Abstract Within the context of a special section of the Journal of Refugee Studies, this article charts and evaluates the work of the UK-based NGO, World University Service (WUS), in assisting Chileans who fled their country in the wake of the 1973 coup and subsequent Pinochet dictatorship. The article combines documentary research in the WUS archive, Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick, and a series of in-depth interviews with 26 Chileans who were assisted by WUS. It begins by outlining the history, structure and development-based focus of the WUS scholarship scheme, which was an important step in the establishment of formal refugee support structures in the UK. It also explores quantitative data of the scheme’s academic success, before enriching this with qualitative research focused on analysis of refugees’ individual life stories. The research findings reveal tensions between what Chanfrault-Duchet calls the ‘inner self’ and the ‘social self’ in the case of women interviewees. The article concludes that a focus on individual life stories as emplotted narratives can enrich quantitative understandings of the effectiveness of formal refugee support programmes and provide important insights into the grassroots experience of exile, helping to avoid the historical decontextualization of discussions of refugee support programmes.