Enhancing Education Collaboration between Vietnam and Romania

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh addressed the attendees.

Efforts to enhance educational cooperation between the two nations

On the morning of January 22, at the Romanian Prime Minister’s Office, the signing of three memorandums of cooperation between ministries, and 15 memoranda of cooperation between Vietnamese and Romanian higher education institutions took place in the presence of the Prime Ministers of both countries.

The memorandums of cooperation between higher education institutions encompass faculty and student exchange, international project implementation, cooperative training programs, and research in the fields of transportation, construction, irrigation, music, agriculture and forestry, medicine, economics, and business administration.

Prior to that, on the afternoon of January 21, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh paid a visit to and delivered a speech at the Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest (UTCB).

In his speech, the Prime Minister expressed his delight at the development of the university. He expressed his gratitude to the faculty for their support and guidance during his time as a student and researcher there. He also acknowledged Romania’s support for Vietnam.

Following the Prime Minister’s speech, a workshop between the Romanian Alliance of Technical Universities and four Vietnamese technical universities was held at UTCB.

Five cooperation memoranda were also signed between higher education institutions.

The signed documents entail faculty and student exchange, coordination in international project implementation, and cooperative training and research programs.

A workshop between the Romanian Alliance of Technical Universities and four Vietnamese technical universities.

Education and training cooperation between Vietnam and Romania

The Ministry of Education and Training stated that in recent years, Romania has trained approximately 3,000 engineers, master’s degree holders, and doctors for Vietnam, primarily during the period when both countries were part of the socialist bloc.

On January 15, 2008, the Vietnamese Ambassador to Romania, Le Manh Hung, signed the Vietnam-Romania educational cooperation program for the 2008-2010 period in Bucharest, Romania, on behalf of the Minister of Education and Training. The cooperation program is valid until January 16, 2011.

In July 2016, during the visit of the Prime Minister of Romania to Vietnam, the leaders of the two ministries signed the “Education cooperation program between the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam and the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research of Romania for the period 2016-2020.”

On April 19, 2023, the Governments of Vietnam and Romania signed the “Cooperation program in education and training between the Government of Vietnam and the Government of Romania for the period 2022-2026.”

The current number of Vietnamese international students in Romania is 36, including 22 undergraduate students, 5 master’s degree students, and 9 doctoral students.

From 2016 to 2020, Vietnam admitted 65 students to study in Romania under the agreement, including 33 undergraduate students, 17 master’s degree students, and 15 doctoral students, achieving 65% of the scholarship target.

All students who studied in Romania successfully completed their courses on time. Romania currently allows Vietnamese students to study in fields where Romania has expertise.

Each year, Vietnam offers Romania 20 undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships under the bilateral agreement.

However, from 2016 to 2019, Romania only sent four international students to study Vietnamese, history, and law. They have not nominated any international students since 2020 due to the complicated situation of the Covid-19 pandemic.