Since 1999, Cuc has been working with the Assessment Research Centre at the University of Melbourne in a range of roles.

Her doctoral thesis addressed the topic “The relationships between gender, family and students' outcomes in Vietnam". She completed her Masters degree at the Victoria University of Technology on the topic "The relationship between gender, students' achievement and dropping out in rural Vietnam". She has also studied at the Hanoi Pedagogic University and at the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute, where she completed the Bachelor of Education with a high distinction.

At the University of Melbourne, she has been teaching 'Assessment Instrument Design', 'Introduction to Assessment' and 'Quantitative Methods'. She supervises research students, is responsible for the conduct and analysis of data for research projects, prepares reports and research papers, and participates in workshops, conferences and seminars.

She is now involved in a number of projects, including the World Bank secondary data analysis on longitudinal monitoring Year 5 student achievement, the Vietnam second Higher Education project evaluation and monitoring, and the Vietnam lower secondary education project.

During the past years she has played a major role in:

- the Vietnam primary school quality project and the Vietnam Primary School Teacher Development project (both funded by the World Bank)
- development of professional standards for primary school teachers
- delivering training courses to train assessors
- analysing data
- assistance with the Bangladesh Secondary Education Sector Improvement Project (funded by the Asian Development Bank)
- the primary school achievement monitoring Project - Vietnam (funded by the World Bank)

She has also spent six years as Education Research Officer - Pedagogical Centre, The National Research Institute For Education Sciences, The Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam and prior to that was an Education Research Officer with the Vietnam - Curriculum Development Centre.

Australian Association for Research in Education
Vietnamese Psycho-pedagogical Association
Vietnamese Women Union
Australian Federation of University Women
International Federation of University Women

PhD (The University of Melbourne)
Master of Arts (Victoria university of Technology)
Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Hanoi Pedagogical Institute I -Vietnam)
Bachelor of Education (Leningrad Pedagogical Institute – Russia)

Current

- Primary School Quality project
- Evaluation and Monitoring of the Vietnam Higher Education project
- Vietnam Secondary Teacher Development Project
- Vietnam Lower Secondary Education project

Previous

- Bilingual Program New South Wales (2006)
- Vietnam Primary School Teacher Development Project (funded by the World Bank): Development of professional standards for primary school teachers, delivering training courses to train assessors, analysing data (2003-2006)
- World Bank Training program November 2005, Hoi An Vietnam (2005)
- An Environmental Scan of Tools and Strategies that Measure Progress in School Reform (2005)
- Evaluation of the Ultranet – Students@Centre R & D Project (2005)
- Bangladesh Secondary Education Sector Improvement Project (funded by the Asian Development Bank): Delivered courses within the academic program of international delegates from Bangladesh (2003)
- Primary School Achievement Monitoring Project - Viet Nam (funded by the World Bank): Analysing data and writing report (2003)

Journal Articles

Nguyen, C., Griffin, P., Ure, C., & Pavlovic, M. (2008). Study in Teacher Quality: Report on survey for primary school principals and teachers, Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam School Education Quality Assurance Project (pp. 160). Melbourne: Assessment Research Centre.

Ure, C., Griffin, P., & Nguyen, C. (2008). Study in Teacher Quality: Report on solutions for improving primary school teachers’ quality, Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam School Education Quality Assurance Project (pp. 62). Melbourne: Assessment Research Centre.

Griffin, P., Nguyen, C., Ure, C., & Pavlovic, M. (2008). Study in Teacher Quality: Report on study in scaling-up solutions, the implementation of teacher professional Profiles, Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam School Education Quality Assurance Project (pp. 24). Melbourne: Assessment Research Centre.

Nguyen, C. & Griffin, P. (2007). Development of a scale to measure economic status of students in rural Vietnam. Asia Pacific Education Review. 8 (2): 205-215.

Gillis, S., Griffin, P., Nguyen, C. & Fung, W. (2007). Evaluating psychometric properties of the primary school teacher standards: Implications for instrument development and assessment practice. In Jeffery PL(ed), Proceedings of the Australian Association for Research in Education Annual Conference. 1-24. Melbourne, Australia: Australian Association for Research in Education.

Nguyen, C., Huynh, M., Griffin, P., Nguyen, T., Gillis, S. & Bach, T. (2007). The Development of Standards for the Assessment of Primary School Teachers in VietNam. Borders, Boundaries, Barriers & Frontiers: Promoting Quality in Teacher Education - ICET International Yearbook on Teacher Education. 5-14. Wheeling, Illinois, United States: The International Council on Education for Teaching.

Nguyen, K., Griffin, P. & Nguyen, C. (2007). Generating criteria for assessing lecturers in Vietnam's universities: A conceptual paper. In Jeffery PL(ed), Proceedings of the Australian Association for Research in Education Annual Conference, Adelaide, 2006. 1-16. Melbourne, Australia: Australian Association for Research in Education.

Nguyen, T.K.C., Wu, M.L., & Gillis, S. (in press). Factors influencing pupil achievement in SACMEQ II- Botswana: An Application of Structural Equation Modelling. International Journal of Education Research.

Nguyen, T.K.C., & Fahey, S. (2001). The relationships between students’ achievement and early school leaving in rural Vietnam. Journal of Melbourne Studies in Education, Vol 42 No.2, pp.49-68.

Griffin, P., Nguyen, T.K.C., Gillis, S., Mai, T.T. (2006). An Empirical Analysis of Primary Teacher Standards in Vietnam. Curricular Reforms in Southeast Asia, Planning and Changing, 37(1&2), 71-92.

Nguyen, T.K.C. (1995). Hanoi women with the issue of environment under the conditions of market mechanism, Gender, Environment and Development in Vietnam, The National Publishing House, Hanoi, pp 155-166.

Nguyen, T.K.C. (1994) Individual teaching at primary schools, Educational Research, No. 5, Hanoi, pp.16-31

Nguyen, T.K.C. (1994). Measures taken to enhance students' creativity in the classrooms, Educational Research, No. 4, Hanoi, p.12.

Nguyen, T.K.C. (1992). Outcomes of the survey on situation of dropping out and repetition in communes Hon Chau, Lien Chau and Dai Tu, The Issue of Dropping out and Repetition: Situation, reason and solution, National Institute of Education Sciences, Hanoi, pp 16-25.

Conference Papers

Nguyen, T.K.C., Wu, M.L., & Gillis, S. (2005). Factors influencing achievement levels in the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ)II. International Invitational Educational Policy Research Conference, Paris: IIEP.

Griffin, P., Nguyen, T.K.C., & Gillis, S. (2004). An empirical analysis of primary teacher standards in Vietnam. International Council o

Consultant/ Lecturer, Vietnam Secondary teacher development Project, Australia

Duties: As part of this capacity building project, responsible for leading a delegation from Vietnam to review methodological frameworks used in developing secondary teacher standards. Delivering courses in teacher standards development and validation within the professional development program delegates from Vietnam.

Consultant/Principal Research Investigator, Viet Nam Primary School Teacher Quality Project, Vietnam

Duties: To be involved in the process of conducting a national survey of primary school teachers to explore their perceptions on a range of topics including professional development, full day schooling, upscaling of teacher standards and recruitment of university graduates for teaching in primary schools.

Consultant/Principal Research Investigator, Viet Nam Primary School Teacher Development Project, Vietnam

Duties: To be involved in the process of reviewing, developing and validating a range of new and existing assessment frameworks and strategies used to assess the competence levels of primary school teachers, through conducting pilot and trial studies. Tasks included: developing professional standards for primary school teachers; delivering training courses to train assessors; delivering training courses to train Primary Teacher Development Project Coordination Unit in data analysis; conducting analysis of data; and project coordination.

Consultant / Research Fellow, Increased Recognition of VET in School Programs by Both University and Industry, Australia

Duties: Conducted and analysed a national sample of achievement levels of students studying VET in School programs in senior secondary education certificates, including grade 12 achievement levels, in Australia. This study involved test equating, classical test analysis for producing normative data for selection purposes as well as item response modelling to establish benchmarks within a criterion referenced framework.

Consultant/Research Fellow, Primary School Achievement Monitoring Project, VietNam

Duties: Analysis of student assessment data, within a monitoring and assessment framework; reporting on the outcomes of student achievement. Conducted the survey design and supervised the analysis for an aptitude testing program, which allowed the establishment of benchmarks, in mathematics and Vietnamese language, for student achievement and teacher competencies. Reviewed the effect of the introduction of new curriculum and technology (including text books) on the achievement levels of primary school students in Viet Nam.

Consultant / Lecturer, Bangladesh Secondary Education Sector Improvement Project, Australia

Duties: As part of this capacity building project, responsible for leading a delegation from Bangladesh to review assessment policy frameworks used in upper secondary education in Australia. Delivering courses in assessment within the academic program, assessment strategies, mechanisms and procedures to delegates from Bangladesh.

Advised the Bangladeshi testing and examination authorities to develop policy frameworks for examination and testing for secondary education.

Areas of Supervision

Competency standards for teachers
Instrument development and validation
Influences on student achievement