ABSTRACT
Yap and Tachaiyaphum separately explain their motivation to undertake PhD projects on the topics of their choice and outline the key factors that led them to choose to study in New Zealand. They then describe the different paths they followed to identify an appropriate university and supervisors, the application procedures they adopted, and the impact of each eventually being awarded a scholarship. Liyanage discusses the importance of this initial phase of the doctoral journey, and he encourages prospective candidates to follow the lead of Yap and Tachaiyaphum by doing careful research into what, where, and with whom to study.
