At the ceremony, the International School’s Dean Lê Trung Thành sent his deep thanks and gratitude to VNU former and current leaders, the School’s former and current staff, teachers and students as well as institutions and individuals from both inside and outside the country for their support, encouragement, cooperation, and contribution to developing the School into a strong, sustainable higher education and training institution.

The School’s Dean said that international integration in training and research was always paid special attention to, expanded and gradually raised to a new height. Through its close linkages and cooperation with Vietnamese and foreign prestigious universities, the School can now be said to have become a big and prestigious address to attract a large number of highly qualified, devoted and experienced Vietnamese and international lecturers, scientists to come to teach and research at the School; which has, in fact, created a highly international, dynamic academic environment.

The Dean also pledged to, together with the School as a whole, be wholeheartedly and unanimously united, mutually supportive to overcome all difficulties; to develop the school into an outstanding higher education institution under VNU; to firmly move forward, to contribute more to the cause of developing and renovating the School and VNU in particular and the national education and training in general.

On behalf of VNU leaders, President Nguyễn Kim Sơn acknowledged the great contribution of VNU International School’s generations of leaders, teachers and staff to the development of the School in particular and of VNU in general. President Nguyễn Kim Sơn also highly appreciated the contribution of Prof.Dr.Sc. Nguyễn Duy Tiến (Dean of the School for the 2002 -2003 period), Dr.Sc. Nguyễn Trọng Do (Dean of the School for the 2003 - 2014 period) and many others to the founding and developing of the School.

VNU President Nguyễn Kim Sơn stated that VNU was facing both challenges and opportunities posed by university autonomy and renovation towards meeting the changing requirements of higher education development in the region and the world. On the road towards a higher education centre, operating in harmony with the world higher education community tradition, VNU  should   renovate its  organizational structure and method of university administration. The renovation involves a change in the way teachers teach; the way students learn; and how to open, operate, and implement training programs and research activities in accordance with international standards. To gain successes in this process, all VNU units should  be well aware of the general direction and at the same time, be  unanimously united in action to create a systematic and sustainable transformation. In that context, the  International School  should pioneer in profound international training and research integration.

Assigning upcoming tasks to the School, VNU President Nguyễn Kim Sơn requested that the International School:

Promote its leading role in international training cooperation, internationalization of programs in accordance with advanced higher education standards, develop models of articulation, joint training and cooperation with the other units in VNU in order to effectively mobilize resources for promoting its available advantages;

Select a number of key training programs to invest in, focusing  on new or special sectors, programs of high internationalization, thus incorporating the strengths of its partner universities while fully satisfying the requirements of quality assurance in accordance with international standards. The School should also increase its attractiveness to international students and quickly create a modern and advanced teaching and learning environment;

Speed up scientific research in line with its partners’, international scientists’ strengths to build international bilateral joint research teams. The School should prioritize the implementation of research programs which are practice-linked and for the development of new training programs;

Well implement the “International scholars attracting program" to build a network of international highly knowledgeable and prestigious scholars, to substantively develop its research and training activities; and

Find relevant resources to quickly build a new campus in Hoa Lac – a decisive factor to quicken the School’s development into a truly international university. This challenge requires the School’s leaders to demonstrate their utmost determination, energy, vision and creativity. To overcome the challenge, in the near future, the School should build its own scientific resources for more scientific products and to be able to develop high-quality international programs with its own resources.

During the ceremony, representatives of former leaders, lecturers and alumni gave congratulatory speeches. The leaders of Keuka College (USA), HELP University (Malaysia), Lunghwa University of Science and Technology (Taiwan) and the University of East London (UK) sent their warmest congratulations and would like to develop co-operation with VNU International School for producing more and more high-quality training and research products.

Also at the ceremony, VNU President Nguyễn Kim Sơn presented the Prime Minister’s Certificate of Merit to the International School for its outstanding achievements in high-quality human resources training from the 2011-2012 to 2015-2016 school years; Certificates of Merit by the Education and Training Minister to the International School’s Dean Lê Trung Thành and Vice Dean Trần Anh Hà; Certificates of Merit by VNU President to the Office of Academic and Student Affairs and the Department of Foundation Studies; and VNU President’s Certificates of Merit to the School former Dean, Dr.SC.  Nguyễn Trọng Do, former Vice Dean, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Vũ Ngọc Tú and former Vice Dean, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyễn Hải Thanh.