Research scholarships - summary

A wide range of scholarships are available for postgraduate researchers at Monash University.

Over 300 living allowance or stipend scholarships are offered at the main central selection round, which closes on 31 October each year. Approximately 70 international scholarship winners are also offered fees awards to meet their tuition costs. However, as under the Research Training Scheme (RTS) Australian students are not required to pay fees. Australian citizens, Australian permanent residents and New Zealand citizens need only apply for living allowance or stipend scholarships.

While a number of eligible applicants may not be successful in receiving an offer during this initial selection process, there will be other opportunities to gain a scholarship to undertake a research program at Monash. For example, most faculties offer both living allowance and tuition awards to students who may have narrowly missed out on a scholarship in the university-wide selection round.

A further small selection round takes place in mid-year, when faculties and academic units nominate high quality students for additional living allowance and tuition awards.

Academic departments also offer scholarships throughout the year including Monash Departmental Scholarships (MDS) or Monash Research Scholarships (MRS). These are funded through research grants and other outside sources.

Other awards are available through schemes sponsored by AusAID, by individual countries and by a range of organisations and donors. An Australian database, the Joint Academic Scholarship On-Line Network (JASON), is a very useful resource.

Monash spends approximately $AUD30 million each year on its postgraduate research scholarship programs. Scholarships for research masters programs generally have a tenure of two years while those for doctoral programs may be held for three years with a possible six month extension in some cases.

Name	Scholarship type	Approximate number offered annually	Eligibility	Closing Date	More information
Australian Postgraduate Award (APA)	Stipend/living allowance	119	Australian citizens and Australian permanent residents only	31 October- main selection round	other allowances eg relocation and thesis preparation
Australian Postgraduate Award – Industry (APA) (Industry)	Stipend/ living allowance	15	Australian citizens and Australian permanent residents only	varies	For graduates interested in industrial research and qualified personnel from industry seeking to upgrade their research skills
Monash Graduate Scholarship (MGS), including the Monash Silver Jubilee Scholarship	Stipend/living allowance	140	Australian citizens, Australian permanent residents and International students	31 October- main selection round	other allowances eg relocation and thesis preparation
Sir James McNeill Postgraduate Research Scholarship	Stipend/living allowance	1-2	Australian citizens, Australian permanent residents and International students	31 October- main selection round	Only for doctoral degree in Medicine, Engineering, Science and Music Generous allowances
Monash Departmental Scholarships (MDS) and Monash Research Scholarships (MRS)	Stipend/living allowance and/or tuition fee	varies	Australian citizens, Australian permanent residents and International students	Throughout the year	Other allowances may be payable
Endeavour International Postgraduate Research Scholarships (IPRS)	Tuition fee	20	International students only	31 October- main selection round	Overseas Student Health cover also paid. May be held with MGS or other living allowance scholarship
Monash International Postgraduate Research Scholarships (MIPRS)	Tuition fee	55	International students only	31 October- main selection round	Overseas Student Health cover also paid May be held with MGS or other living allowance scholarship

Applying for a scholarship

On-line scholarship applications open 9am on Friday 1 August 2008 and close midnight (AEST) on Friday 31 October 2008. Late applications cannot be accepted.

Normally students who complete a scholarship application are not required to submit a separate application for doctoral or masters by research candidature.

The selection process is explained in detail in the Postgraduate Research Scholarship Selection Principles & Procedures manual.

Eligibility

To be eligible for a centrally awarded MGS, APA, IPRS or MIPRS scholarship, only students holding first class honours (H1) qualifications can be considered. Students holding the following qualifications are automatically classed as first class honours applicants:

Australian/New Zealand bachelors degree with first class honours (H1)
Australian/New Zealand research masters preliminary degree formally graded at H1 level
Australian/New Zealand research masters degree formally graded at H1 level
MBBS/FRACP (Fellowship of Royal Australasian College of Physicians)

However, Monash has well established procedures for assessing other qualifications, through its first class honours equivalence process (H1E). If a faculty believes an applicant has qualifications and/or research experiences equivalent to an Australian first class honours degree, the student’s qualifications may be assessed for equivalence. The following qualifications, for example, require such assessment:

bachelors degree with second or third class honours as highest qualifications
research masters preliminary degree without a formal H1 grade
research masters degree without a formal H1 grade
coursework masters degree
graduate diploma
most overseas qualifications (although some qualifications from selected overseas institutions have now been accepted by Monash as automatically meeting H1 equivalence).

In deciding whether a student’s qualifications are equivalent to an Australian first class honours degree, a panel of academic staff will consider an applicant’s:

Academic record – for example, overall grade or GPA of qualifications; grade of research component and its % of overall program; thesis examiner reports (where available); coursework unit results; extent to which units relate to acquisition of research skills, and % of coursework in overall program(s)
Research output - publications such as books, journal publications, conference proceedings, reports and working papers, including where relevant, title, number of pages, number of authors and % contribution of applicant, status of publication-accepted, in press or published, etc
Prior research experience – nature and extent of research undertaken during relevant work experience.

Many applications are favourably assessed through this process. In a recent selection round, for example, the following qualifications were considered to be equivalent to an Australian bachelors degree with first class honours:

An ungraded MA from an Australian institution combined with 30 major solo exhibitions; over 50 juried/curated group exhibitions in Australia and overseas; and nine grants from funding bodies (Faculty of Art & Design)
An MA from a Canadian university, and an undergraduate degree from a university in Asia; together with a strong thesis examiner report and referee report (Faculty of Business and Economics)
Two bachelors degrees and a masters by coursework with a high distinction grade for the research unit; and one refereed conference proceeding (Faculty of Education)
An upper second class honours Australian bachelors degree with a first class honours grade for the research project, combined with a first author refereed publication (Faculty of Engineering)
A bachelors and masters from Asian universities with very good results in the masters program which had a significant research component, extensive research experience, and a sound publication record (Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences)