External scholarships

External scholarships, awards, prizes and competitions for law students

A number of external organisations (private and public) offer recognition and financial support for law students in the form of awards, prizes and scholarship opportunities in Australia and overseas.

Awards and competitions

The Attorney-General's Department funds this $2,500 prize to recognise the achievements of Indigenous Australians working or studying in the legal arena. ANU Law's Sara Wood won the prize in 2014. Nominations are open to any Indigenous person enrolled in an undergraduate law degree in Australia, and selection is based mostly on academic merit with consideration for community involvement and future aspirations.

Lawyers Weekly presents the annual Australian Law Awards, which include a category for Law Student of the Year, recognising the academic, community and legal achievements of undergraduates. Nominees must be current law students or students who have graduated in the year of the awards.

International mooting competitions are a great opportunity to get some practice in this fine skill, and perhaps earn some recognition and prize money along the way.

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External scholarships and internships

Taught in English, this program provides students with a comprehensive understanding of Indonesian business, law and society at regional and global levels, as seen from an Indonesian perspective, while developing necessary critical skills to enter their respective fields.

The consortium has a large number of New Columbo Plan (NCP) mobility grants available to support students to undertake ACICIS programs in Indonesia. Receive academic credit towards your degree. Professional placements (internships) available.

The Anne Wexler Scholarship aims to grow Australian-American educational linkages by awarding an Australian graduate a scholarship to complete a full US Masters in Public Policy.

The Aurora Internship Program introduces law students and graduates to career opportunities in native title, land rights, policy development, research and social justice, all with an Indigenous focus.

The Aurora Internship Program co-ordinates internships for students and graduates in Law. There are two intakes annually during the summer and winter university breaks, for four to six weeks. It is preferable for legal applicants to be in their final year of study and be enrolled or have completed Property Law. 

Aimed at junior career practitioners, one scholarship each year to the value of $5,000, offered by the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia. Applicants must submit a 10,000 word paper on a competition law topic.

The Laura Bassi Scholarship was established by Editing Press in 2018 with the aim of providing editorial assistance to postgraduates and junior academics whose research focuses on neglected topics of study, broadly construed, within their disciplines. The scholarships are open to every discipline and are awarded three times per year: December, April, and August. The value of the scholarships are remitted solely through editorial assistance as follows:

Master’s candidates: $750
Doctoral candidates: $2,500
Junior academics: $500

These figures reflect the upper bracket of costs of editorial assistance for master’s theses, doctoral dissertations, and academic journal articles, respectively. All currently enrolled master’s and doctoral candidates are eligible to apply, as are academics in the first five years of full-time employment.

Please visit their website for more information on the scholarship, application deadlines and application instructions.

The PLSRS is open to postgraduate students and gives them the opportunity to work alongside specialist researchers in the Parliamentary Library in Canberra for a period of six weeks (January-February to produce a report on a topic of relevance to the Library’s research program.

Upon successful completion of the scholarship, an honorarium of $1,800 is paid.

The Schwarzman Scholars program is a prestigious scholarship program which funds successful applicants to undertake a one-year Masters in Global Affairs at Tsinghua University, China, that is designed to prepare the next generation of global leaders for the challenges of the future.

The Sydney Criminal Lawyers (‘SCL’) Criminal Law Scholarship was established to encourage and support New South Wales and ACT law students who excel in criminal law and are passionate about pursuing a career in criminal defence. The Scholarship will be awarded on the basis of academic merit – especially in criminal law-related subjects – their resume, covering letter and possibly an interview with the firm’s principal. A Practical Legal Training placement with SCL may be offered to the successful nominee. The Scholarship is valued at $5,000 as a one-off payment which is payable upon the selection of the successful nominee.

The Rhodes Scholarship is a postgraduate award supporting outstanding all-round students at the University of Oxford. Each year, there are nine scholarships available in Australia. To be eligible to apply for a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, candidates must be Australian citizens, be aged between 18 and 25 years by 1 October and must have completed (or expect to complete in the current year) their degree with first class honours.

The United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals is a court of the United Nations established in 2010 to carry out a number of essential functions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (“ICTR”) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (“ICTY”), after the completion of their respective mandates. Both Chambers and the President’s Office of the Mechanism offer internships to graduate law students and undergraduate law students who are in their final stages of education, seeking to enhance their professional training in the unique and dynamic environment of an international tribunal. The duration of a Mechanism internship must be at least three months to a maximum of six months according to the needs of the intern’s assigned section. Please note that neither the United Nations nor the Mechanism offers remuneration for an internship. 

The Astor Legal Criminal Lawyers Scholarship was established in 2021 to encourage and support law students who are passionate about pursuing a career in the criminal law, but may be suffering from financial hardship and/or come from a regional or remote area.

The value of the Astor Legal Criminal Lawyers Scholarship is of $3,000, and aims to assist students with their studies and help them start in the industy.

 

The John Koowarta Reconciliation Law Scholarship is available to penultimate and final year Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander law students enrolled in an Australian tertiary institution undertaking an approved course of study that may lead to admission as a legal practitioner in any Australian jurisdiction. The Scholarship is designed to enhance the potential of, and assist, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student to enter the legal profession.


The Scholarship commemorates John Koowarta, a member of the Winychanam community at Aurukun and a traditional owner of the Archer River region on Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. Mr Koowarta is widely regarded as being at the forefront of Aboriginal land rights in Australia during the late 1970s and early 1980s. He is today revered as one of the most important figures in the progression of Native Title rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

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