The foundation stone for the Vietnamese-German University in Ho Chi Minh City was laid in 2008. It is the first university in Viet Nam with foreign involvement. There are currently 1580 students at the university, which focuses on engineering. We want to further expand this cooperation, so on 23 September 2020 Vietnamese Education Minister Phùng Xuân Nhạ, Federal Minister of Education and Research Anja Karliczek, State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office Antje Leendertse and the Minister for Higher Education and the Arts of Land Hesse, Angela Dorn, signed an intergovernmental agreement on the development and expansion of the Vietnamese-German University.

Bringing together teaching and research

The idea of developing a research university in Viet Nam based on the German model was first raised in 2005. A total of 700 students have already graduated. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry of Higher Education of Land Hesse support the university by seconding German lecturers. The Federal Foreign Office offers scholarships via the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). This enables students to gain foreign experience in Germany. The intergovernmental agreement now puts in place a reliable legal foundation for the organisation of the university and for the design of the curricula.

Strategic partnership with Viet Nam

The Vietnamese-German University is an important element of the strategic partnership which has existed between the two countries since 2011. Moreover, networking the research and education landscape with the countries of the Indo-Pacific region is a pillar of the Federal Government’s policy guidelines for the Indo-Pacific region adopted on 2 September. Germany has had an agreement on cultural cooperation with Viet Nam since 1991 and an agreement on scientific and technological cooperation since 2015.