Alumni promote PhD study in NZ

Fourteen Vietnamese PhD students or alumni from our eight universities took part in the campaign, which generated extensive social media and other coverage.  

The original plan to feature Facebook posts about outstanding PhD alumni and candidates was extended to include a webinar on 22 January 2022, “Ask NEW Anything: The PhD Journey”, involving five speakers from different areas of study: education, finance, food science, construction engineering and computer science.  

The webinar generated a great deal of interest from participants, with numerous questions during the webinar and requests to connect with the speakers, as well as follow-up articles being published in the media.  

One of the students was Phan Ngoc Quynh Anh, a PhD candidate at University of Auckland.  Having worked as a lecturer at the University of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University, and then completed post-graduate studies in Europe, Quynh Anh now has a scholarship from the University of Auckland where she is a third-year PhD student in education.  

Quynh Anh is living in New Zealand with her husband and two young children, and says that studying in a country with good health, education and welfare systems for children was very important to her.

“I love the peace that New Zealand has to offer,” she says. 

“The academic space at the University of Auckland is very open and free, and research materials are always abundant. I have two instructors who couldn't be better in the learning process.” 

Van Banh, ENZ’s Market Manager, based in Ho Chi Minh City, says there is genuine interest from Vietnamese students in pursuing higher education in New Zealand.  

“The New Zealand tertiary education setting is renowned world-wide for high academic standards, an excellent teaching community and a vigorous research network,” Van Banh says. 

"Real-life opportunities, and a welcoming environment where innovation is encouraged have made New Zealand very appealing to Vietnamese students.  

“Vietnamese students have access to a range of funding support, including some fully funded scholarships from the Vietnamese government, as part of a project to enhance the capacity of the Vietnamese university sector, improve research output and meet the increasing demands of students and industry.”