FTU President Phạm Thu Hương speaks at the conference held on December 8. — Photo courtesy of the FTU

HÀ NỘI — Educational experts have outlined new ways to strengthen collaboration and improve the quality of graduate training at an international forum in Hà Nội on Monday.

Held under the theme "Enhancing Collaboration for Inclusive and Sustainable Futures: From Business to Policy Perspectives," the International Conference for Graduate Education 2025 (ICGE 2025) was organised by the Foreign Trade University (FTU).

The ICGE serves as a key platform for improving graduate education, boosting research capacity and expanding academic and professional networks for emerging scholars.

The event brought together international speakers and guests and representatives from universities in Germany, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, China and Bahrain, along with international organisations based in Hà Nội.

Opening the conference, FTU President Phạm Thu Hương highlighted its role in elevating graduate education, deepening research experience, and expanding networks among scholars in Việt Nam and overseas.

She expressed confidence that ICGE would continue to provide meaningful opportunities for the exchange of ideas, academic cooperation and the advancement of knowledge.

The 2025 ICGE received nearly 70 submissions from scholars, experts, master’s students and doctoral candidates across Việt Nam and abroad. After review, 50 papers were shortlisted for presentation, spanning topics from business and economics to public policy and interdisciplinary studies.

The conference reaffirmed FTU’s position as a reputable centre for academic dialogue and research partnership, contributing to the continued enhancement of graduate-level training.

Professor Bradley R. Barnes, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, speaks at the conference. — Photo courtesy of the FTU

Speakers at the event delivered keynote presentations that underscored the central role of innovation, digital transformation and research capacity in promoting inclusive growth and sustainable development.

Professor Bradley R Barnes of Lingnan University in Hong Kong presented "Rags to Riches and Riches to Rags," blending personal reflections with theoretical perspectives on dynamical systems to illustrate pathways for developing resilient and sustainable business models. His keynote highlighted how dynamic theories help explain the interplay between individual motivation, organisational behaviour and institutional context, providing a sound scientific basis for designing business models aligned with inclusive and long-term development.

Professor Heli Wang of Singapore Management University shared her keynote on Firm Responses to China’s Digital and Environmental Pilot Policy. Drawing on extensive empirical evidence, she outlined how China’s dual-goal pilot policies have prompted varied responses from domestic and foreign firms. Her findings shed light on why policies that target both digitalisation and environmental sustainability often face trade-offs and may fall short of producing substantive outcomes.

The study highlighted the importance of firms’ innovation capacity and called for more transparent and consistent evaluation frameworks to improve policy effectiveness.

Dr Vũ Thị Phương Mai of the FTU Faculty of International Economics presented her study on how businesses undertake digital transformation to promote exports.

Using data from more than 8,000 Vietnamese enterprises, the research showed that exporting encourages greater adoption of advanced digital technologies, especially among processing firms, private firms, FDI enterprises and large companies.

It also identified administrative burdens linked to export procedures as a barrier to digital transformation, an insight with significant policy implications for export facilitation and digital economy development.

The ICGE 2025 further strengthened Foreign Trade University’s reputation as a leading institution in promoting graduate research excellence, improving academic quality and supporting learners on their path toward professional and scholarly achievement. — VNS