Corporate Partners in Excellence (CPIE) Scholarship - commencing students

Application dates

Applications open

1 July 2024

Applications close

8 October 2024

What you'll receive

You'll receive:

• a scholarship valued at $42,000 paid in semester instalments over three years, to spend on university fees, textbooks and living expenses
• two 15-week internships with one or more of our corporate partners.

Instalments are paid upon satisfaction of contract conditions, as follows:

• $4,000 per semester for the first year,
• $7,000 per semester for second year, and
• $10,000 per semester for third year.

Other benefits may include:

• automatic membership of the QUT College of Excellence
• automatic invitation to the College of Excellence start-of-year camp
• the opportunity to represent QUT Business School in international case competitions
• the opportunity to represent QUT through the Student Ambassador Program.

Eligibility

How to apply

Apply online

Step 1: Apply for your course

Apply for:

• our Bachelor of Business (BS05)
• a double degree with a business component, except the Bachelor of Secondary Education/Bachelor of Business double degree.

Lodge your QTAC application and include an eligible course as one of your top two preferences.

We encourage you to rank courses on your QTAC application in the order of your preference. However, to receive the scholarship you must accept an offer to study an eligible course.

If you're offered a scholarship and you don't have a program-eligible degree at QUT as your highest QTAC preference, we'll give you the option to re-order your preferences, although strict timeframes will apply.

Step-by-step guide to applying for undergraduate courses

Step 2: Apply for the scholarship

To submit a scholarship application, you need to include:

• your QTAC ID number
• copies of your Year 11 (Semester 1 and 2) and Year 12 (Semester 1) results
• a reference letter of support (school, work or personal)
• written responses to three questions, explained in the application form.

Your school results

If your school is not issuing a Year 11 Semester 2 report card due to Unit 3 ATAR results spanning the end of Year 11 to early Year 12, you are welcome to include the school-issued interim report card for that period.

Alternatively, you may include a cover note with your Year 12 Semester 1 results explaining that your Year 11 Semester 2 results are included in this report period.

Contact the QUT Business School Scholarships Coordinator at buslaw.scholarships@qut.edu.au if you have questions.

Your letters of reference

You will be asked to submit a letter of reference that attest to the leadership roles and responsibilities you have held in your senior school years and/or in community. It's a great idea to begin to prepare this in the first half of this year. The earlier closing date for applications in 2024 will likely prevent you from submitting an official school reference as these are not usually issued until the end of Year 12.

The below information is a guide for your letter authors to ensure they address the content we are looking for:

• ensure the letter is either on letterhead or contains a stamp, signature block and signature that proves the authenticity of the source
• the letter should not be a repetition of your resume's list of leadership positions held; it needs to contain qualitative evidence from someone directly involved in supervising/advising the activities in which you participated or organised, outlining your demonstrated leadership abilities, how and where they were evidenced, and what your contribution was to the end result.

Read the scholarship application guide for expert tips on how to enhance your written application and interview performance.

Download the scholarship application guide (PDF file, 146.8 KB)

What happens next?

Once written applications have closed, we automatically progress candidates to the next stage of the assessment process.

Application process timeline

Video assessment

You'll receive an email inviting you to our online video assessment platform.

During the assessment, you'll answer questions that will help us better understand your motivations for study and how suitable you are for the scholarship.

The format of the video assessment mimics an interview scenario where you will be given a question and time to record a video response.

You'll have a week to complete the assessment which will be emailed to you in early October. We recommend you put a reminder in your phone calendar to check your email in the first week of October to be sure you don't miss this stage of the process.

Shortlisting

We'll shortlist applicants for an interview based on your written application and video assessment responses.

Applicants are divided into groups according to your nominated discipline preferences (e.g. management, accounting, etc). This is the major you intend to specialise in, during your business degree. An academic from each discipline will assess your responses in conjunction with the QUT Business School's Director of Studies.

We won't contact applicants who aren't shortlisted until after the selection process has completed.

Panel interviews

The interview may be held over Zoom or offered in-person.

We may need to hold a second round of interviews to select the final candidates. If this happens, we'll contact the required applicants to schedule an interview for the following week.

Making scholarship offers

We'll make first-round offers for scholarships promptly after the release of ATARs, prior to Christmas 2024.

We'll let you know by telephone if your application is successful, and then send you a letter with confirmation and details about what to do next.

If you were not successful in your interview, you'll be notified by email.

If you aren't successful in your application, there is no appeals process.

International Baccalaureate (IB) students

If you've completed an International Baccalaureate (IB), we'll still assess your application following this timeline, except for offer dates. If you're a successful candidate, we won't make offers to applicants in your discipline until IB results are released in early January.

Conditions

To keep your scholarship you must:

• remain enrolled full-time in a program-eligible Bachelor of Business single or double degree at QUT
• enrol as an internal student and remain located in the greater Brisbane area to attend CPIE events and undertake your internships locally (NB this does not exclude you from studying some of your units in online attendance mode, or from going on exchange or overseas holidays during semester breaks)
• maintain a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 5.5 and passes in all units
• be prepared to overload your study plan to accommodate the internship semesters (5 units per semester)
• be willing to undertake two full-time internships with a QUT Business School corporate sponsor in Semester 1 of the second and third years of your degree

We recommend double degree students overload the business units on their study plan (enrolling in 3 business units instead of 2, plus 2 other degree units, for a total of 5 units per semester) during all of their non-internship semesters.  This allows you to stay on track with both sides of your double degree and complete it within the standard timeframe. If you want to try a different course progression, discuss your study plan with the QUT Business School's director of studies - changes might mean your degree takes longer to complete.

You can’t:

• defer your scholarship offer or course. You can reapply for the scholarship in the following year as long as you haven't undertaken university study in the meantime
• change degree or your business major without approval from the director of studies; a change in major may result in your inability to continue in the CPIE program since the majors recruited align with the internship offerings of our corporate sponsors
• hold any other academic scholarship. Equity Scholarships are allowed.

If you have any questions about holding other scholarships, email buslaw.scholarships@qut.edu.au

Terms and conditions for Corporate Partners in Excellence (CPIE) Scholarship - commencing students (PDF file; 202.6 KB)

About the scholarship

The Corporate Partners in Excellence (CPIE) program is a unique industry-linked program for students who aspire to be future business leaders. As a CPIE scholar you will complete two semesters interning in your major business discipline with one of our prestigious corporate partners.

The first internship will be generalist in nature to align with the interdisciplinary knowledge and skills gained in the first year of university study. Your first internship will give you unparalleled behind-the-scenes exposure to mid and top tier companies. You will network with business leaders, rotate through various business departments to gain an understanding of the industry, learn to navigate in-house systems and processes, improve your technical skills in relevant software, attend meetings, gain employability soft skills, and develop an agile mindset that is critical in modern workplaces.

The second internship will be closely aligned with your chosen business discipline and more specialised study plan. You may be given ownership of a project to complete from start to finish, work directly with internal and external clients, review processes and make recommendations for continual improvement, perform research tasks, develop innovative solutions to business problems, travel interstate to different sites, make presentations to the leadership team, and develop a repertoire of professional skills for working in a corporate  environment that gives you a competitive edge when applying for graduate roles.

Read about Shaina Singh's experience with the CPIE program

Watch our video series on the CPIE program

Find out about our corporate partners