Graduate Women New Zealand Charitable Trust (GWNZ-Charitable Trust) scholarships
Graduate Women New Zealand Charitable Trust (GWNZ-CT) provides scholarships to assist women further their study and / or research. We believe education empowers women and girls; and enables graduate women to use their intellect to effect positive change.
Currently we offer the following scholarships for women who are New Zealand citizens or permanent residents
- GWNZ Fellowships – to assist outstanding graduates undertake doctoral study
- GWNZ Harriette Jenkins Award – to encourage active members of GWNZ to study or do research
- GWNZ Susan Byrne Memorial Award – to assist graduates change career through further study
Instructions
All applications must be submitted via the GWNZ applications portal. The portal opens on 1st May and closes at 5pm on 30 June. Results are announced in late August of the same year.
Only complete applications are considered. Please upload all required documents in PDF format. Once your application is submitted, you will be emailed a copy and sent an acknowledgement that it has been received.
When you start your application, you will be given a site generated access code. Make a note of your code. If you wish to stop & resume your application; submit the partially complete application & look for an email which will include a link to return to your application.
Purpose of the GWNZ Fellowship Fund
The purpose of the GWNZ Fellowship Fund is to provide recognition and financial assistance, in the form of annual awards called Graduate Women New Zealand Fellowships, to outstanding female graduates who are undertaking doctoral study.
History of the GWNZ Fellowship Fund and Awards
During the 1929 Dominion Conference of NZFUW a discussion was held on the possibility of founding a New Zealand Fellowship. NZFUW President, Miss M E Sims and the Secretary, Miss Ironside saw that the Fund was inaugurated at the NZFUW Conference in January 1932. A leaflet was drawn up setting out the aims and objectives of the Fund. Along with the desire to foster higher education for women, NZFUW also wished to promote the basic aims of the IFUW, to further international friendship and understanding.
It was not an easy task for an organisation with fewer than 500 members to raise the capital sum. Seven years later, on 5 October 1939 the NZFUW Fellowship Trust was first incorporated as the NZFUW Fellowship Trust Board.
By 1949 the capital fund had reached £4000 and it was agreed that an award of £300 for one year should be offered to a member of the British Federation of University Women to take up the award in New Zealand, in appreciation of outstanding work during the 1939-45 war. However, when the award was offered there were no applicants (probably due to the heavy travel costs to be borne by the Fellow). Consequently, the Dominion Executive asked the government for assistance and the government's response was to provide £300 for travelling expenses for a Fellow from Britain, £1000 for the Fellowship Fund and £1000 to help with the British drive to rebuild Crosby Hall (where members of NFAs could stay when visiting London).
The Fellowship was re-advertised in Britain, and two members of the NZFUW Fellowship Trust Board who were in Great Britain at the time selected the first recipient of the award. The first Fellow was Miss Eila Campbell, MA, Lecturer in Geography. Campbell arrived in New Zealand in August 1949 and gave an address at the Wellington Conference in 1950 on Geography in the Service of the Community.
In 1951 the first Fellowship was awarded to a New Zealander, Miss Brenda Slade, who travelled to Cambridge to study for a PhD in botany. The Fellowship Capital Fund then stood at £5,000, making possible an award of £400 in 1953 and 1955. Awards were made thereafter in 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1961. There was an award every year from 1961 to 1973.
At the Golden Jubilee Conference in 1973, it was announced that the Fellowship Award would be £2,500. Two Fellowships were awarded in each year from 1974 to 1981.
In the triennium of 1982 to 1984 there were two or three awards of $4,000 each year with two travel awards of $1,000. There were 24 applicants in 1984.
Since 1985 the amount of Fellowships has no longer been fixed but varied according to needs, and the requirement that an applicant should be a member of NZFUW was dropped.
The number of awards (and the number of applicants) kept increasing from then on. There were three awards in each of 1985 and 1986, four in 1987, five in each of 1988 and 1989, and seven in 1990 (when there were 50 applicants) with the awards varying from $4,000 to $10,000.
The Branches of NZFUW continued to support the Fellowship Fund generously and in 1988 the Capital Fund was set at $100,000 (although the amount of $40,000 in the Fellowship Regulations was not changed). By this time many NZFUW Branches had long-established businesses of hiring academic regalia to graduands, school prize-givings and other income generating activities, and many had by this stage formed charitable trusts to manage these fund-raising activities. The donations to the Fellowship Fund were often from NZFGW Branch Charitable Trusts.
The NZFUW Fellowship Trust was amalgamated into the NZFGW Charitable Trust on 17 September 2005.
Awards made in the last two decades have typically been in the order of $5,000 to $20,000, with betwen five and 15 awards being made.
Successful candidates who take up the award are as Fellows of Graduate Women New Zealand (formerly Fellows of the New Zealand Federation of Graduate Women) and will be granted honorary membership of GWNZ during their one year tenure of the Fellowship.
There is an expectation that successful candidates will continue to support and promote the work of GWNZ and GWI and become active members of the organisation after their one year honorary membership expires.
Contact Details:
GWNZ Scholarships Co-ordinator
scholarships@gwnz.org.nz
GWNZ Members' Awards made at the national level each year are made from the Harriette Jenkins Award Fund.
Purpose of the Harriette Jenkins Awards
The purpose of the awards are to encourage active members of GWNZ to carry out or complete a piece of research, or to undertake further studies at a university or other recognised tertiary institution in New Zealand or overseas.
The awards are made in recognition of service to the organisation whether at Branch or national/international level.
Awards of up to $5000 are available for active GWNZ members for incidental expenses incurred by their study or research, for example costs of travel, child care, or specific components of their research.
History of the Harriette Jenkins Award Fund
At the 1970 NZFUW Conference (now GWNZ), the following resolution, proposed by Nelson Branch, was passed:
That a fund be set up at the national level to provide annually a small grant to a member of NZFUW who is not eligible for any other grants or assistance, so that this member can complete or carry out a piece of research within New Zealand, or further her studies at the university or other institution within New Zealand. It is proposed that the grant be in the vicinity of $60 and that it be used for such purposes as travel connected with the project, books, equipment, domestic help etc.
Harriette Jenkins graduated MA with Honours in Botany, University of New Zealand (Victoria University College) in 1912.
Harriette won the Jacob Joseph Scholarship and Senior Scholarship and was one of the first students to reside at the Women Students Hostel (now Victoria House).
Harriette first taught in Marlborough and introduced many pupils to her deep interest in New Zealand flora and the joys of tramping.
Harriette worked consistently for the advancement of women's training and education and was an active, dedicated member of NZFUW.
Whilst attending IFUW meetings in Zurich and Paris Harriette was convinced of the need for closer and continuing communication among countries and peoples.
Harriette was Treasurer of the Nelson Branch from 1951-1962 and was made a Life Member of the Branch. Harriette died soon after this award was established and left a bequest to NZFUW.
It was decided that the fund described above be named in her honour.
Contact Details:
GWNZ Scholarships Co-ordinator
scholarships@gwnz.org.nz
The Susan Byrne Memorial Award provides funding for women degree graduates over the age of 35 years to change career through further study at tertiary institution in New Zealand or overseas.
The award's value is typically at least $10,000
History of the Susan Byrne Memorial Award
Susan Byrne was a member of NZFGW who generously bequeathed a sum of money to NZFGW with the suggestion that an award be established for women graduates wanting to make a change of career in mid life. Susan first graduated in 1975 at Victoria University of Wellington, and in 1980 completed a PhD at Imperial College, University of London. She was a lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, then at Massey University (Palmerston North) before moving to The University of Auckland where she began work in the Engineering School. Susan then changed to Mathematics, Operations Research and finally Management Information Systems before her untimely death in 2004.
Contact Details:
GWNZ Scholarships Co-ordinator
scholarships@gwnz.org.nz