March 20, 2019, Vice President of Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA), Prof. Dr. Pham Van Cuong, hosted a delegation of the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, led by Ms. Kellee Farmer, Cultural Affairs Officer. Attending the reception meeting were representative leaders of the International Cooperation Office, leaders of Faculties of Environment, Food Science and Technology, Accounting and Business Management, and several staff who used to study and participate in exchange programs in the United States. In addition, the meeting also received the attendance of Professor Ignacio Ciampitti, a senior expert in satellite image mining in crop production and precise agriculture from the Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University. He is collaborating with VNUA to implement a FIRST funded project at the university.
At the meeting, Vice President Pham Van Cuong emphasized and highly appreciated the cooperation between the university and US partners. He also informed the delegates that two English delivered training programs namely Advanced Crop Science and Advanced Agribusiness Management, in partnership with the two US Universities including University of California, Davis. and Wisconsin – Madison are the first two training programs among 43 current undergraduate programs audited and receiving the certificate of completion of all requirements of the standard details of the ASEAN university network quality assurance standard. Besides, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Viet Long, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Office briefly introduce the university and highlighted remarkable achievements in its training and scientific research.
VNUA leader, staff and guests
In the process of development, Vietnam National University of Agriculture has been implementing many projects with US partners such as the project: Pathways to Higher Education, funded by FORD foundation (2002-2012), the TRIG program: "Educational and research capacity building in agricultural science and rural development at Hanoi Agricultural University" funded by the World Bank (2007-2012), etc., and most recently the project" Enhancing Capacity in Science and Technology and Human Resources Training to Contribute to the National Agricultural Restructuring and New Rural Development ”under the Supporting Autonomy Higher Education Program - SAHEP (2019-2022), a project utilizing IDA capital of the World Bank. These projects have been improving the facilities and building the capacity of the university's students and staff, contributing to developing the university to be one of Vietnam's leading academic institutions, especially in the field of agriculture and rural development. The university has also established partnerships through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with many US universities such as Kansas Lawrence University, Emporia State University, Missouri-Columbia University, etc. to enhance staff and students exchange as well as training cooperation. On this occasion, the university awarded the Certificate of Recognition to acknowledge the valuable contributions of the US Embassy in Hanoi in promoting cooperation between the university and US partners.
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Vice President Pham Van Cuong delivered the Certificate of Recognition to the US Embassy in Hanoi | Ms. Kellee Farmer presented the token to Vice President Pham Van Cuong |
Ms. Kellee Farmer on behalf of the Embassy expressed her sincere thanks to the university for organizing this meeting and felt delighted when the US Embassy in Hanoi received the Certificate of Recognition by the university. The Embassy delegates also expected that the university would continue to strengthen cooperation with US partners and more VNUA’s staff and lecturers would have opportunities to receive scholarships from programs offered by the Embassy like Fulbright, Humphrey, YSEALI, etc.
At the end of the visit, the Embassy delegation visited the Research Center for Tropical Bees and Beekeeping and planted a tree at the Tree Garden for International Organizations in the campus of the university.
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Visiting the Research Center for Tropical Bees and Beekeeping |
Planting a tree at the Tree Garden for International Organizations