A UNIVERSITY student who killed her boyfriend with a lethal dose of heroin is writing a PhD thesis on women who commit crimes.

Law graduate Anu Singh, 38, was convicted of manslaughter over the death of her boyfriend, Joe Cinque, in 1997.

After a dinner party at their Canberra flat, she sedated him with Rohypnol, injected him with heroin and watched as he vomited blood and died in their bed. She served four years for Mr Cinque's manslaughter.

Her research project at the University of Sydney, Offending Women - Toward A Greater Understanding Of Female Criminality, is listed on the university's website under current research projects.

Ms Singh's project is being supervised by two leading legal minds, Professor Julie Stubbs from the University of NSW and Associate Professor Gail Mason from the University of Sydney.

Neither Ms Stubbs nor Ms Mason would comment on the content of Ms Singh's project.

It is believed Ms Singh will examine her own involvement in the death of Mr Cinque in the 100,000-word thesis.

Ms Singh has previously told the media that drugging Mr Cinque then injecting him with heroin was "like doing a university assignment".

But Mr Cinque's parents, Italian immigrants Nino and Maria Cinque, said Ms Singh's research project was a desperate attempt to grab media attention.

"This is another way to put herself in the paper," Mrs Cinque said. "It's another way to make herself noticed.

"She says she wants to help people, but that is rubbish.

"She should get a job and start repaying society for all the money they spent on her."

Mrs Cinque said she would never forgive Ms Singh.

"It's been 13 years but, for me, it feels like it (her son's death) happened yesterday," she said. "Now it's Christmas and I have no son and no grandchildren.

"By this time, he would have got married to a nice girl and had a family.

"She took everything away for no reason."

Days before Mr Cinque died, Ms Singh told friends she was going to kill him and she held two send-off dinner parties.

He died on the morning after the second dinner party. She pleaded not guilty to murder.

The Sunday Telegraph repeatedly tried to contact Ms Singh to discuss her research, but she did not return calls.

Ms Singh now lives in Sydney with her parents.