About the Fulbright Vietnam Scholar Program

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. Government’s flagship international educational exchange program designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Fulbright provides program members—people of outstanding professional and leadership ability—with the opportunity to study, teach, conduct research, exchange ideas, and explore solutions to shared international concerns. Established in 1946 and funded by the U.S. Congress, the Fulbright Program aims to increase mutual understanding through educational and cultural exchange. This is a merit-based, competitive program. Selected scholars will receive a monthly stipend, health insurance for the duration of the program, and round-trip airfare to the United States. The Fulbright Program in Vietnam, in coordination with the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), places scholars at appropriate host institutions in the United States.

Over its 60-year history, the Fulbright Program has approximately 310,000 members, including 120,000 from the United States and 190,000 from other countries. The Fulbright Program awards approximately 8,000 scholarships each year. The Fulbright Program is currently present in more than 155 countries worldwide.

Fulbright Program representative in Vietnam shares with candidates how to apply for the program.

The U.S. Mission to Vietnam is pleased to announce the selection of qualified candidates for the 2017 Fulbright Vietnamese Visiting Scholar Program (VSP). The VSP provides grants for Vietnamese scholars to teach or conduct research at U.S. research institutes or universities for three to nine months.

Fulbright has been present in Vietnam for more than 10 years and has created opportunities for many Vietnamese scholars to come to the United States. The requirements for applicants are having a master's or doctoral degree (or equivalent in some specialized fields), being a Vietnamese citizen, and having English proficiency to conduct research or teach in the United States. In particular, English proficiency is assessed based on the results of the candidates' interviews with the Selection Committee.

The program representative emphasized that Fulbright does not structure the number of students in each province or school. The program is based only on the candidate's profile and ability. In the past 5 years, Fulbright has focused on social sciences. However, the number of applications received from this field is not much. It is worth noting that the program has never received any applications from candidates from the University of Science and Humanities. This year's program hopes to attract PhDs and Masters here.

Guests listen to the sharing of experiences in submitting applications to the Program.

Each candidate's application requires: Personal profile, scientific profile, research proposal and 3 letters of recommendation. Of which, the research proposal accounts for 2/3 of the total score. The candidate's research proposal is evaluated on 4 aspects: urgency, academic value, conciseness and feasibility of the topic. The remaining 1/3 of the score will be divided equally among the other parts of the application. The deadline for candidates to submit applications for VSP 2017 is 7:00 p.m. on October 15, 2016. The selection process will take place over a year. Successful candidates will depart for the US around August-September 2017.

VSP encourages women, minorities, and candidates from all provinces to apply. VSP aims to select outstanding scholars based on their academic and professional qualifications, without regard to ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or relationship.