VietNamNet Bridge - Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam has signed a decision to establish the Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV). It is a 100% foreign-invested nonprofit university based in the HCM City Hi-tech Park.


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Thomas Vallely, director of the Vietnam Program at Harvard University and his colleagues received the investment certificate. Photo: VNA


In July 2015, during his visit to the US, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong witnessed the ceremony of granting investment certificate for the Fulbright University Vietnam in New York.

"I appreciate your opinion that development of FUV is for people, for the cause of education and training. If this project is implemented well, it will contribute to strengthening relations between Vietnam and the US," he said.

Thomas Vallely, chairman of TUIV Fund, director of Vietnam Program at Harvard University said FUV will operate according to the essential of governance principles of elite education, which are transparency and accountability, autonomy, meritocracy, mutual respect and suggestive teaching.

According to the plan, in the first five years, the university will focus on building three integrated training facilities: the Fulbright School of Management and Public Policy (postgraduate education in the fields of public policy, law, finance and management, dialogue research and policy); Fulbright School of Engineering and Applied Science (bachelor and postgraduate training programs in the fields of engineering, applied sciences, mathematics and computer science); and Fulbright University (bachelor training programs in the fields of social sciences and humanities).

In a joint statement on the Vietnam-US vision on July 1st 2015, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Barack Obama noted the efforts to promote educational cooperation between the two countries through the FUV initiative.

In June 2014, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung agreed in principle the FUV project. In December 2014, the US Congress approved a law allowing the US government to finance about $20 million for the FUV project in the first phase.

The FUV is a non-profit foreign invested educational institution under the State management of the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam professionally and the Ho Chi Minh City municipal People’s Committee territorially.

The university is built on the capital and human resources of the US’ Fulbright University with a US$70 million investment, including US$5.3 million for the first phase in 2016, US$20 million for the second phase (2017-2020) and US$44.7 million for the third phase (2020-2030).

The Trust for University Innovation in Vietnam (TUIV), a non-profitable organisation, has registered to establish the FUV, thus it will not be governed by shareholders or by other private education institutions in Vietnam.

The TUIV has mobilised capital for the project from funds by the US Government, philanthropy, organisations and individuals in both the US and Vietnam.

The FUV is managed by an independent Board of Trustees, which will hire a rector to operate the university. In principle, the FUV is of the society and the community and all added values will be reinvested in the university.

It will recruit talented Vietnamese scholars and scientists through establishing a professional working environment and an encouraging policy which is similar to other leading international universities.

The FUV plans to enroll students by the end of this year in public policy; management, scientific, technical, engineering and mathematics majors; medicine; social sciences and humanities; and interdisciplinary sciences.

Linh Nhat