Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarships

Students that have previously completed the requirements of a bachelors degree or high-level award are not eligible for Commonwealth scholarships, unless such an award is a prerequisite to the current undergraduate course of study, eg completing a bachelor degree and enrolling in an honours degree. The maximum duration you can have access to one or more Commonwealth scholarships is for a total of eight scholarship periods (ie twice yearly for up to four years). You may hold a CECS and CAS concurrently but not sequentially.

Eligibility

To be eligible, you must be:

• an Indigenous Australian, and
• a commencing or continuing student, and
• enrolled or intending to enrol full-time in an undergraduate degree* in a Commonwealth supported place or Graduate Diploma of Education at a Monash campus in Australia, and
• able to demonstrate financial disadvantage.

* Students enrolled in the Diploma of Tertiary Studies are eligible as long as they meet all other criteria for the scholarship.

In addition to the above, to receive a Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarship students must also meet the following requirements:

(a.) Within the four years prior to commencing their course at university, students must have either:

• lived in a regional and remote area of Australia for a total of at least three years, or
• completed the final two years of schooling in a high school or college in a regional and remote area, or
• moved away from a regional and remote area to complete the final two years of schooling at a high school or to undertake vocational training, eg TAFE, in a major city, and

(b.) it must be necessary for students to move from the regional and remote area in order to undertake their university course, or, in the case of students who moved from a regional and remote area to complete their secondary schooling it must be necessary for the student to remain in a major city in order to undertake their university course, and

(c.) the student will incur additional accommodation costs, and

(d.) the student is enrolled as an on-campus student.

Selection criteria

Awarded to eligible students on the basis of need.

Value and number available

$4754 per annum for the duration of the degree, up to a maximum of four years. The number available is variable depending on funding. In 2011, four scholarships were available. An additional allocation of scholarships is available for eligible students enrolling in the Indigenous Enabling Program.

Retention

Recipients must maintain full-time enrolment. CAS recipients must also only enrol as an on-campus student. All recipients must verify their eligibility each semester to continue receiving the scholarship.

Deferability

These scholarships cannot be deferred.

Application Information