HDR Scholarship - Youth Side-Hustles

Location

Melbourne Burwood Campus

Research topic

A PhD scholarship is available to work on an Australian Research Council-funded project exploring youth ‘side-hustles’. The student will be based in the School of Education at Deakin University, within the Research for Educational Impact (REDI) Centre and will work with Dr David Farrugia, an expert in youth studies. Deakin ranks in the world’s top five schools for education research and offers a supportive and engaging research environment for student’s intellectual and career development.

The project explores young people who pursue employment-adjacent entrepreneurial activities, i.e., those who have both a job and a ‘side-hustle’. The project examines the characteristics and identities of side-hustlers, the relationship between side-hustles and precarious employment, the skills developed in side-hustles and their applicability to employment and vice versa, and the outcomes that young people with side-hustles aspire to and experience. Students will be supported and encouraged to publish their research and to develop their careers within the rich intellectual community of REDI and Deakin’s School of Education.

Project aim

The PhD student will develop a project of their own devising aligned with the aims of the side-hustle research project and will have the opportunity to collaborate with the project leader. Appropriate topics will explore issues of identity, inequality, relationships between work, life and learning, potentially in relation to class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, migration, digital labour or gig work.

Important dates

Applications will remain open until a candidate has been appointed

Benefits

This scholarship is available over 3 years.

Stipend of $35,550 per annum tax exempt (2025 rate)
Relocation allowance of $500-1500 (for single to family) for students moving from interstate

International students only:

Tuition fees offset for the duration of 4 years.
Single Overseas Student Health Cover policy for the duration of the student visa.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible you must:

be a domestic or international candidate. Domestic includes candidates with Australian Citizenship, Australian Permanent Residency or New Zealand Citizenship.
meet Deakin's PhD entry requirements
be enrolling full time and hold an honours degree (first class) or an equivalent standard master's degree with a substantial research component.

Please refer to the research degree entry pathways page for further information.

Additional desirable criteria include:

Students should have undergraduate and/or post-graduate training in critical studies in education, sociology, anthropology and aligned disciplines.
Students with an interest in pursuing critical, theoretically informed research are particularly welcome, as are those with an interest in gender, sexuality, ethnicity, migration and precarity.

How to apply

Please email a CV and cover letter (including your interest in the project) to Dr David Farrugia. The CV should highlight your skills, education, publications and relevant work experience. If you are successful you will then be invited to submit a formal application.