U.S. backs Vietnam engineering education
By Hien Nguyen - The Saigon Times Daily
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| Bui Van Ga, deputy minister of Education and Training (L), U.S. ambassador Michael W. Michalak (2nd, L), Rick Howarth (3rd, L), general director of Intel Products Vietnam, and Frank Donovan, mission director of USAID, at the MOU signing ceremony on Tuesday- Photo: Hien Nguyen |
HCMC – Vietnamese lecturers at major technology universities will have the opportunity to improve their teaching skills through a higher engineering education cooperation program between local and U.S. universities.
The program is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and private U.S. universities and organizations, including Arizona State University, Portland State University and Intel Corporation.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the program was signed in HCMC on Tuesday between Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training, the U.S. embassy, USAID and Intel.
The new Engineering Education Alliance Program is worth US$2.5 million, with US$1.5 million coming from Intel. In the three-year program, talent and excellent lecturers from five universities like HCMC’s Technical Education University, and the technology universities in Danang, Can Tho, Hanoi and HCMC will be able to study at private U.S. universities.
They will learn about faculty training programs, faculty mentoring, curriculum design and instruction lab development and implementation of new instructional pedagogy in Vietnam.
U.S. ambassador Michael W. Michalak said at the MOU signing ceremony on Tuesday that the partnership based on transparency, predictability and mutual understating would help Vietnam advance education quality. The program is the beginning of what will become long term collaboration between the two countries in the education sector.
The ambassador said he hoped Vietnam would promote public-private partnerships in education to accelerate education development in the long term.
Since 2000, USAID has worked with the Vietnamese Government in areas of economic growth, prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, and disadvantaged people’s access to education and social services. The organization has contributed a total of US$330 million to its activities in Vietnam.