Thong Trinh

Thong Minh Trinh is a Berkeley Fellow and PhD student in Education at the University of California, Berkeley. His research sits at the intersection of higher education policy and finance, with particular emphasis on financial aid and student loan programs. Using quantitative methods and quasi-experimental designs, he examines how institutional finances and student-facing policies shape college access, choice, and student outcomes in the United States and internationally.

Thong's recent scholarship spans higher education finance and student decision-making in the United States, Vietnam, and South Korea. His peer-reviewed work appears in journals including Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, the British Educational Research Journal, and Asian Education and Development Studies, covering topics such as students' transitions to higher education and institutional financial sustainability. He also contributes to public and policy conversations on affordability and student finance through op-eds, including pieces on income-share agreements and the trade-offs between tuition levels, quality, and access.

Thong holds an EdM in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, where he was an Edwin J. O'Leary Fellow and received the Illinois International Graduate Achievement Award. He also earned an MSc in Business Analysis and Consulting from the University of Strathclyde (Scotland, United Kingdom), where he received the Strathclyde Business School Dean's Excellence Scholarship, and a BSc in International Business from the Banking Academy of Vietnam, graduating with distinction. In 2019, he was named valedictorian of his undergraduate program in Hai Phong City and received the Banking Academy Chancellor's Commendation.

At UC Berkeley, Thong has served as a Graduate Student Instructor across the Departments of Statistics and Political Science, teaching applied quantitative analysis and advanced programming in R, and previously facilitated courses on global perspectives at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research experience includes evaluating an NSF-funded graduate training initiative at the Berkeley School of Public Health, contributing to research on student debt and admissions policy at the Berkeley School of Education, and supporting higher education policy analysis through a legislative fellowship with the Office of Illinois State Senator Chapin Rose.

Thong is active in the scholarly community as an editorial board member for the Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, the Journal of Student Financial Aid, and the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice. He regularly reviews for journals and major conferences, including the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP), and the Comparative & International Education Society (CIES). His work has been recognized with awards and fellowships, including the Berkeley Fellowship, ICPSR Education Research Scholarship, and multiple Illinois and AERA honors.

For more information, please visit https://thongminhtrinh.com