Application help and advice

Find guidance on how to apply for school-leaver scholarships, including troubleshooting issues with the application system, and who to ask to be your referee.

Accessing CommunityForce

You’ll apply online via CommunityForce, our application system. If you’re having problems accessing CommunityForce, try in another web browser, or email scholarships-office@vuw.ac.nz for help.

The system is slower when there are more applicants online, so it may pay to submit your application as early as possible.

All individual school leaver scholarships are applied for through a single application in CommunityForce.

If you apply for multiple categories, all categories must be fully completed and all documentation for every category must be submitted by the closing date for your scholarship application to be considered.

You can check the status of each category on your application dashboard.

If a category is incomplete, you can remove it by deselecting that section before the scholarship closing date 1 September.

Eligibility for school-leaver scholarships

See the individual conditions for eligibility requirements, for instance: citizenship, residency etc.

Choosing referees

Asking for your references is one of the first things you need to do. Your application does not need to be complete to request references. Asking early gives your referees more time.

It’s important to choose referees who know you well and can comment on the qualities and characteristics required for the scholarship you’re applying for. The scholarship conditions will highlight what selectors are looking for.

A family member cannot serve as a referee, except for the Financial Support section. For the Financial Support section, the referee must be at least two parents or caregivers. If financial support is provided by only one individual, or if you are self‑supporting, you will need to supply additional information explaining your financial situation and circumstances.

It is your responsibility to ensure your referee has submitted the reference on time. Without your completed reference your application will be ineligible.

We’ll contact you by email after you’ve applied

All emails about your scholarship application status will come from admin@communityforce.com. It’s best to add this address to your contacts, so notifications don’t end up in your junk folder. It is also a good idea to advise your referee of this.

You can also check the status of your application in Pūaha, our student portal (for instance ‘under committee review’ means it is under consideration).

You can expect to receive an email with the outcome of your application at the start of October.

If you are applying for any school-leaver scholarship, please do not use your secondary school email address when creating a Community Force account. This means no email addresses ending in school.nz.

Accept your offer by the deadline

If your application is successful, we’ll email you a scholarship offer that’s conditional on gaining University Entrance.

Make sure you respond to the scholarship offer before Thursday 15 October. If you don’t, your scholarship offer will expire and the scholarship may be reallocated.

Meeting the conditional requirements

You need to have gained University Entrance or been approved entry into one of the University pre-degree programmes to retain your scholarship. Please advise us if you are intending to study part-time or if you are waiting on additional credits to confirm University Entrance as we will review individual circumstances.

Scholarship payments

You can choose to have the payments put towards accommodation at one of our University halls of residence, in which case the total amount will be paid in two instalments in February and July.

If you choose for your scholarship to go towards tuition fees, then the total amount will be credited towards your student fees account when you receive your first invoice.

When to apply if you're taking a gap year

If you have taken a (single) gap year after completing Year 13, you may apply for the Scholarship, as long as you have not studied at another university during that time (that is, this scholarship is for first-year students, not transferring students). You will need to apply in the year prior to starting study at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.