Shuchismita Ghosh
Shuchismita comes from India and is pursuing a PhD in Social Work under the Faculty of Education and Social Work. She previously completed a Master’s in Social Work in Clinical and Community Practice from Christ University, Bangalore, and has work experience in non-profit organisations in India.
Shuchismita chose to pursue a PhD as it can “lead to high-level career prospects in social work administration, policymaking, and agency leadership”, positioning her to make an impact where it counts.
When deciding on where to study, she selected the University of Auckland as due to its high ranking internationally.
It motivated me to pursue my PhD here to get the best education and research experience.
“I've always wanted to be a part of social work research, specifically on the legal aspects of mental health patients, and in order to follow my aim of becoming a lecturer, a PhD is required.”
As a PhD candidate, she feels well supported “because we have doctoral-level community meetings where all the doctorate students get together to discuss their successes and issues. The supervisors are excellent at what they do and understand exactly what we want.”
She hopes to use her research to bring about legal change in India to improve the physical and mental well-being of women.
Shuchismita has also been working part-time with the university Student Experience Centre in the inbound team, which has given her “an opportunity to enhance my speaking skills so I can network with others,” she explains. “Being a very new person in New Zealand my workplace gives me an opportunity to feel the warmth of home as people working there are from different areas of life and have numerous experiences that helps me to get motivated to work.”