Scholarships in Australia for Indian Students, and What They Actually Pay

Two things are true about a scholarship in Australia for Indian students, and almost no page says both. The Australian Government funds very little for an Indian applicant to a taught master’s degree. Australian universities fund quite a lot, mostly as a percentage off your tuition, and mostly without you filling in a separate form.

Every award named here was read at the body that pays for it on 23 July 2026, and that date matters, because scholarship pages go stale faster than any other kind. Two schemes Indian students are still told to apply for are, on the Australian Government’s own pages, not available to them at all. Those come first rather than last.

Which Australian government scholarships can an Indian student actually get?

Start with the two you have probably been told to apply for.

Australia Awards Scholarships do not accept Indian applicants. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade publishes the list of participating countries, and it has three groups. Africa lists 25 countries. Asia lists Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. The Pacific lists 17 more. India appears in none of them. The Australian Government’s own Study Australia portal describes the programme as being for students from a selection of developing countries. Australian universities still signpost Australia Awards on their international scholarship pages without mentioning the country list, which is how a fully funded award that is closed to you ends up at the top of your shortlist.

Destination Australia has stopped taking new funding rounds. The Department of Education states on its own Destination Australia page that “as part of the 2024-2025 Budget, the Australian Government announced there will be no further funding rounds of the Destination Australia program (DAP) from 1 July 2024”, and that existing recipients keep their money for up to four years. The scheme paid students to study at regional campuses, which is why it is still recommended alongside regional visa advantages. Provider pages describing it are still online and still rank. The programme behind them is not taking new rounds.

That leaves two live Commonwealth routes, and both are narrow.

The Department of Education puts the position in one sentence on its financial assistance page. “While the majority of international students in Australia pay full fees for their studies, there are a number of other scholarships available to help international students study in Australia.” That is the government describing its own system, and it is the sentence to plan around.

What is the Maitri Scholarships Program, and can you apply for it?

Maitri is the one Australian Government scholarship built specifically for Indian citizens, and it is worth knowing exactly what it is before you spend a week looking for its application form. There is no application form for you.

The programme is run by the Centre for Australia-India Relations, a Commonwealth body. Its Maitri Scholarships page states that “applications can only be submitted by Australian Universities”, and the Centre’s frequently asked questions answer the point directly. “No, scholars do not apply directly. Scholars must be nominated by an Australian University. Eligible scholars who are interested in a Maitri Scholarship should contact an Australian university to express their interest.”

Four facts decide whether it is relevant to you at all.

• It funds a PhD only. Coursework master’s degrees are not in scope, and neither is a bachelor’s.
• The research must sit in one of seven STEM priority fields, which are clean energy, agribusiness, technology and IT, resources and mining equipment technology and services, defence industries, space and health. The FAQ answers “can I apply if the research topic is not listed as a priority area” with a flat no.
• The grant is large. The Centre states a minimum of AUD 220,000 and a maximum of AUD 439,000 for a PhD scholar, over a grant period of up to four years.
• It is small. The Centre’s published list of 2025-26 Maitri Scholars names 15 scholars across 12 Australian universities, every one of them on a STEM doctorate.

The 2025-26 round opened on 16 September 2025 and closed for university submissions on 14 January 2026, with outcomes notified in late February 2026 and funding starting from May 2026. As at 23 July 2026 the Centre has not published a 2026-27 round. If Maitri is your plan, the useful action is not to watch that page. It is to approach the Australian university you want to do the doctorate with, ask whether it intends to nominate scholars in the next round, and get your higher degree by research application in early enough to be nominated.

How do Australian university scholarships actually work?

Nearly all the money an Indian student receives in Australia comes from the university, and it behaves differently from the scholarships you are used to at home in three ways.

Most of them have no application. You are assessed on the marks already in your admission application. Deakin says it plainly on its international scholarships page. “Most of our international scholarships do not require a separate application. When you apply to study with us, we automatically assess your eligibility based on your past academic record.” The University of Sydney says the same about its main coursework award, and Adelaide University says most of its awards are assessed automatically when you apply for the degree. The practical consequence is that your scholarship outcome is largely decided by the transcript you upload in month one, not by an essay you write in month four.

Most of them are a percentage off tuition, not a cheque. A 25 per cent award reduces what the university invoices for tuition by a quarter. It does not pay your rent, health cover, airfare or visa charge, and it never reaches your bank account.

The headline hundred per cent awards are a handful of places, and often not for you. Monash advertises a Monash International Leadership Scholarship paying 100 per cent of course fees for the whole degree, awarded automatically with no application. Its eligibility clause then says you must intend to enrol full time in an undergraduate degree. The Monash International Merit Scholarship, worth AUD 15,000 a year for awards made from 2026, carries the same undergraduate condition. Most Indians going to Australia go for a taught master’s, so both Monash awards they search for by name are closed to them.

Universities are honest about the gap between meeting the criteria and winning. Deakin writes that “meeting the minimum criteria does not guarantee selection” and that “due to strong competition, higher academic results may be required”. Read that as the real bar.

What fee reduction are you given without applying for anything?

This is the part Indian families most often miss, because it arrives inside the offer letter rather than as a separate scholarship email. Several universities publish a full ladder of automatic tuition reductions keyed to your existing marks, and a taught master’s applicant is eligible for every rung of it.

Adelaide University publishes the clearest version. Every award below applies to undergraduate or postgraduate coursework degrees.

Deakin runs the same idea with different names. Its Vice-Chancellor’s International Scholarship pays 100 or 50 per cent of tuition for the duration of the degree and is the one award there that does need a separate application. Below it sit the Deakin International Scholarship for Excellence at 25 per cent, the Deakin International 20 Per Cent Merit Scholarship for undergraduate or postgraduate study, and a 10 per cent per unit reduction on a postgraduate degree for Deakin’s own graduates. Deakin’s published bar is unusually specific about Indian qualifications, asking for at least an 85 per cent average, and giving “85% overall in Year 12 (CBSE, ICSE or State Board)” and “80% overall in an undergraduate degree” as its own worked examples.

So before you hunt for an external scholarship, check what your offer already gives you, because a 15 or 25 per cent reduction is often applied silently, and ask the admissions office in writing which automatic awards you were assessed for and what mark would have moved you up a rung. One band is frequently worth more than every external scholarship you were planning to chase.

Which named scholarships are open, and what are they worth?

Below are the awards we opened and read at the university’s own scholarship page on 23 July 2026. This is deliberately not a list of every scholarship in Australia. A long list nobody has checked is the standard failure of this page across the market, and a closed scheme costs you more time than a missing one.

Two entries in that table deserve reading twice, because they show how a real number becomes a misleading one.

The Sydney Scholars India Equity Scholarship is genuinely worth up to AUD 100,000 and genuinely covers tuition, living expenses, flights, textbooks and health cover for a coursework master’s. Its terms then state that it is “awarded to one exceptional Indian student from low socio-economic background”, that you must “be a current resident of slum communities in Delhi, India where ASHA Society works”, with proof of residency required, and that nominations are made by ASHA rather than by you. It is a real award for a very small number of people, and on an unchecked list it reads as an AUD 100,000 scholarship for Indian students at Sydney.

The Vice-Chancellor’s International Scholarships Scheme is the most useful award in the table for a typical applicant, and its structure is instructive. There are five bands. AUD 60,000 and AUD 40,000 are paid across one year in two instalments, while AUD 20,000, AUD 10,000 and AUD 5,000 are paid for a single semester. No application is required and every candidate holding an unconditional offer by a round closing date is considered automatically. But Sydney also states that the award “is only awarded once during first year of commencement and not renewable for following years”, so on a two year master’s even the top band is one year of relief. Recipients of Australian Government scholarships are not eligible at all, and the closing dates for a Semester 1, 2027 start were 17 August, 5 October and 16 November 2026, so the scholarship deadline arrives long before the course does.

One honest gap. The University of Melbourne states it offers more than 1,200 scholarships and prizes, but its search does not expose filtered results at a stable address, and an award page for graduate coursework international students that was indexed until recently now returns a 404. We could not verify a single Melbourne coursework figure at its origin, so we are not quoting one. Use its finder and check anything you read elsewhere against it.

Why is a research degree funded when a coursework master’s is not?

Because Australia funds research through a different pipe. The Commonwealth’s Research Training Program sends block grants to universities to support students doing higher degrees by research, and universities award those funds under their own scholarship names. The Department of Education is explicit that it covers research doctorate and research master’s degrees. A taught master’s is not eligible for any part of it.

The gap is not small. A research candidate can win a living stipend plus a full tuition offset, while a coursework candidate at the same university competes for a percentage discount. Maitri points the same way, funding doctorates and nothing else. If your goal is to be paid to study in Australia rather than to pay less, research is the route that does it, and our guide to PhD and research degrees in Australia with funding covers the stipend rates, how the fee offset rides on the stipend, and why research applicants also sit in the fastest visa priority tier.

That does not make a research degree the right choice. It is longer and it needs a supervisor who wants you before you apply. But if Australia has looked expensive next to a funded programme elsewhere, this is why, and a taught master’s in Australia should be costed on the assumption that you are paying most of it.

Does a partial scholarship actually make Australia affordable?

Often it does not, and it is worth doing the sum before you let a scholarship decide your university.

Take a two year coursework master’s in engineering or computer science at the University of Sydney, whose published international tuition for 2027 entry is AUD 63,600 a year. Add the AUD 29,710 a year Home Affairs makes you evidence for living costs. That is AUD 127,200 of tuition and AUD 59,420 of living costs, so AUD 186,620 in all, about INR 1.26 crore at the Reserve Bank of Australia rate of 67.71 on 23 July 2026. Sydney is the top of the market, so read this as the expensive end and see our page on the cost of studying and living in Australia for the range.

What you still pay = (tuition less the percentage award) + living costs + visa charge + health cover + airfare

Note. This is an estimate built from published tuition and the visa living cost figure, not a quote. Your programme, city and rent will move it.

Read the last column honestly. The common automatic bands, 15 and 25 per cent, move a two year bill by roughly a tenth to a sixth, because they touch tuition and leave living costs, the AUD 2,500 visa application charge, health cover and airfare exactly where they were. If a family cannot fund the plan without a scholarship, a 25 per cent award usually does not turn a no into a yes. What changes the answer is a cheaper city, a cheaper university, a shorter degree, or the 50 to 100 per cent band, and only the last of those is a scholarship decision.

Used the other way round the arithmetic is useful. A 25 per cent reduction at a mid-priced university can beat a 50 per cent reduction at an expensive one, so compare the number you would actually pay and never the percentage. Our guide to universities in Australia is where to do that.

How does a scholarship change your student visa application?

Three ways, and the third one is worth real money.

First, it lowers the funds you must evidence. Home Affairs asks you to show your travel costs, twelve months of living costs and twelve months of course fees, and its Subclass 500 page tells you to “use the first 12 months of your course fees” and to “deduct any costs you have already paid”, evidenced by a receipt or a Confirmation of Enrolment. A tuition reduction lowers the fee your provider records, so the number you have to prove falls with it.

Second, the award itself counts as evidence. Home Affairs lists “scholarships or similar financial support” alongside bank deposits and loans as ways to show you have enough money. Keep the offer letter with its value and duration stated on it.

Third, and almost nobody writes this down, a Commonwealth funded scholarship removes the visa application charge. Home Affairs states that “students awarded a scholarship funded by the Commonwealth Government of Australia” are not required to pay a visa application charge, which is AUD 2,500 for a Subclass 500 at current pricing. The same page also drops the Confirmation of Enrolment requirement for students studying under a scholarship scheme approved by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. Note the test carefully. It asks who funds the scholarship, not how large it is. A percentage tuition reduction from a university is not Commonwealth funding and does not qualify, and if you think your award might, ask your provider to confirm in writing before you skip the charge. The rest of the lodgement sequence is on our Australia student visa guide.

Sources

• Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia Awards participating countries (the Africa, Asia and Pacific lists, none of which includes India)
• Department of Education, Destination Australia (no further funding rounds from 1 July 2024, existing recipients supported for up to four years)
• Department of Education, financial assistance for international students (Research Training Program scope, and the majority of international students paying full fees)
• Study Australia, Scholarships (Australia Awards described as being for a selection of developing countries, RTP applied for through the university)
• Centre for Australia-India Relations, Maitri Scholarships (PhD only, seven STEM priority fields, applications only from Australian universities, 2025-26 round dates)
• Centre for Australia-India Relations, scholarships and fellowships FAQs (AUD 220,000 minimum and AUD 439,000 maximum, four year grant period, scholars cannot apply directly)
• Centre for Australia-India Relations, 2025-26 Maitri Scholars (15 scholars across 12 universities, all STEM doctorates)
• Department of Home Affairs, Student visa Subclass 500 (AUD 29,710 living costs, first twelve months of course fees less amounts paid, scholarships as evidence of financial capacity, visa application charge exemption for Commonwealth funded scholarship holders)
• University of Sydney, Vice-Chancellor’s International Scholarships Scheme (five bands from AUD 5,000 to AUD 60,000, no application required, not renewable, round closing dates, Australian Government scholarship holders excluded)
• University of Sydney, Sydney Scholars India Equity Scholarship (up to AUD 100,000 covering tuition, living costs, flights, textbooks and health cover, one student, ASHA nomination, Delhi residency condition)
• Deakin University, scholarships for international students (the 100 or 50, 25, 20 and 10 per cent ladder, and most awards needing no separate application)
• Deakin University, Vice-Chancellor’s International Scholarship (100 or 50 per cent of tuition, the 85 per cent CBSE, ICSE and State Board bar, and the warning that meeting the criteria does not guarantee selection)
• Adelaide University, scholarships for international students (the 50, 25, 15 and 10 per cent awards, which are automatic and which need a form)
• Monash University, International Merit Scholarship (AUD 15,000 a year from 2026, automatic, undergraduate enrolment condition)
• Monash University, International Leadership Scholarship (100 per cent of course fees, automatic, undergraduate enrolment condition, WAM 70)
• Monash University, Engineering International High Achievers Scholarship (postgraduate AUD 15,000 per 48 credit points, 25 places a year, minimum WAM 75, no application)
• University of Melbourne, find a scholarship (more than 1,200 scholarships and prizes)
• University of Sydney, international student tuition fees (AUD 63,600 for a 2027 coursework master’s in engineering and computer science)

Related reading. Start with the guide to studying in Australia for the full picture, put a real number on the year with the cost of studying and living in Australia, see how research funding works and why it is a different system in PhD and research degrees in Australia, compare where a percentage award goes furthest across universities in Australia, check the entry rules in our guide to a master’s degree in Australia, and take your funding evidence into the Australia student visa application.