On May 20 and 21, 2022, at the International Center for Interdisciplinary Science and Education (ICISE), Quy Nhon, with the support of the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Science and Technology, The Delegation of the European Union to Vietnam, the French Embassy and the Italian Embassy in Vietnam, in collaboration with Rencontres du Vietnam and the EURAXESS ASEAN, organized an international symposium: 'Erasmus+ Capacity building in Higher Education – Yesterday and Tomorrow' with more than 200 participants from Vietnamese and European universities.
On behalf of VNU-HUS, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Vu Hoang Linh - Rector, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Truong Thanh Tu - Head of the Department for Cooperation and Development, Assoc. Vu Van Manh - Coordinator of Erasmus+ programme at VNU-HUS, were present. Assoc.Prof.Dr. Vu Hoang Linh chaired the first session on the morning of May 20, 2022 which focused on discussing project results and sharing experiences of Vietnamese universities who had previously participated in the period 2015-2020, .
ERASMUS+ programmes play a role in promoting international cooperation in higher education to a great extent and enhancing the capacity of participating universities. In the period 2015-2020, Vietnam was the country that benefited the most from ERASMUS+ as 74 out of 94 programmes had the participation of at least one Vietnamese educational institution. The international symposium: 'Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education – Yesterday and Tomorrow' was organized to create new synergies in cooperation, with previously participating universities sharing their practical experience to all Vietnamese universities that would join the ERASMUS+ program in 2021-2027.
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Truong Thanh Tu - Head of the Department for Cooperation and Development VNU-HUS delivered a presentation on ERASMUS+ programmes and projects that VNU-HUS participated in in the period 2015-2020.
From 2015 to 2020, VNU-HUS participated in 7 KA1 programmes exchanging staff and students with partner universities in Spain, Romania, France and Germany. A total of nearly 100 staff and students were sent to partner universities and the university also received more than 30 staff and students from partner universities in this period. Besides, VNU-HUS was also an active participant in 05 KA2 capacity building projects in collaboration with partner universities in Europe, Southeast Asia and Vietnam, namely:
- "Sustainability Alliance for Urban Networks in Asian Cities" (Saunac) (https://www.saunaclearning.vn/) (2016-2019)
- "European-Vietnamese Higher Education Network on Sustainable Forests and Bioeconomy" (BioEcoN) (http://bioecon.eu/) (2016-2021)
- “Plastic management and recycling” (SEA-Plastic) (2016-2021)
- "Development of innovative multilevel formation program for the new water leading professionals” (InowAsia) (https://inowasia.com/) (2020-2023)
- “VirtualForest” (https://virtualforests.eu/) (2021-2023)
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Vu Van Manh, Erasmus+ Program Coordinator at VNU-HUS, presented the initial results and experience in the implementation process of the "Virtual Forest" project, which started in 2021 and are still in progress.
The Covid-19 pandemic drastically forced the application of information technology in the education and training of various fields, among which forestry is a huge challenge. The Virtual Forest project is one of the few projects approved for implementation in the 2021-2023 period to address this challenge.