PhD fees an advantage for Vanuatu student

For Jeffery Garae, a major attraction of studying abroad in New Zealand is that international PhD students pay the same fees as local students.

“I was looking at doing a Masters here and when I read about the PhD fees I thought, ‘Whoa – that’s an even better advantage,’” says Jeffery, who is from Vanuatu.

No-one says no to studying in New Zealand. It’s a nice place, and the people are very friendly.

Jeffery was the first student to study a Master of Cyber Security at the University of Waikato, and is now studying for a PhD.

Jeffery has had a paid internship with an Auckland tech company, and believes studying in New Zealand will be an advantage when he starts job-hunting.

“Even big companies like Google look at New Zealand when they are recruiting computer science graduates. We have good chances after studying in Waikato because we contribute to research in our field and have good industry connections.”

Jeffery Garae, Vanuatu, PhD in Computer Science, specialising in cyber security