Kinley Rinchen

Kinley Rinchen is a PhD Candidate at the School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, Australia. He did his Master of Public Policy and Graduate Diploma in Public Administration from the Australian National University, ACT. He also attended a professional year specialising in higher education administration and leadership at Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, United States of America. He did his Postgraduate Certificate in Development Management from the Royal Institute of Management, Bhutan and a B.A. in Geography (Hons) from Delhi University through Sherubtse College. He is currently a recipient of a Higher Degree Research Scholarship offered by Edith Cowan University to pursue his PhD. He was also a recipient of the AusAID Scholarship to pursue his Master’s Degree and Graduate Diploma, the US State Department’s Hubert Humphrey fellowship, the US State Department’s International Visitors Leadership Programme fellowship, and the New Generation Seminar fellowship of the East-West Centre, Hawaii, USA.

Kinley served in the Royal University of Bhutan, Bhutan, for 18 years after being selected through the highly coveted civil service selection examinations in 2002 and was responsible for institutional transformation plans and policies. He also served as a transformation officer for two years on deputation at His Majesty’s Secretariat in Bhutan. He resigned as the Chief Planning Officer at the Royal University of Bhutan, Bhutan, in August 2022 to pursue his PhD.

Currently, in addition to his PhD research, Kinley also works at Edith Cowan University as a Lecturer (casual academic) at the School of Arts and Humanities, Research Officer (casual professional staff) at the School of Arts and Humanities in a research project and SOAR Advisor at the Centre for University Teaching and Learning. He also works as a Facilitator (casual appointment) at Illuminate Group, facilitating induction sessions on a Safe and Respectful Workplace for Rio Tinto. He has published five papers in various journals, numerous articles in other publications and presented papers at national and international conferences/seminars/symposia. His PhD research aims to inform policies and practices to enhance well-being in Bhutan based on the lessons drawn from the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. His research interests include well-being, happiness studies, educational technology and research methodology.