𝟏. 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟒𝟑 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐚: Australia has around 43 universities. You can get a scholarship in one of them. Make a list of the 43 universities in an excel sheet containing their names and websites. It will take you a max of 30 min.
𝟐. 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬: Go to the website of each university and then go to the page of the relevant school such as the school of computer science. Then, identify the 3-5 professors most relevant to your field such as machine learning. This will become a list of around 200 professors - add it to the excel sheet. This process might take you around an hour.
𝟑. 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚: These days most professors are on social media such as LinkedIn and Twitter. This is where they often announce PhD scholarships. If you follow them, you will get to know the availability of the scholarship.
𝟒. 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬: Most of the professors have a personal website. They announce scholarships on their personal websites. More importantly, the personal websites of the professors also sometimes contain funding information - whether or not the professor has funding available at the moment.
𝟓. 𝐄𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫: In either of the two cases (scholarship announced or funding available), email the professor to share your interest. Make sure to write a solid email where you justify why your profile is the best fit for this position. How to write such an email? You can check my previous post.
𝟔. 𝐆𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐥? If the professor replies, interviews you, and agrees to give you the scholarship, the rest is comparatively easy. You will apply for admission and then eventually for the visa.
𝟕. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐲? There can be multiple possibilities (i) the professor didn't find your profile suitable for the position (ii) the professor didn't notice your email (iii) the professor forgot to reply to your email, and so on. You can do the following - send a soft reminder after a couple of days or drop a message via a social media platform like Twitter or LinkedIn.
𝟖. 𝐀𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐲? Yes, there is another way too. Australian universities also offer RTPS scholarships, which are a bit competitive but worth trying especially if you have a good research profile. Apart from this, there are local scholarships (e.g., HEC scholarships in Pakistan) that you can secure to fund your PhD or MPhil in Australia.
