Four UTS students receive New Colombo Plan Scholarship

Four leading UTS students have been awarded a prestigious $65,000 New Colombo Plan (NCP) Scholarship. The UTS students will study at universities in Thailand, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong, as well as completing an internship in the Indo-Pacific region.

The NCP scholarship offers Australian students the opportunity to gain deep insights and connections to their host nation through a year of study at a partner university as well as a work-related internship.

The four UTS recipients for 2016 are Bronwyn Mercer (Bachelor of Science in Information Technology), Guoxi Bill Wang (Bachelor of Business Bachelor of Laws), Thomas Da Jose (Bachelor of Engineering) and Kayla Rain Williams (Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Bachelor of Arts in International Studies).  

Each student has been granted the scholarship after a challenging five month process at UTS and through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to find and select the best students from across Australia.

The NCP recipients attended the presentation at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra on Monday 30 November and were congratulated by Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Julie Bishop MP.

Professor Bill Purcell, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (International Advancement), said the announcement is another exciting step in UTS's deepening engagement with the Indo-Pacific region.

"We're really excited to see such a large and diverse group of UTS students receiving this prestigious scholarship," Purcell said. "The New Colombo Plan supports an ongoing flow of Australia's brightest and best to the region and is an important step to creating enduring relations between Australia and its neighbours.

"The success of these four students solidifies UTS's status as a leader in international student mobility."

Bronwyn Mercer, picture supplied

The recipients were selected against criteria of academic achievement, community engagement and leadership, and as New Colombo Plan Scholars will play a fundamental role in securing strong relations between UTS, Australia and their chosen Indo-Pacific countries.

Bronwyn Mercer, a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology student, is a budding cyber security professional.

Mercer will study at Nanyang Technology University in Singapore and hopes to forge strong ties with IT professionals throughout the whole Indo-Pacific region. Her year in Singapore will enable her to develop technical expertise in the region's leading technology hubs.

"Singapore is very mature in the area of cyber security, it's renowned in the region," she said. "The Singapore government has established a national cyber security strategy which sees sectors working together to defend against attacks. Working in this environment I will be learning from leaders in the field.

"Singapore is central in the region, so being able to collaborate with leaders from all around the world who've come to Singapore will allow me to apply those skills and connections in Australia."

Mercer currently works in the financial sector in Sydney and hopes to complete an internship with the Monetary Authority of Singapore as part of the NCP program.

"I'm excited to gain more IT security experience in the financial sector," Mercer said. "It will be great to see the cultural difference in the organisation, open my eyes to how different organisations work carrying out similar functions within a short distance of each other."

Guoxi Bill Wang aims to use his NCP scholarship to gain professional experience in Hong Kong's legal and financial sectors.  Wang will study at City University Hong Kong first and hopes to complete an internship with the International Chamber of Commerce, focusing on international arbitration.

The combined Bachelor of Business Bachelor of Laws student came to Australia at the age of nine with no English language skills. Now, he will use his time in Hong Kong to hone his trilingual fluency in Mandarin, Cantonese and English to pursue a career in Australian-Sino relations. 

"I strongly believe that I can make an invaluable contribution to my future employer and the Australian government as new opportunities emerge under the new era of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement," he said.

"I am particularly interested in international arbitration because it has become the preferred method of dispute resolution within the Indo-Pacific region, particularly for international commercial disputes."

The university sees more than 1,500 students undertake overseas experiences every year through semester exchange with over 230 partner universities, UTS BUiLD international leadership short programs, and the renowned International Studies degrees.

Simon Watson, UTS Manager International and Mobility Services, said exchange in the Indo-Pacific region is becoming the new rite of passage for many Australian undergraduates.

"It's about making lasting connections in the region, meeting and getting to understand fellow students and generating future opportunities. Going to study on exchange is about having an experience that's much deeper than a holiday."

Thomas Da Jose, a Bachelor of Engineering student, credits his overseas experiences with UTS BUiLD as the launch pad for his NCP scholarship.

He will study at Chulalongkhorn University in Thailand and hopes to use the experience to launch his career in humanitarian engineering.

UTS BUiLD (Beyond UTS International Leadership Development) is a program open to all students which facilitates leadership development through a range of opportunities abroad and at home.

Da Jose is the BUiLD Student Society President and has participated in three international BUiLD programs throughout his degree.

He helped build homes in the Philippines with Habitat for Humanity, attended the University Scholars Leadership Symposium in Cambodia and taught English to children in rural Thailand with the Australian-Thai Youth Ambassador Program.

"I've always been passionate about helping others, but I guess with each program I just had a greater sense of clarity about what I wanted to do," he said. "Those professional and personal experiences gave me the opportunity to grow and develop and lead me to where I am today."

"I want to use my engineering degree to help equip these communities in response to natural disasters and climate change. My developing capstone thesis is based on building capacity and resilience for marginalised communities in the Indo-Pacific region."

He believes UTS's practical approach to learning encouraged him to look at international humanitarian engineering as a career path.

"I want to thank my faculty because they really support this diverse experience of being more than an engineer," he said. "The practice-orientated approach of UTS brought me here. It got me to realise that humanitarian engineering, while not a standard career path, is a real opportunity."

Kayla Rain Williams said having the opportunity to study Japanese language and culture through a combined Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Bachelor of Arts in International Studies helped to secure her NCP scholarship.

"International Studies has been very beneficial for me when working towards my goals," she said. "I've realised that we are living in an increasingly global society where the impacts of issues can be felt across nations and by working together we can bring about solutions and work towards positive change."

With the help of her NCP scholarship Williams will continue her work in Samoa with a Japanese aid agency, before going to Japan to study at Yamaguchi University.

"The NCP scholarship is providing me with a wonderful opportunity to combine my study and cultural aspirations in Japan with a planned communications internship in the Pacific working with Japanese aid in international development assistance," she said.

The NCP secretariat and UTS are working with the recipients to finalise the arrangements of their study and exchange at the host universities, and their work experience plans, before they depart on their overseas experience in 2016. 

Find out more about the New Colombo Plan and other exchange opportunities at UTS here.