Welcome to Writing Scholarships - a newsletter with links to scholarships, grants, competitions, contests, internships, call for entries, residencies, fellowships, funding, and other opportunities for creative writers, screenwriters and teleplay writers, writing educators and students of all ages. There are geographic restrictions that govern the award of most scholarships, so the information provided is limited to the UK, USA and Australia/New Zealand.

WRITING EDUCATION AND ONLINE LEARNING

Australia

A survey of 40 Australian universities, conducted in 2001/2 , found that there were 207 fully online courses offered by 23 providers. Sixty-five of these courses (31 per cent) are delivered only by online mode.

The majority (90 per cent) of online courses were at postgraduate level. In general, postgraduate online courses showed a tendency towards specialised courses rather than generalist qualifications.

Post graduate and vocational courses are more likely to have developed fully online units and courses. This may be due to the fact that, at postgraduate level, many of these students are ‘earner-learners’ who combine full-time work with study.

Online learning is bringing about fundamental changes to the delivery of education and training and has even affected the way people learn. For many, it contributes to an enriched learning experience, while for the “time poor”; the availability of online learning is of enormous benefit.

There are no definitive statistics on the numbers of students enrolled on screenwriting courses. The ABS does not collect data on student enrolments for the category ‘creative writing’ or the sub-category ‘screenwriting’.

There are over 12 Masters and undergraduate programs in Film and TV in Australia. Bond University, Queensland, offers a one-year Masters program for AU$30,000, while RMIT offers certificate and diploma courses for $11,000 and an 18 month Masters for AU$20,000.

USA

In the USA, creative writing is the "seventh most popular further education course" among mature age students. (Source: The Complete Guide to Writer's Groups, Conferences, and Workshops, Wiley Books for Writers Series).

There are over 200 MFA and undergraduate programs in Film, TV and digital media in the US. Perhaps the world's most notable screen school is UCLA . This provides online certificate programs.

Gotham (writingclasses.com) claims to teach 6,000 students a year, with "over two-thirds" taking classes exclusively on line with "many overseas students"

Writopia claims to teach 6000 creative writing students a year, and eScript claims to teach 2000 screenwriting students a year. Screendreams (writersacademy.org) claims to be the only college to offer screenwriting classes exclusively and claims a membership of  "many thousands".

UK

The 'Guardian' reported that in 2003  there were 100,000 enrolments in adult education creative writing courses. This in addition to under and post graduate programmes at (an estimated) 30 universities.

The BFI (British Film Institute) offers online courses, as does Trace Writing school. There are no published statistics or claims for the number of students enrolled.