“I am surprised by the rapid development of VinUni”

From rice fields to elite universities

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

According to Professor Max, when he arrived in Vietnam to discuss cooperation, VinUni's office at that time was just a rice field. Today, witnessing what is happening here, with the generous support from Vingroup, with a dedicated leadership team and especially the first talented students that this school has attracted, he believes that VinUni possesses the important elements to create a great university.

“We were amazed by the strength and energy this place brings. VinUni’s great ambition has conquered many of us,” said Professor Max.

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

Professor Max Pfeffer (far right) during his visit to VinUni in April 2023 to celebrate the 5-year strategic cooperation between Cornell and VinUni

Answering the reporter's question: "Why does a university 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 the world is also a great opportunity for Cornell.

In Cornell’s history, it is rare for this “giant” to have the opportunity to participate in the creation of a completely new university. Therefore, a school with a long history like Cornell will be willing to provide professional experience to VinUni on the one hand. On the other hand, this is also an opportunity for Cornell to write its own success story, expanding its influence by developing a completely new excellent university in Vietnam.

The appearance of VinUni - an international-class school in Vietnam

“In the initial phase, we worked together to recruit senior leaders for VinUni including: Principal, Dean and key personnel to together create the foundations of a university.

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

In the implementation phase, we welcomed the first batch of students to VinUni, and we began to develop the curriculum. Accordingly, professors from both VinUni and Cornell University participated in building teaching content with world-class quality.

Currently, we are focusing on building programs to develop student experiences, creating conditions for students to study abroad, and expanding more diverse learning experiences," said Professor Max.

Professor Max Pfeffer shares about Cornell – VinUni's journey over the past 5 years

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

After 5 years, Professor Rohit Verma and the faculty and staff of VinUni have achieved many successes, including firmly making VinUni the youngest university in Asia - Pacific to achieve the comprehensive 4-star QS Star standard with 7 criteria reaching the 5-star level. The school has recruited excellent professors, lecturers, and nearly 800 talented students from 20 countries around the world.

In 2022, VinUni will become the youngest university in Asia-Pacific to achieve a comprehensive 4-star QS Star standard with 7 criteria reaching 5-star level.

A generation of global students, with ambition, intelligence, and courage

After 3 years of operation, the school has established a network connecting potential students, young people with aspirations, intelligence, courage, and proactively changing for the better in life.

First of all, VinUni’s programs are designed based on social issues, and encourage students to solve those challenges. Professor Max said that over the past two years, a group of Cornell students and VinUni students have implemented a Community Engagement Project to improve the quality of mental health for children who have suffered trauma and violence in Vietnam. Accordingly, Cornell University students, VinUni and non-governmental organizations in Vietnam together proposed policy changes for this group.

During the early days of Covid-19, in 2020, Cornell University students studied exchange semester at VinUni. 2 years later, Cornell University also welcomed the first VinUni students to participate in exchange study at the Institute of International Business and Engineering & Computer Science.

According to Professor Max's explanation: "Normally, American students tend to study on exchange at European schools, so coming to VinUni, coming to Vietnam will help them have a more diverse and different experience. We are also expanding many different opportunities for VinUni students. They can come to study abroad for exchange, short-term study and collaborative research projects at Cornell."

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

VinUni's Entrepreneurship Center (E-Lab) is a place to nurture outstanding talents, with a desire to start a business and innovate.

Journey to an “Ivy League” University

At the end of 2022, VinUni University achieved the 4-star QS Stars standard certification from the world education ranking organization QS - Quacquarelli Symonds (UK), of which 7 criteria achieved 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 President of Vingroup, Chairman of VinUni Board of Directors said that Vingroup has provided VinUni with a non-refundable grant of VND 6,500 billion. Of which, VND 3,000 billion is for research, training and scholarship activities for talented students, young people with aspirations of intelligence and courage, so that they can realize their dreams of mastering their lives, changing themselves and serving society.

Dr. Le Mai Lan (middle) beams with talented students of VinUni

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

In the second five-year period, VinUni has two major plans. First, to continue to improve the reputation and quality of its training programs, while adding new majors, expanding the scale and achieving international accreditation standards in the program. This is a key plan, requiring enormous effort and high determination.

Next, 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 organizations and businesses to create products and solutions that are highly innovative and applicable.

PV

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/giao-su-dai-hoc-cornell-toi-bat-ngo-vi-su-phat-trien-nhanh-chong-cua-vinuni-post248662.html