1. The Prime Minister’s decision on many VNU’s important issues about Hoa Lac

On September 12, 2017, during his working visit to VNU, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc urged the building of a world-class university town in parallel with Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park and Vietnam Ethnic Culture Village, forming a core knowledge satellite town of Hanoi.

On October 5, 2017, the Government Office announced the Prime Minister's Conclusion No. 464/TB-VPCP at the meeting with VNU, with the following major decisions: the VNU Construction Project in Hoa Lac is to be handed over to VNU; VNU is entitled to adjust the detailed project planning and subprojects details scaled at 1:500 in accordance with the new requirements and tasks; the land use right is to be handed over to VNU; more capital is to be invested in land clearing for the constructing of a university town; the proposal of borrowing ODA from the World Bank to invest in some urgent key works for VNU in Hoa Lac has been approved; VNU is to finalize the project of borrowing ODA from Japan for the construction of Vietnam-Japan University in Hoa Lac, ect.

For the implementing of the above-mentioned decisions, the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 2068/QĐ-TTg dated December 21, 2017 on the handing over the VNU Construction Project in Hoa Lac to VNU.

The Prime Minister also decided to assign VNU to invest in and implement the component projects under the VNU Construction Project in Hoa Lac.

2. QS University Rankings: Asia 2017: Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU) ranks 139^th place

According to Quacquarelli Symonds’ (QS) 2017 regional university ranking results for Asia, VNU, Hanoi has maintained its 139th ranking and was ranked 1^st in Vietnam. This was the second year in a row, VNU was among the 139 leading universities in Asia and in the top 1.2% of 11,900 higher education institutions from 17 Asian countries.

According to this ranking, some indicators of VNU have exceeded the average of the top 400 universities in Asia: the ratio of faculty to student was close to the Asian average (Asia: 12.5 - VNU: 14.2); the average citation index of each article, VNU has surpassed the Asian threshold (Asia: 5.2 times/ article - VNU: 5.8 times).

3. VNU University of Science was the first university in Southeast Asia to have been assessed at the institutional level and to have met the AUN-QA standards

On December 19, 2017, ASEAN University Network (AUN) representative announced the decision and awarded VNU University of Science the Quality Assurance Certificate at Institutional level. VNU University of Science was one of the first four universities in Southeast Asia to to have conducted accreditation and to have met the AUN-QA standards.

4. Promoting cooperation and scientific and technological products transfer  

Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngọc Anh and VNU President Nguyễn Kim Sơn signed an MoU on cooperation in developing fundamental, supply/demand activities; assisting in applying and improving technology to contribute to the developing of national products and high-tech products on May 16, 2017.

During the activities celebrating the 2017 Vietnam Science and Technology Day, MOST Minister and VNU President cut the ribbon to inaugurate VNU Talent Incubator and Startup Assistance Building which housed VNU Technology Licensing Office (TLO) and VNU Technology Transfer Office (TTO) – the first offices in Vietnam specialized in the fields of inspection, technology licensing and transfer.

The first Conference on the transfer of scientific and technological products under the program "Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the Northwest" was held in Yen Bai province on December 1, 2017 to transfer part of the program (18 projects) to 14 provinces in the North West. The science and technology products of the Northwest Program have contributed scientific arguments for building, adjusting strategies, planning national defense and security, sustainable socio-economic development as well as for the defense and security of the Northwest.

On March, 17, 2017, VNU in collaboration with Ninh Binh provincial Party Committee held the workshop on "Culture and People of Ninh Binh in Sustainable Development". This was a priority activity implemented under the cooperation program between VNU and Ninh Binh province, which was within the general strategy of bringing the VNU training and research activities to the development of the locality.

The 2011-2016 period cooperation program summary meeting and the signing of the period 2017–2022 cooperation between VNU and Ha Giang province People's Committee was held on August 16, 2017 in Ha Giang city. After 6 years of implementation, the scientific and technological tasks performed by VNU in Ha Giang have achieved practical results, having a positive impact on the locality.

5. Important decisions on the VNU leadership, the development of organizational structure towards advanced university management and the strengthening of interdisciplinary scientific training

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc signed Decision No. 509/QĐ-TTg dated April 17, 2017 on the conditional appointment of Mr. Nguyễn Hồng Sơn, Rector of VNU University of Economics and Business (UEB), as VNU Vice President.

On September 14, 2017, the Prime Minister signed the Decision No. 1369/QĐ-TTg on the conditional appointment of Assoc.Prof.Dr. Lê Quân, VNU Vice President, Member of the National Assembly XIV, as Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Labour – Invalids and Social Affairs.

In 2017, VNU renamed the VNU National Defense - Security training Centre to VNU National Defense and Security training Centre, and VNU Centre for Cooperating and Transferring Knowledge to VNU Centre for Enabling Startups and Knowledge Transfer; established the Centre for VNU Development on Hoa Lac Campus by merging the following three units: the Centre for Urban Studies, Facility 1 of VNU Development Centre in Ba Vi and VNU Guest House.

VNU President signed Decision No. 248/ QĐ-DHQGHN dated January 20, 2017 on renaming VNU School of Graduate Studies to VNU School of Interdisciplinary Studies, as well as adjusting the functions and tasks of the School in the direction of strengthening the interdisciplinary training.

6. VNU lecturers and scientists were awarded the Ho Chi Minh Award, the State Prize and other noble titles

In 2017, many VNU lecturers and scientists were awarded the following grand scientific prizes and noble titles:

Prof. Phan Huy Lê received the 5th Ho Chi Minh Prize for Science and Technology with the project “The history and culture of Vietnam - A partial approach”. The project “Basic research and orientation of the application of materials from the rare earth and transition metals” by Prof. Thân Đức Hiền and his group received the State Prize in Science and Technology. To date, VNU has 18 works awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize and 11 works awarded the State Prize.

Five teachers of VNU were conferred the title of People's Teacher and nine teachers were awarded the title of Merit Teacher under Decision No. 2380/QĐ-CTN dated November 18, 2017 by State President Trần Đại Quang.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Tuyết Minh - scientific adviser to the Russian World Reading Room of VNU International School was honoured to be the only Vietnamese citizen receiving the Medal of Pushkin from Russian President Putin at Kremlin Palace on November 4, 2017.

DoIT, a Vietnamese spell checker developed by a research team from VNU University of Engineering and Technology, won the second prize in IT at the Vietnam Talent Awards 2017.

7. The Prime Minister assigned VNU to preside over the national special science and technology task: Compiling the Vietnam  National Monographs

With expectation and belief in the academic prestige of VNU, on December 22, 2017, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 2079/QĐ-TTg approving the Vietnam national special scientific and technology task of “Compiling the Vietnam National Monographs (2018 – 2022) and assigning VNU to preside over the task as well as appointing VNU President Manager of this scientific task implementation.

8. Development of new training programs and promulgating the new Ph.D training regulations

On December 18, 2017, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU) in collaboration with the Military Telecom Corporation (Viettel) held the launching ceremony of the School of Aerospace Engineering (SAE) This is a special cooperation model between a leading training and research centre and a most dynamic corporation of services - technology in Vietnam. Along with the establishment of the School, VNU has approved the training program in aerospace technology which is a standardized training program towards the world leading universities’ standards.

On July 4, 2017, VNU President signed Decision No. 2161/QĐ-DHQGHN on the establishment of the task force to set up the project of establishing the Faculty of Agricultural Technology under VNU University of Engineering and Technology, aimed to train hi-tech agricultural development human resources for the country.

On November 24, 2017, VNU President issued Decision No. 4555/QĐ-ĐHQGHN on the doctoral training regulations at VNU. This new set of regulations reflects the determination of VNU to improve the quality of training in general and doctoral training in particular by improving the input and output standards for PhD programs with higher requirements for the doctoral dissertation and PhD student supervisor.

9. VNU has successfully organized many regional and international education events

On January 31, 2009, the Prime Minister's Decision No. 142/QĐ-TTg assigned VNU to be one of the focal institutions in Vietnam to carry out activities in cooperation with ASEAN University Network (AUN) and be a member of the AUN Board of Trustees. On that basis, VNU susessfully did its part in organizing as well as in being Vietnam’s representative at the 9^th AUN Rectors’ meeting and the 33rd AUN Board of Trustees meeting held in Nha Trang City from July 17 to 19, 2017.

On November 8, 2017, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) of Vietnam and Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU), held the APEC University Leaders’ Forum (AULF) 2017 with the participation of nearly 60 participants from the region’s selected universities, businesses and state management agencies.

The forum not only addressed the new global trends and challenges of university governance in the new era, but also promoted educational cooperation between universities and countries on a new height.

The success of these events not only affirms the leading position and role of VNU as the representative of Vietnamese higher education at international events but also reflects the continuous integration of Vietnamese education in the region and in the world.

10. The 5^th Congress of VNU Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (Term 2017-2022), the 5^th Congress of VNU Trade Union (Term 2017 - 2022) and the 3^rd Congress of VNU Ex-teachers’ Association (Term 2017 - 2022)

VNU organizes major conferences, summarizing activities during the last term and outlines the direction of activities in the next term: The 5^th Congress of VNU Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union,  term of 2017 – 2022 (on June 3, 2017); the 5^th Congress of VNU Union, term of 2017 – 2022 (from December 15 to December 16, 2017); the 3^rd Congress of VNU former teachers, term of 2017 – 2022 (on December 29, 2017).