Updating Results

Great engineering and technology scholarships for postgrads

James Davis

Careers Commentator
Degrees in engineering and technology are exceptionally useful, but like all postgraduate programs, can be expensive. Fortunately, there are many solutions.

To help offset some of the postgraduate study costs, we’ve come up with a list of excellent scholarships you can apply for in engineering and technology fields, including but not limited to:

  • Aerospace engineering
  • Automotive & transport engineering
  • Biomedical engineering
  • Chemical engineering
  • Civil engineering
  • Communications technology
  • Renewable energy

This makes them quite flexible.

If you’re intimidated by the prospect of scholarship applications, fear not! We’ve written a free, comprehensive guide to postgraduate scholarships and getting selected that you can reference throughout this article. If you’d rather not go elsewhere for now, here are just a couple tidbits from it that’ll help you understand some of the common terminology in relation to scholarship applications:

  • There are three main types of scholarships.
    • Merit-based scholarships rely on some combination of grades, professional or extra-curricular achievements to succeed.
    • Need-based scholarships adopt their namesake in only being given to those of greatest need. This is commonly in the form of financial hardship, but can be in reference to coming from a disadvantaged background or having a disability.
    • Research-based scholarships are often discipline-specific endeavours that requires applicants to undergo research in a very particular area. For instance, it may require a student of archaeology to travel to Macedonia and investigate the remains of ancient Macedonian soldiers.
  • Written statements require a short blurb about yourself, with your achievements as supporting evidence rather than being centre stage.
  • CVs or resumes put your achievements first in fairly terse language.
  • Professional references are former bosses or professors.
  • Personal references are family members, friends or community leaders, the latter being preferable.
  • Academic transcripts are official or unofficial documents provided by your university. When an application asks for these if you haven’t yet finished undergrad, an unofficial transcript will normally do just fine.

Without further adieu, here are some great funding opportunities in engineering and technology.

PhD Scholarship in Development Vibration Energy Harvesting Devices for Train Carrier Suspension - $30,000 pa

This is a research-based scholarship for a PhD candidate in the eponymous discipline. Students can therefore be in a variety of programs, including but not limited to:

  • Applied physics
  • Automotive and transport engineering
  • Electrical engineering
  • Mechanical engineering

So long as students already hold an honours or master’s degree in any of these disciplines with a GPA of 3.5 (on a 4-point scale) or higher, they can find themselves eligible. Unfortunately, only Australian citizens or permanent residents can apply.

CharterNet R&D Scholarship - $10,000 pa

This is one of those particularly valuable merit scholarships that provide extensive work experience in the field at CharterNet (37.5 hours per week). In addition, the funding is granted for the remaining duration of your degree, so the earlier you apply and get accepted, the more you’ll earn. Granted, this is quite the undertaking; 37.5 hours per week in addition to concurrent assignments in an engineering or technology discipline is a lot of work, but if you can get through it, you’ll be put in excellent stead for a future career. We highly recommend this one to ambitious aspiring engineers, computer science or mathematics students. Students who’ve achieved at least a 4.0 GPA in prior study (credit average) are eligible, making it particularly lenient for a merit-based scholarship.

Materials Development for Solar-Driven Production of Fuels and Chemicals - $26,682

This is a choice research-based opportunity dedicated to PhD candidates in chemical engineering, regardless of their nationality. Those who are about to complete their honours degree or master’s with first-class honours in the former case and distinction GPA in the latter are invited to apply. It’s also required to have completed a significant research component in either case.

A brief of your proposed project in solar-fuel generation must be sent to Dr Yan Jiao at the University of Adelaide before submitting your application.

FA Kernot Bequest - $3,000

This is a very straightforward merit-based scholarship available to final year Master of Engineering students, regardless of major. Simply submitting a written statement and unofficial transcript are sufficient to get in the running.

Robert Bage Memorial Scholarship - $5,000

This is a research-based scholarship that requires successful applicants to travel overseas for their master’s by research. Applicants must submit a research proposal relevant to engineering or computer science to the selection committee for review. They also need to specify which university they intend to travel to, with prior scholarships granted playing a role in whether or not you’re successful. It also helps to have prior work published to prove your mettle. The application contains up to 5 spaces where you can specify these.

Australia-Israel Research Scholarship - $30,000 pa

This merit-based opportunity is available to both domestic and international PhD students who would like to study for a year in Israel at Tel Aviv University. Applicants must have a good understanding of data management and statistics in addition to at least four years of completed study in an engineering or computer science discipline.

Students must also meet the entry requirements for their desired PhD program at both Swinburne University of Technology and Tel Aviv University to be eligible.

The PostgradAustralia Scholarship - $2,750

Our very own scholarship is available across disciplines, socio-economic backgrounds and nationalities. It’s fairly unique in that the requirements are fairly novel and don’t involve GPA or research. Instead, applicants simply submit a short 500 word article on why they’re passionate about their field accompanied by a creative social media post that showcases this. As a student of engineering or computer science, you could make a video or take a picture of any number of devices you may be responsible for designing or building, for instance.

It acts as a nice supplement to any existing scholarships you might have, so we’d highly recommend applying.

PhD Scholarship in Visual Analytics - $28,849 pa

This is a scholarship offered by RMIT to PhD students of several engineering or computer science disciplines, such as:

  • Biomedical engineering
  • Bio-electric engineering
  • Mechatronics engineering

Having degrees in these fields isn’t necessary, but it’ll greatly help your chances of success. It also helps to have previously published work with mathematical skill demonstrated throughout. Knowledge of visual tracking is also a good way of boosting your chances. If you have a good knowledge of computer vision methods, such as multiple-model robust fitting methods, we strongly encourage to apply for this scholarship instead, which has otherwise very similar requirements and value to this one.

Hopefully this has given you some idea of what’s available in terms of funding. If you’re still not satisfied and would like a broader look at what’s available, there are a variety of discipline non-specific scholarships available here, which can be valued quite highly. Best of luck!