Vietnamese Ambassador’s Delegation Visits Yamaguchi University

On Thursday, February 16, H.E. Mr. Nguyen Quoc Cuong, Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, visited Yoshida campus together with his wife and secretary.

First, they met with Vietnamese students currently studying at Yamaguchi University (YU) and spoke with them about the reasons behind their enrollment in Yamaguchi University, life in Yamaguchi, difficulties that they face, and many other topics. The students shared how they learned about YU, for instance, the university where they were studying was one of the YU’s partner universities or their supervisor recommended study at YU. They also gave their impressions of the university, such as feeling very fortunate to study at YU, where they have access to such an excellent study and research environment. The students asked Ambassador Nguyen about why he decided to visit YU. He explained that he wanted to meet as many Vietnamese students studying in Japan as possible in order to understand their lifestyles, study and research progress, and desires. Furthermore, he added that he and his wife had also studied abroad and wanted to share their experiences. At the end of the meeting, he explained that the Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Japan supports Vietnamese student associations for improving employment and daily life support for students and suggested that the YU Vietnamese students establish a Yamaguchi branch of the association.

After the meeting with the students, the delegation met with President Oka, Vice President (International Cooperation) Miura, Advisor to the Vice President (International Cooperation) Tomimoto, and Prof. Matsuda from the Graduate School of Sciences and Technology for Innovation. During the meeting, H.E. Mr. Nguyen stated that he believed bilateral cooperation for development of high-level human resources was very important and that he hoped YU would build more agreements for academic and research cooperation with Vietnamese universities as well as receive more international students. On this issue, one of the attendees from YU explained that YU had a good deal of academic exchange and cooperation with Vietnamese academic institutes, including receiving students awarded the ‘Vietnamese Government Scholarship to Study in Japan’ based on an agreement with the Ministry of Education and Training. Another attendee mentioned that currently YU is pursuing various approaches to promote globalization of the university and would welcome it if the ambassador could send more students from Vietnam. President Oka shared stories of the many outstanding Vietnamese students studying in YU, who have contributed to the International Student Gathering by performing Vietnamese traditional dance, have tackled their research while simultaneously raising children, and have shown great fluency in Japanese. After hearing about the Vietnamese students’ excellent performance, H.E. Mr. Nguyen voiced his expectations that the students who completed their study at YU would make great contributions as a bridge between Vietnamese universities and YU.

This visit by the Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Japan provided an excellent opportunity to introduce our Vietnamese students, show our global efforts to the Vietnamese diplomats, and obtain beneficial information to develop Japan-Vietnam academic exchanges. We hope to encourage the further globalization of our university in order to contribute to the development of Japan-Vietnam academic exchange.