During her official visit to Vietnam in late August 2021, US Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized the US commitment to Vietnam's future and the long-term prospects of the Vietnam-US partnership.

She also announced a new project called the Higher Education Innovation Cooperation that would be implemented over five years, funded by USAID with a budget of 14.2 million USD to improve teaching, research, innovation and institutional administration at the three largest universities in Vietnam.

Ann Marie Yastishock, Director of the USAID in Vietnam, said that USAID's goal in supporting Vietnam's higher education is to help modernize the higher education system to train a highly skilled workforce to meet the needs of a rapidly modernizing economy and increasingly competitive global market.

USAID's higher education support programs focus on three areas of priority in Vietnam: science and engineering, medicine, and liberal education.

The USAID focuses on these three areas to support technology-driven economic development, enhance health resilience and security, and promote important educational practices that include learning based on self-discovery, research, and critical analysis.

The three Vietnamese universities to receive support from this project are Vietnam National University - Hanoi, Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City and the University of Da Nang.

According to Ann Marie Yastishock, the Higher Education Innovation Cooperation Project will support these universities to become world-class higher education institutions.

The project will implement activities to achieve three mutual goals, namely enhancing sustainability and self-reliance; improving the quality of academic training; and strengthening research and innovation capacity at these three universities.

The project's strategy focuses on four main programs: Excellence in Facility Administration, Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Excellence in Research and University-Enterprise Linkages.

Integrated in these four programs are reform and advocacy activities on higher education, digital transformation and technology application, gender empowerment, the factors that are considered to be key to ensuring the long-term success and sustainability in project outcomes.

Phuong Chi

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