“The second time I returned to Vietnam, the scenery of VinUni overwhelmed me. 5 years ago, this place was just a rice field, it was unimaginable that a young university like VinUni could have such a miraculous growth rate. Now, both the architecture, scale and quality of education of VinUni all have the breath and style of a top university in the world,” commented Professor Max Pfeffer, Institute of Life Sciences , Cornell University and Director of VinUni - Cornell Cooperation.
According to traditional rules, it takes a long time to develop a world- class university, Cornell University took more than 150 years to find its direction and build the brand it has today. That is what surprised him when witnessing the speed of VinUni's development.
VinUni possesses the key elements to create a great university: talented students, excellent lecturers, a network of leading scientists, strong investment from Vingroup and the right direction.
Recalling the “first brick” that laid the foundation for cooperation between Cornell University and VinUni, this professor shared that in December 2016, Dr. Mai Lan, Vice President of Vingroup, led a delegation to Cornell University with the desire to create a completely new, unique university in Vietnam and reach the world.
Cornell University’s leadership was impressed by the delegation’s professionalism, thorough preparation, friendliness and politeness. However, some members of the school were skeptical about the proposal at the time, because VinUni had not yet been established, and it was just an idea on paper.
In the history of Cornell University, it is rare for the school to participate in the creation of a completely new educational institution. Cornell has long been in many places around the world with the effort to both teach and research and support the development of academic centers. But Cornell has never had a real presence in Southeast Asia, mostly working in India and China. Thanks to Vingroup's persuasion and passion to change the country, Cornell University's leadership members agreed to support and cooperate in development.
This historic partnership between a world-class university and a brand-new university begins here. Cornell University’s mission is to provide programs, resources, and advice to help VinUni become an outstanding university. At the same time, Cornell also sees this as an opportunity to write the story of developing a brand-new university in Vietnam and the world.
In the initial phase, Cornell worked with VinUni experts to recruit senior leadership positions: presidents, deans and key human resources officers, together creating the foundation of a university.
The next phase is to recruit outstanding faculty from around the world and Vietnam. Even Cornell professors are involved in building teaching content with world-class quality.
As the first batch of students entered the school, we became busier, focusing on developing experiential programs, facilitating exchange studies abroad, and expanding the diversity of learning experiences.
After 5 years, Cornell University and VinUni have completed the development of an international standard curriculum. Important to Cornell is VinUni's aspiration to develop cooperative relationships with universities around the world, especially those in the US. The development of a truly world-class university requires international connections with many schools around the world, which VinUni is rapidly developing.
“We chose the US and the Ivy League schools because of the high internationality and diversity in this country. Ivy League universities focus on practical training, solving real-life problems, and diversifying startup ideas in technology and commerce. These things are very consistent with Vingroup's thinking when conceiving and building VinUni,” Dr. Le Mai Lan, Vice President of Vingroup, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of VinUni University, shared about the first steps in the process of reaching the world.
In the winter of 2016, Dr. Mai Lan and three senior education experts, including a representative from the Ministry of Education and Training and the principal of a prestigious Vietnamese university, traveled to the US to seek cooperation opportunities with Ivy League schools. The only things they brought with them to seek cooperation were a letter of introduction from the US Embassy, an A4 sheet of paper, and a USB video introducing information about Vingroup.
“The snow was thick and white in New York City, making it difficult for the four of us to walk. We went and scheduled meetings with leaders of each Ivy League university to present about Vietnam and Vingroup with the determination to find cooperation opportunities,” she recalled.
Most Ivy schools are surprised by the speed of Vietnam’s development, but many have never visited Vietnam. They only know Vietnam as an S-shaped country with a haunting war past. Until now, they have not had deep educational cooperation with Vietnam, but have known more about China, India, and South Korea. That is the biggest obstacle to the proposal to cooperate in building a completely new university. The initial results were just head shakes because the schools did not want to take the risk.
For the delegation, everything was as foggy as the white snow in New York, until they met with leaders from Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania.
“Cornell University is located deep in the jungle, completely isolated from the bustling world outside. From New York airport, the group had to travel nearly 6 hours by car. The first feeling when arriving at Cornell was overwhelming, classic but no less vibrant - a real student city” , Dr. Lan recalled.
Unlike previous schools, Cornell University's leadership asked the question: "What can we do to cooperate with VinUni?" This initial question was truly inspiring, triggering in-depth discussions on professional academics between the Vingroup and Cornell delegations at that time.
The day the snow stopped falling in Ithaca, New York, was also the day Cornell University agreed to a strategic partnership, accompanying VinUni in program development, faculty support, research and training.
From another perspective, Professor Rohit Verma - one of the key members in building the framework for the Cornell and VinUni cooperation program said: "When Vingroup proposed the cooperation project, I was the Director of the Institute of International Relations, Cornell University of Business. I have been to many other regions in Asia such as India, China, Korea, Japan, but never to Vietnam."
At first, he and his VinUni colleagues had to work day and night due to the time zone differences and the huge workload. “My health was a bit worse at that time,” the professor confided.
After nearly two years of construction, the Indian-American professor was overwhelmed at the exact moment at 11am on November 11, 2019, when VinUni launched its official website and began its first enrollment period. Thanks to the strong and timely support from Vingroup, we have built a world-class facility, invited the best lecturers and recruited the most potential students. “ This is also the moment when I decided to come to Vietnam to take on the position of founding principal of VinUni,” he recalled.
If in 2018, VinUni started with only about 10 people, now the school has about 175 members including lecturers and staff from all over the world. Vingroup and VinUni have the right to be proud when they build a world-class university with typical facilities such as: medical simulation lab, library, supercomputer lab, anatomy room or smart medical center...
The second achievement is recognition by international standards. QS is a university ranking organization from the United Kingdom with the highest rating of 5 stars. In 2023, VinUni has 7 different categories ranked 5 stars, including: Teaching, Internationalization of education, Academic development, Facilities, Culture - Arts, Social responsibility, Equality - Inclusion.
Along with that, VinUni students have won many international awards in programming, blockchain, business debate competitions... Many new third-year students have been accepted to study for a master's degree at the world's leading universities, such as: University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University or University of Technology Sydney.
Another achievement of students is their start-up activities and community service activities to create positive impacts on society. Scientific research by VinUni lecturers has been published in prestigious journals, won prestigious awards and is gradually creating real-life impacts.
VinUni President – Professor Rohit Verma understands that there is still a lot of work to do to realize the aspiration of becoming a world-class university, especially in the next 20 to 25 years.
VinUni needs time to prove its ability to train future young leaders. “I think the founders of VinUni are on the right track because from the beginning, the school had a long-term vision and was steadfast in that vision,” he said, adding that the goal is to put VinUni in the list of the top 50 young universities in the world.
Dr. Le Mai Lan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of VinUni University, said that in the coming period, VinUni will not only continue to cooperate strongly with Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania, but also continue to strengthen teaching and research, and expand partnerships with prestigious universities at home and abroad.
In the second five-year period, VinUni has two major plans. First, to continue to improve the reputation and quality of training programs, while adding new majors, expanding the scale and achieving international accreditation standards in the program. This is a key plan, requiring enormous effort and high determination.
Next, to affirm VinUni’s specific contributions and values to the social community, both in Vietnam and around the world, VinUni will strengthen research and application development activities, especially in the fields of Smart Health, Smart Environment and Innovation. Accordingly, the school will establish cooperative relationships with research organizations and businesses to create products and solutions that are highly innovative and applicable.
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