UK celebrates 40 years of Chevening Scholarships programme

The Chevening Scholarships programme — which offers full financial support for scholars to study for any eligible Master’s degree at any UK university — is celebrating its 40th anniversary and on Thursday, the British High Commission held a reception to celebrate the milestone.

This is in recognition that for the past 40 years since 1983, the flagship Chevening programme has enabled outstanding emerging leaders from all over the world to pursue their dream higher academic pursuit in the UK.

The celebrations in Lilongwe also coincided with the send-off of six recipients of the Chevening programme that will form the 40th cohort to embark on studies for the 2023/24 academic year and 13 Commonwealth Scholars.

The British High Commissioner to Malawi, Fiona Ritchie also welcomed home 10 of the 2021/22 Chevening scholars and in her remarks, she said the UK has been Malawi’s longstanding partner in shaping leaders who have contributed significantly to the country’s socio-economic development.

“It’s been 40 years of rewarding excellence, 40 years of championing education and creating global change for good,” she said.

“We are proud of all the alumni and their incredible achievements.

“While we celebrate this milestone, we look ahead to many more years of friendship and lasting partnership with Malawi in education and other fields.”

Guest of honour at the reception was Director of quality assurance and standards in the Ministry of Education, Professor Golden Msiliwa, who hailed the UK for supporting Malawi in the field of higher education, saying the opportunity to acquire higher education was not only good for the individuals but to Malawi as a whole.

“At the heart of MW2063 vision is Human Capital Development,” he said.

“Underpinning the work of developing human capital is the belief of that the thrust of any economy is its people as they are the ones that design programmes, implement strategies and create innovations.”

The Chevening Scholarships — funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), partner organisations and partner universities — are awarded to individuals from all backgrounds who can demonstrate that they have the commitment and skills required to create positive change, and can show how a UK master’s degree will help them do that.

Since the programme was created in 1983, over 50,000 professionals have had the opportunity to develop in the UK through Chevening and  there are more than 1,500 scholarships on offer globally for the 2023/2024 academic year — demonstrating the UK’s ongoing commitment towards developing the leaders of tomorrow.

Over the years, the Chevening Scholarships has developed into a prestigious international awards scheme. The name ‘Chevening’ comes from Chevening House in Sevenoaks, Kent — currently the joint official residence of the UK’s Foreign Secretary.

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