Scholarships available for pregnant PhD candidates

Earning a Ph.D. is incredibly difficult, but it's a doubly herculean effort when you're also pregnant. In light of this, the University of New South Wales is offering college scholarship opportunities that could provide $11,000 in financial aid for moms chasing their doctorate. The sum is intended to cover six months worth of tuition.

According to the Great Lakes Advocate, the first recipient, Kate Hetherington, plans to start researching depression now that her daughter has been born.

"[It] 'makes me feel much more supported by the uni [university]," she told the news provider. "I feel like having a baby during this process is not seen as a bad career move.''

Many people need help finishing a doctorate - a degree that takes some students as many as 10 years to complete. The Advocate notes that only a little more than 60 percent of people who enter into higher-education programs for sciences finish their degrees.

However, once Hetherington gets her Ph.D., she'll be part of an ongoing trend. The Washington Post reports that, as of 2010, the ratio of women to men with doctorate degrees had risen to three to two.

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