“I am surprised by the rapid development of VinUni”

From rice fields to elite university

Sharing with the press recently, Professor Max Pfeffer, Institute of Life Sciences, Cornell University (in the group of 20 top universities in the world) said that in the history of Cornell's development, they have cooperated with many universities around the world, but the cooperation to create a new university is completely different and unprecedented.

According to GS Max, when he arrived in Vietnam to discuss cooperation, the office of VinUni University at that time was just a rice field. Today, seeing what is happening here, with the generous support of Vingroup, a dedicated leadership team and especially the first talented students that this school has attracted, he believes VinUni possesses the key elements to make a great university.

“We were amazed at the strength and energy this place has to offer. VinUni's great aspiration has conquered many of us." GS Max said.

Professor Max said that developing a world-class university takes time, tens, even hundreds of years. But he believes VinUni will continue to grow and change over time to achieve success in a much shorter period of time.

Answering a reporter's question: "Why would a school with a history of more than 150 years like Cornell choose to cooperate with a young university like VinUni"? Professor Max said that creating an elite university in Vietnam and in the world is also a great opportunity for Cornell.

In the history of Cornell's development, it is rare for this "big man" to have the opportunity to participate in creating a completely new university. Therefore, a school with a long history like Cornell will be willing to provide professional experience for VinUni on the one hand. On the other hand, this is also an opportunity for Cornell to write its own success story, multiplying its influence by developing a brand new excellent university in Vietnam.

“In the initial stage, we worked together in recruiting senior leaders for VinUni including: Rector, President and key human resources to create the foundations of a university.

In the next phase, together with VinUni, we will recruit lecturers from around the world and Vietnam.

At the implementation stage, we welcome the first batch of students to VinUni, we begin to develop the curriculum. Accordingly, professors from both VinUni and Cornell University are involved in developing teaching content with world-class quality.

Currently, we are focusing on building programs to develop student experience, create conditions for students to study abroad, and expand their learning experiences even more,” said Professor Max.

Cornell University has seconded Professor Rohit Verma - Director of the Institute of International Relations of Cornell SC Johnson Business School, to be the Founding Principal of VinUni. This is an important step in the strategic cooperation agreement between Vingroup and two top 20 universities in the world, Cornell and Pennsylvania (USA).

After 5 years, Professor Rohit Verma and VinUni's faculty and staff have achieved many achievements, in which, VinUni has steadily become the youngest university in Asia - Pacific to achieve the comprehensive 4-star QS Star standard with 7 5-star criteria. The school has recruited a team of excellent professors and lecturers, and nearly 800 talented students from 20 countries around the world.

A global generation of students with aspirations, intelligence, and bravery

After 3 years of operation, the school has established a network to connect potential students, young people, who have aspirations, intelligence, bravery, and actively change for the better in life.

First of all, VinUni's programs are designed around the problems of society, and encourage students to tackle those challenges. Professor Max said that over the past two years, a group of Cornell students and VinUni students have implemented a Community Connection Project to improve the quality of mental health for children who have suffered trauma and violence in Vietnam. Accordingly, Cornell University students together with VinUni and NGOs in Vietnam jointly proposed policy changes for this target group.

During the early period of Covid-19, in 2020, Cornell University students studied for an exchange period at VinUni. Two years later, Cornell University also welcomed the first VinUni students to participate in an exchange study at the Institute of International Business and Engineering & Computer Science.

As explained by GS Max: “Usually American students tend to study at European universities, so coming to VinUni and coming to Vietnam will help them have a more diverse and different experience. We are also expanding various opportunities for VinUni students. They can go to study abroad for exchange, short term study and collaborative research projects at Cornell."

Like Cornell, at VinUni, scientific research always starts with the challenges and unanswered questions of life. Cornell's groundbreaking "Studio", "Maker Space" models have appeared at VinUni with the launch of the E-Lab Startup Center, incubating the startup and innovation projects of students in the school.  

Journey to an "Ivy League" university  

At the end of 2022, VinUni University achieved the 4-star QS Stars standard certification of the QS world education ranking organization - Quacquarelli Symonds (UK), in which there are 7 criteria to achieve the maximum score of 5 stars. This achievement has made VinUni the youngest university in Asia - Pacific to achieve 7 5-star criteria after only 2 years of operation.

Dr. Le Mai Lan - Vice Chairman of Vingroup, Chairman of the VinUni School Council, said that Vingroup has donated VND 6.500 billion to VinUni. Of which, 3.000 billion is spent on research, training and scholarship activities for talented students, young people with intellectual and brave aspirations, so that they can realize their dreams of mastering life, changing themselves and serving society.

In the future, VinUni will continue to cooperate strongly with Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania, while enhancing teaching and research, and expanding partnerships with prestigious universities at home and abroad.

In the second 5-year period, VinUni has two big plans. First, continue to improve the prestige and quality of training programs, at the same time add new industries, expand the scale and meet international accreditation standards in the program. This is a central plan, requiring enormous effort and great determination. 

Next, in order 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 institutions and businesses to create innovative and highly applicable products and solutions.

PV