College Scholarships

We are keen to hear from any candidates with strong academic and/or professional backgrounds that might be interested in studying at the College.

There are two ways to approach your PhD application. Both require you to think carefully about whether a PhD is right for you, and what PhD project might be suit your skills and interests.

1.   Develop your own research project

You are well suited to a PhD if you already have a topic that you are passionate about and a good idea of what you want to work on. In this case, you may develop your own research proposal;  ideally around 2000 words detailing the project and illustrating your understanding of the relevant academic literature.

The next step would be to scan the University of Melbourne's Find an Expert page to get some idea of a primary supervisor with whom you might like to work. Keep in mind that the more senior academics are likely to be inundated with similar such requests, and may only be available as secondary supervisors. So you are encouraged to identify early career researchers in your list of options as primary supervisors — they are also likely to have more time to work with you. 

Once you have prepared a proposal please proceed to the application page, where you will need to upload: 

• a completed College PhD Scholarship application form
• a copy of your research proposal
• a transcript of your results (including a grading scale)
• your curriculum vitae*

2.   Apply to work on a particular project

Our website lists projects that some of our supervisors are interested in. These are not PhD topics. You can apply to work on these projects but you will still need to develop a research proposal on a topic that relates to one of these projects. Before you approach the supervisor, do some research in the field and develop an idea of what aspect of the project you might like to work on.

Once you have identified a project please proceed to the application page, where you will need to upload the following documents:

• a completed College PhD Scholarship application form
• a covering letter which explains your interest in the project
• a transcript of your results (including a grading scale)
• your curriculum vitae*
• a research proposal (if you have one).

* Note: When we receive your documents we will keep them on file until scholarships are confirmed (and we will let you know when that is). Once College scholarships are confirmed, if you are identified as a potential College student you will need to follow the standard application procedure for admission to a PhD at the University of Melbourne — submit the application online (noting that you are applying to the Climate and Energy College) with other relevant documents, including getting your referees to submit the Referee Report Forms and (if applicable) the Employer Referee Report Form.