Seafarers International Research Centre Nippon Foundation Scholarship 2007

SIRC, the Seafarers International Research Centre, is a constituent centre of the Cardiff University School of Social Sciences. At this institution The Nippon Foundation has established a PhD programme under which participants study maritime-related social science. During their studies students are given training in social science research methods and required to write a thesis of up to 80,000 words. The purpose of the programme is to create an international network of social scientists studying the lives of seafarers.

	Nippin Anand
Country	India
Major Field of Study	Nippin is mainly interested in addressing quality issues in Maritime education among Indian seafarers.
Pre Cardiff Occupation	Nippin has recently completed a MSc in International Transport from Cardiff Business School. He is a licensed Master mariner and has sailed for over 11 years onboard container ships and car carriers. He started as a deck cadet at the age of 17 onboard deep sea container vessels and ended his sailing career working for A.P. Moller Maersk, after which he decided to quit sailing to pursue academic studies.
Other	Nippin enjoys cooking and reading, and he is particularly keen on learning more about practicing Yoga and reflexology. During his leisure time he likes to play squash, go cycling and be with nature.

	Jabeth Sena Jepath A. Dacanay
Country	Philippines
Major Field of Study	Jabeth is interested in looking at the regulation of shipping, and its existing labour regulatory framework at both the national and international level. She will also study how seafarers interact or negotiate their rights and welfare issues under a complex and highly globalised regulatory framework.
Pre Cardiff Occupation	Jabeth is a maritime lawyer in the Philippines. Before joining the programme Jabeth headed the Maritime Legal Affairs Office of the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) of the Philippines. She graduated cum laude at the Far Eastern University Institute of the Law in 1997 and was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 1998. She obtained her Master of Science Degree in Maritime Affairs specializing in Maritime Administration from the World Maritime University (WMU), Malmo, Sweden in 2003 under the Nippon Foundation/Sasakawa Fellowship Programme.
Other	The ultimate dream of Jabeth is to be able to represent the causes of seafarers in every available forum with the end view of promoting and protecting their rights and welfare.

	Samuel Edmund
Country	Ghana
Major Field of Study	Samuel’s research interest is the area of globalisation of the shipping industry, and its impact on the supply of seafarers from West Africa.
Pre Cardiff Occupation	He obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree (BCom) and Diploma in Education (Dip Ed) at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana in 1997. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in the year 2000 with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Glasgow, UK and is now a fellow of the association. He has over 10 years of professional experience having worked in junior and senior management positions in the past with KPMG Chartered Accountants and Consultants Accra, Ghana and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated in Lome, Togo. He has spent the last four years working as the General Manager Finance and Administration with Ecomarine International, an ECOWAS supported private shipping company based in Lome Togo.
Other	His interest in the maritime industry developed with Ecomarine, as the company battled on a daily basis to surmount the challenges posed by the industry. He has joined the Seafarers International Research Centre (SIRC) at Cardiff University as a research student to contribute to academic research in the maritime industry. Samuel is an ardent football fan and enjoys travelling, sight seeing and music.

	Priscilla Leong
Country	Singapore
Major Field of Study	Priscilla is interested in recruitment and retention issues of seafarers within the perspective of a global labour market.
Pre Cardiff Occupation	Priscilla graduated with a BA Psychology degree (First Class Honours) from the University of Calgary, Canada. She subsequently obtained a Diploma in Sports Psychology (International Correspondence School, UK). She spent some years working with the intellectually disabled as a psychologist with MINDS (The Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore). In 1997, she joined the Singapore Polytechnic where she was attached to the Singapore Maritime Academy. Priscilla has also had some experience teaching Communication Studies to advanced diploma students and she most recently taught Organisational Behaviour Management in the Cadet Plus Programme in Qingdao (China).
Other	A member of the Mission to Seafarers (Singapore Branch), she served on the Committee from 1997-2005 and was the Honorary Secretary for 5 of those years. Priscilla loves to holiday with a ‘mission’ – she has travelled to Bangkok to work with the Christian Charity for Disabled Children and was part of a ‘Build Project’ in Nepal organised by Habitat for Humanity. A sports enthusiast (although sometimes more avid than active), she enjoys racquet games (i.e. tennis, squash, badminton), swimming, running and has a brown belt in shaolin kungfu. With a motto to “Try Some Things at least Once”, she has obtained her basic licences to scuba dive and sail laser boats. On a more passive note, she loves to read, listening to music and dabbles a little with pencil sketching.

	Conghua Xue
Country	China
Major Field of Study	Conghua’s research interests lie in the investigation and analysis of the factors that shape maritime safety cultures. Perspectives from seafarers, maritime administrations, MET institutions and shipping companies will be surveyed, and measures for promoting such a culture will be identified and highlighted.
Pre Cardiff Occupation	Following graduation from Nantong Shipping College (NSC) with a diploma in Navigation, Conghua has worked on different types of ocean-going ships as an OS, AB and a second deck officer. Conghua also has a Bachelor’s degree in English Education from the Peking Normal University in China, and a Master’s degree in Maritime Affairs from the World Maritime University in Sweden. As a lecturer at the Nantong Shipping College, he mainly taught nautical students maritime communications and maritime English. He was also the deputy director of the foreign affairs office and the head of maritime English section for the college since 2004. He was appointed as an Internal and External Auditor for the Quality Assurance Standards of Maritime Education and Training in China, which was authorised by the China Maritime Safety Administration in 2006.
Other	Conghua has been actively involved in the foreign affairs of the NSC, and has visited maritime colleges/universities for the purpose of academic exchanges and co-operations in Singapore, Australia, Canada and the US in recent years. He has been an individual member of the IMLA (International Maritime Lecturers Association) since 2003. He has published some articles as the first author/co-author on professional journals. In September 2007 the College honoured him with the title Excellency Individual.