Strong interest in Prime Minister’s Scholarships, now supported by new website

More than 30 group applications were received for the PMSA, and ten for the PMSLA, before applications closed on Monday 16 May 2022 after a two-week deadline extension. The total value of applications was $8.7 million. Decisions will be announced before the end of June 2022, with travel expected to take place in the second half of 2022 and the first half of 2023. 

The Prime Minister’s Scholarship programme supports educational experiences in Asia and Latin America for New Zealanders, and the latest round was open for group applications only. Universities, wānanga, institutes of technology and polytechnics, private training establishments, iwi and other educational organisations were able to apply for a programme on behalf of a group of people.  

To ensure that a wider range of New Zealanders have access to the benefits of this programme, a new website was launched this month: http://scholarships.enz.govt.nz. The new website aims to help develop broader awareness and understanding of the scholarship for potential individual applicants, breakdown any barriers to participation, encourage diversity of applicants, particularly for rangatahi Māori, and improve people’s experience of participating in the scholarship.  

The new website includes a ‘refer a future scholar’ feature. The addition is the result of the mahi of our Kāhui Kaupapa who wanted to acknowledge that often ‘Kāore te kūmara e kōrero mō tōna ake reka’ – the kūmara doesn't speak of its own sweetness. We can now offer an alternative for rangatahi, so they know that people in their community saw them as worthy recipients of the scholarship. The website also offers the opportunity for prospective applicants to subscribe to updates and announcements of upcoming rounds.  

Since 2013, the PMSA and PMSLA have enabled more than 2,400 New Zealanders to broaden their horizons through life-changing learning experiences in Asia and Latin America. The scholarships are flexible and offer funding to support short or long-term programmes including study abroad / exchange, internships, postgraduate study, and language programmes.