When international postgraduate students submit an application for a University of Otago Scholarship, their GPA is converted to an Otago equivalent. There are three steps for this process:
- The grades for relevant papers in the applicant’s most recent/relevant qualification are converted to the equivalent US grades. Scholaro is used to identify the appropriate grade scale.
- The US grades are converted to Otago grades.
- The credits and Otago grades are used to calculate the Otago GPA.
GPA requirements
As a general rule, most successful scholarship applications will have a grade in the US equivalent A range, or an 8 on the Otago scale.
However, GPA is not the only factor considered. The Divisional Selection Panels may take this GPA into consideration in its Quarterly Committee Meeting, alongside other factors such as research experience and the potential alignment of the research with Divisional strategic research and business priorities.
Thesis assessments
A thesis assessment may be required by the Otago department if the thesis/research component of the qualification under consideration is any of the following:
- Ungraded
- Pass/Fail grade only
- Below the 0.25 EFTS requirement for admission (click here for further information about admission criteria)
This thesis assessment should be undertaken by someone familiar with the subject matter that is outside of the intended supervisory team, and should comment on the size, scope and quality of the thesis relative to that of an Otago Master’s thesis or Otago Honours Dissertation. It should also assign a grade that it would have likely received had it been marked at Otago.
Need further assistance?
If you have a prospective international PhD student and are having trouble interpreting their international qualification, please email scholarship.gpa@otago.ac.nz and attach the following documents:
- Prospective student’s CV, including list of publications (if relevant)
- Prospective student’s most recent/relevant transcript
- Thesis examination report (if ungraded on the transcript)
Please note that, due to recent changes to doctoral scholarship processes, where decisions to award a scholarship will be made by divisionally based panels, the scholarships team can assist with a GPA conversion, but can no longer give an indication of scholarship likelihood based purely on GPA.