On the occasion of VinUni's 5th anniversary, Professor Rohit Verma shared with the press about VinUni's 5-year journey and future plans.

Professor Rohit Verma - President of VinUni.

VinUni deserves to be the top choice

- Professor, Cornell is a world-class university. What convinced you and Cornell to cooperate with Vingroup when VinUni was still just an idea?

Professor Rohit Verma : Cornell has been to many places in the world with the effort of teaching, researching and supporting the development of academic centers. But Cornell has never been present in Southeast Asia. Therefore, when Vingroup proposed to cooperate in opening a world-class university, we saw this as an opportunity. The proposal from Vingroup was very strong, clearly affirming that Vietnam must have a world-class university. In addition, there were very important letters of introduction from the Ministry of Education and Training, the Vietnamese Embassy in the US and commitments from Vingroup.

The combination of these factors made VinUni a valuable proposition for Cornell leaders. Vingroup’s proposal was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, because when collaborating with universities, scholars often collaborate on teaching or research, and opening a completely new university was a rather unique proposition. After working with Vingroup, I thought that participating in the project was a rather unique way to leave a mark. So I decided to step into the project.

Professor Rohit Verma (second from left) beamed at the opening ceremony of the 2022-2023 school year of VinUni.

- Implementing a unique proposal must have been very challenging. What were the advantages and disadvantages for you and VinUni in the past 5 years?

Professor Rohit Verma : The biggest advantage we have is the comprehensive investment from the founder Vingroup with a strong and inspiring vision and mission, along with generous funding to build infrastructure, promote operations and especially support scholarships and financial support for students. The second is the strategic cooperation with two universities in the top 20 in the world, Pennsylvania and Cornell. The third is the support from the Ministry of Education and Training, the academic community and the priority support of the Vietnamese government. As a result, we have world-class facilities, invite the best lecturers and recruit the best students.

Along with that comes the challenge. We have to convince them why VinUni deserves to be their top choice. Instead of studying abroad with geographical distance and high costs, students will study according to international standards in the country. With exchange programs, students can go abroad in year 3 or 4 to experience and integrate into the world. For international students, we mention the quality of Vietnam's outstanding development and rich culture, encouraging them to come and study.

Another challenge is that VinUni has not had any graduates yet. We are just starting our research, and it is difficult to prove to the world what we can do. It will take time for VinUni students and faculty to create extraordinary values.

The final challenge is that VinUni students will start graduating next year. We have to make sure they will find the best jobs when they enter the labor market or find the best universities if they want to study further.

Professor Rohit Verma with his students at VinUni.

VinUni students will be among the best

- On VinUni's journey to becoming an international university, can you share about the achievements?

Professor Rohit Verma : We measure our achievements from different perspectives. First, as an organization. In 2018, VinUni started with only about 10 people. Now, we have about 175 members including lecturers and staff from about 20 countries around the world. The school also owns world-class infrastructure, such as libraries, modern lab systems including the Medical Simulation Center, supercomputer labs, anatomy rooms or the Smart Health Center.

The second achievement is recognition by international standards. In 2023, VinUni has 7 different categories ranked 5 stars by QS after just over 2 years of training.

But the greatest achievement comes from the students. VinUni students have won many international awards in programming and blockchain competitions. Since this year, some students have been accepted into the world's top universities, such as the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, and the University of Technology Sydney, under cooperative programs. They have also begun to make an impact on the community by founding clubs, developing special projects, taking on community service jobs, and supporting the less fortunate. We are proud of VinUni students.

Professor Rohit Verma said there is still a lot of work to do to put VinUni in the list of the world's top universities.

- In your opinion, how long does VinUni have to go to achieve its goal of becoming a world-class university? Can you share about VinUni's plans and development plans for the next 5 years?

Professor Rohit Verma : We have created a solid foundation for infrastructure, faculty, students and training programs. But there is still a lot of work to do to put VinUni in the list of the world's leading universities.

In the next 5 to 10 years, we will continue to improve the reputation and quality of our training programs, add new majors, expand our scale, etc. We must demonstrate why VinUni is worth investing in. To students and parents, we must convince them why we need a world-class university in Hanoi. To businesses, we must demonstrate that VinUni students are among the best to hire. This needs to be demonstrated by actions and explain why VinUni is special.

In general, VinUni is a true “start-up” environment, you have to solve many problems at the same time. When you have a big dream, you have to fight for it. Moreover, our mission is to create young people who create change, so first of all, we professors also need to change and equip ourselves with such an entrepreneurial spirit.

Thank you, Professor!

NGOC QUYNH - PHAM PHAM (performed)