UK Government Cancels Higher Education Programme for Women and Girls

Published: 04 July  2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online

In a move that has drawn sharp criticism from development experts and political figures, the British government has scrapped a major international education scheme just two years after its inception. The “Strengthening Higher Education for Female Empowerment” (SHEFE) programme, which held a £45 million budget, was designed to expand access to higher education for one million students across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) confirmed that the programme’s tender has been withdrawn as part of broader budgetary adjustments. This decision comes despite high-level commitments from the government to prioritize the rights and safety of women and girls as a central pillar of its foreign policy.

The SHEFE programme was originally developed to tackle critical barriers to girls’ education, which is widely recognized as a catalyst for gender equality and economic stability. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that access to advanced learning significantly lowers the likelihood of child marriage and domestic violence while increasing long-term earnings for women. Bambos Charalambous, the Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on global education, expressed deep concern over the decision. He warned that axing a “flagship programme” designed to empower marginalized girls contradicts the government’s stated values and represents a significant setback for the UK’s international development efforts.

The cancellation of SHEFE is part of a wider trend of aid budget reductions that have sparked internal dissent and public outcry. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration has faced significant backlash for its plans to reduce the UK’s official development assistance (ODA) from 0.5% of gross national income (GNI) to 0.3% by 2027. The government has defended these cuts, citing the necessity to bolster national security and increase defence spending, which is projected to reach 2.6% of GDP by 2027. Officials maintain that despite the reduction in the total ODA budget, they remain committed to protecting central spending dedicated to tackling violence against women and girls. However, development advocates argue that the systemic erosion of aid funding is undermining the UK’s global influence and betraying previous manifesto commitments to international development.

The broader development sector remains wary of the long-term impacts of these funding shifts. According to Unicef, international aid to education is expected to fall by approximately $3.2 billion by 2026, putting millions of children—particularly in humanitarian settings—at risk of falling out of the school system. With the UK aid budget set to fall to its lowest level since 1999, critics warn that the government’s pivot away from bilateral education programmes will leave a void that multilateral institutions may struggle to fill. For organizations like Bond, a network of international development charities, the retreat from these programmes threatens to reverse decades of progress in gender equality, leaving the world’s most vulnerable populations to bear the consequences of domestic fiscal reallocations.