Training and scientific research are two main fields for sustainable development, implementing the mission of developing high quality human resources to promote industrialization and modernization of the country; and continue to fundamentally and comprehensively innovate higher education.

Through practice and experience of the University of Danang (UD), it has showed that internationalization of higher education including promoting international cooperation and integration is an effective and appropriate breakthrough solution to contribute to improving the quality of training and scientific research so as to create "leverage" for higher education to develop firmly in the context of shortcomings and challenges in investment sources from the Government budget.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Vu - President of UD co-chaired the discussion

"Breakthrough policies to develop and improve the quality of higher education" jointly organized by the Central Propaganda Department and Hanoi University of Science and Technology

According to Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Vu - President of UD, useful experiences of UD can be concluded from the development journey of nearly 30 years as well as promoting and inheriting nearly 50 years of tradition of UD’s member universities in activities of international cooperation, which are:

(1) Taking competitive advantages and promoting opportunities in international cooperation to train and develop team potential. More than 15 years ago, the 3^rd UD Party Congress had a strategy, issued a Resolution and persistently implemented the policy that lecturers must receive post-university training abroad. Thanks to that, up to now, UD's ratio of lecturers with a PhD degree or higher has reached nearly 50% (The University of Danang-University of Science and Technology (UD-DUT) has reached nearly 70%) and in the difficult conditions of the central region, this is an huge effort, compared to the national average of 34%.

General Director of the Francophone University Agency (AUF) visited and worked with UD

Most of UD's staff and lecturers are well-trained in countries with advanced education and science in the world, so they have strong professional expertise, are proficient in foreign languages and have the good ability to integrate internationally. This is a very important premise for UD to continue to develop extensive partnerships with many prestigious educational and scientific organizations such as AUF, ASEA-UNINET, AUN, CONFRASIE, SEAMEO, ULYSSEUS, etc. Along with that are hundreds of partners who are universities, research institutes and businesses around the world.

(2) Taking advantage of opportunities and attracting investment resources to strengthen facilities and improving university administration capacity. In the past 10 years, through proactive and dynamic activities in international cooperation, especially active participation and demonstration as a core role in large international cooperation networks and projects such as: ERAMUS+, HARMONY, MONTUS, PURSEA, MESfIA, EMVITET, DIGI-CHE-AISA, etc., thereby attracting and mobilizing more investment resources with projects such as: Information and Learning Resource Center, English Institute, 04 dormitories, multi-purpose house, stadium, gymnasium, etc.

President of UD (on the left) and President of Côte D'Azur University

signed an MOU whereby UD became a partner of the ULYSSEUS University Alliance

In particular, the highlight is that UD and 02 National Universities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city, were sponsored 14.2 million USD by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the Project on Partnership for Higher Education Reform (PHER) (period 2022-2026) to strengthen capacity on 04 main fields, such as: Administration, Research, Training and Connection, meeting the needs of human resources to promote industrialization and modernization of the country and international integration.

The University of Danang - Vietnam-Korea University of Information and Communication Technology (UD-VKU) received 7.7 million USD from the International Cooperation Agency KOICA of the Korean Government in a 5-year ODA project (period 2022-2026) to improve management capacity, teaching and research, promoting digital transformation with the goal of building a digital university for the 4^th Industrial Revolution along with many other important projects and sub-projects.

Project on Partnership for Higher Education Reform (PHER) provides opportunities for UD

to strengthen its management capacity and team potential

(3) Hosting and coordinating with partners to successfully organize many prestigious international events and conferences, gathering hundreds of international scientists and experts to attend, contributing to be a "destination" of Da Nang city in its journey to become the center of international events and festivals. This is also a place to connect, share knowledge, experience in developing higher education, and to cooperate, sign and deploy hundreds of MOUs/MOAs, focusing on exchanging officials, lecturers and students, attracting many studying abroad students and interns from many countries and territories come to study and conduct scientific research, exchange academically and culturally.

Strengthening university-business cooperation through visits

and exploring cooperation opportunities with international partners

To achieve the above results, in addition to the efforts and dynamism of the University, Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW was supported and institutionalized into many guidelines and policies by the Ministry of Education and Training as well as other ministries and branches, which gave more autonomy to universities, including international cooperation work.

The active contribution of UD in international cooperation and people's foreign affairs activities is always connected with partners to promote Da Nang city as "worth living" and "worth visiting" so it is recognized by departments, agencies and branches of Da Nang city, which creates favorable conditions and support in visa issuance procedures, organizes international scientific conferences, and has more opportunities to welcome and connect and cooperate with many localities, agencies and international organizations and business - that are partners of Da Nang city, come to visit and work.

11 training programs of the University of Danang - University of Science and Technology (UD-DUT) has been accredited according to ASIIN International Standards

New opportunities opened up with great aspirations when the policy of developing UD into a National University was included in Resolution No. 26-NQ/TW of the Politburo on "Socio-economic development and ensuring defence security in the North Central and the Central Coast to 2030, vision to 2045".

In order to meet the requirements of human development, focusing on high quality human resources, one of the three "strategic breakthroughs" according to the Resolution of the 13^th Party Congress, UD has developed and implemented the Development Strategy until 2030, vision to 2045 with the goal: Building UD to become a National University, one of three training, scientific research and innovation centers in the country, towards the region and the world; continues to be a reliable address, plays a core role in training high quality human resources to promote industrialization and modernization of the country of the Central Highlands region and the whole country.

Lecturers from The University of Danang - University of Economics (UD-DUE) attend "International Week" at Babes-Bolyai University, Romania

To successfully implement this goal and strategy, UD continues to determine a strategy to promote international cooperation, actively and proactively integrate internationally,focusing on the following directions:

Enhancing exchange of experts, lecturers and students; Improving the level of internationalization of training programs, joint international training programs in transition form, and co-degree programs; Encouraging the accredited training programs that meet international standards in training actitvities, selecting, exchanging and using teaching materials of prestigious foreign universities as main textbooks or main reference materials; Developing training programs taught in English to attract and increase the rate of international students coming to study at UD, encouraging forms of "on-site studying abroad"; programs;

International students at the Faculty of International Studies,

The University of Danang - University of Foreign Language Studies (UD-UFLS)

Focusing on quality accreditation of educational institutions and training programs according to appropriate goals and roadmaps; Strengthening foreign language skills for staff, lecturers and especially students in the context of integration with the international labor market, becoming "global citizens".

Strengthening  connection and joint research cooperation to maximize the competitive advantages and promote potential in the process of internationalization of higher education; Being proactive in attracting and mobilizing additional investment, sponsorship and support resources from international partners to develop team potential.

These are breakthrough orientations and solutions to improve the effectiveness of international cooperation, contributing to enhancing the international position and reputation of UD as well as UD’s member universities and affiliated training units in the system of the country's university education, Assoc.Prof.Dr Nguyen Ngoc Vu emphasized.

UD - Center for Learning Resources and Communication