Ceremony to announce the appointment decision of the Director of VNU

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam presented the decision to appoint the new Director of VNU to Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Kim Son.

On the side of domestic and international partners and guests, there were: Mr. Ted Osius - US Ambassador; Ms. Jehanne ROCCAS - Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium; Mr. Manopchai Vongphakdi - Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand; Mr. Thongsavanh Phomvihane - Ambassador of the Lao PDR; Mr. Hoang Chi Bang - Chief Representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office; Ms. Nantana Gajaseni - Executive Director of the Southeast Asian University Network, along with Deputy Ambassadors, Counselors, First Secretaries of Embassies of the following countries: the Federal Republic of Russia, the Federal Republic of Germany, the European Union Delegation, the Embassies of Canada, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Royal Family of Norway, Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines, Azerbaijan, leaders of corporations, businesses, academies, institutes, universities, etc.

On the side of VNU, there were comrades in the Board of Directors, former leaders of VNU through the periods, representatives of leaders of functional departments, leaders of member universities, affiliated faculties, centers, research institutes, Association of Former Teachers, and organizations of VNU.

Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam praised the important contributions to the training and development of high-quality human resources of VNU in recent times.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam delivered a congratulatory speech to the new Director of VNU Nguyen Kim Son.

The Deputy Prime Minister congratulated the previous Director Phung Xuan Nha who had just been assigned by the Party and State to be the head of the education and training sector. He also congratulated and officially assigned the task to the new Director of VNU Nguyen Kim Son, together with the collective of leaders, staff, teachers and scientists of VNU to strengthen solidarity and unity, promote the good traditions and achievements of the past time, join hands to successfully achieve the set goals, and develop VNU in accordance with the trust and expectations of the Party, Government and people.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that in order for Vietnam to escape the middle-income trap, it is necessary to strengthen the country's scientific and technological potential. To do that, the country's innovation model must be innovated. "We must strengthen the research capacity of universities. There are many indicators to evaluate, but one of them is publications in international journals such as ISI and Scopus," the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, VNU-Hanoi is proud to be at the forefront of international publications, but "VNU-Hanoi has been at the forefront and must continue to be at the forefront faster and stronger" - the Deputy Prime Minister directed.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, VNU has taken the right steps in assessing the quality of teaching and learning at schools, introducing new testing methods to contribute to fundamental educational innovation to train human resources for the country's development. "How can those things not only be limited to VNU but also spread like a nucleus throughout the entire system?" - the Deputy Prime Minister directed.

The Deputy Prime Minister affirmed that VNU-Hanoi has a lot of experience in autonomous governance mechanisms, but this autonomous mechanism must be maximized for schools, institutes, and affiliated units. The Deputy Prime Minister also said, "We must both integrate and compete. Therefore, we are happy that VNU-Hanoi has risen in international rankings, but we cannot be satisfied with the top 20 of ASEAN. And to change this requires each of us to make efforts," said the Deputy Prime Minister.

Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Education and Training, Former President of VNU Phung Xuan Nha shared that, with its special position, after more than 20 years of construction and development, VNU's reputation and brand have been gradually built and developed. Overcoming many difficulties and challenges, VNU has demonstrated the strong vitality of a new, intellectual university model, gradually promoting the effectiveness of an advanced university governance model, developing with the philosophy of "Reaching the peak based on knowledge".

Minister of Education and Training, Former Director of VNU Phung Xuan Nhacongratulatory speech at the ceremony

The former President of VNU believes that with his capacity, experience, courage, deep understanding of VNU and high reputation in science and leadership and management capacity, the new President Nguyen Kim Son will join the leadership, staff, students and pupils of VNU to successfully implement the VNU Development Strategy to 2020, with a vision to 2030, so that VNU will increasingly develop in accordance with the expectations of the Party, State and people.

The Minister requested that in the coming time, VNU needs to closely follow the Resolution of the 5th VNU Party Congress, especially focusing on two breakthroughs: developing a team of highly qualified scientific staff; speeding up the construction of VNU in Hoa Lac to create momentum to promote the development of VNU into a research university.

In his inaugural speech, President Nguyen Kim Son emphasized the particularly important position of VNU in the innovation of Vietnam’s higher education. VNU’s responsibility is to pioneer innovation, be the locomotive for the development of Vietnam’s education and actively contribute to the human resource training and research system in the ASEAN community and around the world.

Director Nguyen Kim Son affirmed that the most important issue at the moment for VNU is to persevere in its development direction, philosophy and goals. “VNU needs to do everything and take every measure so that all aspects of its activities, from scientific research, research and teaching capacity of staff, training quality, capacity and ability to find good jobs of students, internal management, internal and external cooperation... all meet and exceed the standards and criteria of the Association of Southeast Asian Universities (AUN). We need to do everything so that our students are trained with the best capacity and can become global citizens, working well in an international environment,” said Director of VNU Nguyen Kim Son.

Taking on the responsibility of leading the largest university training and research center in the country, continuing the journey to make VNU a high-quality university in the region and the world, Director Nguyen Kim Son said that although there are many challenges and difficulties ahead, with the attention and direction of the Party, State, Government and Prime Minister; the effective support and assistance of ministries, branches and localities; the companionship of domestic and foreign partners; especially with a tradition of more than a century, with the intelligence, enthusiasm, consensus and joint efforts of the collective of scientists, teachers and students, VNU has full basis to believe and determine to develop in the direction of standardization, modernization and international integration, on par with advanced research universities in the world, contributing positively to the sustainable development of the country.

“We not only train students to develop themselves, to live in the community, to be able to work best according to ASEAN and international professional standards, but also to have the qualities of intellectuals in the new era, responsible, dedicated, caring, and taking on the great tasks of the country” - New Director Nguyen Kim Son emphasized.