GWNZ Fellowships

Post-graduate awards for women to study or research.

Scholarship history

During the 1929 Dominion Conference of NZFUW a discussion was held on the possibility of founding a New Zealand Fellowship. The Fund was inaugurated at the NZFUW Conference in January 1932. While it’s primary purpose was to foster higher education for women, NZFUW also wished to promote the basic aims of the IFUW, to further international friendship and understanding.

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.  The first Fellow was Miss Eila Campbell, MA, Lecturer in Geography. The fund has accumulated with Graduate Women branches and  Charitable Trusts from across the New Zealand contributing funds each year. Graduate Women NZ Charitable Trust now budgets to award up to 10 Fellowships; valued from $5,000 to $30,000 each. In 2018, the Trust awarded 9 Fellowships with a combined value of $75,500