The Deputy Director of the Department of Science, Technology and Training, under the Ministry of Health talks to Vietnam News Agency on Việt Nam’s plan to establish a University of Health Science.

According to him, the Ministry of Health has submitted to the Prime Minister two proposals. The first is about the establishment of the National Medical Council and the other is the establishment of the University of Health Science.

The idea of establishing a University of Health Science was already touched upon about 20 years ago. There should be one university of this kind in Hanoi and one in Ho Chi Minh city. These universities will include some member schools such as the Medical School, Law School, Pharmaceutical School, Public Health School and others. Under this model, all school members will share among themselves the main resources, including the management apparatus and basic investment for their main subjects.

The Department is now in the course of developing a proposal to find the most suitable model for this university. An example is the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of HCMC, that is developing a proposal for changing its name to the University of Health Science. The proposal is with the Prime Minister, waiting for his approval.

Read more at: https://vietnamnews.vn/opinion/535821/viet-nam-to-have-a-university-of-…

Comments from Lien Ta, Senior Education Services Manager of British Council Vietnam:
Health-specialised universities in Vietnam, the current and the new ones, will both face the challenges of adapting the training curriculum to meet with new requirement of the society, making sure that an innovated training approach and programmes are applied and adaptable for international collaboration. For many years, an outdated training curriculum has been a barrier for health-specialised universities to develop international partnerships with other countries in the world, including the UK. Majority of students enrolling at these universities are academically high, however not many of them have good English. Besides, a lot of them are from middle-income families, therefore very scholarship-focused. Therefore, academic exchange, curriculum design collaboration and scholarship-based student exchange are most popular types of partnership activities that health-specialised universities in Vietnam are looking to work with foreign institutional partners.