Step 4 of 5

Receiving your offer and commencement

PhD, MPhil and professional doctorate admissions

It can take up to 12 weeks to consider your application.

You’ll receive a notification through the application portal with the outcome of your application.

Accepting your offer

If you’ve received an offer to study at UQ, congratulations!

Read your offer letter carefully for information about how to accept your offer.

Preparing to commence

Once you’ve accepted your offer, you can start planning to commence your HDR program.

You should:

Email your supervisor and let them know when you plan to commence your HDR program and arrange to meet them after you arrive.
Prepare funds to cover at least 4–6 weeks of living costs upon your arrival in Australia.
Contact the Graduate School 2 weeks prior to the commencement of your chosen research quarter to confirm the date of your arrival and arrange the formal commencement process.

Commencement

Research quarters
Research quarter (RQ)	RQ dates	Applications close by	Fees due date	Latest start date (domestic students)	Census date
1	1 Jan–31 Mar	30 Sept	15 Jan	31 Jan	1 Feb
2	1 Apr–30 Jun	31 Dec	15 Apr	30 Apr	1 May
3	1 Jul–30 Sep	31 Mar	15 Jul	31 Jul	1 Aug
4	1 Oct–31 Dec	30 Jun	15 Oct	31 Oct	1 Nov

Research quarters
Research quarter (RQ)	RQ dates	Applications close by	Fees due date	Latest start date (international students)	Census date
1	1 Jan–31 Mar	30 Sept	15 Jan	14 Jan	1 Feb
2	1 Apr–30 Jun	31 Dec	15 Apr	14 Apr	1 May
3	1 Jul–30 Sep	31 Mar	15 Jul	14 Jul	1 Aug
4	1 Oct–31 Dec	30 Jun	15 Oct	14 Oct	1 Nov

You must submit all your outstanding documents and information to be able to commence.

Once you commence, it may take up to 2 weeks to get access to systems.

Delayed commencement

If you're unable to commence within the research quarter stated on your offer of admission and/or offer of scholarship, you may be able to delay your commencement and defer your offer(s).

The Education Services for Overseas Student (ESOS) Act legislation requires UQ to advise the Department of Education if you don't commence your studies by the agreed start date.

Email graduateschool@uq.edu.au if you're unable to commence by the agreed start date for any reason (e.g. due to a delay in the visa application process).

You may be able to negotiate a new agreed start date before the census date within the same research quarter or defer for 1 research quarter if required.

Delaying before accepting offer

If you haven’t accepted your offer, you can request a deferral of up to 1 research quarter when responding to your offer in the online application portal.

You’ll then receive a ‘deferred offer of admission and/or offer of scholarship support’ that you’ll need to formally accept or decline.

Delaying after accepting your offer

Email graduateschool@uq.edu.au stating the reason(s) why you can't commence in the agreed research quarter.

Conditions

You'll only be permitted 1 deferral.

If you're also deferring your offer of scholarship, it must only be until the next research quarter after the commencement research quarter stated in the original offer.

If you’ve received a Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) this will be cancelled and a new CoE will be issued once the deferment has been accepted.