As of October the university will kick in an extra $5000

Despite tight finances, it isn’t ethical “to stick to the underlying government stipend amount given cost of living pressures on our PhD students,” VC Brian Schmid says.

“As a nation, we want the best and brightest students to undertake research and the benefits to society are immeasurable … if Australia wants some of our best and brightest to undertake PhDs, the government will need to raise the base PhD stipend rate,” he says.