Education

Matthew completed his undergraduate studies in 2008 at Royal Holloway, University of London with a Bachelor of Arts in Human Geography. Whilst still an undergraduate, Matthew became one of the youngest Fellows of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. The Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship allowed him to travel to Canada and Vietnam to explore the challenges of ageing populations. In 2007 the Royal Holloway Academic Awards Committee presented him with the Max Cary Memorial Prize for photographic work with refugees and asylum-seekers in Glasgow.

Matthew went on to study for a Masters (MSc) in Comparative Social Policy at the University of Oxford. His thesis ‘Plunging Pensions – Pensioners in Poverty’ took a comparative analysis of British and Canadian pension reforms and their implications for lower income pensioners.

Research Thesis

Examining the effects of individual ageing on the well-being of older people and their households in Vietnam, with a view to informing appropriate strategies and policies to address the challenges of accelerated population ageing. Good long-term care requires a synthesis of activity from many spheres. Publicly-funded LTC is provided to an extremely limited extent in Vietnam. Household dynamics are of importance to the processes of healthy active ageing especially intergenerational relationships and informal care. The project hypothesises that the contribution that older people make to social and economic development is a primary factor determining the dynamics of their, and their households’, well-being.

Research Interests: Gerontology, Societal Ageing, Intergenerational Relations, Social Policy, Medical Sociology and Qualitative Methodology.

Other Experiences

In March 2009 Matthew spearheaded an initiative to strengthen academic ties and accelerate research initiatives between the UK and Vietnam. The Vietnam Academic Network was launched at the Said Business School, University of Oxford with the participation of several key British and Vietnamese government dignitaries. Matthew is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the British Society of Gerontology and was an elected Executive Officer of Oxford University Students Union (OUSU). Matthew’s current DPhil research is supported by an AXA Doctoral Fellowship from the AXA Research Fund.

Publications

• Critically Understanding Asian Perspectives on Ageing (Vandana Desai and Matthew Tye) (July 2009) in Third World Quarterly, Vol.30, No.5, pp1007-1025.
• The Third Age: Challenges for an Ageing Vietnamese Population, Matthew Tye (2009), Working Papers Series, Vietnam Development Forum, Hanoi.
• Aging Asia (Vandana Desai and Matthew Tye) (February 2010) in Geography and You, Vol.10, No.58.