VinUni and ambition to create breakthroughs in higher education

Hanoi (VNA) - Quintessential education is the first foray that VinUni, a member of private business conglomerate Vingroup, said to make a breakthrough in the quality of higher education in Vietnam.

Vingroup Vice Chairwoman Le Mai Lan said at a Coffee Chat held in Hanoi on November 4 that the university aims to train talents so that the country will have excellent citizens such as Professors Ton That Tung, Ngo Bao Chau or Vu Ha Van. 

Developed as an elite university, VinUni expects to have breakthroughs in the quality of local higher education towards world-class standards. It aims to find, train and foster young talents with outstanding qualities.

With the goal, VinUni has been invested in building high-standard education and research facilities. It also signed strategic cooperation agreements with elite universities around the world, including two main partners of Cornell University and University of Pennsylvania which are included in the Ivy League University group and in the global top 20 universities.

The school also expands cooperation with elite universities in Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Europe, the US and Australia to have a good foundation for its enrolment, recruitment, programmes, methods as well as facilities and technology.

Earlier this year, the US’s Cornell University and real estate-retail-technology giant Vingroup agreed to dispatch Professor Rohit Verma to VinUni with the goal of building an excellent university in Vietnam.

Vingroup Vice Chairwoman Le Mai Lan and Professor Rohit Verma at the Coffee Chat held in Hanoi on November 4 (Photo: VietnamPlus)

Professor Rohit Verma will be the first principal of VinUni after the Prime Minister's decision on the establishment of the school. This is the next step in a strategic cooperation agreement between Vingroup and two of the Top 20 universities in the world, Cornell and Pennsylvania (the United States).

Professor Rohit Verma is currently the Director of External Relations of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, possessing many outstanding professional achievements. He has more than 75 scientific works published in prestigious international magazines on service quality management and production management; he is an inspiring speaker of many academic forums around the world; and co-author of university curricula as well as profound scientific studies published at Cornell.

One year after signing the strategic partnership with Vingroup, Cornell has shown its strong commitment by sending a senior leader who is the current head of the system overseas for the first time to lay the foundation for building an excellent university model.

Professor Rohit Verma's outstanding career represents a modern intellectual model: Thinking differently – Acting differently, which is especially suitable for the development philosophy and this is the most suitable choice for the position of the first principal of VinUni.

Verma's point of view on higher education can be summarised in three words: creativity, collaboration and start-up. First of all, the university must be a place to encourage the development of innovative ideas. The "teaching" professors are not teaching knowledge but teaching students how to learn, detect problems and find solutions to them in a new way, thereby contributing to the development of society.

Throughout his career, Professor Verma always promotes multi-dimensional collaboration. At VinUni, he wishes to remove the partition of specialised faculties, promote interdisciplinary activities and projects that link business and technology, between technology and health, even combining all three areas to create breakthrough values for society and the community.

Vingroup officially started construction of its VinUniversity (VinUni) in Gia Lam sistrict, Hanoi in November 2018.

Located inside the VinCity Ocean Park urban area, VinUni will be built on an area of 23 hectares. It will include the main building, student dormitories, a sports complex and technical and support areas.     

The university is designed by well-known architects from multinational groups like AECOM and HBA, and assessed by Vingroup’s strategic partners including Cornell University and University of Pennsylvania.

VinUni’s main building is a 10-storey construction with a tower reaching 108m in height. All of the lecture halls and study rooms are designed flexibly and equipped with the latest technologies to meet advanced teaching and training techniques such as team-based learning, project-based learning and action-based learning.  

VinUni campus (Photo: VietnamPlus)

 
The student dorms are nearly 10,600sq.m with a canteen, medical room, study area and a convenient store and relaxing area for students. The sports complex consists of a centre with an indoor swimming pool, a football ground, a gym and an outdoor sport area.       

"VinUni will be built following the highest international standards for a university,” said Le Mai Lan at the groundbreaking ceremony. “Students will be provided with the best chance to study with professors and teachers from leading universities, institutes and medical systems around the world."/.