RSL Scholarships

The RSL awards scholarships each year to children and grandchildren of veterans in necessitous and deserving circumstances to assist them when they undertake tertiary education in Australia. The Scholarships ($5,000 each per year) continue for up to three years. The Scholarships can be applied for through, and are administered by AVCAT.

Captain Reginald Walter Saunders was a very well-respected soldier and leader and was the first identifiable Aboriginal to be commissioned as an officer in the Australian Army. The RSL continues to pay tribute to his service with a scholarship in his name. Two $5,000 scholarships are awarded to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island students who plan to use their skills or profession for the benefit of their community. The Scholarships can be applied for through, and are administered by AVCAT.

The RSL New Guinea Campaign Tertiary Scholarship is administered through the Port Moresby RSL Sub-Branch and provides $6,500 per year for 3 years (subject to satisfactory yearly academic results) for a student in Papua New Guinea.

To honour our Korean Veterans and to recognise the part that Australian service personnel played in the Korean War, the RSL established a grant for students attending the Gapyeong High School and Middle School in Korea. These scholarships are provided through the Jubilee Commemorative Fund of the RSL and are administered in Korea through the Defence Attaché in the Australian Embassy, Seoul.

Three grants are made yearly from the Jubilee Commemorative Fund to support the exchange of medical students to PNG and Fiji through the Sydney Medical School–Northern at the Royal North Shore Hospital, and to Vietnam through the Hoc Mai Exchange Program.

To recognise the gratitude of 6th Division soldiers for the sacrifices made by Cretans on their behalf during World War II the RSL Foundations supports two scholarships to Cretan students to undertake tertiary studies.