Grants and Writing Resources for RMIT University

A student graduating from RMIT's Master of Interior Design won Best in Category for Student Design across all disciplines at the 2025 Victorian Premier's Design Awards with T.R.I.A.L., an adaptable furniture system that takes old furniture apart and reassembles it into new pieces. RMIT writers are winning as well. In 2026 an RMIT writer took the Speculate Prize for Emerging Writers for her story The Inbetween and earned a week's residency at RMIT's McCraith House.

Research Funding and the 3MT

RMIT's Research Stipend Scholarships fund doctoral and Masters by Research candidates through two awards: the government-funded RTP Stipend Scholarship and the university-funded RMIT Research Stipend Scholarship. For the 2026 round the stipend was A$36,245 a year full-time, indexed annually. Applying in a university round puts you in the running for every scholarship you're eligible for.

PhD candidates who have passed confirmation can enter the Three Minute Thesis Competition. The RMIT final pays A$4,000 to the winner, A$2,000 to the runner-up and A$1,000 for People's Choice, with A$250 for every other finalist. Masters by research candidates can take part in college heats. A candidate from the School of Property, Construction and Project Management won in 2025.

Prizes and Awards

RMIT's major prizes and awards go to graduates each year for academic results combined with leadership or service. The J N McNicol Prize recognises one Bachelor degree graduate for performance and leadership potential. The Patricia Guthrie Memorial Award goes to one female Bachelor degree graduate who has also contributed to her community, and the RMIT Awards honour one vocational education graduate and one Bachelor or Associate degree graduate.

Student writers can enter The Speculate Prize, which RMIT runs with the Emerging Writers' Festival for short works on speculation and otherness. It's open to Australian emerging writers studying at VE or university. RMIT Writing and Publishing students help shape the longlist, and the 2026 winner received A$1,500 along with a seven-night McCraith House residency and a full pass to the National Writers' Conference.

Student Media and the Repository

Catalyst, RMIT's student magazine since 1944, is run through RUSU Student Media and publishes in print, on the Cataclysm podcast and in video with RMITV. It takes writers, photographers, journalists, artists, radio producers and filmmakers. New contributors are welcome.

Finished research theses go to the RMIT Research Repository, the Library's open access home for research outputs. It holds PhD and Professional Doctorate theses, mostly from 2006 onward, with older theses added where the author has consented.

Study and Writing Help

Academic Skills Advisors run one-to-one writing and assessment appointments for students at every RMIT campus, covering planning, academic writing structure, Academic English and academic integrity. Prefer to drop in? Advisors and librarians staff the Study Support Hubs at Swanston on the City campus and at Bundoora. PhD candidates get research, writing and publishing help from Library Research Services.

Thesis Writing Support

Research Plus, run by the School of Graduate Research, offers Thesis Boot Camp, a two-day intensive for middle-to-final stage HDR candidates with a major writing task ahead. Places are limited. Candidates complete pre-program activities, and priority goes to those for whom the boot camp will most help finish the degree.

For steady progress, Write Here! Write Now! gathers PhD and Masters by Research candidates every two weeks at the City or Bundoora campus for three 25-minute writing sprints. The Library and School of Graduate Research also run Research Writing Month, a program of free workshops for HDR writers that includes Writing for publication. Candidates can start their own research writing groups with Study and Learning Centre materials, as the Research Plus resources page explains.

Our editors work with RMIT writers at the final-draft stage, from seminar papers to dissertations. See our RMIT University dissertation and thesis editing page, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.