Release type: Media Release

Date:

$40,000 Commonwealth Teaching Scholarship applications open for 2026

Ministers:

The Hon Jason Clare MP
Minister for Education

Students starting teaching degrees in 2026 can now apply for scholarships worth up to $40,000. 

This is the third round of the Australian Government’s $160 million Commonwealth Teaching Scholarships Program, which is delivering 5,000 scholarships over five years.

The first and second rounds have been highly successful. Almost 2,000 students have received scholarships with 30 per cent of students being from regional, rural or remote areas. 

The scholarships are targeted at high achieving school leavers and mid-career professionals from diverse backgrounds. This includes First Nations peoples, people with disability, people for whom English is an additional language or dialect, people from rural, regional and remote locations, and people from low socio-economic backgrounds. 

Students will receive up to $40,000 for undergraduate studies or up to $20,000 for postgraduate studies in accredited initial teacher education degrees. 

The scholarships include a ‘commitment to teach’ requirement, which means recipients must be willing to commit to teach for four years (undergraduate) and two years (postgraduate) in government-run schools or early learning settings.

The scholarship program is part of the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan which is tackling the teacher workforce shortage.

More information on the Commonwealth Teaching Scholarships Program, including information on the application process, is at education.gov.au/teaching-scholarships

Quotes attributable to Minister for Education Jason Clare:

“Being a teacher is the most important job in the world, and we don’t have enough of them.

“I want more young people to leap out of high school and want to become a teacher.

“And I want more people in the middle of their careers to consider becoming teachers.

“That’s what these scholarships are all about.

“This is one part of our plan to tackle the teacher workforce shortage and builds on our reforms to teacher training and the Commonwealth Prac Payment for teaching students.”