Vietnam National University of Agriculture and Emporia State University, United States are developing joint training programs in Biotechnology and English

In order to strengthen the cooperation in international student training and exchange, from December 13^th, 2018 to December 17^th, 2018, a delegation of Emporia State University (ESU), United States led by Mr. Mark Daly, the director of the International Cooperation Office with the professors of the Faculty of English and the Faculty of Biology had a working visit to discuss cooperation in training with Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA). Attending the welcome meeting with the delegation were Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan, VNUA’s President, Vice Director of the International Cooperation Office, leaders and staff of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Faculty of Education and Foreign Languages.

 At the meeting, Prof. Dr. Lan expressed her pleasure and appreciated efforts of the two universities in accelerating the cooperation activities since ESU’s working visit to VNUA in early January 2018. In this working session, ESU delegation discussed in groups the development of 2 + 2 and 3 +2 training programs in Biotechnology and English which are the strong fields of ESU and VNUA. Specifically, ESU proposed to send about 10 to 12 students from their Faculty of Biotechnology and Agronomy every year to VNUA for credits exchange on specific topics and visits to agricultural models that they are interested in such as aquaculture, food crops (rice), tropical forest ecology, biodiversity, natural conservation, agricultural production system. Two universities agreed to grant two degrees of Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology from VNUA and Bachelor of Science in Biology from ESU for students of the 2+2 program. In the first 2 years, students of the advanced training program in Biotechnology (taught in English) will study at VNUA to improve their English and will then go to the US for the last 2 years. Students will also have the opportunity to work part-time in ESU. For students with good academic results, ESU can consider to offer partial scholarships. ESU expects to receive up to 20 students per year.

For the Faculty of Education and Foreign Languages, the two sides agreed to develop 2 + 2, 3 + 2 programs that link university and master's TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) training courses to issue an international certificate of TESOL at VNUA. In particular, the proposal for a 3 + 2 training program is a completely new idea, which allows students to study for 3 years at VNUA before continuing for 2 years at ESU. They will then receive both a bachelor's and a master's degree in English teaching granted by the two universities.

Concluding at the meeting, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan directed relevant faculties and units to elaborate working plans for joint degree trainings to enable the cooperation in 2019. ESU's proposals are align with the potential priorities that VNUA’s leaders wish to cooperate with the US’s universities in general and ESU in particular.

Prof. Dr. Lan and the representatives of VNUA and ESU

On behalf of ESU’s delegation, Mr. Mark Daly thanked VNUA, especially Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan, for their warm welcome. Mr. Mark Daly also appreciated the enthusiastic support of the International Cooperation Office and the two faculty’s members for the short discussion. After returning, ESU will continue to discuss more details with faculties’ representatives about training programs, tuition fees, and admission conditions in order to build a suitable and flexible cooperative program for VNUA’s students. This will be a premise for the acceleration in cooperation in training and staff and student exchanges between the two universities in the coming time.

Emporia State University, United States is a public university in Kansas, United States. Founded in 1863, ESU offers 80 training programs and courses for about 6000 students, of which more than 500 students are from 55 countries around the world. More details at www.emporia.edu/oie.