AICD Scholarships: What Is Actually on Offer

All three AICD scholarship programmes are closed to applications. That was true on the AICD’s own pages on 18 August 2026, and one of the three is closed permanently.

So if you came here to apply for something today, there is nothing to apply for. What is worth knowing instead is what these are actually worth, when the one that recurs comes back, and whether it is worth waiting for.

The scholarship no longer buys the Company Directors Course

This is the claim that has outlived the facts. For years the not-for-profit scholarship was described as fully funding the Company Directors Course. It does not, and has not for some time.

The Not-for-Profit Scholarship 2026/27 is worth up to $2,370, and it covers two things: the facilitator-led Governance Foundations for Not-for-Profit Directors course, a day and a half, valued by the AICD at $1,400 — and one year of AICD membership, valued at $970. Travel and accommodation are not included.

The Company Directors Course starts at $5,800 for members self-paced and runs to $13,435 for the member residential. We keep the current prices for every format on a separate page.

A $2,370 scholarship is worth having. It is not a $10,000 scholarship, and anyone planning their governance education around the older figure is planning around a number that no longer exists.

The three programmes, and where each one stands

Not-for-Profit Scholarship 2026/27 — closed, returns annually. Up to 240 places nationally. Open to current and aspiring directors or leaders of not-for-profits with annual income under $3 million; applicants must be 18 or over, an Australian citizen or permanent resident, not disqualified from managing corporations, and not already a graduate of the AICD’s Foundations of Directorship, Company Directors Course or Boardroom Mastery. Members and non-members are equally eligible. This round opened Wednesday 11 March 2026 and closed Tuesday 7 April 2026 at midnight AWST, with successful candidates notified by the end of May and courses available through to June 2027.

The window moved, and it moved forward. The previous round offered up to 375 places and ran 12 May to 15 June 2025. This one offered 240 and ran in March and April. Fewer places, two months earlier. Set the reminder for late February and watch the AICD scholarships page from early March — if you diarise May, you will miss it.

First Nations Director Scholarship Program — closed, and this was the final round. The AICD’s page states that up to 46 scholarships were available “in this final round of the program”, funded by the National Indigenous Australians Agency. Applications opened 14 July 2025 and closed, after an extension, on 14 September 2025.

It is much the most substantial package the AICD offers, which is what makes the wording worth noticing. Each twelve-month scholarship covers one of three pathways — Foundations of Directorship for Indigenous organisations, the Company Directors Course for Indigenous business leaders, or a placement through The Observership Program — plus an Australian Indigenous Governance Institute workshop on Indigenous governance, facilitated mentoring with experienced Indigenous directors, travel and accommodation, and twelve months’ AICD membership. Applicants must be of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent and accepted as such by their community, already serve on a board or committee, and provide a completed support form from a senior government officer, company director, chief executive or First Nations leader.

Unless the NIAA funding is renewed, that is the end of it. Nothing on the AICD’s page suggests a further round.

Board Governance PBC and Indigenous Community Organisation Scholarship Program — closed. Funded by a $1 million donation from BHP and announced in May 2025. Around 250 places over eighteen months for executives and leaders in prescribed bodies corporate and Indigenous community organisations in regional Western Australia and South Australia. It covered the Governance Foundations for Not-for-Profit Directors course, a half-day leadership workshop and follow-up virtual sessions.

Two things frequently mistaken for AICD scholarships

Landcare Australia offers eight scholarships of $2,370 each — the same not-for-profit governance course plus a year of membership — for people in landcare groups, community-led environmental organisations and First Nations organisations. Applications for the current round closed 9 April 2026; recipients can take a course between August 2026 and June 2027. It is administered by Landcare, not the AICD.

The Clean Energy Council has offered an AICD scholarship since 2018 for a woman working at a member company, funding the Foundations of Directorship course. The most recent round we could find advertised was 2024 and we could not confirm a current one. This is a Clean Energy Council programme, not an AICD stream — the two get conflated constantly.

Two programmes that used to appear in articles like this one have ended. Directing Change ran from 2022 to 2024, supported 54 leaders with disability through AICD programmes plus an eight-month mentoring component, and was administered by the Australian Disability Network. It was never an AICD umbrella brand. The Women’s Regional, Rural and Remote Diversity Scholarships, funded by the Office for Women, awarded more than 130 scholarships across two 2023 rounds from more than 1,300 applications, and are not on the AICD’s current scholarships page.

That ratio — roughly one in ten — is the most useful number here. These are competitive, and you are competing against people who already sit on a board.

What we would do

Subscribe to the AICD scholarships mailing list and set one reminder for late February. That is the only round that reliably recurs.

Do not build a plan around winning one. If governance education is genuinely the constraint on your next role, the self-paced Company Directors Course at $5,800 for members is a real option and you control the timing. Waiting a year for a $2,370 course that does not include the CDC is a poor trade if the CDC is what you actually need.

Get the seat first if you can. The First Nations programme required an existing board or committee role, and in practice the strongest not-for-profit applications come from people already serving somewhere. Governance training explains what you are looking at. It does not manufacture the experience of having looked. Our guide to getting a first board seat covers how those seats are actually filled.

Write the application as a board application. It is the same document: a short, specific case for what you would contribute to a particular organisation’s governance. Most people submit an executive achievement list instead, which is a different document answering a different question.

Sources: AICD, Scholarships index, Not-for-Profit Scholarship 2026/27 and First Nations Director Scholarship Program, aicd.com.au, all accessed 18 August 2026 — scholarship values, inclusions, place numbers, eligibility and application dates quoted from those pages. AICD, Company Directors Course pricing, accessed 18 August 2026. Landcare Australia, “Australian Institute of Company Directors Scholarship for Landcare and First Nations People”, published 17 March 2026, updated 14 April 2026. AICD media releases, 9 May 2025 (BHP partnership) and 12 May 2025 (not-for-profit round). Australian Disability Network, Directing Change programme page. Clean Energy Council, “The AICD Scholarship” page. Most recent source consulted: 18 August 2026.