Prof. Dr. Kenji Furukawa, Vice Director of the Japanese Kumamoto University , has been distinguished as “Honourary Professor” of the Hue University .

Deputy Rector of the Thua Thien-Hue province-based university Le Manh Thanh hailed the Japanese professor’s devotion to human resource development and scientific research in the Hue College of Sciences and the Hue University as a whole at a press briefing on January 25.

As a member of the executive board of the Vietnam-Japan programme on pilot universities of sciences and environmental technology running from 1999-2008 Kenji Furukawa has helped the College of Sciences under the Hue University become one of five Vietnamese universities to effectively implement the project.

He played a key role in the signing of cooperation accords between the Hue College of Sciences and two Japanese counterparts -- the Department of Technology and the Post-Graduate University of Science and Technology under the Kumamoto University in December, 2008.

As a result, a number of students from the Hue University of Sciences have received scholarships for short-term courses in the Kumamoto University . The Japanese professor himself took part in lecturing at the Hue College of Sciences. He personally presented the Department of Environment with a large quantity of lab equipment worth almost 100 million VND (roughly 5,100 USD) in service of post-graduate training and scientific research.

On December 5, 2010, the Kumamoto University officially signed an agreement of cooperation with the Hue University for 2010-15./.