Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee-Chevening Scholarship Scheme (Uttar Pradesh)

What is the Uttar Pradesh Atal Chevening Scholarship Scheme?

The Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee-Chevening Scholarship Scheme is a fully funded overseas scholarship run by the Department of Higher Education, Government of Uttar Pradesh, in partnership with the United Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet approved the scheme on 8 August 2025.

Under the scheme, five meritorious students from Uttar Pradesh each year receive a fully funded place on a one-year master's degree at a UK university. The Uttar Pradesh government bears roughly Rs 23 lakh per scholar, about half the cost, and the UK government funds the balance through Chevening, the FCDO's global scholarship programme. The scheme was approved for the academic years 2025-26, 2026-27 and 2027-28, with continuation beyond that requiring fresh approval by 30 March 2028.

What the award covers

• Full tuition fees at the UK university.
• Examination and research fees connected to the course.
• A monthly living allowance for the duration of the course.
• Return economy-class airfare between India and the United Kingdom.

Uttar Pradesh is not creating a separate application system. The scheme operates as a Chevening partner award: candidates apply in the normal Chevening India cycle, and the state-funded seats are awarded to eligible Uttar Pradesh applicants within that cycle under the signed Memorandum of Understanding.

Who is eligible for the Atal Chevening Scholarship?

You can be considered if:

• You are an Indian citizen and a permanent resident of Uttar Pradesh.
• You hold an undergraduate degree of a standard that qualifies you for admission to a UK postgraduate programme.
• You have at least two years of work experience, counted by Chevening as 2,800 hours, completed after your undergraduate degree. Chevening counts full-time and part-time paid work, internships and voluntary work.
• You will apply to three different eligible one-year master's courses at UK universities through the application.
• You commit to returning to India for at least two years after the scholarship ends.
• You meet the UK university's English language requirement by the offer deadline. No English test score is needed at the point of application.

You are not eligible if:

• You are a UK citizen or hold dual British citizenship, excluding British Overseas Territory citizens.
• You have already studied in the UK on a UK government-funded scholarship.
• You are an employee, former employee or relative of an employee of the UK government, including the FCDO and British diplomatic missions, or of a Chevening partner organisation.
• You have less than 2,800 hours of qualifying work experience, or your experience was gained before your undergraduate degree.
• You apply to a part-time, distance-learning, PhD or self-study programme, or to a course longer than one year. Chevening funds one-year taught master's degrees only.
• You are not a permanent resident of Uttar Pradesh; such candidates may still compete for general Chevening India awards, but not for the five state-funded seats.

How to apply for the Atal Chevening Scholarship

Applications are made online only, on the Chevening portal. There is no offline route and no fee.

1. Check the window. Chevening opens one application cycle a year. For the 2027/2028 intake, applications opened on 4 August 2026 and close on 6 October 2026 at 11:00 UTC. Late applications are not accepted for any reason.
2. Create an account on chevening.org and start the application, selecting India as your country of citizenship.
3. Choose three eligible courses. Use the Chevening course finder to pick three different one-year taught master's programmes at UK universities. All three must be eligible courses; an ineligible choice invalidates that slot.
4. Enter your work experience carefully. Chevening requires 2,800 hours. List each role with exact start and end dates and hours per week, because the total is calculated from what you enter.
5. Write the four essays: leadership and influence, networking, studying in the UK, and career plan. Each has a strict word limit and these essays are the main basis of shortlisting.
6. Submit before the deadline and keep your application reference number.
7. If shortlisted, submit two references and attend the interview at the British High Commission or a designated centre in India.
8. Submit at least one unconditional offer from one of your three chosen courses by the July deadline in the selection year. Chevening announces outcomes from mid-June.

How are the five Uttar Pradesh seats selected?

Selection is done jointly. Applications are read and shortlisted through the standard Chevening process, interviews are held in India, and the state-funded seats are allotted to selected candidates who are permanent residents of Uttar Pradesh, in accordance with the MoU between the Uttar Pradesh government and the FCDO. The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet decision recorded that selection would be made transparently under the terms of that MoU.

There is no separate Uttar Pradesh merit list, no state entrance test and no quota within the state by district or category that has been notified.

What documents do you need and when?

Common reasons Chevening applications fail

• Work experience short of 2,800 hours, or hours claimed from before the undergraduate degree. This is the most common automatic rejection.
• Ineligible course choices; part-time, distance, two-year or PhD programmes do not qualify.
• Fewer than three course choices entered.
• Generic essays that do not give specific, dated examples of leadership and networking.
• Missing the October deadline. The portal closes at the stated UTC time and no extension is given.
• Failure to produce an unconditional offer by the July deadline, which causes an otherwise successful candidate to lose the award.

What can you study, and what does the year look like?

Chevening funds one-year taught master's degrees at UK universities across essentially every discipline: public policy, law, engineering, public health, data science, journalism, development, business and more. The restriction is on the format, not the subject: the course must be full-time, taught, campus based and completed within twelve months. Two-year programmes, research degrees, distance learning and any course beginning before the scholarship year does not qualify.

Scholars arrive in the UK in September or October and finish the following September, including the dissertation. Alongside the degree, Chevening runs a year of networking events, regional gatherings and policy briefings that are a substantial part of the award's value. On completing the course, a scholar joins the Chevening alumni network and returns to India, where the two-year residence commitment applies.

For the Uttar Pradesh scholars, the return commitment is the point of the state's Rs 23 lakh investment per candidate: the state is funding skills that come back to Uttar Pradesh's administration, institutions and enterprises within two years of the degree ending.

Where to get help

• Chevening India programme information: chevening.org/scholarship/india
• Department of Higher Education, Uttar Pradesh: uphed.gov.in, which publishes state scholarship notices and news of the scheme
• British Council India runs information sessions on Chevening applications each year through study-uk.britishcouncil.org

There is no application fee for Chevening and no agent can improve your chances. Any person or website charging to "register" you for the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-Chevening Scholarship is not connected to either government.

How to check your application status

There is no separate Uttar Pradesh tracking system for the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-Chevening Scholarship. Because the state-funded seats are awarded from within the standard Chevening India applicant pool, status updates come only through the global Chevening portal and its own timeline.

1. Log in to your account at chevening.org using the credentials you created when you submitted your application. There is no separate reference number to quote elsewhere and no phone helpline for status queries; the portal account is the only record of where your application stands.
2. Watch for the mid-June results window. Chevening begins announcing outcomes from mid-June of the selection year. If you are shortlisted, this is communicated through the portal and by email to the address you registered with, not by post or SMS.
3. Check your registered email regularly, including spam or promotions folders, from June onward. Shortlisting notices, interview scheduling, and requests for references are all sent to this address.
4. If shortlisted, the portal itself lists your next steps: submitting two references and attending an interview at the British High Commission or a designated centre in India. These action items appear against your application inside your Chevening account rather than through a separate status page.
5. After the interview, continue checking the same account for the final selection outcome and, if selected, for confirmation of which of your three chosen courses has been matched to the award.
6. For the Uttar Pradesh state seat itself, there is no additional state-level status check. Selection of the five Uttar Pradesh-funded scholars happens as part of the same Chevening process, under the state's Memorandum of Understanding with the FCDO, so a candidate's Chevening account is the only place the outcome is recorded. The Department of Higher Education, Uttar Pradesh (uphed.gov.in) publishes general scheme announcements and news but does not run an individual applicant status lookup.
7. If you do not hear anything by the time results are substantially announced, this generally means your application was not shortlisted; Chevening does not guarantee individual rejection notices to every applicant on a fixed date, so absence of a portal update by results season is itself informative.

Applicants should rely only on the chevening.org account and its associated email communications for status information; no agent, consultancy, or third-party website can look up or expedite an application's status.