More than an exchange: India's unforgettable Vanuatu experience

"I've come away with more confidence in myself. I can climb a volcano, talk to people, do research, and work with others and survive."

Published on the 27 August 2026

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UNSW student India Troughton with Vanuatu locals and her colleagues on the Vanuatu New Colombo Plan trip in 2025

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Finding out about the New Colombo Plan and taking the leap

Going on exchange is a classic uni student thing to do since unis became a thing (citation needed), and UNSW is inundated with student exchange opportunities to nearly every nook and cranny around the globe.

But one of the surprisingly lesser-known exchange programs is the New Colombo Plan (NCP) Scholarship, an Australian Government initiative designed to deepen Australia's connection with the Indo-Pacific through student exchange, language training and internships across approved Indo-Pacific locations.

For Criminology and Criminal Justice Honours student India Troughton, the NCP Scholarship was a fortuitous opportunity that she decided to grab with both hands.

"It sounds weird to say as a Criminology student, but I'm quite interested in environmental crime and environmental justice." laughs India. "I was doing an Environmental Humanities course, and at the end they sent an email out saying there was an opportunity to do fieldwork in Vanuatu. Just send in a CV and answer a few questions. I thought, 'why not give it a go?' So I sent it through and got in. That was attached to the New Colombo Plan."

On paper, going to Vanuatu for research work seemed completely unrelated to what India was studying. But in reality, the NCP Scholarship was a great way to help her build up her arsenal of soft skills ("things like critical analysis, your ability to work with others and those general research skills that cross over").

"I'm quite interested in going into the research space. So to me, [the NCP Scholarship] was structured more as, 'Oh, there's an opportunity here to build research skills and work with these professors in this field.' That was the [bigger] drawing card."

Of course, there was also some course credit for her degree and an opportunity to get a month of overseas travel under her belt without paying anything out of her own pocket, as flights and accommodation were covered through UNSW funding or the NCP Scholarship.

To India's surprise, not only was the application process very simple, but there weren't hordes of students lining up for it.

"It was pretty easy, honestly! I think the university itself had done a lot of the groundwork, so applying to the program itself was just a couple of questions to fill out, plus a CV," she recalls. "A couple of weeks later, I got an email saying I was in and that was it. No interview, nothing else.

"Given the course [where] I heard about the NCP had two hundred-plus people in it, it's a bit of a shame more people didn't apply [laughs]."

India (third from the left) with Vanuatu locals and UNSW students from her team.

Arriving in Vanuatu and working on the Fixim Sola project

Vanuatu is the main hub for the Fixim Sola project, a UNSW international partnership that fosters greater solar literacy by helping reduce e-waste and improve energy access.

As India explains: "[The Fixim Sola project] is about energy access, particularly on the 'last nautical mile' islands - they're far away and it's hard to get energy access out there, where they've traditionally relied on things like diesel generators. So the idea of renewables, especially solar panels, is to give them autonomy and a self-sustaining energy source. But the issue is that initiatives will fund solar panels for people, but if the panels break down, there's suddenly this problem of waste and no ability to repair them. The Fixim Sola project I was part of is trying to address that."

There's been a lot of foundational work done in Vanuatu already, with training and workshops over the last few years to upskill the local communities in renewable energy more broadly. For India and her UNSW NCP cohort, their month-long trip was aimed at building upon the work from previous trips.

"Our [NCP trip] was a follow-up, but centred more on, 'now that you have these skills, how do we actually put them into practice and implement change?'" she explains. "There was also a practical element that asks, 'this is what the community needs, these are the community's strengths and this is our community's schedule'. It was our role as students to go around, have group discussions with people and try to figure out a plan together."

"So somewhere like Australia, where a solar panel might last 20 years, out in [Vanuatu] it might last a year.

"All of a sudden you've got all this waste and you still don't have energy security."

Needless to say, there was a lot to squeeze in in just a month, but India remembers the experience quite vividly.

"The first couple of days we were in the capital, Port Vila, which was mostly about getting our bearings and recovering from jet lag. Then we had an 18-hour overnight ferry over to Tanna Island.

"We spent two weeks there, where the communities were doing their discussions. We also had a visit to the embassy. Then after the two weeks, we flew back and worked in Port Vila for a couple more days before we left."

India says the work involved extensive communication with the local community about the issues they faced with their solar panels, and there was close collaboration with people from the Vanuatu Institute of Technology.

"Early on, it was more about sitting in on the workshops with the technicians, mostly observing and taking notes, then we split into different groups," she recalls. "Tanna has different council areas, so each group was assigned to a different one. My group was me, three other students and someone from the Vanuatu Institute of Technology, and we were talking to people in the west part of Tanna Island about the issues they faced [regarding the solar panels]."

Working with her cohort of fellow UNSW students also proved to be a great experience. With Engineering, Law, Environmental Humanities, Sustainable Development and Politics students on the team, India had the opportunity to work with people from other disciplines and strengths she might not otherwise have come across.

"That was one of the highlights, meeting UNSW students with different strengths, weaknesses and blind spots to my own," she says. "It was really nice to get outside my little degree bubble and see what other people were learning and how that differed from my own perspective."

UNSW students in Vanuatu as part of the New Colombo Plan.

Overcoming challenges and cultural differences

As someone who self-proclaimed to have "not travelled a huge amount," the NCP trip to Vanuatu was a huge eye-opener for India in terms of learning how to work with people from different cultures and understanding where her own strengths lie.

"It was a really interesting learning experience and it affects your conversations. There were, for example, cultural differences around long-term versus short-term thinking within the planning process, and smaller cultural elements in how we each see the world," she says. "I found that really interesting. I imagine what "long term" means for Australians is quite different to how they'd approach it."

There were some challenges that she had to face during her month-long trip. One big issue was managing expectations of what the project is what she can do as a UNSW student.

"When you're over there talking about solar repair, some people don't even have solar panels or energy access in the first place," recalls India. "So it was hard when people would ask, 'Are you here to help us get solar panels?' and I'd have to say, ' No, I'm a student, that's not what we're doing here.'

"You really have to be clear about what you're specifically there to discuss and that's hard when someone is giving you their time and knowledge, and you can't reciprocate in the way they might be expecting. So it was about sitting people down, setting expectations and being upfront. This is specifically what we're discussing, we can't give you funding, but the hope is that through this research, or other initiatives, things will grow."

"That was one of the highlights, meeting UNSW students with different strengths, weaknesses and blind spots to my own.

"It was really nice to get outside my little degree bubble and see what other people were learning and how that differed from my own perspective."

It goes without saying that this trip pushed India out of her comfort zone, but she absolutely revelled in it: "I've come away with more confidence in myself. I can climb a volcano, talk to people, do research, and work with others and survive."

No culture shock though? "I don't think we were there long enough for it to really set in. Three and a half weeks sounds long, but when you're doing things constantly every day, it goes fast," laughs India.

UNSW students in Vanuatu as part of the New Colombo Plan.

Looking back on the NCP experience and towards the future

While the Vanuatu trip was only a month, it left a very positive impression on India and gave her clarity on what she enjoyed most and what she wants to do next.

"I really enjoyed that multidisciplinary group and want to go further into the environmental humanities side, combining it with my criminology research," she reflects. "I also found it really interesting when we were talking to communities, there was a lot of discussion about how that could help their own communities or future generations. That felt like a real contrast to how uni is often framed in Australia, which is more about building your own career and advancing yourself."

For those students who are thinking of doing a program abroad or who may be on the fence about applying to a program like the NCP Scholarship, India highly encourages them to apply because it's a fantastic opportunity to grow and learn.

"Compared to a lot of STEM subjects like engineering, which tend to have more fieldwork opportunities, it can feel more limited in the humanities, so I'd really encourage people to take the opportunity," she says.

As for practical advice for those who are about to or are planning to go abroad as part of the NCP Scholarship, India has two pieces of practical advice: Learn how to cook simple recipes or ways to put together easy meals, and be prepared emotionally.

"[There's] the stress of the research itself, but also those moments that can be a bit overwhelming when people are sharing their experiences with you," she reflects. "Having the ability to turn to others in your group for support, taking advantage of the fact that you're surrounded by academics and other students and leaning on them, that's really important for looking after your own emotional health."

So what's next for India now that she's had such an amazing NCP experience over in Vanuatu?

"My honours project is on environmental surveillance, bringing together the criminology idea of the social processes and dynamics behind surveillance with the environmental humanities idea of sustainability, and looking at how the two connect," she says. "So in that sense, the trip really was a 'oh my gosh, yes, I like this' moment and I wanted to keep studying a similar path.

"It's also changed how I approach research. I really took on that idea from the trip that it's not just about a community's needs, but also their strengths, the opportunities they offer and working with their schedule. So I try to bring that into my own research. It's never just about problematising something, it's also about seeing what strengths are there and what solutions actually make sense."

""There isn't always as much funding or interest directed [to the Humanities], so if it's open, take it, especially if you're interested in building research skills or just seeing what it's like.

"Who better to learn from than students across different disciplines and the academics in those disciplines?"

All interview quotes have been edited for length and clarity.

Last edited on 18 August 2026