All universities offer scholarship programmes. However, not all of these are available to international students and scholarships for undergraduate international students are very rare. For those that do, these are never ‘fully funded’ opportunities and are usually a partial contribution towards tuition fees. Effectively, a tuition fee discount.
All universities offer internally funded postgraduate scholarships to international students in one form or another. They may be fully funded and include both a living allowance and tuition fees, they might be tuition fees only or partial payment of tuition fees. Details of these can be found on each university website, where prospective students can search to see if they are eligible for any scholarship funding.
Scholarship funding for international students to study at ITP’s and PTE’s is less common than at universities.
Under a reciprocal agreement between New Zealand and the government of Australia, Australian students admitted at any level are entitled to pay New Zealand domestic tuition fees. All other costs must be met by the student. In order to access the New Zealand Student Loans and New Zealand Student Allowances schemes, they must first be resident in New Zealand for a minimum of two years.
The Fulbright US Graduate Student Awards are for promising graduate students in any field to undertake postgraduate study at a New Zealand institution.
Up to 10 highly prestigious and competitive awards are offered each year to students who show academic excellence, leadership potential and the ability to be cultural ambassadors for the US. Awards are granted for advanced academic study in New Zealand.
While awards are given to undertake study in New Zealand in any field, Fulbright New Zealand is especially interested in proposals that incorporate New Zealand studies or have a comparative element with the US. Applicants considering Māori, indigenous, or cultural-specific projects should investigate cultural norms and practices to ensure the feasibility of their project, and can do this by searching relevant websites and contacting faculty or experts in the proposed area of study.
This scholarship is only open to US citizens living in any country other than New Zealand. Applicants must hold a US bachelor’s degree or equivalent and plan to undertake postgraduate study or research at a New Zealand institution for 1 year.
Fulbright awards include tuition fees, a living cost allowance, health and accident insurance and establishment and research allowance. No allowance is available for dependents.
The University of Auckland and the Victoria University of Wellington each offer a special scholarship for a second year of Masters study, or second and third years of PhD study.
For further details of entitlement, application process, refer to www.us.fulbrightonline.org/home or http://www.fulbright.org.nz/
The New Zealand Development Scholarships (NZDS) offer the opportunity for people from selected developing countries to undertake study related to education, health, rural livelihoods, governance, human rights, or economic development (depending on the human resource development training needs of the home government).
There are 2 categories:
1. public – a bilateral scheme available to individuals from selected partner countries in Southeast Asia and the pacific. Applicants are mostly public sector employees and are endorsed by the partner government
2. open – a non-bilateral scheme available to candidates of some developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. NZDS-Open scholarships are generally directed at employees of private sector or civil society sector organisations, including non-governmental organisations.
MFAT awards are given mostly for Masters or Postgraduate Diploma study, with only 1-2 at most awarded for PhD study. The only undergraduate places on offer are for the Pacific Islands.
For more details of eligibility, application process, selection criteria and entitlement for all MFAT scholarships, refer www.nzaid.govt.nz/scholarships then click on the related link for each individual scholarship.
Commonwealth Scholarships are available to students living in British Commonwealth countries, for Masters and PhD levels only (remove remainder of sentence). Scholarships are available for all discipline areas and cover tuition fees and some living costs. Refer to www.csfp-online.org Candidates must apply in their country of origin for consideration under the Commonwealth Scholarships & Fellowships Programme and may not apply directly to New Zealand. They also must be nominated by their home country.
In New Zealand, UK and Canadian Commonwealth applicants are administered by Universities New Zealand and the scholarship budget is paid by the New Zealand University they attend. All other Commonwealth countries are administered by MFAT.