International research environment, world-class support facilities, tuition fee waiver and added to that 90,000 Australian dollars scholarship spread over three years – research scholars rarely come across such an enticing offer.
The Victoria India Doctoral Scholarships (VIDS) Programme precisely offers that for those planning to pursue serious and productive research irrespective of the stream. The VIDC, which is into its second year now, will offer 10 such scholarships for Indians who wish to find the best environment to realise their research aspirations.
“The ten new scholarships, which will support living costs and education related travel, will extend over the duration of the students doctoral studies. Victoria’s universities have agreed to provide a full tuition fee waiver,” says Victoria’s Commissioner to India, Geoffrey Conaghan. The scholarships will be administered by the Australia India Institute and support essential research that contribute to global knowledge and also build closer partnerships between India and Victoria.
Last year the research topics included diabetes prevention, investor protection regulation in the financial services industry, novel means of drug delivery, optical broadband technologies and treatment of livestock diseases. However, this year they are open to research in Arts and Humanities streams too.
Students from India can apply for a Ph.D to any of the nine universities in Victoria that include Deakin University, La Trobe University, Monash University, RMIT University, Swinburne University, The Australian Catholic University, The University of Melbourne, University of Ballarat and Victoria University. Each of these universities offers excellent doctoral opportunities across streams. “Some of them are rated in the top 50 universities in the world for their research quality,” says Vinod Mirchandani, Director, Operations, Australia India Institute.
Neither there is a restriction on the ideas or the age of the applicants. All that needs is an impressive idea to get the nod. But candidates should be citizens of India and not holding a qualification regarded to be equivalent to an Australian research doctorate. Candidates will be selected based on a very high level of academic excellence, well-defined research proposal and a proposal that is relevant to the needs and interests of Victoria and India. Applications will open on August 30 and close on October 31.
Mr. Mirchandani says candidates need to apply to the individual universities based on their research area of interest. The shortlisted applications will be forwarded to the Australia India Institute for the final nod. An interesting aspect is that spouses of married scholars can work full time in Australia and their children can go to international schools. At the end of the programme they can prefer to stay back in Australia too.
More information can be had at ‘www.studymelbourne.vic.gov.au/scholarships’ or ‘www.aii.unimelb.edu.au’.
