Two overseas students re celebrating major success at Huddersfield University.
They have both won a coveted Chancellor’s Prize and are looking forward to making the most of their achievements.
Eager to make a contribution to medicine and patient care, Vietnamese student Nga Vo decided on pharmacy and with success in her postgraduate course, she has discovered a strand of research that fascinates her.
Nga, 25, studied for her Bachelor of Pharmacy degree in her native Ho Chi Minh City then decided on further study overseas. Huddersfield offered a Master’s in pharmaceutical and analytical science that was exactly what she was looking for.
Nga achieved ultra-high marks, including 82per cent for a research project investigating use of using a special technique to deliver two different antibiotic drugs simultaneously.
This could reduce dosing frequency and so diminish side effects, said Nga, whose Master’s success has earned her a Chancellor’s Prize, awarded to the highest-achieving students every year.
She now wants to move on to doctoral study, continuing to investigate drug delivery systems and beyond that aims for a career as a pharmacy lecturer and researcher.
“Studying at Huddersfield has been fabulous,” said Nga. “I have been provided with up-to-date knowledge and the student experience is great.”
Also flying high is Simbarashe Gomwe. He usually scored top marks at school in his native Zimbabwe, but then turned away from education. When he did pick up the threads, he became a law student in Huddersfield.
Ultra-high marks mean he is another of the 2015 winners of a Chancellor’s Prize, coming after his Master’s degree in commercial law. He moved on to this after achieving First Class Honours in his Bachelor’s degree in law and business.
Now, he wants to study for a doctorate and future career options include teaching and lecturing.
Simbarashe came to the UK at 18 to join his mother, who had married a Briton. Despite his good record at secondary school, he did various unskilled jobs, settling in Rochdale with his wife and young family before deciding to boost his prospects by returning to education.
“I used to get high marks at school then left education for 10 years, but I knew I had it in me,” said Simbarashe, 34.
“I have no regrets about coming to university as a mature student,” he said.
