Victoria International Relations student Matthew Castle is jetting off to Cambridge.
The Masters student is one of three New Zealand recipients of the prestigious Woolf Fisher Scholarship, which funds students to study towards a doctorate at the University of Cambridge.
Matthew says of the moment when he found out about the award, “It was pretty overwhelming, I had to pinch myself to make sure it was really happening!”
The 24-year-old is no stranger to travel; he spent a year in Lyon, France during his undergraduate studies, and has recently returned from a six-month internship with the Asia Europe Foundation in Singapore.
In Cambridge, he will study how relations with New Zealand, Australia and the European Union have affected regional integration in South East Asia. “If we can understand the impact of trade and other relations between regions, we are better placed to anticipate the process of regional integration,” Matthew says.
The Woolf Fisher Trust invests almost $1 million each year in its scholarship programme, awarding up to three scholarships annually. The scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic excellence and demonstration of the virtues prized by Sir Woolf Fisher, including integrity, leadership, boldness of vision, zeal, and keenness and capacity for work. Each scholarship has an annual value of almost $100,000.
Matthew says of receiving the award, “Working with some of the most respected academics in my field will be an amazing experience. Cambridge also has so much else to offer—amazing history, buzzing social and sporting environment, and it attracts really talented people from all over the globe.”
He will be joined in Cambridge in October 2012 by Chris Jenkins from the University of Auckland and Kane O’Donnell from the University of Canterbury.