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Postgraduate Opportunities

  • MSc Scholarship Available: A scholarship to support a MSc student during their research thesis year (or a thesis-only student) is available through a subcontract with GNS Science. More information below

  • Minerals Industry Student Research Scholarships: The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, New Zealand Branch has established the Education Endowment Trust. One of its purposes is to assist students studying in fields related to minerals, mining and petroleum. More information below

MSc Research Projects with funding

The following research projects are part of larger programmes that have some funding available for MSc research. Contact the indicated supervisors for more information.

    1. South Island Earthquake Hazards.
      This project involves mapping and dating of movement on young and active faults in the southern South Island. The faults are related to the Alpine Fault.
      This research will be supervised by Prof R.J. Norris and Prof A.F. Cooper , and will be conducted in collaboration with the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences.

Resource Industry Support for Student Projects 2007 – 2008

Opportunities exist for obtaining financial support for Honours, PGDipSci and Masters research projects, as outlined below.

Generally, these involve some complex negotiations to co-ordinate five components: project; student; company or funding body; supervisor(s); and money. Hence it is essential that plenty of time (months) is allowed for this. Do not leave it until February of the year you want to do a project.

1. Honours project, Orepuki, Southland 2007

  • This project is related to coal and hydrocarbon geology. It will be supported financially by CRL Energy Ltd.
  • Value: Student bursary ($7,000 tax free) and expenses ($3,000).
  • See Richard Norris or Francesca Ghisetti

2. AusIMM Student Research Scholarships

  • These are intended for research projects related to mining (including environmental aspects) and/or mineral exploration. See attached sheet for details.
  • Value: $4,000 (tax free)
  • Closing date: 18 August 2006 for Honours and MSc research in 2007, sometime in 2007 for MSc research in 2008.
  • See: Dave Craw for more information

3. Student Summer Bursaries, University of Otago

  • These give support for research projects involving an academic staff member and a student intending to enroll in the following year. The research project can readily lead to avenues for thesis research and provide a good starting point for this thesis research.
  • Money for these bursaries is extracted from industry sources or university research funds.
  • Value: $3,500 (tax free) for 10 weeks over summer.
  • See Dave Craw or Richard Norris.

4. Part-time employment as a research assistant

  • This avenue is best suited for MSc or PhD research. Funds are commonly available from external research contracts to support research assistants, who can be working on targeted research projects.
  • Value: $13-$18 / hour (taxable) depending on the job and experience.
  • See Dave Craw or Richard Norris.

Minerals Industry Student Research Scholarships

The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, New Zealand Branch has established the Education Endowment Trust. One of its purposes is to assist students studying in fields related to minerals, mining and petroleum.

The Trust is now inviting applications for a number of scholarships to be awarded in 2006 to students undertaking research in 2007 in geology, engineering or the environment that is related to the minerals and petroleum industries. This year the value of the scholarships has been increased to $4,000.

A pdf page with details is available to download.

MSc Scholarship Available 

A scholarship to support a MSc student during their research thesis year (or a thesis-only student) is available through a subcontract with GNS Science.

The scholarship is available for a student to work on cores from West Coast glacial lakes. Preliminary examination of cores has shown zones of disruption of the layered sediments typical of seismites (sediments disrupted by seismic shaking) described from other parts of the world. The cores extend back possibly >1000 yrs and several seismite horizons are recognized. These provide an opportunity to date earthquake ruptures on the adjacent Alpine Fault. 

The project will involve examination of existing cores from three West Coast Lakes, collecting of further cores, careful sedimentological description, separation and dating of any carbonaceous material using radiocarbon dating, and measuring magnetic intensity and orientation along the cores using the Geology Department’s Paleomagnetic Facility in order to correlate between cores and also date cores using correlations to regional secular variation models. In addition to paleoseismic work, further investigation of sedimentary response to climate change may be undertaken if the student is interested in this.

The research is under the direction of Professors R. J. Norris and A. F. Cooper. The magnetic work is under the general supervision of Associate-Professor G. S. Wilson whereas any paleoclimate work would be overseen by Assoc. Prof. S. Fitzsimons of the Geography Department.

 The scholarship is worth NZ$13,000/annum plus NZ domestic fees. It is only available to New Zealand or Australian nationals, or to citizens of Germany or France, who are all eligible to pay New Zealand domestic fees. Citizens of other countries are required to pay NZ$21,000/annum overseas fees, which are not covered by this scholarship.

 Enquiries should be made to Professor Richard Norris (Richard.norris@stonebow.otago.ac.nz); please provide a CV, an outline of your interests and background, and your University qualifications and grades.

Further information about available scholarships is available on the central website of the University of Otago. It is comprehensive and you should ensure you read it.

If you think you may wish to come to study at Otago see our information page.