Common errors

Below are examples of the most common errors that Chevening applicants have made in their application form. As a result of these errors, applications are deemed ineligible and applicants are not taken through to the next stage of the competition.

If your application has been deemed ineligible, please refer to the below to understand what error you may have made. If you’re yet to submit an application, read this to avoid making the same mistakes others have.

Pre-screen

Applicants must correctly answer all parts of the eligibility pre-screen in order to access the application form. An incorrect answer to one of these questions would result in the applicant failing the pre-screen stage of the application.

Application form

Applicants must correctly complete all parts of the application form to be considered eligible. Only eligible applications will be processed. Below are the sections of the application form where applicants have made the most common errors.

Personal details

Applicants who indicate they have dual citizenship from the United Kingdom cannot be considered for an award.

Work experience

Applicants are required to have worked a minimum of 2,800 hours. Those who cannot demonstrate that they have worked the minimum number of hours cannot be considered for a scholarship.

Your work experience will be calculated automatically by multiplying the number of weeks worked by the number of hours worked per week. For this calculation, a working week comprises 35-60 hours and a working year comprises 40-50 weeks.

Some common errors applicants made are:

• Not meeting the minimum number of hours worked prior to submitting their application.
• Not entering the correct total number of weeks worked for each year of employment.
• Entering an unrealistic number of hours or weeks worked (e.g. 2,000 hours rather than 20 hours per week).
• Entering the same work experience entry more than once.

UK university

Applicants who enter duplicate courses at the same universities cannot be considered for a scholarship. Applicants must select three different courses.

Declaration

This section of the application form requires the applicant to correctly answer a number of statements to be considered eligible. If an applicant is not able to confirm that these statements apply to them, they will be deemed ineligible.

Applicants are asked to think carefully and select one of the two options available against each statement (e.g. ‘Yes’ or ‘No’).

This is an example of a statement that the applicant will be asked to answer: ‘I confirm that I am not employed (and have not been employed since 1 July 2018) in a permanent or temporary role in the following organisations; His Majesty’s Government, or the Association of Commonwealth Universities. If an applicant answers ‘No’ then this indicates the applicant is employed by one of these institutions and therefore cannot be considered for an award.

Application questions word count

Applicants must meet the minimum word count in the essay questions. If the minimum word count is not met, your application will be deemed ineligible.

Repetition

Applicants should not repeat answers to any of the essay questions, and should enter new and original answers for each of the four questions. Please do not copy and paste the same answers into more than one box as this will make an application invalid.

Plagiarism

All applications are run through plagiarism software, which compares the content of the application against online sources. If an applicant commits plagiarism, they will be disqualified. Applicants are allowed to insert quotations but must acknowledge the source as they would in an academic essay.

Use of English language

Applicants must complete the application form in English. If the application form is not completed in English, it will be deemed ineligible.