That ICPA Australia advocate to the Australian Government Department of Education to expand the eligibility criteria of the Commonwealth Teaching Scholarship Program to allow students who are currently enrolled in teaching degrees to apply for a part-scholarship for the remainder of their study.
Case study:
My family and I manage a remote cattle station, approximately 6.5 hours south of Alice Springs. As well as managing the station, I act as a Home Tutor, supervising my younger child as they complete their distance education through the Alice Springs School of the Air.
At the beginning of 2026, I commenced a Bachelor of Education (Secondary) in an online, part-time capacity, the only capacity I currently have to be able to complete study around work and schooling commitments. With my younger child heading off to join their older sibling at boarding school in a couple of years’ time, I intend to increase my study load to full-time. Under the current eligibility criteria of the Commonwealth Teaching Scholarship Program, I am currently unable to apply due to my part-time study load. I will also be unable to apply for this in the future, as, when I switch to a full-time study load, I will be about halfway through my degree, not at the very beginning as the eligibility criteria currently requires. While I am thankful for the fact that my degree falls under the Commonwealth Supported Place subsidy, the cost of studying is still quite prohibitive, and this will be exacerbated when swapping to a full-time study load. Completing placement later in my studies will require me to take weeks off work, travel a significant distance, and pay for accommodation for the duration of my placement period, due to having no potential placement locations within 150km of my home.
Remote students face a variety of extra costs due to living in remote locations, including extra materials such as printer ink and setting up a learning space, providing their own fast and reliable internet service to be able to attend lectures (often more expensive in remote areas than in urban locations), and travel and accommodation costs in regards to completing placements, attending face-to-face study, etc. Many remote students are likely to be seeking work in the remote locations where they live upon completion of their study, areas that often struggle to attract teachers. By supporting remote students to be able to complete their studies, you would be supporting remote areas in being able to retain teachers who have community and family connections.
