Commonwealth Teaching Scholarships frequently asked questions

If you have made a mistake in your application form or submitted incorrect evidence, you may need to resubmit a new application. You can do so at any time before the application closing date. Applications close 5pm AEDT, Monday 13 January 2025.

If you submit more than one application form, only the latest application received will be assessed (refer to section 7.1 of the Scholarship Guidelines).

To be eligible to apply for a scholarship, you must be able to provide one of the listed forms of academic evidence set out in the CTS Assessment and Selection Policy (section 4.1.1). If you do not have any of these forms of evidence, you are not eligible to apply for a Commonwealth Teaching Scholarship.

No. If you are currently completing an accredited teaching degree, you are not eligible to apply. The only exception to this is if you commenced an employment-based pathway program that requires you to begin in late 2024. Official evidence from your higher education provider will be required to support this.

You may be able to apply, depending on the date that you formally withdrew from the degree. The Scholarship Guidelines state that applicants cannot have commenced an accredited teaching degree within 2 years of applying in Round 2. Therefore, if you withdrew from your course after January 2023, you are not eligible to apply.

No. To apply for a Commonwealth Teaching Scholarship, an applicant must be either an Australian citizen, a permanent resident, a holder of a permanent humanitarian visa, or a New Zealand citizen living in Australia.

If you commenced an accredited teaching degree in 2024, you are not eligible to apply for a scholarship in Round 2.

If you applied in Round 1, but did not commence an accredited teaching degree in 2024, then you may be eligible to apply in Round 2. To be eligible in Round 2, you must be a commencing an accredited teaching degree in the first semester or study period of 2025.

For more details on the eligibility requirements, please refer to the Round 2 Scholarship Guidelines.

If you do not have an overall GPA or WAM on your academic transcript and you are unable to request one from the awarding education institution, you can submit the academic transcript as evidence and an overall score will be calculated on your behalf. The academic transcript must include numeric or letter grades. 

You cannot provide your PhD certificate/testamur as evidence for this scholarship. As PhDs are ungraded, you will need to provide an academic transcript for your next highest graded qualification. This may be from a Masters degree or a Bachelor degree (Honours). A numeric mark or grade is required as the scholarships are allocated on academic merit.

To be eligible to apply for a scholarship, you must be able to provide one of the listed forms of academic evidence set out in the Assessment and Selection Policy (section 4.1.1 for Undergraduate applicants; section 4.1.2 for Postgraduate applicants).

You must complete an accredited teaching degree to be eligible to receive a scholarship. To check if your preferred degree is accredited, check out the AITSL accredited programs list. If the degree is not on the AITSL list, you may want to contact the delivering higher education provider to check if the degree is undergoing accreditation.

No. Commonwealth Teaching Scholarship recipients can only study in courses that are accredited against the Accreditation of initial teacher education programs in Australia: Standards and Procedures.

In 2024, Western Australian universities introduced a Graduate Diploma of Teaching, enabling students to graduate after one year and teach in Western Australia with provisional registration. However, these Graduate Diplomas are not accredited and therefore not eligible under the Commonwealth Teaching Scholarships Program.

Scholarships provide financial assistance of up to $40,000 (equivalent to $10,000 per year of study), subject to recipients providing evidence of continued full-time enrolment in an accredited teaching degree. Recipients are obligated to teach for a time equivalent to the length of their degree (up to 2 or 4 years).

If you accelerate your degree, you are still completing the same accredited teaching degree but in a shorter amount of time. Accelerating your degree is a notifiable event. Notifiable events must be actioned in the required timeframes set out in your Scholarship Agreement.

Accelerating your degree will impact the timeframes set out in your Scholarship Agreement and may also impact the amount of scholarship funding you will receive. For example, if you are an undergraduate CTS recipient who originally planned to complete your undergraduate degree in 4 years, but you decide to accelerate your course and complete it in 3.5 years, the total scholarship funding you will receive will change to $35,000 and your commitment to teach obligation will change to 3.5 years (full-time equivalent). The 10-year timeframe to complete your commitment to teach obligation will start from your new expected completion date.

The same applies for postgraduate students.

Please note, accelerating your degree is different to an alternative exit. Recipients are strongly encouraged to contact the Department of Education before they decide to graduate with an alternative exit degree as this will likely impact their ability to meet their scholarship requirements.

You can teach in any government schools or government-run early learning settings in Australia. Once you have completed your commitment to teach, there is no restriction on where you can teach.

Please refer to the relevant state or territory education department website to locate government schools and/or government run early learning settings.

More information about the commitment to teach requirement can be found on the Scholarship requirements page and in the Commitment to Teach Policy.

You can work in full-time, part-time, or casual/relief roles, or a combination of these.

If you teach on a part-time or casual basis, the full-time equivalent requirement must still be fulfilled.

For example, approximately 6.5 years teaching at a part-time rate (approx. 3 days a week for each year) may be equivalent to the 4 years full-time teaching required if you completed an undergraduate accredited teaching degree.

If you accept a scholarship and do not complete your accredited teaching degree program or you do not complete your commitment to teach, you may be required to pay back all, or part of, the scholarship funding received.

No. Any teaching undertaken prior to completion of your accredited teaching degree, even under an alternative authorisation to teach or permission to teach arrangement, does not count towards your commitment to teach requirement. This includes any teaching undertaken as part of an employment-based pathway.

More information about the commitment to teach requirement can be found on the Scholarship requirements page and in the Commitment to Teach Policy.

Applications will be checked against eligibility requirements and those that meet the eligibility requirements will be assessed on academic merit.

Meeting the eligibility requirements does not guarantee an applicant a scholarship.

No. The decision to award a scholarship is final and feedback on unsuccessful applications will not be provided. There is no appeal mechanism.

If you apply for a Commonwealth Teaching Scholarship, you can also apply for other scholarships or incentive programs. However, you must check that there are no restrictions and that you can meet the requirements of all programs.

No. You must be living in Australia and enrolled in an accredited teaching degree at an Australian higher education provider. You can check which programs are accredited on the AITSL website.

Yes. You can submit evidence from an international school or institution. You will need to provide an official academic statement from your institution that includes your GPA, overall score or grades.

If your international academic evidence does not include a GPA, WAM or overall numeric grade, an equivalent score will be calculated on your behalf.

A top up payment of $2,000 may be available to scholarship recipients who undertake a final-year professional experience placement in a government school or government-run early learning setting in a remote area.

Due to the limited number of top up payments available, there is no guarantee you will receive a top up payment even if you undertake a placement in a remote area.

For more information, please check out the Additional Payment for Remote Professional Experience Placements Policy  on the Resources page.

Scholarship payments will be made once a Scholarship Agreement has been signed and correct financial information has been collected. 

Yearly payments of up to $10,000 will be made once evidence of continued full-time enrolment in an accredited teaching degree is provided. 

Payments will be made in a timely manner, however, please be aware that the volume of scholarship applications may delay this process.

Depending on your situation, some or all of the scholarship payment amount may constitute ordinary income for social security law purposes and may impact the rate at which a person receives a social security payment. You will need to seek your own advice from Centrelink or Services Australia with reference to your own particular circumstances.

Before applying you should visit the Study Assist website, so you know what to expect when studying full-time at the university level. The website has several student support resources as well as a comprehensive guide to higher education.

Alternatively, you may be able to access student support services from your higher education provider.

Scholarship recipients must maintain a full-time study load during their entire teaching degree. Changing your study load to part-time will result in your scholarship being withdrawn and you may have to repay any scholarship funding already received.

If you feel that you or your family need extra support or would like someone to talk to about your concerns, you might like to consider an independent counselling service.

Private and confidential support is available from:

• Lifeline on 13 11 14
• Beyondblue on 1300 224 636
• Headspace on 1800 650 890
• Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800
• 13YARN on 13 92 76 (operated by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people)
• 1800respect on 1800 737 732.

Alternatively, if you need additional support, you may be able to access student support services from your higher education provider.