PhD scholarships at University of Newcastle in Religion and Political Life

RiPL’s main focus areas or steams investigate the interactions between religion in: 1) democratic authority; 2) political radicalism; 3) gender; and, 4) post-colonial legacies. A series of symposiums and seminars are planned in the coming years which will result in published outcomes. A list of supervisors associated with the RiPL program are linked to below where you can find further details on their interests and qualifications:

• Roland Boer
• Prof. Hilary Carey
• Prof. Terry Lovat
• Prof. John McDowell
• Dr. Kath McPhillips
• Dr. Timothy Stanley

If you are an Australian student who has achieved a first class honours degree and would like to pursue further PhD research in Religion in Political Life, then please do consider applying. The Australian Postgraduate Awards (APA) are for three years and include a $5k topup beyond the normal $22,860 p.a. award (tax free living allowance).

So too, international students with a high quality Master of Arts degree performance and demonstrations of research excellence through a thesis and, ideally, at least one peer reviewed publication, are strongly encouraged to apply. Postgraduate funding integrates two schemes, the University of Newcastle International Postgraduate Research Scholarships (UNIPRS) and the University of Newcastle Research Scholarship Central (UNRSC). The UNIPRS scholarship provides tuition fees and the UNRSC is a living allowance scholarship, which is $22,860 p.a. (tax free).

All University of Newcastle PhD students are also provided with a laptop computer as well as a $5k research expenditure budget for conference travel, essential research materials, etc.

Application process: Students should follow the normal application procedures for entry into the University of Newcastle PhD degree. Application materials for domestic as well as international students can be found at the following URL: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/students/research-higher-degree/scholarships/.

Very important: The only difference in application procedure for students interested in Religion and Political Life research, is that they must indicate clearly how their research aligns with the RiPL research program within their application’s research proposal. Students must also choose one of the RiPL researchers as their primary supervisor. This will then flag the application for special review.

Closing dates:

• International applicants – 31 August 2012
• Domestic applicants – 31 October 2012

Applications will be accepted by email to [email protected] or fax to 61 2 4921 6908 up until midnight of the closing date. Originals of applications, transcripts etc. submitted in this way must be also be posted to the University as soon as possible.