Chevening Scholarship by Country
Chevening's rules are global, but applications are not: reviewer expectations, typical applicant profiles, and competition depth vary sharply by country. These guides cover what strong applications from each country actually look like — and the narrative risks to defuse before you submit.
South Asia
Pakistan
Among the most competitive Chevening countries by volume. A technically clean application is table stakes; selection usually turns on evidence quality and a return plan tied to a specific institutional gap in Pakistan.
Read the Pakistan guideIndia
Extremely competitive: a very large pool that includes some of the most credentialed applicants Chevening sees anywhere. Specificity of purpose, not pedigree, is the usual separator.
Read the India guideBangladesh
Consistently strong pool with deep development-sector experience. Applications that quantify outcomes and name the Bangladeshi institution they will return to outperform broadly framed ones.
Read the Bangladesh guideNepal
Moderate in volume but high in quality at the top; the applicants who win tend to pair genuine field delivery with unusually clear return mandates.
Read the Nepal guideSri Lanka
Competitive relative to cohort size, with strong English-language writing standard across the pool — evidence depth, not prose quality, is the separator.
Read the Sri Lanka guideSub-Saharan Africa
Nigeria
Very high volume and rising every cycle. Reviewers read many stylistically impressive Nigerian essays, so restrained, numbers-backed writing stands out more than rhetorical flourish.
Read the Nigeria guideGhana
Meaningfully competitive despite a smaller pool than Nigeria's; the average application quality from Ghana is high, so differentiation comes from owned outcomes rather than solid employment history.
Read the Ghana guideKenya
High. Nairobi's professional density produces many well-networked applicants; the essays that clear the bar are those with measurable delivery and a Kenya-specific return mandate.
Read the Kenya guideEthiopia
The pool is smaller than Nigeria's or Kenya's but substantive. Clear, confident evidence presentation — a skill less culturally rewarded at home — is often the deciding factor.
Read the Ethiopia guideUganda
Moderate volume with strong health-sector representation; applicants who quantify system-level contributions consistently outperform those describing roles.
Read the Uganda guideZimbabwe
Modest volume, high commitment. Applicants who convert constraint-era delivery into confident, quantified leadership stories are consistently competitive.
Read the Zimbabwe guideSoutheast Asia
Indonesia
High and rising, with strong representation from the civil service. Applications that show initiative beyond formal duties and a precise return mandate stand out.
Read the Indonesia guidePhilippines
Solidly competitive with a high floor of English fluency; quantified delivery and institutional return anchors decide the top of the pool.
Read the Philippines guideVietnam
Competitive and rising with Vietnam's scholarship-savvy professional class; direct, evidence-led self-presentation is the most common gap between good and winning applications.
Read the Vietnam guideThailand
Steady and quality-dense rather than volume-heavy; applicants who make personal agency explicit within Thailand's consensus-oriented institutions separate quickly.
Read the Thailand guideMalaysia
Competitive with a high linguistic and structural baseline; country-specific substance and quantified delivery are what remain to compete on.
Read the Malaysia guideEast Asia
Middle East & North Africa
Latin America
Brazil
The region's deepest pool. Applicants with quantified delivery and confident English execution separate from a large field of well-credentialed peers.
Read the Brazil guideMexico
High volume and strong academic preparation across the pool; concrete institutional outcomes and an unambiguous Mexico-anchored return plan are the recurring separators.
Read the Mexico guideEurope & Central Asia
Your country guide is a starting point — your evidence decides
Wherever you apply from, selection turns on the same thing: concrete, individually owned impact and a credible return plan. Start with a free positioning diagnosis to see how reviewers will read yours.
CheveningPrep is independent and is not affiliated with Chevening or the UK Government. Country guides are qualitative preparation guidance; official eligibility, dates, and award numbers are published on chevening.org.
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