HÀ NỘI — Property developer Vingroup today signed a strategic cooperation agreement with two of the top 20 leading universities in the world, US-based Cornell and Pennsylvania (Penn).

The agreement, signed 28 days after the group announced its intention to join the higher education field by establishing VinUni University (VinUni), is part of efforts to create a breakthrough in higher education quality in Việt Nam.

“The agreement aims to realise our commitment to building VinUni as a non-profit private Vietnamese university built on par with international standards, integrating with the elite model of higher education in the world,” said Vingroup Vice Chairman and CEO Nguyễn Việt Quang at the signing ceremony.

“We wanted to create a breakthrough in the quality of higher education in Việt Nam, contributing to the country’s socio-economic development in coming years,” said Quang.

Under the framework of the agreement, VinUni and Cornell will comprehensively work together in developing strategy and brand and building an overall university management system. Cornell will help VinUni in various activities such as infrastructure assessment, human resource recruitment and designing education programmes. The university will also support VinUni with research cooperation and the evaluation of its first graduates from business and technology education classes.    

As a leading clinical hospital system in the United States, Penn will support VinUni in recruitment and developing the professional abilities of lectures and students in the field of health sciences. Penn will work directly with VinUni and Vinmec Medical System to develop training programmes for physicians and clinical residents and will develop a bachelor of science in nursing programme following local and international requirements and standards.  It will also collaborate with Vinmec in developing and training clinical lecturers, improving the quality of and expanding health specialty services and building a practical facility model for VinUni’s health faculty.

A perspective of VinUni University. — Photo courtesy of Vingroup

Prof. Larry Jameson, Penn Executive Vice President cum Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine, said this cooperation opportunity was an important contribution to the development of higher education, especially for medical training, in Việt Nam.    

As a leading medical and nursing training facility, Penn will work closely with Vinmec and VinUni in developing a higher education system, supporting disease research cooperation and scientific research exchange, according to Jameson.

The VinUni University is based in Hà Nội. The construction of the campus is expected to begin this year. The first batch of students will be enrolled in 2020.

VinUni University will focus on the education and training in three key areas including business, technology and health sciences. VinUni is also geared to meet the world-class standards and rankings of higher education watchdogs, such as Quacquarelli Symonds and Times Higher Education. — VNS