Commonwealth Teaching Scholarships (CTS)

The CTS Program will support up to 5,000 eligible undergraduate and postgraduate students to undertake and complete an initial teacher education (ITE) program accredited under the Accreditation of initial teacher education programs in Australia: Standards and Procedures (Accreditation Standards) with a scholarship of up to $40,000. Scholarship recipients may be eligible for a $2,000 top-up payment if they undertake their final professional experience placement in a remote setting.

Recipients will be required to teach for a period of time equivalent to the length of their ITE program in a government school or government-run early learning setting. If recipients do not meet their scholarship or commitment to teach obligations, they may be required to pay back all or part of the cost of the scholarship.

Students enrolling in an accredited ITE program, and willing to commit to teaching, will be eligible to apply for a scholarship. The following target cohorts are encouraged to apply:

• high achieving students with an ATAR of 80 or above (or equivalent)
• First Nations peoples
• people from regional, rural and remote areas
• mid-career professionals
• people for whom English is an additional language or dialect (EAL/D)
• people from low socio-economic backgrounds
• people with disability

Each scholarship will provide payments of $10,000 per year, capped at $40,000 for students
undertaking undergraduate programs and $20,000 for students undertaking postgraduate
programs.
The scholarships will be allocated in five rounds as follows:

• Round One: for applicants intending to commence an ITE program in the first study period or semester of 2024
• Round Two: for applicants intending to commence an ITE program in the first study period or semester of 2025
• Round Three: for applicants intending to commence an ITE program in the first study period or semester of 2026
• Round Four: for applicants intending to commence an ITE program in the first study period or semester of 2027
• Round Five: for applicants intending to commence an ITE program in the first study period or semester of 2028.