“DTU is the Spring of Wisdom, the lighthouse for academic achievements, with its mind set on entering a Duy Tan Spring, full of innovative teaching and study methods.”
Distinguished Teacher and Hero of Labor Le Cong Co
“From Under the School Roof” is the latest book by Distinguished Teacher and Hero of Labor Le Cong Co, Party Committee Secretary and DTU Board of Trustees Chairman. It discusses the first 25 years of development of the university and was published in the fourth quarter of 2019 by the Danang Publishing House.
Usually we celebrate 10-year milestones, but DTU needed fifteen, from 1994 to 2009, to get to a point where there was actually something to look back on. For example, in 2003, DTU was ready to introduce a credit-based education system, but MoET only permitted it in 2007 and it was only fully implemented in 2010. Also, a DTU policy on international collaboration was conceived early on, but many years elapsed before links were established with universities in the UK, Taiwan and Japan.
In 2008, in Hanoi, a partnership program was initiated between Carnegie Mellon University in the US and the Software Engineering Group of Vietnam, which included DTU, Van Lang University, the Hanoi Digital Telecommunication Technology Company, Can Tho University and the Ho Chi Minh city IT Training Center, sponsored by Boeing Aircraft. CMU then exported the curricula for two four-year university courses, worth $2m, to Software Engineering and Informatics Systems the same year. This was a great step forward, a big opportunity for the group and paved the way for other Vietnamese universities and businesses to collaborate with CMU to share international-standard academic programs nationwide.
Recently, DTU announced On-Site Study-Abroad programs with Keuka College and Troy University in the US, allowing direct study under foreign lecturers in Danang at only one tenth of the cost of studying in the US. Hundreds of students from Vietnam and abroad have enrolled in the program and DTU has now become the first private university to come up to national standards. In 2020, the university entered the list of QS Asia’s top 500 universities, was the second Vietnamese university to receive American ABET accreditation and finished third in URAP’s 2018-2019 top eight Vietnamese universities. To commemorate its 25th Anniversary, DTU was honored with a First Class Labor Order and DTU Provost Dr. Le Nguyen Bao was awarded a Third Class one.
Distinguished Teacher Le Cong Co’s book consists of ten chapters of 300 pages and an appendix giving a general overview of science education and the teachers. It is aimed at the younger generation, with the intent that they will be able to learn from his previous experiences and become leaders in the 4.0 era.
Distinguished Teacher Le Cong Co was born in 1941 in Dien Ban, joined the revolution in 1954 and the Party in 1965. He was a leader of the youth liberation movement in the Central region, Standing Vice Chairman of the Quang Nam - Danang Vietnamese Fatherland Front Committee and an Eighth National Assembly representative. He is the founder of DTU and Chairman of its Board of Trustees and received the title of Distinguished Teacher in 2012 and Hero of Labor of the innovation period in 2016. He also published DTU’s “In Response to Our Nation’s Appeal” book collection and has written several other books, including: Nam tháng dâng ngu?i (2006), Nam tháng tình ngu?i, and Ngu?i c?a m?t th?i.
“Parents pass away and leave their children and grandchildren their property. A generation passes on and what do they leave behind if not love of their country?” and “More than anyone else, you are the ones responsible for developing and maintaining our planet.” Albert Einstein, the great 20th century scholar, left a letter made public in 1980, which includes a passage saying that, “If instead of E = mc², we must accept that all the energy needed to heal the world can be generated by love multiplied by the speed of light squared,” in his letter to the young.
In particular, “DTU is implementing an educational model based on empirical research and new teaching methods that meet the demands of business and society, all built on a modern, humanistic foundation. Education must include practical examples of real people doing real things at home, at school and in the community. Our leaders, on behalf of ordinary people and the nation, must put the interests of the Fatherland above all else and encourage the self-confidence to the younger generation of today and tomorrow.”
The “U80” teacher’s book expresses very intimate and passionate feelings: “During our lives, we should all plant a tree, to leave some shade for the future,” and strongly concludes with: “If Vietnam doesn’t have a proper education system, don’t even think about modernization and industrialization.”
(Media Center)