A group of prestigious Russian universities have visited Vietnam to seek cooperation opportunities amidst a rising trend of studying overseas amongst young Vietnamese people.

As part of their five-day trip during April 4-8, the guests, including Tomsk State University, Vologda State University (VoGU), Far Eastern Federal University, National Technical Research University (IRNITU), and L.N. Tolstoi Tula State Pedagogical University, worked with Hanoi University, Transport University, and Hanoi Architectural University on future cooperation programmes. 

They also held meetings with students of Amsterdam high school for gifted students, Tran Phu, Nguyen Trai, and Hoang Van Thu high schools to introduce their training programmes for the 2016-2017 academic year.

The guests also had discussions with the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training about mutual support and cooperation between Russian and Vietnamese universities.

The visit was part of the fifth phase of the “Russian universities” education project launched in March 2013, which aims to improve bilateral cooperation in scientific research initiatives and education, as well as affect technological renewal.

The project, implemented by the Russian Cooperation Agency in collaboration with the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training, focuses on establishing and developing direct links between the two countries’ universities and attracting young Vietnamese citizens to study in Russia.

This year, the Russian government plans to grant 855 scholarships to Vietnam, significantly more than the 795 scholarships offered in 2015, promising that this number will reach 1,000 by 2018.

According to figures released by the Education and Training Working Group at the 2015 Vietnam Business Forum (VBF), some 110,000 Vietnamese students studied overseas, each paying $30,000-40,000 annually for tuition, meaning $3 billion a year, shunning a local system so backwards that experts say it is impeding economic growth. Australia, the US, Japan, Singapore, France, the UK, and Russia are the most favoured destinations.