Shortlisted applicants for Australia Awards Scholarships Intake 2020, for long-term study in Australia, have now been notified.

We thank all applicants for their interest in Australia Awards Scholarships.  While you might be disappointed if your application was unsuccessful, we wish to provide the following feedback in case helpful for future applications.

Ineligible or Non-Compliant Applications

Over 1380 applications were received for Intake 2020.  Over 70% of these applications were deemed ineligible or non-compliant and did not progress through the assessment process.

Ineligible means the applicant did not meet the eligibility criteria specified in the Australia Awards Scholarships Policy Handbook (section 2) or the Papua New Guinea Country Profile.

Non-compliant means the applicant did not provide the supporting documents listed in the Papua New Guinea Country Profile.

The top five reasons for ineligibility or non-compliance were:

  1. Undergraduate applicants applied for a course that is already offered in Papua New Guinea
  2. Applicant had less than two years’ experience in their professional field
  3. Applicants employed in the public sector did not meet Government of Papua New Guinea requirements as explained on the Department of Personnel Management’s website
  4. Research applicants were not employed in in a research or training position and/or did not provide written confirmation from their proposed supervisor and/or did not provide a detailed research proposal and/or two academic referee reports
  5. Applicants did not provide:
  • a completed Reintegration Plan (using the template provided on the AAPNG website) and/or
  • a Professional Support Statement (using the template provided on the AAPNG website) and/or
  • Valid proof of citizenship – as specified in the County profile and/or
  • Certified academic qualifications and transcripts

In addition, many applicants provided unnecessary documents such as attainment and participation certificates for short courses/workshops, high school certificates (when applying for a post-graduate course) and marriage certificates.

Further feedback following scholarships’ announcement

We will provide further general feedback about how applications might be improved, once Australia Awards Scholarships Intake 2020 has been announced in August 2019.