Accomplishments

Journalism student Sophia Fu awarded full scholarship to study PhD in US

Sophia Fu (International Journalism, Year 3) of the Journalism Department of the School of Communication won a five-year full scholarship from Northwestern University in the US to pursue a PhD in Communication Studies from the next academic year. She will specialise in Media, Technology and Society research.

Northwestern University is one of the top four universities in communication studies in the US. In fact, Sophia received full scholarship offers from four universities in the US for postgraduate studies, including Ohio State University, University of Michigan, Northwestern University and University of Illinois. Sophia said: “I chose Northwestern University because it is a private university which means there will be more potential research funding and grants for me to conduct research projects. In addition, the directors and professors there are very keen to have me in their programme. I received several calls asking me to consider their programme. The programme at Northwestern University is renowned for its social network analysis which matches my research interests. I look forward to conducting research with top researchers at the University.”

Professor Huang Yu, Dean of Communication, said he was very proud of Sophia as it was unusual for social sciences or humanities undergraduate students to gain a full scholarship for PhD studies directly.

Sophia is from Yantai in Shandong province. She said she chose HKBU because she is interested in media and journalism and the University is well known for its quality journalism programme. She received eight scholarships during her four years of study at HKBU. The scholarship granted by Northwestern University for her five-year PhD study amounts to around HK$2.5 million.

“I am really grateful to the Journalism Department for providing students with many excellent resources and opportunities. I also have to thank the teachers for their guidance. After my PhD, I would like to return to Hong Kong to teach,” said Sophia.

	Sophia is granted a five-year full scholarship to study in the US