Top 12 Fully Funded Scholarships in Australia 2026/2027

Australia is one of the most expensive study destinations in the world if you pay your own way, and one of the most achievable if you win the right scholarship. A genuinely fully funded award in Australia covers your full tuition fees, pays you a living stipend high enough to rent, eat and travel on, covers your compulsory Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC), and in the best cases pays your airfare as well. This guide ranks the twelve routes that can realistically add up to that package for international students in the 2026/2027 cycle, and it is honest about the one uncomfortable truth most listicles hide: in Australia, true full funding is concentrated in two places — the Australian Government’s Australia Awards for coursework students from partner countries, and research degrees (Master’s by Research and PhD) funded through the Research Training Program (RTP) and university scholarship rounds. If you are a coursework master’s applicant from a country that is not an Australia Awards partner, there is almost no fully funded coursework route, and any website that tells you otherwise is selling you a partial discount under a fully funded label.

Every stipend figure, deadline pattern and eligibility rule below was checked against official sources at the time of writing in October 2026. Where a university sets its own rate above the national base rate, this guide says so, because RTP money is administered by each university and the headline package differs significantly from campus to campus. Where a programme has closed, this guide says that too — most importantly, Destination Australia is closed to new applicants, and it appears in this article only as a warning, not as an opportunity. Browse the full directory in our scholarships directory alongside this guide, and use our study abroad guides to compare Australia with cheaper destinations before you commit to a single country.

Fully Funded Scholarships in Australia at a Glance

A note on honesty before the rankings: entries 2–12 are all research-degree routes. That is not a weakness of this list — it is the shape of Australian funding. A PhD applicant with a strong record has twelve realistic fully funded doors to knock on. A coursework applicant has one government door (Australia Awards, and only from partner countries) plus partial merit discounts that this guide deliberately does not call fully funded. Popular partial awards such as 25% or 50% tuition waivers are excluded from the ranking for exactly that reason: a half-price degree in Sydney still leaves you finding A$25,000 or more per year yourself.

1. Australia Awards Scholarships — the flagship fully funded award

Coverage: Full tuition fees, a single return economy airfare, a one-off establishment allowance on arrival, a fortnightly Contribution to Living Expenses (CLE), the Introductory Academic Program, OSHC for the award holder, supplementary academic support, and fieldwork support for eligible research students. The official Australia Awards Scholarships Policy Handbook (June 2026) sets the CLE at A$99.26 per day from 1 January 2026 — approximately A$36,230 per year. Eligibility: Citizens of participating partner countries (mainly in the Indo-Pacific, plus selected countries in Africa and elsewhere), generally aged 18 or over, meeting the specific conditions of their country programme, holding the required prior qualification, and meeting English requirements — many country programmes ask for IELTS 6.5 or equivalent, and the institution’s own requirement prevails if it is higher, as the official country information for intake 2027 confirms. Scholars must return home for at least two years after completing the award. Deadline: Applications for study commencing in 2027 opened on 1 February 2026 and closed on 30 April 2026 in most countries; the same February–April window is the established pattern, but your country page is the only authoritative source. Read our dedicated profile of the Australia Awards Scholarship for the country-by-country detail.

Australia Awards is the only Australian scholarship that fully funds undergraduate and coursework master’s study at scale, and it is deliberately developmental: your application is judged partly on how your chosen course connects to your country’s development priorities and what you will do with the degree when you return. Applicants from Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, Pakistan (in cycles where Pakistan is listed), Pacific nations and partner African countries should treat this as their first application every single year they are eligible. The competition is fierce, but the package — tuition, flights, living money, health cover and a global alumni network of over 100,000 — has no Australian equal at coursework level.

2. Research Training Program (RTP) — the national research funding framework

Coverage: The RTP is not one scholarship you apply to centrally; it is Australian Government funding that each university administers through its own rounds. A full RTP package combines three elements: a fee offset covering 100% of research tuition, a living stipend, and allowances that can include relocation support and OSHC for international students. The national full-time base stipend rate is A$34,315 in 2026 and A$35,550 in 2027, and universities may pay above the base — the official university pages show how wide the spread is, from the base rate itself at some institutions to well over A$40,000 at the most competitive ones. Eligibility: Admission to an accredited Master’s by Research or PhD at an Australian university, meeting the university’s scholarship rules — typically a first-class honours degree or a master’s with a substantial research component, plus English proficiency. Deadline: Set by each university; most international rounds fall between July and December for commencement the following year.

Understanding the RTP framework matters because entries 3–12 below are, in funding terms, mostly the same government money wearing different university badges — plus university top-ups. Australian Catholic University’s official page, for example, lists its RTP Stipend Scholarship at exactly the A$34,315 base rate with a fee offset of approximately A$34,728 per year and up to A$2,000 relocation support, while the University of the Sunshine Coast pays A$38,000 and the University of Sydney pays A$42,754. Same programme, different generosity. Your strategy should therefore be to apply to several universities whose research strengths match your proposal, not to fixate on one famous name paying the base rate.

3. University of Melbourne Graduate Research Scholarships

Coverage: A 100% tuition fee offset for up to two years (Master’s by Research) or four years (PhD), a living allowance of A$39,500 per year at the 2026 full-time rate — paid for up to two years for master’s and up to 3.5 years for doctoral candidates — a relocation grant of A$2,000 (interstate) or A$3,000 (from overseas), and single OSHC for international students who need a visa. The university values the full package at up to about A$135,000. Eligibility: Applicants who have applied for, or are enrolled in, a Melbourne graduate research degree and meet the scholarship terms; selection is by academic merit ranking within each faculty, and around 600 awards are made each year across the Melbourne Research Scholarship and RTP streams. Deadline: New applicants are automatically considered when they apply for the course; currently enrolled or deferred students face a 31 October deadline. Explore the university itself in our profile of the University of Melbourne.

Melbourne is the most popular fully funded target in Australia for a reason: the stipend is well above the national base, the automatic-consideration model removes a whole second application, and the university’s research breadth means almost any proposal can find a home. The catch is the ranking. Because fee-only awards are also made from the same pool, an admission offer does not guarantee the stipend — your grades, research experience and proposal quality decide whether you receive the full package or tuition support alone. Treat the course application itself as a scholarship application: every document in it is ranked.

4. University of Sydney RTP and University of Sydney International Scholarship

Coverage: A stipend of A$42,754 per year at the 2026 rate, indexed annually — among the highest standard HDR stipends in the country — plus an RTP Fee Offset covering 100% of tuition for up to 14 research periods for a PhD (seven for a master’s), OSHC for international recipients, a relocation allowance of up to A$1,485, and a thesis allowance of up to A$420 (master’s) or A$840 (PhD). Eligibility: Commencing or enrolled international higher degree by research students with a strong academic record and research experience; you must hold an unconditional offer or be enrolled, and have a supervisor arrangement in place for most faculties. Deadline: For 2027 commencement, international applications closed on 11 September 2026 for Research Periods 1–2 and close on 18 December 2026 for Research Periods 3–4. See our profile of the University of Sydney for course and campus detail.

Sydney’s model rewards preparation. Unlike Melbourne, commencing students must actively submit the scholarship application by the research-period deadline — admission alone is not enough — and the university states a preference for doctoral applicants in some rounds. The December deadline is a genuine strategic opportunity: most international applicants worldwide aim at the September round, so a well-prepared application for Research Periods 3–4 faces a smaller field for the same A$42,754 package.

5. Monash Graduate Scholarship and Monash RTP Scholarships

Coverage: Tuition fees covered in full for the research degree, a living allowance — Monash’s recent rounds have advertised around A$37,145 per year, indexed — and a relocation allowance of about A$1,500. Monash runs the Monash Graduate Scholarship (university-funded) and the RTP Stipend (government-funded) as parallel streams with equivalent intent, so one application round can place you in either pool. Eligibility: All nationalities; a bachelor’s degree of at least four years including a research component graded at honours first or upper-second class (or a master’s with at least 25% research), Monash English requirements, and no previous Australian Government or Monash research scholarship held for more than six months. You must complete an expression of interest and secure supervisor support before the formal application. Deadline: International rounds typically close on 31 March and 31 August each year — confirm the current round dates on Monash’s graduate research pages before you plan around them.

Monash is a pragmatic choice for applicants whose records are strong but not Melbourne-tier: the university is research-intensive, the Clayton campus hosts major national facilities, and the two-round calendar gives you a second chance within the same year if your first expression of interest needs a stronger proposal. Because selection weighs publications and research output heavily, a co-authored paper, a conference presentation or a well-documented honours thesis can move you up the faculty ranking more than a marginal GPA difference.

6. ANU Australian Government RTP Scholarship

Coverage: A full tuition fee offset for international HDR students paired with a stipend that ANU sets above the national base — ANU’s 2026 central round paid A$39,069 per year, for up to 3.5 years for a PhD, with relocation and thesis allowances under ANU’s conditions. Eligibility: Domestic and international students commencing or enrolled in an ANU Master’s by Research or PhD, ranked on academic merit, research potential and supervisor and college support. Deadline: ANU’s central scholarship rounds have historically closed on 31 August (for commencement the following year) and 31 October — check ANU’s HDR scholarship page for the round that matches your intended start. Browse ANU’s profile at the Australian National University.

Canberra deserves a strategic mention: living costs in the capital are noticeably lower than Sydney or Melbourne, so an A$39,069 stipend stretches further there than a nominally larger package in Sydney. ANU also concentrates Australia’s national research institutes and policy schools, which makes it disproportionately strong for public policy, international relations, Asia-Pacific studies, astronomy and environmental research. If your proposal touches Australian government or Asia-Pacific policy, ANU’s supervisor pool is the deepest in the country.

7. University of Queensland Graduate School Scholarships

Coverage: UQ’s Graduate School administers RTP and university-funded scholarships that combine a full living stipend with a full tuition offset for international research students, awarded for up to 3.5 years for a PhD and up to two years for a research master’s. Eligibility: Admission to a UQ Higher Degree by Research, academic merit ranking, and — distinctively at UQ — you are assessed for scholarship in the same application flow once you have a confirmed supervisory team and meet the round’s eligibility screen. Deadline: UQ runs research quarters rather than semesters, with scholarship rounds spread across the year; international applicants should target the rounds closing roughly six months before their intended quarter. Confirm UQ’s current advertised stipend rate on the Graduate School site, because UQ updates its rate independently of the national base.

UQ’s strengths in agriculture, tropical science, mining engineering, biomedical research and environmental studies make it the natural home for proposals aimed at development problems in the Asia-Pacific — which is also why UQ hosts a large Australia Awards cohort. If you are eligible for both, apply for both: an Australia Awards application and a UQ research application are not mutually exclusive strategies, and the research route does not carry the two-year return-home condition in the same form.

8. UNSW Higher Degree Research Scholarships

Coverage: UNSW Sydney bundles RTP funding with its own Tuition Fee Scholarship and stipend streams for international HDR candidates, covering full research tuition plus a living stipend at UNSW’s advertised rate for the standard research duration. Eligibility: Admission to a UNSW research degree, a supervisor who has agreed to support the application, and a competitive academic record — UNSW requires applicants to use its HDR scholarship processes and self-assessment tools before applying. Deadline: UNSW runs three HDR scholarship rounds a year aligned to its three academic terms; the exact closing dates are published per round on the Graduate Research School pages and must be checked there.

UNSW is the engineering and technology heavyweight of the Sydney market — photovoltaics, quantum computing, biomedical engineering and defence research are signature strengths — and its three-term calendar is a real advantage: missing one round costs you months, not a year. As with Sydney, budget honestly for Sydney rents: the stipend is designed for a single student in shared housing, not for supporting dependants.

9. University of Adelaide Research Scholarships

Coverage: A full tuition fee offset plus a living stipend at the university’s RTP rate for international research students, typically for up to 3.5 years for doctoral candidates, with the possibility of OSHC support under the specific scheme’s conditions. Eligibility: Admission to an Adelaide research degree and success in the university’s competitive international scholarship round; applicants usually need to have completed their qualifying degree recently and meet English requirements at application. Deadline: Adelaide has traditionally run one main international round per year, opening mid-year — the university’s scholarship pages carry the current round’s dates, and late or incomplete applications are not carried forward.

Adelaide is the value pick on this list. The stipend is comparable to eastern-states base rates, but Adelaide’s rents are among the lowest of any Australian capital city, so the same dollars buy a quieter flat, a shorter commute and a real buffer for conferences and books. The university’s wine science, agriculture, energy and health research give it distinctive supervisor depth, and from 2026 the new Adelaide University (formed by the merger of the University of Adelaide and UniSA) is reshaping the city’s research landscape — applicants should confirm which institution and scholarship scheme their offer names.

10. Griffith University International Postgraduate Research Scholarship

Coverage: Griffith’s GUIPRS covers the full tuition fee for the research degree and includes OSHC for the scholarship holder, and it is designed to be held together with a living-allowance scholarship (Griffith University Postgraduate Research Scholarship or RTP stipend), which together form the fully funded package. Eligibility: International applicants commencing a Griffith Master’s by Research or PhD who do not already hold an equivalent qualification at the same level, ranked on academic achievement and research background. Deadline: Griffith operates continuous research intake with defined scholarship rounds during the year; check the Griffith research scholarships page for the round attached to your intended commencement.

Griffith, based in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, is a useful reminder that full funding is a package, not a single award letter. Always read the combination: tuition scholarship plus stipend scholarship plus OSHC equals fully funded; tuition scholarship alone does not. Griffith is particularly active in environmental science, criminology, health and Asian studies, and its multi-campus footprint gives supervisors flexibility that single-campus universities cannot match.

11. Deakin University RTP and International Research Scholarships

Coverage: Deakin offers RTP stipends and Deakin University International Research Scholarships that together provide a living stipend, a full tuition offset and a relocation allowance for international HDR students, with stipend duration of up to three years for doctoral candidates (with a possible extension under Deakin’s rules) and two years for research master’s students. Eligibility: Admission to a Deakin research degree, a first-class honours equivalent record for the most competitive rounds, and a supervisor-supported proposal. Deadline: Deakin accepts research applications on a rolling basis and ranks scholarship applications in rounds — the faculty pages publish the cut-off dates for each ranking round.

Deakin’s campuses in Geelong and regional Victoria come with materially lower living costs than Melbourne’s inner suburbs, and the university has built genuine research depth in materials science (including its carbon fibre and advanced manufacturing work), health, and education. For applicants who will also consider regional study for its migration and lifestyle advantages, Deakin’s Geelong base is one of the strongest fully funded options outside the capitals.

12. Curtin University RTP and HDR Scholarships

Coverage: Curtin administers RTP stipends with full tuition fee offsets for international higher degree by research students in Perth, plus faculty and industry-linked top-up scholarships in its signature areas. Eligibility: Admission to a Curtin research degree and ranking in Curtin’s competitive HDR scholarship round; some project scholarships are tied to a specific funded research project and advertise their own criteria and stipend. Deadline: Curtin’s main HDR scholarship round has typically run in the second half of the year, while project-specific scholarships open whenever the funding lands — both are listed on Curtin’s graduate research pages.

Curtin closes the list as the Western Australian option: world-leading mining and earth science, strong health and radio astronomy research (Perth hosts part of the Square Kilometre Array project), and a city where a research stipend goes further than in Sydney. Project-funded scholarships at Curtin and elsewhere deserve special attention from every applicant on this list — they are advertised individually, attract smaller applicant pools than the flagship rounds, and often pay the same full package.

Closed programme warning: Destination Australia

You will still find websites promoting the Destination Australia Program as an open A$15,000-per-year scholarship for regional study. Do not build a plan around it. The Australian Government ceased funding for new Destination Australia scholarships from 1 July 2024; existing recipients continue to be supported, but there are no new national rounds, and provider pages such as CQUniversity’s now list the scholarship status as closed. If a regional university advertises a similarly named award today, it is the university’s own money under its own rules — read those rules, not the old programme guides. For regional study funding that actually exists, the RTP rounds at regional and outer-metro universities (entries 10 and 11 above are good examples) are the honest route.

Who is eligible for full funding in Australia? The realistic picture

Eligibility divides sharply by study type. For Australia Awards, you must be a citizen of a participating country, apply from that country, meet your country programme’s work-experience and English conditions, and commit to returning home for two years after the award — the official handbook and country pages, including the DFAT country information for the 2027 intake, spell out the fine print. For RTP and university HDR scholarships, nationality is rarely a barrier — the University of Wollongong’s official RTP page is typical in describing a merit-based competition — but academic preparation is: a first-class honours degree, or a master’s degree with a graded research thesis, is the effective entry ticket, and the University of the Sunshine Coast’s RTP scholarship page shows the standard structure of fee offset, stipend and allowance you should expect. English proficiency (commonly IELTS 6.5–7.0 for research degrees, higher in health and law) and a willing supervisor complete the practical eligibility list. Compare universities side by side in our universities directory and check where each sits in the global rankings before choosing where to aim your proposals.

How to apply: a step-by-step plan that works for all twelve

1. Decide your route first. If you are from an Australia Awards partner country and want a coursework degree, that application dominates your calendar (February–April). If you want research funding, your calendar is the universities’ rounds (mainly March–December).
2. Shortlist three to five universities by supervisor fit, not by brand alone. Read recent papers from two or three potential supervisors at each and note where your proposal extends their work.
3. Contact supervisors properly. One concise email: who you are, your qualifications and grades, your two-paragraph proposal idea, why their group, and a CV and transcript attached. Silence after two weeks means one polite follow-up, then move on.
4. Write a real research proposal. Two to four pages: question, gap in the literature, method, feasibility within 3.5 years, and fit with the group. Generic proposals are the single biggest cause of HDR scholarship failure.
5. Prepare certified documents early (see the documents section below) and book your English test with a retake buffer.
6. Submit the admission and scholarship applications by the round deadline — noting that some universities (Melbourne) consider you automatically, while others (Sydney) require a separate scholarship application by a hard date.
7. Respond to ranking requests fast. Universities may ask for referee reports, interviews or revised proposals during ranking; slow replies lose places.
8. Accept, then handle the visa. Your scholarship letter supports your student visa financial evidence, but OSHC, genuine-student requirements and dependant costs are your responsibility to arrange correctly.

Documents you will need

• Certified copies of degree certificates and full academic transcripts, with official English translations where needed
• A research proposal aligned to a named supervisor or research group (for all HDR routes)
• An academic CV highlighting research output: thesis grades, publications, conference papers, research employment
• Two academic referee reports — universities usually contact referees directly through their portals
• English test results (IELTS, TOEFL iBT or PTE Academic) meeting the course requirement
• A passport valid for the application and visa period
• For Australia Awards: country-specific documents such as a development impact statement, employment evidence and re-entry plans, exactly as your country page lists them

Deadlines and timeline for the 2026/2027 cycle

One timing rule protects every applicant on this list: work backwards six months. Supervisor conversations, English tests and certified transcripts cannot be compressed into the final fortnight, and every university above ranks complete applications ahead of brilliant but incomplete ones. Use the planning resources in our study guides and the deadline tools in the tools section to keep your rounds straight if you are applying to several universities at once.

How to improve your chances

Win the supervisor before the scholarship. HDR funding follows supervisory capacity. A supervisor who wants your project will advocate for it in ranking meetings; a cold application competes on paper alone. Make the proposal fundable: a narrow, feasible question with a named method beats a grand topic every time, because committees fund projects that can finish inside the stipend period. Show research evidence, not just grades: a graded thesis, a dataset, a conference poster, research-assistant work — anything that proves you have done research, not only studied it. Apply to more than one university: the same proposal, honestly tailored, can run at three institutions simultaneously, and stipend rates differ by thousands of dollars. For Australia Awards, write to the development brief: selectors score your return-home impact plan as seriously as your grades, so connect your course to a named problem in your country’s published priority areas. Finally, mind the money maths: compare stipends against city rents, not against each other — A$39,069 in Canberra or a base-rate stipend in Geelong can leave you better off than A$42,754 in inner Sydney.

Common mistakes that cost applicants full funding

• Calling partial awards “fully funded”. A 50% tuition waiver with no stipend still leaves tuition plus all living costs unpaid. This guide excludes such awards from the ranking; your budget should too.
• Applying for coursework funding that does not exist. Outside Australia Awards, there is effectively no fully funded coursework master’s route in Australia. If your plan depends on one, change the plan — consider a research master’s instead.
• Missing the separate scholarship deadline. At Sydney and several others, admission and scholarship are two applications with two dates. An admission offer without a scholarship application buys you an expensive letter, not funding.
• Proposing research with no supervisor contact. Unaligned proposals are filtered out before academic ranking at most universities.
• Budgeting the stipend for a family. Standard HDR stipends are set for one person. Dependant OSHC, childcare and larger housing are not covered by RTP packages, and Australia Awards covers OSHC for the scholar only.
• Trusting closed programmes. Destination Australia is closed to new applicants; any agent charging you to “apply” for it in 2027 is charging you for nothing.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a fully funded bachelor’s degree in Australia as an international student?

Realistically, only through Australia Awards, and only if your country programme offers undergraduate awards in that cycle — many offer master’s and PhD only. University undergraduate scholarships in Australia are partial tuition discounts, not full funding. If a bachelor’s degree abroad must be fully funded, compare the routes in our other country guides, starting with the fully funded scholarships in Germany, where public tuition is free.

How much is the RTP stipend in 2026 and 2027?

The national full-time base rate is A$34,315 in 2026 and A$35,550 in 2027. Universities may pay more: verified 2026 examples include A$39,500 at Melbourne, A$42,754 at Sydney and A$39,069 at ANU. Always quote the rate on the specific university’s official page for your round.

Do I need IELTS for these scholarships?

You need to meet the university’s English requirement for the degree, which for research degrees is commonly IELTS 6.5 or 7.0 overall with minimum band scores, or the TOEFL/PTE equivalent. The scholarship itself rarely sets a separate English bar; admission does. Australia Awards applicants follow their country programme’s stated requirement (often IELTS 6.5), and the institution’s requirement wins if it is higher.

Can I apply for RTP scholarships at several universities at once?

Yes. There is no central RTP application and no rule against parallel applications. You can hold only one RTP stipend at a time, and you must decline the others promptly if you accept an offer, but applying widely is the standard, sensible strategy.

Does full funding cover my spouse and children?

Generally, no. RTP and university packages cover the scholar’s tuition, stipend and (for internationals) single OSHC. Australia Awards likewise covers OSHC for the award holder only; family airfares and family health cover are your own cost, and some country programmes restrict when family may join you. Budget dependants separately and honestly.

Is Destination Australia still open?

No. Australian Government funding for new Destination Australia scholarships ceased on 1 July 2024. Existing holders continue to receive payments if they stay eligible, but there are no new applications. Treat any 2027 advertisement for it as outdated or misleading until you have verified it on the Department of Education’s website.

What grades do I need to be competitive?

For HDR funding, the working benchmark is first-class honours or a master’s with a substantial graded thesis at distinction level or better, plus evidence of research output. Australia Awards selection additionally weighs leadership and development impact. There is no single published cut-off for any programme on this list — ranking is relative to each round’s applicant pool, which is why applying in multiple rounds and to multiple universities materially improves your odds.

Can I work part-time on a fully funded scholarship?

Student visa conditions allow limited part-time work, and universities permit reasonable paid work such as tutoring — but RTP conditions cap scholarship-compatible earnings and your first obligation is full-time research progress. Australia Awards scholars face additional expectations about focus on study. Never build a budget that requires part-time wages to survive; the stipend is designed to be sufficient for a single student who budgets carefully.

Sources & Verification

The facts in this guide were checked in October 2026 against: the Australia Awards Scholarships Policy Handbook (DFAT, June 2026), which sets the Contribution to Living Expenses at approximately A$36,230 per year for 2026; DFAT country information for the 2027 intake (benefits, IELTS 6.5 benchmark and return-home conditions); Australian Catholic University’s official RTP Stipend Scholarship page (A$34,315 base rate, fee offset and relocation allowance); the University of the Sunshine Coast’s official RTP page (fee offset, stipend and allowance structure); the University of Wollongong’s official AGRTP page; University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, Monash University, ANU, UQ, UNSW, Adelaide, Griffith, Deakin and Curtin official scholarship pages as summarised in each entry; and CQUniversity’s Destination Australia page, which records that programme’s closed status. Where a university had not published its 2027 round rate or dates at the time of writing, this guide says so and gives the verified current rate or the established annual pattern instead.

Disclaimer: Scholarship amounts, rates and deadlines change every cycle. StudyGraduate is an information portal, not an agency, and cannot guarantee selection, admission or visa approval. Always confirm the stipend rate, eligibility rules and closing date for your specific round on the official university or DFAT website before you apply or make any financial commitment.