The UK government has cancelled a major education programme aimed at helping women and girls in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The scheme, called SHEFE (Strengthening Higher Education for Female Empowerment), was withdrawn in 2026 — roughly two years after it was announced — and The Guardian reported on the news on 4 July 2026.

SHEFE was supposed to give nearly one million students better access to university education across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. It had a budget of £65 million in total and was designed as 12 partnerships linking businesses, universities, and governments in those regions. The plan was to increase the number of women studying science, technology, engineering, and maths; put more women into top university jobs; stop gender-based violence on campus; make sure courses matched what employers actually needed; and study how education helps women find jobs and achieve equality.

The programme was first publicly planned in October 2023 and then formally announced by Deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell at the Education World Forum on 20 May 2024. It was meant to follow on from an earlier UK programme called SPHEIR, which from 2016 onwards helped over one million students across 16 countries, including 12,500 refugees. But SHEFE never got off the ground. No actual contracts were ever signed, and in 2026 the government quietly withdrew the tender — the formal request for organisations to apply to deliver the programme.

Why It Was Cancelled

The UK government has been cutting its overseas aid budget. These cuts have affected many programmes that help education, health, and emergencies in poorer countries. Labour politician Bambos Charalambous, who leads the parliamentary group on global education, said he was "alarmed" at the cancellation. He said it "appears to have been scrapped because of the aid cuts." The UK Foreign Office has not given any detailed explanation; it simply confirmed the cancellation.

SHEFE was not cancelled alone. The government also cancelled a £150 million education programme for South Sudan earlier in 2026. South Sudan is a country where very few children attend school. These two cancellations in one year — worth £215 million together — show the government is backing away from education promises it had publicly announced.

Why This Matters

Because the programme never started, no money was wasted and no students were directly harmed. But the loss runs deeper. Universities and governments in Africa and Asia were preparing to partner with the UK based on public announcements and meetings with UK officials. Now those plans have to change. It is like a building contractor promising to fund a school and then walking away before construction starts — the land may have been set aside, staff hired to plan, and other funding sources rejected because the British money was coming.

When rich countries promise to help develop education in poorer nations, those countries make long-term plans based on that promise. Two major UK education programmes cancelled in one year will make other countries think twice before counting on British aid in future. The UK Foreign Office has not said whether it plans a smaller version of the programme or whether helping women in higher education remains important to it.