Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HDR Scholarship

Scholarship Information

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Scholarship applications are accepted all year and valued at $41,849.00 p.a (2024) for three and a half years for a Doctoral degree; or two years for a Research Masters. In addition, candidates will be eligible to apply to Graduate Research School for an additional $7,000.00 per year for cultural supervision and/or mentoring funds.

The University is seeking Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholars wanting to carry out research in areas of research priority for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, particularly where these align with UNE's Areas of Research Priority. Research projects should be interdisciplinary in nature, and work across areas such as rural medicine, health, psychology, education, social work, public policy, law, criminology and sociology.

Eligibility Criteria

Selection of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Scholarships are based on the following:

• you are an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person.
• academic merit as indicated by a Bachelor’s Degree with First Class Honours or equivalent.
• significant research experience undertaken in a community or professional capacity.
• capacity to successfully undertake higher degree research and to make a timely completion in the course at the required standard
• assessed by the Graduate Research School as meeting all conditions for admission to a higher degree by research program.

How to apply:

Applicants must meet UNE’s admission requirements for a PhD program. Please see the entry requirements. Applicants must submit a candidature application if they wish to apply for a scholarship. For more information on submitting a candidature application please see our how to apply/enrol webpage.

To apply for the scholarship please review the below guidelines and complete the application form:

• Higher Degree Research Candidature and Scholarship Application Guideline
• Higher Degree Research Candidature and Scholarship Application Form

Scholarship and candidature applications can be submitted through AskUNE.

Applicants are required to provide compelling evidence of their Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander status. This would usually take the form of the common seal of a community organisation. Where exceptional circumstances apply, statutory declarations and other forms of documentation may be considered. Original or certified copies of documentation must be provided.

Referee Reports

• All applicants must provide two referee reports. The University will not request reports on your behalf.
• Referees must be qualified to speak with knowledge about the applicants work during the qualification most relevant to this application and on your capacity for research. Referee's cannot be part of your supervision team. Please refer to the conflicts of interest policy. If you are also basing this application on relevant work experience/training, at least one referee must be able to comment on relevant experience.
• Referee reports must be submitted no later then one week after the closing date of the scholarship round.

Applicants must provide contact details of referees on the scholarship application. Applicants must request their referees to submit their written reports directly to the University using the Referee's Report Form.

For further information please visit AskUNE for HDR students.

Further information about these scholarships can be found on the UNE HDR Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship Policy webpage and in the Commonwealth Scholarships Guidelines (Research) 2017.