Vietnam, UK look to beef up education cooperation

Vietnamese students at Nottingham Trent University in the UK (Photo: ntu.ac.uk) 

Hanoi (VNA) – A webinar on higher education and postgraduate cooperation between Vietnam and the UK was held on May 27 by the Vietnamese Embassy in the UK and the Vietnam-UK Friendship Network (VUFN).

Addressing the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to the UK Nguyen Hoang Long affirmed that education is one of the top priorities in cooperation between the two countries, stressing that the UK is an important partner of Vietnam in the field.

This is reflected not only in the number of Vietnamese students studying in the UK but also in the number of cooperation projects between universities and colleges of the two countries, Long said.

The UK currently has more than 40 direct investment projects in education in Vietnam, he noted, adding that the potential for educational cooperation between the two countries is great and needs to be transformed into specific programmes and activities.

Vivienne Stern, Director of Universities UK International (UUKi) which represents and promotes British universities abroad, said that cooperation in education and training between Vietnam and the UK has yet to match with their potential.

The two countries have many opportunities to develop a long-term, sustainable and high-quality partnership in education, especially as Vietnam is among the five priority countries in the UK's international education strategy, she stressed.

Stern also pointed out opportunities for universities and companies in Vietnam to collaborate and exchange students with educational institutions in the UK through the Turing project, a student exchange programme in which the UK government will sponsor 35,000 British students to study abroad.

The latest statistics show that there are 244 British student studying at universities or interning in businesses in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, about 12,000 Vietnamese students are studying in the UK, of whom nearly 3,500 Vietnamese students have come to the UK to study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the past year alone.

According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training, the UK ranks first in the number of international training cooperation programmes in Vietnam with 74 trans-national education programmes of 23 British universities./.