Orcadia Foundation Scholarship

This scholarship provides up to $5,000 paid over one year.

Four scholarships available.

To be eligible for this scholarship you must:

• be an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident or a permanent humanitarian visa holder
• be born overseas, recently migrated to Australia and from a non-English speaking background
• be able to demonstrate circumstance(s) that impact your ability your ability to study, or be from an RMIT priority group, including:
  • living with a disability, long-term medical condition, or identify as neurodivergent
  • have experienced or currently experiencing significant personal or life difficulties
  • have relocated/will be relocating from interstate or a rural or regional area to Melbourne to study at RMIT (check eligibility using the Regional Adjustment Calculator)
  • are experiencing financial hardship, for example if you:
    • receive a Centrelink/Department of Veterans' Affairs low-income support payment, or
    • hold a low-income Centrelink Health Care Card
  • are an early school leaver, mature-age student, or you entered university via a TAFE pathway
  • are from a low socioeconomic (low SES) background
  • have recently completed secondary schooling at a SNAP (School Network Access Program) school
• be enrolling full-time in Semester 1 and 2 in a certificate IV, diploma, advanced diploma or undergraduate degree program at RMIT in 2027
• have at least one year of your program left to complete

Preference will be given to current or former refugees and/or commencing students who have recently migrated to Australia.

Postgraduate students are ineligible to apply.

It is preferred that you apply direct to RMIT for this scholarship.

Direct to RMIT applications

The online application form will be made available here when applications open. 

VTAC applications

Apply online through the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) website (www.vtac.edu.au). 

Supporting documentation

Depending on your circumstances, you will need to provide different types of evidence and material to support your scholarship application. Applications without supporting documents will not be considered.

If you are a current or former refugee, you will need a copy of your: 

• permanent humanitarian visa or Australian Permanent Humanitarian Visa; or
• Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) check; or
• refugee documentation from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection/Department of Home Affairs.

Please visit Supporting Your Application for more information.

Find out more about applying for scholarships.

Applications for Semester 1 2027 open 1 August 2026.

Timely applications: If you submit your Access and Equity Scholarship Application by 31 August 2026, we’ll let you know if we need any additional documentation.

Applications for Semester 1 2027 close 2:00pm Tuesday 20 October 2026. No late applications will be accepted.

View the Coursework Scholarships Office’s terms and conditions (PDF, 698KB).

The Orcadia Foundation Scholarship is made available by the generous support of the Orcadia Foundation. The founder of the Orcadia Foundation and his family relocated to Australia from the UK in 1972; it was, in many ways, a seamless transition.

‘We understood the way of life here, we spoke the language and our qualifications were recognised,’ he said.

But the challenge of starting again in a new country motivated the founder to empathise with the difficulties faced by those relocating from very different cultures and environments.

The Orcadia Foundation Scholarship is provided to make the lives of migrant students less of a struggle.

Quotes from past recipients:

"The benefits of this scholarship were very effective and has made a huge difference in how much time I got to spend on my studies to achieve my goals and maintain high grades throughout the year, instead of working at any minimum wage job to support myself, which I would not have been left me with much time to focus on my studies. Therefore I truly found the scholarship very supportive and helpful during the year." - Bachelor of Economics and Finance student

“The amount of help this scholarship provided is unimaginable. I was always stressing about how to afford the materials fees for the course and the petrol cost getting to the university, so when I was informed about receiving the scholarship a big deal of the stress was resolved and was able to focus more on studying leading me to perform better in the course. Exams are really expensive in this course as multiple exams are done externally and are very costly to afford, therefore paying for these exams created a negative environment and experience during the exam duration however with after receiving the scholarship I was able to do much better.” Bachelor of Aviation (Pilot Training) student

Find out how to contact the Coursework Scholarships Office.