First PhD student from the Sunway campus

8 April 2008

Monash University's Sunway campus has marked another milestone with the awarding of its first Doctor of Philosophy qualification to School of Business student, Ms Eunice Lim, who has achieved a 15 year-old dream of completing her PhD.

Eunice, a management consultant with Ernst & Young, said the journey to completing her PhD program was at times gruelling, but has been worth the effort.

"There were several times when I thought I would not be able to complete the program, but fortunately, I had good friends who persuaded me to stay the course.”

She said the support from her supervisors - School of Business Head Professor Ron Edwards and Senior Lecturer Dr Tee Ding Ding – was also instrumental in her success. "Looking back, I could not have done it without all the encouragement," said Eunice.

Perseverance was the key ingredient for Eunice in successfully completing her PhD, as it was tedious at times to write, rewrite and review the same thing more than once.

“I am very happy to be able to achieve something that I've always wanted to do - it's a dream that I've harboured since I completed my Masters in 1992.”

It marked the completion of three and a half year's work for Eunice, and another 6 months of waiting to find out whether she would be successful. She selected her topic, 'Regional Investment Strategies of Multinationals', for its relevance as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Malaysia is declining and also because it is in line with her professional experience.

Eunice had initially intended to embark on her PhD program on a long distance basis at Monash's Peninsula campus in Melbourne, Australia, but found that the environment did not suit her. She continued her PhD program as an external program from Australia because at that stage PhD program was not offered at the Sunway campus in Malaysia .

Soon afterwards, Eunice said her supervisor in Australia, Professor Ron Edwards was also posted to Malaysia to head the School of Business here, which made it easier for her to consult him.

Having completed her PhD, Ms Lim said she would continue with her current work in consulting for now, before looking at options available to her - including entering academia. - Jasbir Singh