HCM City (VNA) – The Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM) targets to become one of the leading higher education institutions in Asia.

The university's Chancellor, Associate Professor Vu Hai Quan, said that this is among its key targets this year. He said that in 2022, the university made many outstanding achievements which affirmed its position domestically and internationally. According to Quan, VNU-HCM has been leading the country in the number of training programmes meeting international accreditation standards, with 126 programmes. The university maintained its position in the top 801-1000 of the world's universities and reached the 167th position among the list of best universities in Asia by the UK educational organisation Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The university is also the only Vietnamese institution to appear in the 301-350 band among the top 786 higher education institutions around the world selected by QS Graduate Employability Rankings - an annual ranking of universities around the world, celebrating institutions which are committed to and effective in preparing students for the workplace. “Our university's petroleum engineering major was ranked not only first in the country but also in the 51-100 group by the 2022 QS World University Rankings by Subject,” he said. In training and scientific research, between 2020 and 2022, VNU-HCM had 5,919 articles published in international scientific journals on the list of Scopus databases with a sharp yearly increase of over 40% on average. In 2022 alone, the university’s total number of international articles published in journals and conferences in the Scopus database reached 2,345 articles, making it the unit with the highest number of international publications in Vietnam. In particular, in the field of basic research, VNU-HCM scientists cooperated with domestic and international units to publish research works in the world's leading scientific journals such as Science and Nature. The university got more than 200 million VND from science and technology transfer activities yearly.

With effective practical contributions to local socio-economic development, VNU-HCM 🍎was entrusted by the Prime Minister to chair the project "Developing the VNU-HCM to be among the leading higher education institutions in Asia". The project is part of the Government's action programme to implement the Politburo's Resolution 24-NQ/TW on socio-economic development, ensuring national defence and security in the southeast region to 2030, with a vision to 2045.

The university's director, Associate Professor and Dr Vu Hai Quan said that in 2023, VNU-HCM will finalise the project proposal and submit it to the Prime Minister. That is an important direction to help the VNU-HCM continue to fulfil its missions in implementing national strategic tasks for regional development. Earlier, the Prime Minister also approved the policy of establishing the University of Health Sciences as a member university of the VNU-HCM. In addition, the University Council of VNU-HCM approved the policy of establishing an enterprise directly under the university and a project on renewing the operation mechanism of its high school for gifted students.  Quan said that in 2023, VNU-HCM is focusing on five groups of issues to implement the strategic plan in the period 2021-2025. Specifically, in terms of governance, the university will develop and submit to the Prime Minister the project "Developing Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City into one of leading higher education institutions in Asia”. At the same time, it continues to reform the management structure, step by step perfect the university autonomy model, focusing on accountability to stakeholders and improving the effectiveness of university councils. In training, the university will implement digital transformation to improve training quality. Specifically, it develops a shared digital learning system for teaching and learning, as well as offers online courses. It will continue to implement dual degree and integrated BS-MS programmes, and increase the scale of graduate training. In addition, it will increase practical and extra-curricular activities for students as well as training courses to meet demands of localities and businesses.

Regarding science and technology issues, the university will build and operate a system of registration and management of research projects topics and data on science and technology. It also aims to increase the number of international publicationꦜs in the Scopus portfolio while paying attention to international cooperation in publication. The university will effectively implement international projects, national key research programmes and projects, and cooperation programmes that it has signed with Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong province and other localities.

Regarding financial issues, it will continue to diversify financial resources. "The university will complete financial regulations, regulations on management and use of public assets, and establish an enterprise under its management,” Quan said. In addition, the university will effectively implement the Vietnam National University Development Project – VNU- HCM Sub-Project sponsored by the World Bank. At the same time, it will start work on a number of new projects in its campus to serve students and adjust its planning./.