Fulbright University Vietnam to be opened in 2016

By Tuan Minh 13:35, 2016/05/26

On May 25, the US Secretary of State John Kerry officially attended the ceremony to announce the establishment of the Fulbright University Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City.

The ceremony to announce the establishment of Fulbright University Vietnam

Fulbright University Vietnam will be the country’s first independent and non-profit higher education institution. The launch came at the end of a three-day visit to Vietnam by US President Barack Obama and a delegation of senior officials.

The municipal party chief Dinh La Thang praised the special event as a contribution to bilateral ties and pledged best possible conditions to nurture the school’s development. The school is allowed to begin its enrollment at the end of this year, providing programs in public policy and administration besides science and technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine.

Formed under the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 819/QD-TTg dated May 16, 2016, the university is scheduled to open at the end of 2016 with first courses offered by the department of public policy and management. The university plans to open a department of social sciences and humanities in 2018.

Addressing the event, Dinh La Thang, Secretary of the municipal Party Committee, described the formation of the university as an important event and a step forward in the relationship between Vietnam and the US.

As the nation’s leading centre in various spheres, including education and training, HCM City desires to become a financial, scientific and technological centre in Asia-pacific, the official stressed. He added that the US’s experience has proven that the quality of human resources is decisive to prosperity and is the key for his city to meet its targets.

The city has pinned high hope on the success of the FUV, not only in terms of education but also in strengthening the connectivity and mutual understanding between the two countries’ youths, thus contributing to boosting ties between their peoples, he said. Thang pledged to create the best possible conditions for the operation of the university in order to contribute to development in their respective countries.

US Secretary of State John Kerry thanked the municipal leaders for their support for the university, saying that the school is a smart investment for the two countries’ future generations. He voiced his hope that the university will make remarkable contributions to Vietnam and become an education centre for the future.

The US government has pledged to provide more than US$20 million for the project, while Ho Chi Minh City allocated 25 hectares of land in the Saigon High-tech Park in District 9 for the university's campus.

The university is the next step of the existing Fulbright Economics Teaching Programme, a public policy master’s programme that the Ash Centre at the Kenney School of Government under the US’s Harvard University, established in 1994 in cooperation with the HCM City-based University of Economics.

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