'VinUni will create extraordinary values'

On the occasion of VinUni's 5th anniversary, Professor Rohit Verma shared with the press about VinUni's 5-year journey and future plans.

VinUni deserves to be the top choice

- Professor, Cornell is a world-class university. What convinced you and Cornell to cooperate with Vingroup when VinUni was still just an idea?

Cornell has traveled the world in an effort to teach, conduct research, and support the development of academic centers. But Cornell has never had a presence in Southeast Asia. So when Vingroup proposed to cooperate in opening a world-class university, we saw this as an opportunity.

The proposal from Vingroup was very strong, clearly affirming that Vietnam must have a world-class university. In addition, there were very important letters of recommendation from the Ministry of Education and Training , the Vietnamese Embassy in the US and commitments from Vingroup.

Professor Rohit Verma – President of VinUni University.

The combination of these factors made VinUni a valuable proposition for Cornell leaders. Vingroup’s proposal was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, because when collaborating with universities, scholars often collaborate on teaching or research, so opening an entirely new university was a rather unique proposition.

After working with Vingroup, I thought that participating in the project was a rather unique way to leave my mark. So I decided to step into the project.

- Implementing a unique proposal must have been very challenging. What were the advantages and disadvantages for you and VinUni in the past 5 years?

Professor Rohit Verma: The biggest advantage we have is the comprehensive investment from the founder Vingroup with a strong and inspiring vision and mission, along with generous funding to build infrastructure, promote operations and especially support scholarships and finances for students.

The second is strategic cooperation with two universities in the world's top 20, Pennsylvania and Cornell.

Third is the support from the Ministry of Education and Training, the academic community and the priority support of the Vietnamese government. As a result, we have world-class facilities, attract the best lecturers and recruit the best students.

Professor Rohit Verma (second from left) with Dr. Le Mai Lan (third from left) - Chairman of VinUni Board of Directors, and the school's faculty and staff.

Along with that comes the challenge. We have to convince them why VinUni deserves to be their top choice. Instead of studying abroad with its geographical distance and high cost, students will be able to study according to international standards in the country.

With exchange programs, students can go abroad in their 3rd or 4th year to experience and integrate into the world. For international students, we mention the quality of Vietnam's outstanding development and rich culture, encouraging them to come and study.

Another challenge is that VinUni has not had any graduates yet. We are just starting our research, and it is difficult to prove to the world what we can do. It will take time for VinUni students and faculty to create extraordinary values.

The final challenge is that VinUni students will start graduating next year. We have to make sure they will find the best jobs when they enter the labor market or find the best universities if they want to study further.

VinUni students will be among the best

- On VinUni's journey to becoming an international university, can you share about the achievements?

We measure our achievements from different perspectives. First, as an organization. In 2018, VinUni started with only about 10 people. Now, we have about 175 members including lecturers and staff from about 20 countries around the world. The school also owns world-class infrastructure, such as libraries, modern lab systems including the Medical Simulation Center, supercomputer labs, anatomy rooms, and the Smart Health Center.

Professor Rohit Verma with VinUni students.

The second achievement is recognition by international standards. In 2023, VinUni has 7 different categories ranked 5 stars by QS after just over 2 years of training.

But the biggest achievement comes from the students. VinUni students have won many international awards in programming and blockchain competitions. Since this year, some students have been accepted into the world's leading universities such as the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University or the University of Technology Sydney under the cooperation program.

They are also starting to make an impact on the community by founding clubs, developing special projects, taking on community service work, and supporting the less fortunate. We are proud of VinUni students.

- In your opinion, how long does VinUni have to go to achieve its goal of becoming a world-class university? Can you share about VinUni's plans and development plans for the next 5 years?

We have built a solid foundation of infrastructure, faculty, students and training programs. But there is still a lot of work to do to put VinUni in the list of the world's leading universities.

Professor Rohit Verma said there is still a lot of work to do to put VinUni in the list of the world's top universities.

In the next 5 to 10 years, we will continue to improve the reputation and quality of our training programs, add new majors, expand our scale... We must prove why VinUni is worthy of investment.

For students and parents, we have to convince them why we need a world-class university in Hanoi. For businesses, we have to demonstrate that VinUni students are among the best to hire. This needs to be demonstrated by actions and explanations of why VinUni is special.

In general, VinUni is a true “start-up” environment, you have to solve many problems at the same time. When you have a big dream, you have to fight for it. Moreover, our mission is to create young people who create change, so first of all, we professors also need to change and equip ourselves with such an entrepreneurial spirit.

Thank you, Professor!

Professor Rohit Verma receives the prestigious POMS Fellow achievement award. POMS (Production and Operations Management Society) - an academic community with more than 4,000 members who are professors, lecturers, researchers... from the world's leading prestigious universities, has just awarded the POMS Fellow title to Professor Rohit Verma for his important contributions in research, teaching and community activities.

In the 32-year history of POMS, only about 50 POMS Fellows have been awarded and Professor Rohit Verma is the only fellow selected in 2023.

The current award includes professors from renowned universities such as MIT, Harvard, INSEAD, Cornell, Georgia Tech, Michigan, University of Texas Austin, University of California Berkeley and London Business School.

Pham Pham (performed)

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Source: https://vtc.vn/vinuni-se-tao-ra-nhung-gia-tri-phi-thuong-ar798261.html