Fulbright University to launch next year

According to the Crimson, the Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV) will expand on the existing Fulbright Economics Teaching Program (FETP), a public policy master's programme that the Ash Center at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government established in 1994 with the University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City.

The new university is expected to begin in September 2016.

Harvard will no longer have a managerial presence in the school's operations, according to Ash Center spokesperson Daniel B. Harsha, but will continue to retain a strong teaching and research presence at the Ho Chi Minh -based school, the newspaper reported.

"The next step which Harvard felt was really needed is to evolve this public policy school into a stand-alone university," Harsha said.

Vietnam's higher education landscape is dominated by for-profit colleges or state universities that lack the research capacity of American universities.

"FUV can grow and reach a lot more students than it can now," he said.

At a Fulbright University Youth event in Hanoi earlier this month, FUV representative Dam Bich Thuy said that there would be three different schools under the Fulbright University.

They are the School of Public Policies and Management, the School for Engineering and Applied Science and a liberal arts-style Fulbright College.

Thuy said that the Fulbright University was established so that Vietnam could compete with other institutions in the region and the world. The FUV was going to operate on the basic principles including non-profit, honesty, transparency, and full accountability.

"We strive for this institution not to be only for the rich. It should be inclusive for all types of people in the society," Thuy said.

The university has set a goal of raising US$100 million and enrolling 2,000 students in its first five years. So far, it has raised about US$40 million in pledges, the Harvard Crimson reported.