Student Success

Scholarships are crucial for a significant number of our students, enabling them the opportunity to access transformative higher education, regardless of financial disadvantage or difficult personal circumstances.

Scholarships are also a gift of confidence-building, reminding recipients that others recognise their merit
and value the contributions they’ll make in the future.

"The hardship scholarships are extremely meaningful and deeply impactful on the lives of students like me, offering financial assistance to ease what would alternatively be an ongoing financial burden for so much longer than the length of the degree."

—Cinder, Bachelor of Psychological Sciences student 

Cinder didn’t always have people around her that believed in her. At the age of just 15, she was living out of home. She had to learn to be an adult while still trying to fight her way through year 10. Her psychology teacher was a big influence and helped her get set up in residential care.

Moving out of home so young forced her into believing that her dream of going to university to study psychology just wasn’t going to happen. She needed to be realistic, and going to university would have just put her into debt that she simply couldn’t have afforded.

After finishing school, Cinder spent the next few years working in hospitality and security; saving up as much money as she could but never really seeing an opportunity to save for university. Then Covid hit, and she suddenly had a lot of time on her hands to start reflecting on what she wanted to do with her life.

It gave her the time to reassess and really focus in on her goal of studying psychology. It made her realise that life can be pretty unexpected and you should just do the things you want to because you never know what’s going to happen. It was also around this time she was diagnosed with Autism.

Cinder had spent so many years struggling, but finally she had a diagnosis and was able to start asking for the support she needed to help me thrive.

That’s when she applied to study at Swinburne. When she found out she was chosen to receive a scholarship to study at Swinburne, she had a moment of disbelief. She had to pause and go “Wait... Hold up! Did this just really happen?”. She did a double take on the email and re-read it a few times to be sure her eyes weren’t deceiving her. She was ecstatic.

The first thing she did was call her best friend. She was in complete disbelief and had started to question whether she was deserving of this support. But, hearing her best friend exclaim “of course you deserve it, now maybe you’ll start believing in yourself as much as I believe in you” helped her to accept that she really did deserve the support that this scholarship would provide.

There are so many other students out there that are in need of the support which a scholarship provides to help them thrive. Sadly, some of them never even apply to university because they are aware of the financial burden it could put on them.

Scholarships offer support to students like Cinder, helping to relieve the burden and financial stress and offering them the opportunity to achieve their full potential. With 100% of your donation going directly to support students, it is simple to make a difference.

“I really can’t put into words what being awarded the scholarship has meant to me. It’s more than just the financial support. It’s knowing that there are people out there who are willing to back me, people who believe in my future.“

You can make an immediate and transformative difference by donating to Swinburne’s Student Success.

To donate to another cause click here

All donations over $2.00 are tax deductible within Australia.
For donations via Cheque or Direct Deposit refer to our Giving FAQs.