Postgrads cut in on federal cash

The federal government has completed the eligibility arrangements for postgraduate students to receive the $950 training and learning bonus as part of the commonwealth's stimulus package.

University and vocational students who receive income support, including youth allowance or Austudy, are eligible. But under the original package students would have to have been enrolled by February 3 to receive the payments.

Postgraduate students not eligible for such income-support arrangements would also have missed out. The government committed to change that after negotiations with the Greens to pass the stimulus package through parliament.

On Friday, Education Minister Julia Gillard said students who were not on income support on February 3, but now were, could get the $950, as long as they were enrolled in an approved full-time course by June 30.

Some other postgraduates would also be eligible, she said. They must be in receipt of, for semester one this year, an Australian Postgraduate Award, an Australian Postgraduate Award (Industry) or a National Health and Medical Research Council PhD scholarship or a qualifying scholarship equivalent in value and in nature to the APA. They must also be resident in Australia on the date of the claim, be a citizen or permanent resident, and not already hold a research doctorate.

The payments are expected to start flowing from May 18.

The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations had been lobbying the federal government hard to extend the eligibility to postgraduate students.