Financial and Other Advice for International Postgraduate Research Applicants

Are you an international undergraduate student seeking in an internship? Click here.

While I am very appreciative that, every year, there are a considerable number of qualified people who are interested in doing PhD studies with our HPC group at DCS, there is a considerable amount of time and emotional investment (on both sides) in going about the process of applying. If you are about to contact me for the first time on this, please read below. If you go ahead with contacting me, please state clearly whether you need financial support from the ANU.

Note that the costs include fees of approximately AUS$ 22K p.a.; living expenses are about AUS$ 18K p.a. Note that in order to get a visa, you need to be able to show that you have already secured funding covering both of these before entering Australia.

ANU and our College have very limited scholarships available for international PhD applicants (and even less for Masters by Research). The main scholarship round (for the start of next year) closes at the end of August (there is sometimes a mid-year round closing in May). In my experience over the last 5 years, to have even a reasonable chance, an applicant needs to be:

Other factors which will help include having a number of refereed papers in the area of proposed research (preferably in major international conferences or journals), and having referees which are either known to people within the ANU or have a known international standing. It is also necessary to submit a research proposal with your application which proposes to explore an area of interesting research, is tractable, is well aligned with our current interests, and clearly demonstrates your understanding of the area of study.

If you have the opportunity to gain your own scholarship (e.g. from a scheme in your home country), that may well be a more likely prospect. While I have sometimes have scholarships for specific projects, these are normally only available to Australian citizens or residents. In any case, they will not cover tuition fees. One possibility would be to apply for Australian residency, if you meet the required conditions (this takes about 6 months). Note that once residency is gained, it is much easier to get general ANU scholarships as well.

Some useful links:



Internships: there are a fair number of enquiries each year from international undergraduates seeking a 3-4 month internship. If this applies to you, you will need to provide your own funding for travel and expenses (this has been the case for the past 5 years, and will continue to be the case for the foreseable future). Unless you state clearly that you have your own funding, please do not expect me to respond to such an enquiry.

last modified: Peter Strazdins, 20 Dec 2006