Given the importance of establishing a good match between the applicant, the project, the advisors, and the school or institute, enrolling units are expected to make careful judgements when assessing potential applicants for admission to candidature.  Schools and institutes are not expected to take all applicants with no regard to the readiness of the applicant or the quality of the match with UQ resources and research strength. Instead, schools and institutes are empowered by the Research Higher Degree Candidature Selection policy to decide whether or not to invite a potential applicant to lodge an Application for Admission and Scholarship form, and to decline unsolicited Application forms.

When saying no to a potential or actual applicant, schools and institutes are expected to adhere to the following principles.

1. Applicants must receive explicit advice in writing (letter or email) about the decision to say no and the reasons for that decision.
2. The reasons given must be academically appropriate.

Appropriate reasons for not recommending admission include:

• suitable advisor/s are not available,
• the necessary funding for the research project is not available,
• the research project is not appropriate for the enrolling unit (that is, it doesn't match the research strengths of the school or institute),
• the research project is not appropriate for the proposed program (for example, an MPhil project that would take 3 years FTE),
• the applicant's prior research training is not appropriate for the discipline (for example, a Bachelor of Science Honours Class I is not necessarily appropriate training to undertake research in business management), and
• the applicant's prior research training is not appropriate for the proposed program.

Inappropriate reasons for not recommending admission include:

• the applicant doesn't have a living allowance and/or tuition fee scholarship (how the applicant meets their personal expenses is not an academic matter),
• the applicant is unlikely to be competitive for a UQ living allowance and/or tuition fee scholarship,
• the applicant doesn't meet the English Language Proficiency Admission Requirement (in such cases, UQ is required to issue conditional offers subject to meeting the requirement by a set date), and
• the applicant's membership, perceived or actual, of any group where discrimination on that basis of that group breaches the UQ policy on Discrimination and Harrassment.

Formal grievances and appeals by RHD applicants regarding decisions made during selection for admission follow the processes outlined in the Student Grievance Resolution and Appeals to Senate by Students policies. Schools and institutes should therefore retain the written advice in their recordkeeping systems for an appropriate period of time.