Post Graduate Students' Association - PGSA

Benefits of becoming a Waikato PGSA member:

• Make contact with other postgraduate students
• Support of the executive as your voice on campus
• Form multi-disciplinary links in the university
• Keep informed of relevant issues to postgraduate students
• Free membership with the Waikato Student's Union (WSU). (Note: if you do not wish to be enrolled as a WSU member, please let us know in the comments section below)

Executive

Meet the members of our executive

George Zheng Liu - President

School of Management and Marketing

George Z. Liu is doing a PhD in Tourism Management at the Waikato Management School. He has nine years of working experience in the luxury hotels and cruise industry in Asia-Pacific, including New Zealand, China and Japan. He is a Human Resources, Certified Cruise trainer of MSC. His research examines corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in luxury hotels in China. He has heaps of work experience in tutoring, and currently, he is a casual staff at the University of Waikato. He has a lifelong passion for challenging works in academia and the tourism industry. He is interested in socialising with people from different cultural backgrounds, reading and hiking.

Sarah Bashir - Vice President

School of Management and Marketing

Sarah is a PhD candidate in the Waikato Management School. As a researcher, she is interested in areas of Human Resource Management, Strategic Management, and Cultural Anthropology. Her professional portfolio ranges from healthcare services to corporate and government sectors. She is also a certified coach holding credentials with International Coaching Federation. Her niche is transformational and leadership coaching. Sarah loves playing golf and is thirteen times the winner of several amateur and professional golf championships at interclub levels across Asia. She believes that enjoying nature, spending quality time with family and friends, community involvement, and setting purposeful goals are ways to create happiness in life.

Zhanchao Shao - Secretary

School of Science

Zhanchao Shao is doing his PhD in marine science at the School of Science. His research is mainly about using remote sensing images to monitor estuarine health in New Zealand. He always seeks opportunities to combine his study with communities to make the estuaries sustainable.

Sanoon Fathima Fasana - Public Relations Manager

School of Management and Marketing

Fasana is a PhD candidate at the School of Management and Marketing. She began her PhD studies in 2019 after completing her Masters in Business Administration from Sri Lanka. Her research is about examining the dark side of entrepreneurial passion. Her other areas of research interest include the psychology of entrepreneurship, innovation and commercialisation, and conflict management. Her research works have been presented at several research conferences and published in many local and international journals. Fasana has many years of teaching experience in Entrepreneurship and Management subjects. She has been working as a Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at Uva Wellassa University, Sri Lanka, since 2011. She is also working as a teaching assistant in the School of Management and Marketing, University of Waikato. In addition to being an academic and a young researcher, she is interested in socialising with people from different nationalities, learning about their cultures, cooking, and travelling.

Jing jing Zhu - Treasurer

School of Education

Jing Jing is a Masters student in Education and Society. In her research, she aims to explore the experiences of late-life migrants' educational activities and their psychological well-being. She has been working as a language teacher for six years. Other than that, she is a freelance writer who has finished five books and has had one published. Other than academia, she is interested in reading, travelling, food, and socialising.

Executive Members

Zac Isaac - Executive Member

School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences

Zac is a first-year PhD student hailing from sunny Ōpōtiki in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, and he is currently completing his study under Rorohiko Me Ngā Pūtaiao Pāngarau - the School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences. His current research interests are in the field of computational biomedical optics, while his previous research focused on computational astrophysics. Outside of his studies, Zac is a keen fan of football and rugby. He also enjoys tutoring students and assisting with running several University clubs and associations.

Maryam Alaufi - Executive Member

School of Education

Maryam is a Omani PhD student at the School of Education. She is an English lecturer at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences - Shinas (UTAS-Shinas) since 2015 with a total of 7 years of experience. She obtained her Master's Degree from the University of Sydney in the area of TESOL. She had been appointed to be the Head of Quality Assurance Department at UTAS - Shinas for three years. Her research interests focus on the area of Quality Assurance and Policy Perspectives.

Jiancheng Zheng - Executive Member

School of Arts

Jiancheng is a PhD candidate in Screen and media, School of Arts. His research topic is on Chinese New Zealanders media consumption and political engagement in the 2020 New Zealand general election. Jiancheng has experience of study and cultural exchange in Hong Kong University and the United States. He also has volunteer experience. Video clips of the Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono and Hamilton access community radio broadcaster. Jiancheng hopes to meet more people in the Waikato PGSA.

Zhenshan XU - Executive Member

School of Management and Marketing

Zhenshan Xu is a PhD candidate in the Waikato Management School at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He obtained his Master's degree (in Tourism) from Shaanxi Normal University, China. His research focuses mainly on destination marketing, theme parks, tourist behavior, and visitor emotion.

Qimo (Alex) Zhang - Executive Member

School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences

Alex is a PhD student in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences. Before coming to New Zealand in 2018, he was also a PhD student at Wuhan University. His research is about Visualising Location-Based Information using Augmented Reality. He has more than 20 years of IT work experience and loves hiking, badminton, contract bridge, and music.

Hongwei (Philip) Jiang - Executive Member

School of Management and Marketing

Philip is a PhD candidate in Management System. His research interest includes supply chain management, digital business, enterprise information system and cloud computing. His current research is about enhancing decision support in hospital information systems with the emerging machine learning technology. Previously a senior consultant practised in ERP consultancy and implementation for clients in the manufacturing industry.

Yu Yuan - Executive Member

School of Education

Yu Yuan is a Ph.D. student at the School of Education. His area of academic interest includes Cross-Cultural Learning, Cognitive Psychology, Cultural Adaptation, Adult Education, Life-Long Learning and Life History Approach. Before commencing his Ph.D., Yu was funded by East China Normal University (ECNU) in Roskilde University (Denmark) as a visiting scholar researching Comprehensive Learning Theory and Life History Approach. He was a Chemical teacher in Harbin No.6 high school. Other than academia and research, he is passionate about swimming and piano.

Atif Khalil - Executive Member

School of Education

Atif Khalil is a PhD student from the school of Education, University of Waikato. His area of research is "professional identity development of doctoral students". He intend to explore the socialisation aspects and their contribution towards emerging academic identities. Beside this, He likes to interact and have fun with people who have different cultural backgrounds. Moreover, He loves to play cricket and hang out with friends.

Sheila Busteed- Executive Member

School of Education

Sheila is a PhD student in the Division of Education. Her research focuses on the pedagogical role of blended learning in the development of engineering students' critical reading skills. She spent the last few years as a University of Waikato faculty member, teaching English for Specific Academic Purposes to engineering students in China as part of a transnational programme. Her other research interests include the development of academic, professional, and creative writing skills; EAP/ESP pedagogies; curriculum development; and autoethnographic inquiry within the field of education, among others. Hailing from Canada, Sheila also lived in South Korea, Morocco, Spain, and China before calling New Zealand home. She had a journalism career before switching to the teaching profession in 2013. She's also a published novelist, poet, lyricist and essayist. In her free time, Sheila enjoys travelling, photography, cooking, and music.