On the morning of July 28^th, the University of Danang (UD) and Indiana University, USA (IU) held a plenary session under the framework of the Partnership for Higher Education Reform Project (PHER project).

The meeting at UD

Attending the plenary meeting, there were Prof. Dr. Hannah Buxbaum – IU’s Vice President for International Affairs; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Vu – UD’s President; Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Anh - O'Neill School cum PHER Project Manager; Prof. Dr. Teshome Yizengaw Alemneh – IU’s Vice President (in charge of International Research and Development) cum Co-Chair of the PHER Project; Dr. Phan Minh Duc - Chairman of the UD's Council; Vice Presidents of UD: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Thanh Bac and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Quang Son.

IU’s experts and

partners of Project PHER at the meeting

The meeting’s attendees were also Mr. Arjan Koeslag - PHER Project’s Director, experts from IU and partners of PHER Project; Chief/ Vice-Chief of Office of Administrative affairs, Director/ Vice Director of functional departments; representatives of Rectorate board, Chairmans of the School’s Council of UD’s member universities, leaders of the affiliated units and Heads/ Vice Heads of Offices of Science and International Cooperation of UD’s member-universities.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vu Ngoc Nguyen – UD’s President delivered the opening remark

Speaking at the opening ceremony, President Nguyen Ngoc Vu warmly welcomed the delegation of IU and PHER Project with the presence of many leaders, scholars, experts and international higher education administrators to visit and work at UD.

Prof. Dr. Hannah Buxbaum – IU’s Vice President shared her idea

Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Anh – PHER project manager shared his idea

President Nguyen Ngoc Vu gave a souvenir present to IU’s Vice President Hannah Buxbaum

“The vision of PHER Project is quite consistent with the core values that the UD is pursuing including "Innovation - National Responsibility - Sustainable Development". As a member of the project, UD hopes to receive the active support, advice and experience from the U.S prestigious experts with the aim of helping Vietnamese universities to innovate the educational governance, improve training quality and scientific research to reach the international standards. The similarities in the IU’s model of teaching and learning excellence, and research excellence are best practices for UD to learn and  apply to the practical situation of Vietnam higher education reform and development” shared President Nguyen Ngoc Vu.

PHER’s experts shared experiences to UD’s participants 

President Nguyen Ngoc Vu expressed his desire and belief that with the support of the PHER Project, UD would achieve the output indicators of the Technical Infrastructure Construction Project and urgent works (in Hoa Quy - Dien Ngoc). At the same time, with the process of implementation of the project, the cooperation relationship would be developed more than ever before.

PHER’s experts at discussion sessions 

On this occasion, President Nguyen Ngoc Vu gave special thanks to USAID for sponsoring the Project as well as PHER’s experts for their dedication, companionship and support UD in particular, and Vietnamese higher education in general. UD committed to continue accompanying the Project, appointing staff to coordinate with IU and partners to implement activities according to the objectives and progress of the Project.

UD’s participants shared their ideas

After the introduction of PHER Project by IU’s Vice President Hannah Buxbaum (in charge of international cooperation), delegates participated in discussion sessions with topical and significant topics such as: “The role of the public university in the 21^stcentury: Finance and Autonomy in University”; “Digital Transformation in higher education”; “Shared-Governance: Implication for Universities in Vietnam”.

Group photo taking

In the afternoon of the same day, the delegates attended group sessions with the topic: "Climate and environmental science" (at UD- University of Science and Education), “Business, economics and public policy” (at UD-University of Economics), “Anthropology and cultural studies” (at UD- University of Foreign Language Studies), “Health Science” (at UD- School of Medicine and Pharmacy), “Education”, “Computer Science” (at UD’s Headquarter); as well as the pillar coordination meetings with the topics: "Governance", "Teaching and learning", "Research and Innovation", "University-industry linkage" (at UD’s headquarter).