the year your award would fund. If your offer is for September 2027 and you will apply in the next window, the award is for a year later, so that offer does not serve it: do not count on a deferral (Manchester's MSc International Development: Public Policy and Management accepts none), and apply again for the 2028 intake when your universities open (Stage 2, Step 2). Chevening takes a deferred offer for a course it funds, so a deferral serves only if your university gives you one in writing. An offer must be unconditional, or conditional on money only, by the offer deadline (Stage 2).

You already hold your transcript. Your universities need it; Chevening does not. Check that it carries every course and grade and your degree class, as Edinburgh asks (Stage 4, Step 2).

You already hold your degree certificate. Scan it now; you upload it only if you are shortlisted (Stage 4).

You already hold an IELTS result. Chevening does not need it. Check it against each course's rule and its age: Birmingham and Edinburgh take a result no more than two years old on your start date (Edinburgh: on the 1st of the month your programme starts), Manchester one valid on your start date. A Nigerian degree may already serve as your English evidence at Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester (Stage 2).

You already hold a referee's letter. For Chevening it must be addressed to the British High Commission in Nigeria and carry the referee's contacts, how long and how they have known you, and when they last had regular contact (Stage 3). A letter written for another funder or a university is not that letter.

You hold a Commonwealth Master's or another UK government-funded award, now or in the past. You cannot apply for Chevening (Part 1).

You are a past Chevening Scholar. You cannot hold another Chevening Scholarship; a Chevening Fellowship opens five years after you finished.

You are shortlisted. Start at Stage 10, today: book your interview time.

You are conditionally selected. Start at Stage 11, and book your TB test today (Stage 12, Step 1).

You are a reserve candidate. Start at Stage 11, "If you are a reserve candidate": get your unconditional offer uploaded.

You hold your Final Award Letter. Start at Stage 12.

Your visa is granted. Start at Stage 13.

Part 6. The time, stage by stage

• Stage 1, the fit check: one evening; if you are short of hours, the weeks it takes to reach 2,800 (about 26 weeks at 35 hours a week for every 900 hours).
• Stage 2, the courses and the universities: one week to choose; the universities by their own rounds (Edinburgh's decisions by set dates); Manchester and Birmingham state no time.
• Stage 3, the referees: no time stated; ask in the first week. Edinburgh asks referees for five working days.
• Stage 4, the papers: ABU 24 to 48 hours for an e-copy, 5 to 7 days for a hard copy; the other universities state none; your certificate, as long as your university takes; a fresh passport 42 days after enrolment, a re-issue 21 days.
• Stage 5, the examples: two or three evenings, then add as you go.
• Stage 6, the answers: weeks of evenings, before the window.
• Stage 7, registering: one sitting.
• Stage 8, submitting: an evening; at least three days before the close.
• Stage 9, the wait: about four months, from the close to mid-February.
• Stage 10, the interview: uploads at least seven working days before; interviews March to April.
• Stage 11, the result: from early or mid-June; the offer by 8 July; the placement form up to two weeks; the Final Award Letter by August; reserves told by August.
• Stage 12, the visa: a TB appointment within a few days (up to 10 in June to September); ATAS at least 30 working days in the summer; the visa usually within 3 weeks, up to 3 to 4 weeks and longer in summer.
• Stage 13, travel: arrive one or two weeks before your course.
• Stage 14, arrival: your cash card credited one day after you land; your bank account by the end of October; a GP usually within 5 days.
• Stage 15, the end: your visa runs four months past your course; home for two years.

The whole journey: in the window that closed on 6 October 2026, from its opening on 4 August 2026 to the start of study in September or October 2027 is about fourteen months, then one year of study and two years at home. Your preparation before the window runs as long as your hours and your degree certificate take.

Part 7. The money, all of it

Every amount in the order you meet it, for you alone. Chevening charges nothing to apply.

Plus your fares. If you live outside Abuja and Lagos, the TB clinic and the visa centre are two trips; if you are shortlisted, the interview; and if you are selected, the pre-departure briefing.

What Chevening pays. Your tuition fees in full, straight to your university after you arrive (for example £31,500, about ₦56.2 million, for Birmingham's MPH, or £30,500, about ₦54.4 million, for Manchester's MSc International Development: Public Policy and Management); your economy flight to the UK and home; your arrival allowance; your Student visa fee, £558 (about ₦995,000); your health surcharge, £776 a year (£1,164, about ₦2.08 million, for a visa of about 17 months), paid by the FCDO; up to £75 towards your TB test; a travel top-up allowance; your monthly stipend; and your departure allowance. No Chevening page prints the stipend or the allowances in pounds; your award letter does.

What the scholarship leaves to you, only in these cases. An MBA's tuition above £22,000 (about ₦39.2 million); the 20% at a university that does not give it, if you choose to stay there; any contribution written in your Final Award Letter, which your university invoices to you.

Never yours to pay. A tuition deposit before you are selected (and after, your Final Award Letter waives it at Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester; their deposits are £3,000, about ₦5.35 million, £1,500, about ₦2.68 million, and £2,500, about ₦4.46 million); the visa fee or the surcharge; anyone who offers to apply for you or write for you.

Only if you choose them, and never repaid by Chevening. A premium visa centre's user pays fee, £76.50 (about ₦136,000); a priority visa decision, £500 (about ₦892,000), or super priority, £1,000 (about ₦1.78 million); a fee to have the visa centre's staff upload your documents; excess baggage.

Penalties. £100 (about ₦178,000) from your stipend for missing the Orientation or Farewell event without a reason Chevening accepts; a replacement cash card's fee from your money; the whole award repaid if you do not live in Nigeria for two years afterwards.

If a refusal comes. An administrative review, £80 (about ₦143,000).

Other money you may keep. Funding not covered by Chevening up to £10,000 (about ₦17.84 million), with the Secretariat's approval; your salary from your previous employer.

For each family member, if they come against Chevening's advice. The visa, £558 (about ₦995,000); the health surcharge, £1,164 (about ₦2.08 million) for a visa of about 17 months; money held for 28 days of £680 a month (about ₦1.21 million) for up to 9 months outside London, £6,120 (about ₦10.92 million), or £845 a month (about ₦1.51 million) in London, £7,605 (about ₦13.57 million); a TB test ($94 at IOM, or $49, about ₦65,000, for a child under 11; ₦120,000 or ₦60,000 at a Lagos clinic); and their flights. Chevening pays none of it.

Living costs, for comparison. Edinburgh estimates £18,504 a year (£1,542 a month), about ₦33.0 million (about ₦2.75 million a month), to live in Edinburgh as a postgraduate in 2026-2027. Your stipend is meant for your basic living costs; Chevening states its amount only in your award letter.

"Applying for a Chevening Scholarship is free: You do not need to pay anyone to apply, and Chevening does not endorse or work with third parties who charge for application support or advice." (Chevening, updated on 7 October 2026.)