Some Expert Advice: How to approach the Chevening Scholarship essay

The Chevening Scholarship is the UK Government’s global scholarship programme, funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and partner organisations. It offers future leaders and outstanding professionals from all over the world to pursue a one-year master’s degree in any subject at any UK university.

You will live and study in the UK for a year, during which time you will develop professionally and academically, grow your network, experience UK culture, and build lasting positive relationships with the UK. For 2020-2021, the Chevening application started from 7^th August 2019 and are open until 5^th November 2019.

I faced a common problem while writing the four questions (asked in a form of essay) in the Chevening Scholarship application form. The problem was that there were a lot of achievements I had to write but the questions were sort of intertwined resulting in repetition of points.

So, before answering these questions, make sure you understand the demand of each question and categorise all your achievements in such a way that it fits into the different questions properly and there is no repetition.

You need to think over these four broader points to answer the four questions mentioned below:

• Explain the Problem.
• Demand of the problem/ what needs to be done?
• Explain your work (individual/group) to solve problem.
• What was the outcome/impact on society/ nation/ world?

The application involves writing four essays in English which can be broadly described as:

1)   Leadership and Influence

Chevening is looking for individuals who will be future leaders or influencers in their home countries. Explain to them how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your own leadership and influencing skills to support your answer.

(Minimum word count: 100 words, Maximum word count: 500 words)

• Give the background of your life that may be in the form of childhood experiences/ rural background/ poverty/ deficit environment/ first generation learner/ orphan/ drugs ( Not more than 50-60 words)
• Use 3-4 leadership examples. First leadership example at school level, Second Leadership example at University Level and Third example at Job level. Further substantiate with its influence on the societal/ national/ international level.
• There can be more than one leadership example at any level but these examples must be presented in a progressive manner. The flow is of essence here.

2)  Networking

Chevening is looking for individuals with strong professional relationship building skills, who will engage with the Chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession. Please explain how you build and maintain relationships in a professional capacity, using clear examples of how you currently do this, and outline how you hope to use these skills in the future.

(Minimum word count: 100 words; Maximum word count: 500 words)

Here, the aspirants should focus on showing effective networking (means how s/he is/was associated with different people/organisation professionally) through various examples. The networking can be shown by showing one’s association with

•  Family
• Society
• Teachers/Professors
• Civil Society
• NGOs
• Government
•  International organizations.

 Again, take 3-4 concrete examples which reflect your capability of establishing networks with various people/organizations.

3)   Why Study in the UK and why the three course choices?

Outline why you have selected your three university courses, and explain how these relate to your previous academic or professional experience and your plans for the future. Please do not duplicate the information you have entered on the work experience and education section of this form.

 (Minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

 This question demands aspirants to do comprehensive research about two things

•  The chosen course.
• The three universities where you want to pursue this course. The aspirants should focus their research on modules (subjects) taught in the university and the professors who teach these modules.

In this question, aspirants should write 2-3 lines about ones work/goal and how particular Course and University will help in achieving the goal.

Write one paragraph for each University (i.e. total three paragraphs).

The final Paragraph should focus on how becoming a Chevening Scholar will help in achieving your mentioned goal.

4)   Career plan

Chevening is looking for individuals who have a clear post-study career plan. Please outline your immediate plans upon returning home and your long term career goals. You may wish to consider how these relate to what the UK government is doing in your country.

(Minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

This question requires the Chevening Scholarship aspirants to discuss the plan after finishing the studies in the UK. Here, the focus should be on explaining Short/Medium and Long term career goals. This Question is make or break. The aspirants must give a clear blueprint of his/her career after returning from UK.

The aspirants may mention his/her willingness to work as an academician or are having a political pursuit or want to start an organization. And how these career paths could help in achieving one’s goal mentioned above. The last paragraph could focus on how Chevening Scholarship will be instrumental in achieving these career goals.

Note: The applicant should focus on originality and must not copy from previous scholar essays. There is a high chance that the scrutiny committee will find it through the plagiarism software and out rightly reject your application.

Also, if you are not truthful in your application process, you may not be able to show your passion in the interview stage or get caught by the Interviewer as they are highly experienced people. So, one last Mantra, be honest in your application process and you will get through.

Everyday, people are requesting me to share my essays with them. I sincerely request you all to kindly refrain from doing so. I will not be able to share them. However, you can send me your essays and I will definitely give my comments and also if needed, I will discuss the same on the phone with you.

You can send me your essay on dhananjay3166 [at] gmail [dot] com.

Dhananjay Kumar is a Chevening Scholar (2020) who will be pursuing a Masters in Public Policy at King’s College London