Which school in Vietnam once had 6 French doctors as principals?

This is Hanoi Medical University.

From 1902 - 1904 : Swiss-French doctor and bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin was the first principal. He co-discovered the bacillus that causes the plague. He and his colleagues then prepared an anti-plague serum.

Dr. Yersin studied medicine in Switzerland, Germany and France. In October 1890, Yersin came to Vietnam, then worked at the Pasteur Institutes in Saigon and Nha Trang. In 1902, he was invited by Governor-General of Indochina Paul Doumer to Hanoi to establish the Indochina Medical School (the predecessor of Hanoi Medical University) and appointed him as principal.

Yersin developed the program and curriculum based on the model of the French Medical University and directly taught students. He worked there for about two years, then returned to Nha Trang to continue his scientific research.

Indochina Medical School (the predecessor of Hanoi Medical University). (Photo courtesy)

From 1904 - 1921 : After Yersin, Dr. Cognaq became the principal. During his 17 years as principal, Dr. Cognaq consolidated the organization and facilities to change from training assistant physicians to training Indochinese physicians, opening the Primary Medicine system (training nurses) and the Intermediate Pharmacy system (second-class pharmacists).

From 1922 - 1929: The third principal was Dr. Degocre. He made an important contribution to officially upgrading the school to the college level. Students entering the school had to have a baccalaureate degree, after studying 4 years of medicine, they went to France for 2 years to defend their doctoral thesis.

From 1929 - 1934: During his 5 years as principal, Mr. Leroy des Barres - the fourth principal - recruited many Indochinese doctors into the teaching staff and had the merit of bringing Dr. Ho Dac Di (later the first Vietnamese principal of Hanoi Medical University) from a local hospital (in Quy Nhon) to the school.

From 1935 - 1944: Master of Medicine, professor of Paris Galliard Medical University was the principal, with the right to establish a thesis evaluation council chaired by him. On that basis, the school was officially upgraded to a university and was the only place in Vietnam to train doctors.

From 1944 - 1945: Before becoming the 6th principal, professor of the French Military Medical University Huard had taught at the school since 1932. He was head of the Anatomy Department and director of the Anatomy Institute, and had contributed to training many Vietnamese surgeons.

After the August Revolution, the Indochina University of Medicine and Pharmacy was renamed the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, later Hanoi Medical University. Professor Ho Dac Di was appointed as the principal. He held this position for 31 years, from 1945 to 1976.

Libra