Graduate Education Fund

To be eligible to apply to the Indigenous Graduate Education Scholarships in the Australia to USA direction, applicants must:

• Be an Australian citizen or permanent resident (dual citizens are not eligible);
• Be a recognized member of an Indigenous Australian or Torres Strait Islander community;
• Be undertaking or planning to undertake Graduate level study (Masters, Ph.D. or Postdoctoral Research) at an accredited educational institution in the US (offer not required at time of application);
• Be studying or planning to study for a minimum of one year full-time in the US.

To be eligible to apply to the Indigenous Graduate Education Scholarships in the USA to Australia direction, applicants must:

• Be a US citizen or permanent resident (dual Australian citizens/permanent residents are not eligible);
• Be a recognized member of a Native American, Alaskan Native or Native Hawaiian community;
• Be undertaking or planning to undertake Graduate level study (Masters, Ph.D. or Postdoctoral Research) at an accredited educational institution in Australia (offer not required at time of application);
• Be studying or planning to study for a minimum of one year full-time in Australia.

About:

The American Australian Association and Perth USAsia Centre (USAC) are pleased to establish an annual policy- focused fellowship for Native Americans, Alaskan Natives and Native Hawaiians to complete an exchange to Australia.

The US-Indo-Pacific Policy Fellowship will provide support of up to US$ 40,000 for US early-to-mid career academics or policy professionals to undertake cultural exchange in Australia. The fellowship will be between two to three months and will consist of programming such as:

• Engagement with Western Australian policy community, including Western Australian government, DFAT state office, Australian Defence Force, universities, media.
• Attendance/participation in USAC events.
• Visit to Canberra to engage with policy community.
• Presentation on topic of interest/expertise to USAC-convened audience.
• Development short issue brief for publication by the Association/USAC.

Submission Period:

USA to Australia: Open for application on January 1 to March 31.

Open

Eligibility Requirements:

• Applicants must be of Native American, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian descent.
• All USA to AUS applicants must be an American citizen or permanent resident (dual citizens/residents are not eligible);
• Applicants must have experience working on Indo-Pacific issues, and experience or interest in the Australia-US alliance.
• Applicants must have interests aligned with American Australian Association and USAC’s priority regional relationships (such as India, Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, Japan and the Pacific) and respective Strategic and Annual Business plans.

Required Application Documents:

• Curriculum vitae
• 1200-word research proposal (indicating your objectives for the fellowship)
• Graduate school transcripts
• Detailed budget outlining expenses and income throughout the year of supported study – please download and use the Graduate Education Scholarships Budget Template as a guide. This is available to download in the application portal;
• Two referees to list in the Letter of Recommendation section. Please note: after listing, referees will be automatically contacted to complete a recommendation within the online submission form. This is not viewable to the applicant.

Application links to apply online will be made available on this page when each application round is open (as per the dates listed above). Once you have started your application you can save, leave and go back any time before submitting by the due date. Please ensure to save your application each time you exit the browser in case of unforeseen technical difficulties. You will be notified of the results of your application roughly eight weeks after the deadline, at which successful applicants will receive further instruction.

The following documents will be required when applying to the Indigenous Graduate Education Scholarships in either direction. All documents that are not images/video should be saved and uploaded as a PDF:

• High resolution colored headshot with a plain white background (minimum 1MB/300 DPI);
• Video presentation (1-2 minutes) introducing yourself and your planned study in the country of the other;
• Passport biographic page;
• Confirmation of Identity from Indigenous community;
• Academic transcripts from your previous Graduate and/or Undergraduate study;
• 1-page resume;
• Detailed budget outlining expenses and income throughout the year of supported study – please download and use the Indigenous Graduate Education Scholarships Budget Template as a guide. Also available to download in the application portal;
• Please note: Once the portal is open for application, applicants are required to request 3x Letter of Recommendation requests (at least one should be from an Indigenous elder). Referee’s will have until 1 week after the portal officially closes, to submit their Letters. We encourage applicants to submit their referee requests from the portal, as soon as they start their application, to allow the referee’s ample time.

An example of each application can be downloaded here:

• USA to AUS
• AUS to USA

For further information please visit the American Australian Association scholarships FAQs page.

NB: Applicants will be required to provide proof of indigeneity when applying for the graduate Education Scholarships as an Indigenous Australian or Native American.