International collaboration is turning into a vital trend for integration and development of the country nowadays, especially in education. Keeping up with this, DTU collaborates with many universities of renown in Vietnam and abroad and signed agreements with many organizations to improve training quality and to help its students study overseas. As part of this, on September 1st, DTU signed a comprehensive agreement with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO). This round of collaboration is part of training innovation and human resource improvement, will open many internship opportunities for students, and will boost both partners’ future development.
Comprehensive collaboration between DTU and SEAMEO
To wit, the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) is an international and intergovernmental organization. It was founded on November 30, 1965, to promote regional collaboration in education, sciences, and culture, and counts eleven member states: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor, Myanmar, and Vietnam. SEAMEO affiliated members are eight nations: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and the UK; and five organizations: the International Council for Open & Distance Education (ICDE), the University of Tsukuba, the British Council, the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE), and the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU) under the auspices of UNESCO. SEAMEO’s activities focus mainly on developing human resources in Southeast Asia through quality improvement and by guaranteeing equity in education, preventive medicine, traditional culture, training, research, IT, languages, poverty alleviation, agriculture, and natural resources.
SEAMEO secretariat Director Dr Ethel Agnes Pascua-Valenzuela speaking at the signing ceremony
“I’m very honored to be able to take part in this signing ceremony between the SEAMEO secretariat and DTU,” SEAMEO Secretariat Director Dr Ethel Agnes Pascua-Valenzuela said at the ceremony. “To wit, DTU is a university with a huge lot of achievements and this is the moment to honor DTU and the efforts and dedication of its staff and lecturers. The over two million SEAMEO students desire access to your knowledge. Students at DTU are very lucky to study in a modern education environment and with complete and spacious infrastructure. For the future, I believe DTU will develop even further for nothing is impossible if we try.”
Dr Le Nguyen Tue Hang offered Dr Ethel Agnes Pascua-Valenzuela flowers at the ceremony
DTU is honored to be the first university in Vietnam to have signed a comprehensive collaboration agreement with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization. This can be considered an important milestone in the bilateral relationship: it will bring fresh air to training improvement, expand academic knowledge, and pioneer advanced scientific and technical research. The partners also agree to work together to make use of their potential, capacities, and strengths to exploit their assets and create long-term benefit.
Accordingly, DTU and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization agree to work together to make use of both partners’ potential and strengths. Both sides pledge to optimally support each other to realize the necessary steps to encourage and boost collaboration in the following:
- coordinate the implementation of programs and projects on higher education, especially promoting quality, equity, inclusion, gender equality, and transnational education,
- organize regional conferences, seminars, and training courses for the professional development of educators in Southeast Asia,
- coordinate the organization of the ASEAN Higher Education Forum in the region,
- cooperative research & development programs,
- professional exchange & development programs,
- student-focused programs and student engagement in higher education,
“DTU is honored to be the first university in Vietnam to have signed a comprehensive collaboration agreement with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization,” DTU Provost Dr Le Nguyen Bao explained. “I from my side hope that we can learn a lot from SEAMEO. You can say, during its rather long process of integration with the world during the last twenty to thirty years, SEAMEO worked with a huge lot of public universities. Honestly, I hope that today’s signing ceremony will change that tradition and will lead to acceptance of the new trend that private universities can show the way and make good contributions to university education in Southeast Asia. I saw that the SEAMEO slogan is ‘Leading through learning’, and I hope DTU can learn a lot from the leadership of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization.”
Previously in October 2019, the SEAMEO secretariat selected DTU to host and co-organize the sixth Southeast Asian Technical & Vocational Education & Training conference in Danang. This was the first conference SEAMEO held in Vietnam and it attracted 160 representatives of 64 education organizations in Southeast Asia.
DTU Vice - Provost Dr. Le Nguyen Tue Hang furthermore had an unforgettable impression of the members of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization and especially of Dr Ethel Agnes Pascua-Valenzuela. “The first time I met Dr Ethel Agnes Pascua-Valenzuela, I felt she’s a very warmhearted person with gracious eyes and a tender smile,” Dr Le Nguyen Tue Hang confided. “When she spoke at the forum, however, she was incredibly sharp-witted. After that, I was even more impressed when I learned that Dr Valenzuela was the first woman to lead the secretariat of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization. During the recent Covid-19 pandemic, she led the SEAMEO to implement many online conferences where lecturers and researchers in Southeast Asia had a space for academic exchange. And DTU is a member with positive participation. That’s why Dr Ethel Agnes Pascua-Valenzuela decided to come to Vietnam and sign a comprehensive agreement with DTU, the first university in Vietnam. I sincerely thank Dr Valenzuela and the SEAMEO, and I look forward to see good things come to be right after the signing of this highly meaningful agreement.”
(Media Center)