Supporting documentation

This page provides information about the types of documents that can be used to support your coursework scholarship application.

If you are experiencing circumstances that impact your ability to study, you must include evidence with your scholarship application. Claims will not be assessed without supporting evidence.

Please ensure the evidence you provide is relevant to your claim, specific in detail and current. Documents uploaded from previous application periods will not be considered.

Providing false or misleading information is a criminal offence and the penalties can be severe. Applications including false or misleading information will be made ineligible.

When submitting supporting evidence, please ensure you redact personal information such as your drivers license number, Customer Reference Number (CRN), Tax File Number (TFN) and bank account details. Provided that the document is in date and your full name and address are visible, we do not require the additional personal information usually evident within these types of documentation.

'Redact' means to cross out or hide part of a text for security purposes. A full list of information to include and what should be redacted can be found below.

If the evidence you can provide is not listed, please contact scholarships@rmit.edu.au to discuss.

Evidence of financial hardship

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If you receive income support from Centrelink or the Department of Veteran Affairs, you will need to provide a copy of an income statement dated within the last three months.

The statement should include:

your full name
the benefit you are receiving and amount

The following information should be redacted from the statement:

your Customer Reference Number (CRN)

Eligible benefits include:

Youth Allowance
JobSeeker Payment
Austudy
ABSTUDY
Disability Support Pension
Carer Payment
Parenting Payment - maximum payment rate only

Please note that Family Tax Benefits A and B, JobKeeper and Carer Allowance are not considered eligible within this category. If you receive one of these income supports, you will also need to include your Notice of Assessment for the previous financial year or copies of your last three payslips from all current employers.

If you receive a Parenting Payment, a copy of your current low-income health care card is preferred. If your most recent income statement clearly shows that you receive the maximum payment rate, you can also provide this evidence.

If your statement does not show that you receive the maximum rate for Parenting Payment and you do not have a current low-income health care card, you will also need to include your Notice of Assessment for the previous financial year or copies of your last three payslips from all current employers.

To ensure you are providing appropriate evidence of your Centrelink income support payments, please view our examples of eligible (PDF, 177KB) and ineligible (PDF, 302KB) evidence.

If you have an Australian Government means tested* low-income health care card, you will need to provide a copy of the front of the card.

Eligible cards are:

Centrelink Health Care Card
Department of Veteran Affairs Health Card

The card should include:

your full name
the card's expiry date (must be current)
the code for the type of benefit you receive (i.e., AUS, ABS, DSP, JSP, YA - for Health Care Cards only)

The following information should be redacted from the card:

your Customer Reference Number (CRN)
the name(s) of anyone else on the card

To ensure you are providing appropriate evidence of your card, please view our examples of eligible (PDF, 211KB) and ineligible (PDF, 236KB) evidence.

*Ex-Carer Allowance Health Care Cards (EH/EHC) and Foster Child Health Care Cards (FO) are ineligible as they are not means/income tested.

If your household (including any others that financially support you that you may not live with) has a combined annual income of $78,260 or less and you do not receive any eligible Centrelink benefits, you can still provide evidence that you are experiencing financial hardship. Please visit the Department of Human Services income test if you have dependent children, as this may increase the allowed combined income.

You must:

Explain why you are not receiving Centrelink benefits;
Provide Notice of Assessments (NoA) from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for the relevant financial year for ALL the people earning an income in your household/supporting you (i.e. if applying for scholarships up until June 2024, the NoA would be for the 2022-23 financial period, if applying for scholarships from July 2024, the NoA would be for the 2023-24 financial period); OR
Provide the last three payslips for ALL of the people earning an income in your household/supporting you, from all current employers.

Notice of assessments and payslips should include:

your full name
your income details

The following information should be redacted:

your Tax File Number (TFN)

These documents should be collated into a single document either in a ZIP file, within a Word document, or as a single PDF.

Income ready statements and PAYG (pay as you go) summaries will not be accepted as evidence.

In exceptional circumstances (sale of a family business; death of a parent; etc.), parts of this evidence may not be accessible to you during the application period. If this is the case, we may accept a statutory declaration. Please contact the Coursework Scholarships Office prior to submission for advice.

To ensure you are providing appropriate evidence of your financial hardship, please view our examples of eligible (PDF, 258KB) and ineligible (PDF, 183KB) evidence.

If you have an annual income of $45,630 or less and you do not receive any eligible Centrelink benefits, you can still provide evidence that you are experiencing financial hardship. Please visit the Department of Human Services income test if you have dependent children, as this may increase the allowed income.

You must:

Explain why you are not receiving Centrelink benefits;
Provide your Notice of Assessment (NoA) from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for the previous financial year (i.e. if applying for scholarships up until June 2024, the NoA would be for the 2022-23 financial period, if applying for scholarships from July 2024, the NoA would be for the 2023-24 financial period); OR
Provide your last three payslips from all current employers.

Notice of assessments and payslips should include:

your full name
your income details

The following information should be redacted:

your Tax File Number (TFN)

These documents should be collated into a single document either in a ZIP file, within a Word document, or as a single PDF.

Income ready statements and PAYG (pay as you go) summaries will not be accepted as evidence.

To ensure you are providing appropriate evidence of your financial hardship, please view our examples of eligible (PDF, 258KB) and ineligible (PDF, 182KB) evidence.

Evidence of a long-term medical condition, disability, or identify as neurodiverse

If you have a disability, long-term medical condition, or identify as neurodiverse and it impacts your ability to study, you can make a claim of medical hardship in your scholarship application. The following documents can be used as evidence:

A copy of your disability income support statement from Centrelink, dated within the last three months
A copy of your current Disability Centrelink Health Care Card (DSP); or
A copy of your current RMIT Equitable Learning Plan
A detailed letter from your health care provider, specifying the nature of your condition and the impact it is likely to have on your studies, dated within the last three months. If you are unsure of what information to ask your health care provider to include, you can request they complete our Statement of Support.

Evidence such as prescriptions, hospital admission forms or letters from non-health care providers do not provide sufficient context to assess the likely impact on your education, so will not be accepted.

Medical evidence should include:

your full name
information about your medical condition, disability income support statement or DSP health care card

The following information should be redacted:

your Customer Reference Number (CRN)
your Medicare number

Evidence that you have/will be relocating to study at RMIT

If you are moving or have moved from interstate or rural/regional Victoria to study at RMIT, the following documents can be used as evidence:

I will be moving from a rural/regional/interstate location to study at RMIT

Your move needs to be within four months of commencing study or any time after
If studying at the City, Brunswick, Bundoora, or Point Cook Campus, the move location needs to be within metropolitan Melbourne
If studying at the Bendigo Campus, the move location needs to be within the general Bendigo area

I have moved within the past 4 years from a rural/regional/interstate location to study at RMIT

Your move needs to be within four months of commencing study or any time after
If studying at the City, Brunswick, Bundoora, or Point Cook Campus, the move location needs to be within metropolitan Melbourne
If studying at the Bendigo Campus, the move location needs to be within the general Bendigo area
Proof of your current address (i.e., rental agreement, utility bill)

Proof of address should include:

your full name
your address

The following information should be redacted:

your driver's license number
any customer account numbers
personal details of landlord
the name(s) of other people on the tenancy agreement

Evidence of other circumstances

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The following documents can be used as evidence:

A copy of your Australian Permanent Humanitarian Visa
A copy of your Visa Grant Notice
A copy of your Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) check
A copy of your Document for travel to Australia
Refugee documentation from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection/Department of Home Affairs

An ImmiCard is not able to be accepted as evidence for this category.

Refugee evidence should include:

your full name
your visa subclass (i.e., 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 866)

The following information should be redacted:

application ID/file number
visa grant number
ImmiCard number
passport number

To ensure you are providing appropriate evidence as a current or former refugee, please view our examples of eligible (PDF, 258KB) and ineligible (PDF, 182KB) evidence.

See Indigenous eligibility for more information.

If you are experiencing personal/family/social difficulties that impact your ability to study and you wish for it to be considered as part of your scholarship application, the following documents can be used as evidence:

A supporting statement written by someone in a position of authority who is qualified to comment on your circumstances, i.e., teacher, lawyer, accountant, health care provider, community or religious leader, police or law enforcement member (it should not be written by you or a family member/friend)

In order to be considered, the supporting statement must:

be detailed and specific about the difficult circumstances and the impact on your education
be dated
include contact details for the person who has written the statement
include the signature of the author

It is preferred that the supporting statement is written on official letterhead and uploaded as a PDF or you can request they complete our Statement of Support.

While we prefer supporting documents to be no more than three months old, we understand that some life events have long-ranging consequences. For example, a student who has been a victim of a crime may submit a police report from a number of years ago. This evidence would of course be accepted.

If you are unsure about what circumstances or time-frame might be considered within this category, please contact the Coursework Scholarships Office.

The following documents can be used as evidence:

Documentation from the Department of Human Services;
Documentation from your out-of-home care provider; or
A letter written by someone in a position of authority who is qualified to comment on your circumstances, i.e., teacher, social worker, GP/counsellor/health care provider, lawyer, community or religious leader, police or law enforcement member (it should not be written by you or a family member/friend).

Evidence must:

use your full name
discuss your circumstances
be dated; and
be either on official letterhead OR contain an original signature and contact details for the person who has written the letter (PDF preferred), or you can request they complete our Statement of Support.

If you are unable to provide this documentation, please contact the Coursework Scholarships Office for alternative options.

If you must study part-time (rather than choosing to because of work commitments, credit exemptions or preference), you can provide current evidence (dated within the last three months) to support reasons why you are unable to study full-time, i.e., a copy of a detailed letter from your health care provider or evidence of Centrelink Carer or dependent payments.

If you are unsure about what circumstances might be considered within this category, please contact the Coursework Scholarships Office.

Need help?

Contact the Coursework Scholarships Office.

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

More information

Supporting documentation