(VNF) - Australian and Vietnamese universities met in Hanoi on November 6th to strengthen partnerships under Australia's student mobility programs.

The “Australia-Vietnam student mobility forum” encouraged a deeper level of engagement between Australian and Vietnamese universities and alumni, with the aim of having more Australian students coming to Vietnam for semester-length study and internships in addition to the short-term group study tours which are currently popular.

“All those who study in Australia, either through a scholarship or self-funded, come back with new skills, new perspectives on the Australian way of life and lasting connections there. We also want to give Australian students the opportunity to live and study in Vietnam, so they might better understand the Vietnamese culture and develop deep ties here as well,” said Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Mr Hugh Borrowman.

Collaboration between Vietnamese and Australian universities would also contribute to the ongoing development and internationalization of the Vietnamese higher education sector.

“We expect that more students will choose to come for a semester in Vietnamese universities once they become aware of the number of programs taught in English and once university partnerships have been settled with the appropriate credit and internship arrangements,” added the Australian Ambassador.

The Australian Government is encouraging Australian students to undertake part of their study in the Indo-Pacific region to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the region and strengthen people-to-people ties through mobility programs such as the Endeavour mobility program and the New Colombo Plan, a signature initiative of the Australian Government which was rolled out across countries in the region, including Vietnam, from this year.

With 267 students from 20 Australian universities coming to Vietnam in 2016, up from 160 students in 2015, Vietnam is the seventh most popular destination among 38 eligible host countries under the New Colombo Plan./.

( VNF )