Summer Scholarships initiative

The Summer Scholarships Scheme emerged from the Government Jobs Summit held in February 2009.

The purpose of the scheme is to provide university students with on-campus research-based scholarships over the 2009/10 trimester.

Funding for the initiative is provided equally by the Government and universities and will be allocated on a per-student basis. All eight universities have committed to the scheme, and will match government funding for each scholarship they offer. The total funding available for this scheme will be $8 million. This combined amount will fund a total of 1,600 scholarships and each full-time equivalent scholarship will be worth $5,000 (GST exclusive).  These scholarships are in addition to the normal range of scholarships the universities offer.

The places were allocated as follows:

University of Auckland: 400

Auckland University of Technology: 50

University of Waikato: 100

Massey University: 50

Victoria University of Wellington: 350

University of Canterbury: 200

Lincoln University: 50

University of Otago: 400

Applications for the scheme have now closed and the scheme has begun in earnest at each university. Universities will report back to the TEC upon the completion of the scheme in March 2010.