Scholarship Overview
You're already working. Maybe you've shipped something. Maybe you're the person in your school or studio others come to for answers. What's harder to get at this stage is a straight answer about whether your work holds up against what studios are hiring at right now, and someone senior enough to show you where it doesn't.
The Creative Industries Impact Scholarship covers 75% of tuition for the Graduate Certificate in Digital Arts and Creative Technologies, a 14-week accredited postgraduate qualification built as an industry finishing school. The award is delivered by CG Spectrum Institute (CGSI), a TEQSA-registered higher education provider. It's open to people working in or around Victoria's creative industries, and to the educators shaping the people who'll enter them next.
What you can Study
The scholarship applies to the Graduate Certificate in Digital Arts and Creative Technologies for the September 2026 intake, starting 14 September 2026.
Fourteen weeks, one term, two components. A capstone project run as a studio simulation, built under production constraints with real feedback loops. And a learning module in one of three streams: Creative, Technical, or Mentorships & Leadership.
Take a hard look at the Mentorships & Leadership stream if your work is increasingly about developing other people rather than producing the asset yourself. It's the stream built for educators and for seniors moving toward lead roles.
Your work is reviewed by mentors drawn from working studio practice. The capstone is built to leave you with portfolio assets you can lead with, and to sharpen the judgement you bring to your own work.
Eligible courses include:
- Graduate Certificate in Digital Arts and Creative Technologies
Not sure which of the three streams fits? Book a call with the team and talk it through against what you're actually trying to move toward.
Who Can Apply
This scholarship is for people with work to show. You'll submit a portfolio or showreel as part of the application, because the Graduate Certificate assumes you already have craft to sharpen.
Applicants must:
- Be an Australian citizen or permanent resident
- Be living in Victoria at the time of study
- Be applying for entry into the Graduate Certificate in Digital Arts and Creative Technologies
- Hold a bachelor degree, or demonstrate significant industry experience supported by a portfolio submission
- Submit both a scholarship application and a CGSI course application to be eligible for an offer
- Show work in one of the disciplines CGSI covers \n
- Agree to the terms and conditions set out in the scholarship offer
Applications are not open to international applicants or to people holding a student visa.
How to Apply
Two steps.
One. Complete the scholarship application form on this page.
Two. Submit a short video, three to five minutes, along with your portfolio or showreel and your qualification evidence, through the scholarship document upload page. You'll get the link when you submit the form. The video doesn't need to be produced. Shoot it on your phone.
In the video, tell us:
- That you're applying for the Creative Industries Impact Scholarship
- Which of the three streams you want, and why that one
- What you've worked on, and what you shipped
- Where you think your own work currently falls short
- What you want to be doing in two years that you can't do now
That fourth point carries more weight than the others. The people who get the most out of this program arrive already holding a view on their own gaps.
Successful applicants are notified before the September 2026 intake starts.
Applications are reviewed by a CGSI Scholarship Review Panel of academic and industry representatives. The panel is not ranking polish.
What it assesses:
- The standard of the work you submit, and how honestly you read it yourself
- Professional or educational experience in a discipline CGSI covers
- Fit between what you're aiming at and the stream you've chosen
- Evidence you'll act on direct critique rather than defend against it
- How clearly you communicate what you're trying to build
Up to twenty scholarships are available for the September 2026 intake.
Application Deadline
Applications for the September 2026 intake close at 6:00pm AEST on Friday, 21 August 2026.
Submit well before then. You also need to complete a CGSI course application and upload your supporting material, and that takes time.
Every applicant is notified of the outcome before the September 2026 intake starts, successful or not, so you know where you stand before you commit to a study plan.
Apply for the Creative Industries Impact Scholarship
Complete the form to apply. You'll then be sent the upload link for your video, your portfolio or showreel, and your qualification evidence.Frequently Asked Questions
Shipped work, production work, client work, personal projects, student work you've since rebuilt, or teaching material you've developed. Show the work you'd defend, and be ready to say what you'd change about it.
Yes. Part-time study is available and the scholarship is not conditional on studying full time.
You can submit the scholarship application first. To be awarded a scholarship you must have completed a CGSI course application.
Up to twenty, for the September 2026 intake.
Before the September 2026 intake starts. Every applicant is notified either way.
75% of tuition for the Graduate Certificate in Digital Arts and Creative Technologies, valued at $8,999.25 against the $11,999 full course fee. Remaining tuition is the recipient's responsibility. FEE-HELP is available to eligible domestic students. Terms and conditions apply, see below.
No. Applications are open to Australian citizens and permanent residents living in Victoria at the time of study. We can't accept applications from people holding a student visa.
No. The program runs hybrid from LCI Melbourne in Collingwood, or fully remote if you're in regional Victoria outside Melbourne.
Through the scholarship document upload page. You'll get the link when you submit the application form on this page. That's also where you upload evidence of your bachelor degree or diploma if you're applying on that basis. If your submission is over 100MB, the upload form gives you a link option instead.
Terms and conditions apply to this scholarship. The full terms are set out in the scholarship offer, and successful applicants must accept them before a place is confirmed.