TỐNG NGUYỄN THÁI SƠN – NỐI DÀI ƯỚC MƠ

Trường: University of Sheffield. Thành tích: Học bổng 100% học phí thạc sỹ và tiến sĩ

Khóa học: MSc Health Economics and Decision Modelling (2010 – 2011), PhD Health and Related Research (2013 – 2016) 

Thành tích:  Full scholarship from department and Novartis in Switzerland (tuition fee and maintenance) to study MSc Health Economics and Decision Modelling . 

                   Scholarship from UK Department of Health, policy research unit (tution fee at UK rate and maintenance) to study PhD Health and Related Research

In 2010, I received a full scholarship to study a MSc in health economics and decision modelling at School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), University of Sheffield. It was the best experience I ever had between 2010 and 2011 during my master course at the University of Sheffield. Sheffield is a lovely city in the UK with a lot of green space and parks. The MSC course gave me valuable knowledge in the area I love, health economics. All the teachers and other staffs were friendly and helpful. The learning environment was dynamic and encouraging. I received all the support I needed during the course and I found many new friends from different nationalities and cultures over the world in Sheffield; some of them are still my close friends until now.

Because of the impression from the master course, I always wanted to pursue a PhD in the same area at ScHARR. Since the beginning of 2013, I have been accepted to a PhD course at ScHARR working in a project from the UK Department of Health’s Policy Research Unit in Economic Evaluation of Health and Care Interventions (EEPRU).

Studying in the UK has always been my passionate dream since I was in my last year at Hanoi University of Pharmacy in Vietnam. Thanks to Vietint, I came to be aware of the opportunities to pursue further education in the UK. I am indeed grateful for the help from them during my application to secure a master course and later to apply my UK student visa. I still remember how miss Dzung explained to me about the universities I should consider and then provided a lot of help in writing my application. She has been very kind and helpful to me. Vietint has been doing a very good job to bring more and more opportunities to students in Vietnam to approach the education in the UK.  🙂

I was so happy the first time when my dream came true. It was indeed an exciting feeling when my flight from Vietnam landed on the UK for the first time in September 2010. It was so different here in terms of both life and study. It took me a while to get myself adapted to the new life and new way of studying but I enjoyed every moment of it. I think for students in Vietnam, it is absolutely worth to venture your savings in such an investment to study a master course in the UK. It is not just about the degree but more about the experience and self-development. However you should carefully research before you can make a decision on which university you would like to go for. In my opinion, there are more scholarships to study a PhD than a master degree, at least in health economics. Information on these scholarships are always available on the internet through university websites or other websites for scholarships. University of Sheffield website provides quite a comprehensive and helpful list about sources of scholarships or information that might be of your interest. My scholarships were found from the university website. After having found the area and university that you are interested, a research for scholarship information from the internet will give you an overall view about the types of scholarship you can apply and how to apply for it. Afterwards the next step would be to prepare your application according to the listed criteria, submit your application and wait for the result. I applied for my PhD when I was working in Vietnam. At that time I was interviewed through Skype after having been successful with the paper application. It is more difficult to apply for a full scholarship to study a master course because there are not many of them, except you have a brilliant studying record. Nonetheless we lose nothing when we try, so be confident and give it a go. Once you go through an application process every steps of it, you will understand the situation better and be more confident to try on other cases until you succeed. Good luck everyone 🙂