Fellowships help women pursue postgraduate studies

The Governor of Queensland, Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce, AC will host a reception tomorrow for some of Queensland’s most academically able women.

Ms Bryce will congratulate the recipients of the 2006 Australian Federation of University Women-Queensland (AFUW-Q) Fellowships at a morning tea at Government House on Wednesday, March 15 at 10.30am.

The AFUW-Q through its Fellowship Fund Branch, the Fellowship Fund Incorporated (FFI) has awarded 156 Fellowships since 1972 to women from across the world.

“The fellowship we award now is about $20,000 a year and currently we give six to women who do postgraduate studies,” President of FFI, Agnes Whiten, said.

“We get applications from graduates from different parts of the world. Australian graduates go to universities overseas while women from other countries are required to study at a Queensland university.”

FFI runs the Academic Dress Hire Service and the income from this activity and from investments enable the group to offer the Fellowships. The University of Queensland generously provides space for the gown hire service to operate.

The 2006 Fellowships recipients are:

- Rebekah Scott
Freda Bage Fellowship
Working on a PhD in literature at the University of Cambridge.
- Ingrid Barnsley
Molly Budtz-Olsen Commemorative Fellowship
In her final year of a PhD in international human rights at the University of Oxford.
- Clementina Lwatula
Dorothy Davidson Commemorative Fellowship
A medical doctor from Zambia who will study for a Master of Public Health at UQ.

- Noritta Morseu-Diop
Margaret Mittelheuser Commemorative Fellowship
Will use the fellowship to fund essential travel while she completes her PhD in Social Work at UQ on the topic of Indigenous incarceration

- Tamyka Bell
Audrey Jorss Commemorative Fellowship
Is completing her PhD in Human Movement studies at UQ

- Sara Busilacchi
Betty Patterson Commemorative Fellowship
An Italian student who is completing a PhD in Marine Science at James Cook University.

The Australian Federation of University Women is affiliated with the International Federation of University Women, a voluntary, not- for-profit organisation of more than 180,000 women university graduates in 66 national federations and associations throughout the world.

Media: For more information, contact Agnes Whiten (telephone 07 3376 4838, mobile 0402 777 173, email agneswhiten@uqconnect.net) or Chris Saxby at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2479, email c.saxby@uq.edu.au).