In addition to the Assessment criteria and eligibility, you can find detailed guidance about what to include in your application on our Top tips for preparing your application page and within the Application portal.

You can also learn more about students who have been recognised previously on our 2025 student winners and finalists and 2024 student winners and finalists pages.

To be eligible to apply for the awards, you must demonstrate that you are or were studying in Australia as an International Student with a valid Australian Student Visa - or an Australian visa that provides you with study rights as specified under the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 Cth (ESOS Act) - during the period of study relevant to the application eligibility period.

Students and graduates who are now permanent residents or citizens can apply for the alumni and entrepreneurship awards, provided they were enrolled as an international student during the five-year period from 1 June 2021 and 31 May 2026.

For more detailed visa eligibility criteria refer to 3.9 of the Terms and Conditions or contact the awards team on viea@studymelbourne.vic.gov.au

Provide the names and contact details for 2 referees who can verify the information in your application. Generally, your referees should be people involved in the examples provided in your application and could include colleagues or managers of organisations you have been involved with.

Confirm with your referees that they are happy to be listed, and select referees that can:

• confirm that you are, or were, living in Australia as an international student for the time relating to the period of study reference in your application; and
• confirm that you were involved in the accomplishments submitted in your application; and
• verify the details of your application.

Clause 4.1 of the Terms and Conditions provides more information about referees.

You can apply for more than one award, but you must submit a separate application for each award category and demonstrate that you can meet the relevant eligibility criteria for each application.

Regional Victoria locations are defined as outside metropolitan Melbourne and include the following regions:

• Barwon South West (includes Geelong and Warrnambool),
• Grampians (includes Ballarat)
• Loddon Mallee (includes Bendigo and Mildura),
• Hume (includes Shepparton),
• Gippsland (includes Churchill).

You can check if your education provider is located in regional Victoria on the Regional Development Victoria website. Applicants who are studying with an eligible Victorian education provider may be living outside regional Victoria during their studies.

This is a way for us to get to know you better. Let your personality shine through! Tell us about yourself, why you chose to study in Victoria and how you have grown professionally and personally during your studies.

You don’t need fancy equipment or the best editing skills; you can film this on your phone and upload the video as part of your application. Ideally, the video should be in mp4 or .mov format and be less than 1GB in size.

If you are an international student and currently studying with a Victorian tertiary education provider, you may be eligible for several student award categories - depending on your course of study. For example, if you are undertaking a bachelor’s degree, you may be eligible to apply for the International Student of the Year – Higher Education award. If you have founded your own start-up, you could apply for the International Student/Graduate Entrepreneur of the Year category, or if you are studying in a regional area you could apply for the Regional award.

Read the information on our website about the various student award categories, and check our Terms and Conditions for detailed eligibility criteria including documentation requirements to determine which category to apply for.

You can apply for more than one award, but you must submit a separate application for each award category.