Information for Schools regarding School References

If the applicant is a currently enrolled pupil, or completed their schooling no more than 12 months ago, some of the available scholarships will require a School Reference to support the application.

The following scholarships currently require a School Reference*:

• Aruhiko - Power Engineering Excellence Trust Incoming First-Year Scholarship
• Elman & Alfred Poole Southland Boys' and Southland Girls' High Schools UC Scholarship (not available for the 2025 academic year)
• Go Waitaha Canterbury Scholarship
• Outstanding Impact Scholarship
• Rotary Club of Christchurch Blackgrove Scholarship
• UC Business School First Year Scholarship for Excellence
• UC Engineering International Scholarship (NZ School-Leaver)
• UC Engineering Top Achievers Scholarship
• UC Haupatu Scholarship
• UC International First Year Scholarship (NZ School-Leaver)
• UC Kaitoko Māori Scholarship
• UC Kaitoko Pacific Scholarship
• UC Kaupeka Ture | Faculty of Law First Year Award for Excellence
• UC Takere Scholarship
• Wairarapa Takahe UC Engineering Scholarship

*Please note that other reference types may also be required – this list is solely for the School Reference.

If there is a designated member of staff at your school who will be responsible for providing references for applicants, please ensure the name and email address is provided to your pupils ahead of time.

Applicants must enter the name and email address of their referee into the Request Section of the application form, and an email notification will then be sent to the nominated referee, with a link to the online reference form:

Applicants are given a lot of information to help them with the application process, including how to complete the reference request section correctly, and their responsibilities with regards to ensuring referees are aware they are being nominated to provide a reference:

Examples of who to ask is also provided at the top of the request section, to help applicants identify the right referee, if a school doesn’t have a designated member of staff:

Students have until 15th August to complete their applications, however referees have an extended deadline for submitting their references until 22 August in the year of application.

Once the reference has been completed, both the referee and the applicant will receive an email confirming the successful submission of the reference.

The reference is completely confidential and is not made visible to the applicant at any time.

Students can fully submit their application prior to the completion of any required references. This is made clear to applicants and is repeated in several places on the application form – including in the reference request section itself. This is because a reference is not part of determining eligibility for an application to be sent to the committee for assessment – it is used as additional supporting information for the committee to consider in the selection process, in conjunction with the information already provided by the applicant themselves. If an applicant is eligible for consideration, their application will be forwarded to the committee, even if required references have not been provided.