Melbourne University Postgraduate Scholarships (local students)

Most people who do postgraduate research degrees at the University of Melbourne are on scholarships. More information can be found here. There's links there to apply online for the coming year. Deadlines are usually 31st October the previous year. The time line for local students can be found here and the international one is not too difficult to locate. There's different yet similar ones for international students. This entry will mostly talk about local students.

Depending on how fantastic you are and general area of research and personal situations, there are many types of scholarships to apply for. Generally, the most common one is the APA - Australian Postgraduate Award. It's about $19 000 per annum. No guarantees but if you get over 85 average, you're in with a good chance. Over 90, better chance. Less than those, not so good. In missing out on those, there are MRS, the Melbourne Research Scholarships. These are slightly less than the APA but are also about $19 000 per annum. People around the 85 mark who missed out on the APA might get a MRS.

You apply for the MRS and APA at the same time online. They prefer you to apply for enrolment as well. Although I have heard of students who have received scholarship but hadn't applied for the degree yet. Obviously they can't have the money until they enrol. I think they prefer you/force you to do it so it's easier on the paperwork.

MRS and APA are university wide. In computer science, another main source of funding that I had experience with is NICTA. In my year and the years before it, NICTA were quite generous with their scholarships (plentiful). The amount is also about $19 000 (maybe slightly less) if you missed out on a APA or MRS and about a $8000 top up if you got an APA or an MRS. These work in conjunction with MRS/APA. Applications for NICTA scholarships are separate from what I remember. If you get an APA/MRS, they are happy to give you a top up because they get some IP rights (you sell your research soul as some of my friends say). If you don't get an APA/MRS, they will give you just the normal $19 000 for your research IP. But starting last year, new NICTA recipients must also take some coursework. Not a lot, just maybe 1 a semester for each semester of your degree. Also NICTA is generous (monetary) with travel stipends. They cover a lot.

They are the common ones. The other ones are more dependant on your supervisor/project area. There are departmental scholarships and also APAI ones if you are interested in a project that a supervisor happens to have the funding for. These are usually made by private arrangement between the student and the supervisor and project that both parties are interested in that has been allocated funding. It usually has more to do with the supervisor. There's industry based scholarships as well. There are many different ways to arrange these. With my industry scholarship, the company contacted my supervisor because he was an expert in the area they wanted research in. And I was a student who was particularly interested in that area so it was a fit. There's usually more money involved with APAI and industry scholarships, about $25 000 to $30 000 per annum. Industry ones usually don't sit well with NICTA. Because both want IP and don't like to share. So for me, I chose industry and let my NICTA go. Depending on your industry, they may also have some travel allowance as well.

Top ups: as I mentioned before with NICTA, they give you top ups if you have MRS/APA. CSIRO can also offer the same deal but once again, it's often very project/supervisor dependent. You usually have to have a collaborator at CSIRO who is interested. CSIRO also doesn't work well with NICTA or industry (IP again).

All research students are entitled to department and graduate school funding. I've written more information about these types of funding here and here.

All PhD scholarships are tax free. And tuition is not really an issue. There are certain number of government places for research students and everyone I've ever know to do a research degree has been given a placement. So the learning is for free and you have enough to live on.