Manh Tuan Vu is from Vung Tau, a city in the south of Vietnam. Tuan started his degree in Vietnam at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology but wanted to get an overseas experience and chose Australia as his destination. The main reason for coming to Australia was that it is an English speaking country and closer to Vietnam than the UK or US.
Tuan is currently enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in IT.
"I did my English language preparation at ACET where I found out about an Australian University information session. I attended the session and met UTS representatives who were very friendly and informative. I also asked friends who were studying at UTS, and especially were doing IT courses, as I intended to get an IT degree. Eventually, in late 2007, I made up my mind and quickly came to Australia to take an IT course at UTS.
I'm now enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in IT majoring in Enterprise Systems Development with a focus on software development. I'm also taking Computer Graphics as my second major as I have interests in 3D Animation and Game Design.
I find studying at UTS quite stimulating and fulfilling and think that UTS provides the best IT courses among all the other universities in Australia. I know a few of the universities in Sydney now but I can say that UTS has one of the friendliest environments. The staff, especially the lecturers, are very helpful and I have a lot of support from them for subject related matters.
Previously I lived in UTS student residence called Gumal Ngurang where I shared a flat with a mix of local and international students. This gave me a good chance to experience different cultures as well as being in a very handy location – it's about four minutes away from the UTS campus.
Currently I'm undertaking a fully paid cadetship, which is not a compulsory part of my degree, with MLC, a finance company, for one year. I'm working as an Analyst Programmer and helping develop new features for their Unit Pricing system. I also plan to gain a lot of knowledge about the financial investment industry while I'm working with them. I've found it a bit difficult to juggle between full time work and uni, but it all works out quite well now.
On the weekend I spend my time doing assignments or hanging out with my friends at coffee shops. I'm also involved in the Vietnamese Dynamic Students society (opens an external site), in which I work as a Technical Coordinator. The photo above shows me at the UTS Orientation day representing the society. Last year we had a big event at the Alumni Green UTS where we exhibited Vietnamese culture to foreign audiences. Our current goal is getting more Vietnamese students to join the club so they can have more information and advice from experienced students who have already lived in Australia for a while.
I would highly recommend UTS as the best place to take an IT degree in Australia since they have great industry links and real world learning goals."
