Grants and Writing Resources for Deakin University

A doctoral candidate at the Deakin Institute for Frontier Materials won the 2026 Deakin Three Minute Thesis with a talk on batteries that don't burn. Runner-up and People's Choice both went to a Faculty of Health candidate working on cancer. A year earlier, an entrant from the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences won Deakin's round of Visualise Your Thesis, and that 60-second presentation went through to the international round.

Presenting Research

PhD and Professional Doctorate (Research) candidates who have passed confirmation can enter the Three Minute Thesis (3MT). Rounds start in schools, faculties and institutes, and finalists move on to the Deakin final. The winner receives $3,000, the first runner-up $2,000 and the People's Choice $500, and the overall winner goes to the Asia-Pacific final.

Reel Research asks for a 45 to 60 second digital story built around one idea from your research. It's open to enrolled MPhil, Masters by Research, PhD and Professional Doctorate students at any stage. The People's Choice winner, picked by audience vote at the grand final, receives $1000. Visualise Your Thesis isn't running in 2026.

Medals and Prizes

Deakin's university-level awards and prizes are by invitation. Students can't nominate themselves. The Deakin University Medal goes to two top undergraduates per faculty each year and carries $1000, and the Vice-Chancellor's Prize gives $1000 to the two top honours students in each faculty. Masters coursework students can receive the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Achievement. Faculties and industry sponsors add their own, set out faculty by faculty in the handbook's 2026 Undergraduate prizes and awards, with a separate list for postgraduates.

For doctoral graduates, the Deakin University Medals for doctoral theses go to up to four students a year, each receiving a medal and $2000. Candidates must have passed on first examination, and faculties and institutes nominate them on the strength of examiners' reports, publications, impact and recognition.

Research Scholarships

Domestic and international HDR students can hold a Research Training Program (RTP) or Deakin University Postgraduate Research Scholarship (DUPRS). The stipend was $35,550 a year, tax exempt, at the 2025 rate, paid for three years of a doctorate or two of a research master's to full-time, on-campus students. Fee offsets run four years for doctoral students. Students moving interstate or from overseas can get a relocation allowance of $500 to $1,500.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander graduate researchers can apply for the First Nations Graduate Research Scholarship, which pays a stipend of $53,608 a year, tax exempt, at the 2026 rate, plus a $15,000 research bursary toward the extra costs Indigenous researchers carry in meeting obligations to Country, family, community and the academy. Researchers and HDR students whose caring duties would keep them from a conference can apply to the Vice-Chancellor's Conference Care Support Fund, described on the awards and prizes page, for up to $2000 toward a carer's travel or extra care costs.

Study and Writing Help

Through Study assistance, students can book a free one-to-one Study Support appointment or work with experienced students who help unpack assignment questions and improve academic writing. Studiosity+ gives online feedback on drafts. PASS runs free online group study sessions in difficult units.

Graduate researchers have HDR study support of their own. The Writing for Research site covers critical reading, writing the thesis and its chapters, argument and voice, and revising, and the HDR Study Support team gives individual help with thesis writing by email. The library's workshops and personalised support include consultations with a Scholarly Services Librarian.

If you'd like an editor's eye on a thesis chapter or a research paper before it goes out, we can help. See our Deakin University dissertation and thesis editing page, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.