International Research Summer School: A 3-year Review

In 2015, the International Research Summer School (IRSS) was founded by Asso. Prof. Trung Q. Duong (Queen’s University Belfast, UK). The IRSS is an annual event organized by Duy Tan University (DTU) under Newton fund managed by British Council. In the first 3 schools (i.e., in 2015, 2016, and 2017), many experts and professors from world-class universities in the UK, the USA, Canada, and Australia provided the prospective PhD students with academic interests such as advanced research skills, researcher careers, and research governance and ethics, etc. that will help the prospective PhD students to develop their capacities for academic activities in advanced higher education systems in the world.

Mr. Le Cong Co – DTU Chairman and Rector (center) with the Committee of the 2nd IRSS in 2016

The schools also supported useful information about PhD scholarships and related issues such as application process, successful stories, finding and working with supervisors, PhD life, etc. The schools therefore play an important role as a very stepping stone towards a successful academic research career of the attendances.

Asso. Prof. Trung Q. Duong’s talk at the 3rd IRSS in 2017

After three schools (i.e., in 2015, 2016 and 2017), there have been 66 students from many universities and institutes in Vietnam received travel and accommodation grants. The great achievement here is that after the schools, 39 of them won full master and PhD scholarships to study in the UK, the USA, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea,… This actually motivates the committee to envision a long-term development strategy of the IRSS.

The 4^th IRSS will be held from 23 to 27, Aug. 2018 at DTU, Danang City, it is a great honor to DTU to go with new prospective PhD students. The 4^th IRSS is expected to provide the attendances with a rich and useful course that will be the prep steps into their future PhD programme and research career.

The IRSS is supported by a Research Environment Links grant, ID 339568416, under the Newton Programme Vietnam partnership. The grant is funded by the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and delivered by the British Council. For further information, please visit www.newtonfund.ac.uk.

List of students awarded MSc and PhD scholarships

1. 2015

2. 2016

3. 2017