Concordia deepens ties with a rising Vietnam

Vietnam has ambitious plans in higher education. The country recently set targets of increasing its number of university students from 2.1 to 3 million by 2030. It also aims to place at least eight universities among Asia’s top 200 by the end of the decade.

With 14 Vietnamese institutions appearing in the 2027 Times Higher Education World University Rankings — an increase of three over the previous year —  there’s a clear sense that the country is on track to reach its lofty goals.

For universities like Concordia that prioritize diversity and collaboration, it makes for an exciting environment in which to seek out new partnerships.

“Each time I visit Vietnam, I feel the energy, experience the openness and sense the development ambitions of the country,” says Concordia President Graham Carr.

“Canada wants and needs to be part of the changes happening in Vietnam, and I believe universities can act as knowledge brokers through our capacity to collaborate across geographic borders — and boundaries of the mind — to propose evidence-tested pathways for the future.”

A productive visit

Following his recent historic meeting with the country’s president, Carr travelled to Vietnam for a wide-ranging partnership-building mission during the second week of October.

While in the country, Carr and the Concordia team finalized new mobility agreements with Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Hanoi University of Science and Technology. In addition, Concordia formalized its participation in Project 89, a program from the Ministry of Education that supports high-achieving Vietnamese students as they undertake doctoral research at select universities around the world.

On October 7, Carr delivered the keynote address, entitled “Knowledge Diplomacy, a Catalyst for Canada-Vietnam Partnerships,” at Canada-Vietnam Connect, an event hosted by EduCanada and the Embassy of Canada to Vietnam. Jim Nickel, Ambassador of Canada to Vietnam, was in attendance.

“Mobility programs build invaluable bridges between Canada and Vietnam,” Carr explained during his talk.

“Yes, they foster shared knowledge and co-creation. But they also inspire the people-to-people contacts and mutual understanding that are at the core of knowledge diplomacy.”

Case in point: while exploring possible research collaborations with Minister of Science and Technology Vu Hai Quan, Carr learned that the minister, a computer scientist by training, had in fact studied for a year at Concordia.

Concrete contributions to Canada-Vietnam relations

On October 5, Carr held talks with Minister of Public Security General Luong Tam Quang on how the university’s strengths in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data protection, and digital technologies could support the country’s pressing needs to train government agencies and private companies to better protect their systems against cyberattacks.

The delegations also discussed potential ways that Concordia could help Vietnamese professionals and their organizations comply with new requirements under the country’s cybersecurity and personal data protection laws.

Both parties agreed that such collaborations could result in tangible, practical contributions to the deepening connections between Canada and Vietnam. In this way, potential academic programs and exchanges would strengthen the elevated strategic partnership between the two countries, which Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last month, and its emphasis on security across several domains.

A growing part of the Concordia community

Concordia’s collaborations with Vietnam have expanded substantially in recent years.

At the beginning of the decade, the university had almost no formal collaborations with Vietnamese universities. It hosted fewer than 10 students on campus and sent none to partner institutions in the country.

Today, Concordia has active partnerships with eight Vietnamese universities in green energy transition alone, more than 100 students and faculty members engaged in two-way mobility, and nearly 140 full-time registered students from the country. Approximately 150 Concordia alumni live in Vietnam.

“Vietnam has willing partners at Concordia and in universities across Canada, who are committed to further growing the cooperative ties between our countries based on mutual respect, shared values and the need to tackle common problems,” says Carr.

“It’s all about modelling the promising things that can happen when two very different countries adopt a strategic approach to creating a better world.”

Learn more about Concordia’s collaborations in Vietnam.