You wouldn’t believe the number of opportunities available to students in disciplines surrounding architecture and building. Granted, there are plenty of general scholarships that all postgraduate students ought to apply for, such as Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships, but the specificity of these will aid your chances of success. After all, you’re likely the target audience
Applying for postgraduate scholarships can be daunting, particularly surrounding the occasional ambiguity of what’s required. Fortunately, our free guide to postgraduate scholarships should help you understand what’s necessary to succeed, what each requirement entails and which scholarships you should target. Feel free to refer to it throughout this article.
Without further adieu, here are some of our picks.
This is for students of architecture or urban design and town planning, specifically for students at the University of South Australia. The following programs are eligible:
To succeed, students must submit a proposal for a ‘community engagement project’, which is defined as any given initiative that will have a physical, positive effect on the community. The project doesn’t need to be original however. Applicants can take up previously uncompleted projects.
It’s also required to submit a portfolio of previous work, which can be quite difficult for students who’ve yet to enter the workforce. However, this portfolio doesn’t necessarily have to contain any architectural projects; it merely needs to be in the broad category of “community engagement.” In other words, volunteering in existing charity drives, helping the homeless or many other activities you may be able to think of technically qualify. Additionally, GPA and performance in an interview are taken into account when selecting the winner, making this particular opportunity fairly difficult to access, but quite worthwhile.
This scholarships is hosted by the Australian Building Codes Board, which provide numerous advantages to students of architecture. For this particular opportunity, students undergoing either engineering, built environment or architecture courses can apply. It’s merit-based and open all year round whilst being available to those merely undergoing singular units in a research project related to building codes in some way, making it technically available to those outside these disciplines too. Simply submit your academic transcript, research proposal and written statement to be in the running.
This scholarships allows students to undertake a development project an a remote or rural part of Australia. This can be in a community of the student’s choice, provided their proposition is expected to have real impact.
To succeed in acquiring this scholarship, putting together a sound proposal with as many specifics as possible is key. Where are you going? Why does this particular community need your help? What are you going to do to help? Why is what you’re proposing the solution to this particular problem as opposed to something else? What support do they currently have? Are there any local resources you can leverage to assist in your endeavour? Every question you can answer ahead of time is a vote in your favour, as you’ll be proving you have the presence of mind and planning ability to take it up.
Exclusive to Deakin students, this scholarship is available to students of architecture and building in addition to other disciplines such as engineering or general science. It’s highly inclusive, allowing citizens of China, Indonesia, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria and more to apply. In addition, GPA requirements are lower than other scholarships of this value, requiring a minimum credit GPA (65%) to be eligible. An important thing to note however is that Australian citizens are not able to apply for this. Nevertheless, if you meet the requirements and attend Deakin University, it’s certainly worth putting in an application.
The PostgradAustralia Scholarship - $2,750
This is our very own funding opportunity. It’s available to students from any discipline, nationality, ethnic or social background. This makes it one of the most inclusive on the market, but it’s also fairly easy to apply for. We don’t ask for a GPA or require much in the way of jumping through hoops, so to speak! All we require is:
Applications reopen each year, with the 2018-2019 scholarship remaining open from now until March 31, 2019.
This is for students who’ve completed at least six months of their architecture or building course and is granted on the basis of academic achievement. There’s very little guidance for what this entails, but we recommend the intuitive thing: striving for the highest marks possible. If you’re not confident you can achieve high marks, you’re not a lost cause however. As we detailed in our guide, showing off your work experience and what you achieved, or even just extracurricular university activities, can be a good substitute. After all, consider the purpose of wanting applicants to have a high GPA from their perspective. They want students who have the drive and ability to pursue a career in architecture, project management or related disciplines. If you can show this by some other means than grades, then feel free to do so.
Hopefully this has given you a better idea of what’s available to students in these disciplines, but they are by no means the full extent of what’s available. To view our full directory of great general scholarships, click here.