NEW STUDENT ALUMNI STUDENT STAFF VIETNAMESE

The Visit of Australian Vice-Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City

On May 25, 2023, Can Tho University (CTU) was honored to welcome Ms. Rebecca Ball, Australian Deputy Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City.

The meeting at the Administration Building

At the meeting, Prof. Dr. Ha Thanh Toan, Rector of CTU, sent a warm welcome to the Australian Consul General's delegation in Ho Chi Minh City and shared an overview of CTU and its strengths. Besides, the Rector also informed the delegates about cooperation activities with Australian partners and many important cooperation achievements in training, scientific research, exchange activities, and exchange of staff and students.

Prof. Dr. Ha Thanh Toan in his welcoming remark

In term of academic, we have sent 116 candidates (8 PhDs, 108 masters) from Mekong 1000 Program, which has been sponsored by the local authorities in Mekong Delta, to study for Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Australian institutions. These students have been working in the public sector of Mekong Delta and being bridges for the cooperation between Australian partners and Mekong Delta provinces.

Besides that, since 2018, 38 CTU’s staff and lecturers have gone to Australia for postgraduate study and short training by our own budget and under various scholarships support from the Australian government as well as support from Australian partners. In terms of research collaboration, there have been 20 joint research projects with a total budget of more than 1.75 million AUD have been implemented from 2018 to 2023, including 04 ongoing projects with more than 1,2 million AUD. Some typical projects are Farmer Options for Crops Under Saline conditions (FOCUS) in the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam and Planning and establishing a sustainable (SRP) smallholder rice chain in the Mekong Delta, Soil Microbial Interactions with Crop Replacement Options (Soil MICRO) in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, and Mekong Delta Aquaculture Innovation Cluster (MAIC), Resilient Agriculture and Food (RAF) initiative project.

In order to establish a strong relationship with Australian partners, CTU has signed 37 memoranda of understanding (MoU) and memoranda of agreement (MoA) with 23 partners for enhancing the academic collaboration activities in the areas of education, training, economics, and scientific research.

On this occasion, CTU would also expect to receive strong support of Australia for the upcoming expansion of cooperation relationship with the Australian partners in higher education and upgrade our sustainable linkage, more and more Australian students and professors come and join our collaborations program.

Ms. Rebecca Ball in her speech

The Australian Consul General's delegates also expressed their joyfulness and deep support for the University's efforts and results of cooperation with Australian partners, thereby expressing their hope that this good cooperation relationship will be successfully maintained and further developed.

The Australian Vice-Consul General informed CTU about her intention to organize a program to promote Australian culture and education in Can Tho City with the participation of businesses and universities. The program is organized to link lecturers in training and career orientation for high school students, connect CTU with Australian partners, and introduce the Australian partners’ strengths and policies to attract international students.

At the end of the meeting, the representatives of the two sides exchange token and expected to promote the development of cooperation relationship in the future.