Memorandum on Academic Cooperation Signed Between NTUS and VNUHCM

To facilitate academic collaboration and exchange with Vietnam, President Ching-Ray Chang (張慶瑞) of National Taiwan University System (NTUS) and representatives of NTUS members visited the headquarters of Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNUHCM) on July 7, 2017. During the visit, President Chang discussed future collaboration and signed a memorandum on academic cooperation with VNUHCM President Huynh Thanh Dat. Director General Liang Kuang-Chung (梁光中) of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Ho Chi Minh City attended the signing ceremony as well.

In the memorandum, NTUS and VNUHCM agreed to facilitate multiple collaborations and exchange student/teacher programs, as well as undertake joint research projects and establish scholarships. This memorandum is a major advance in higher education and academic cooperation between Taiwan and Vietnam, marking the beginning of Taiwan’s higher education collaboration with institutes in the Southeast Asian region.

Both NTUS and VNUHCM are university systems comprised of multiple affiliated universities and colleges. VNUHCM was founded in 1995 on the merging of nine prestigious universities in Ho Chi Minh City, having a campus of about 645 hectares. NTUS, formerly NTU Triangle Alliance, is composed of three geographically related institutes of higher education in Taipei City. The two university systems have similar scales of enrollments. However, VNUHCM is governed directly by Vietnam’s prime minister, its budgets being drawn up by the prime minister as well. In addition, the president of VNUHCM and the minister of education hold the same level of position in Vietnamese Government.