Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
The Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (abbreviation: HCMUT ) is a key member university of Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City and is the flagship university in technology teaching and research activities in Vietnam. HCMUT is a center of technology - industry and management training. Up to May 2005, HCMUT has 11 faculties, 14 research and development (R&D) centers, 4 training centers, 10 functioning offices and one joint-stock company. During the past 40 years since Vietnam's unification, 60,000 Engineers and Bachelors have graduated from HCMUT. Up to now, HCMUT have  trained 60,000 Engineers and Bachelors, more than 10,000 Masters and 200 Doctors. History. Established on Jun. 29, 1957 according to the decree 213/GD signed by President Ngo Dinh Diem, the university was known as National Center of Technology (also known as Phu Tho National Center of Technology) . The center included 4 partner colleges: College of Civil Engineering, College of Electrical Engineering, College of Industrial Arts Engineering (École Supérieure d'Ingénieurs des Arts Industriels - Kỹ sư Công nghệ), Vietnam National Maritime Engineering. In 1960s, College of Chemistry was established, belonging to National Center of Technology. In 1972, National Center of Technology  was renamed as National Institute of Technology, which was the only center of South Vietnam to train technical engineers and experts. According to the decree 010/SL/VNGDTN signed on January 11, 1974, the National Institute of Technology was merged into Thu Duc Institute of Technology and renamed as University of Technology. In the same year, Thanh Hoa Post Graduate Department (the current Environmental Engineering Faculty) was established in the College of Civil Engineering. It was the first time when the university conducted post graduate training program. After the national reunification, the university was renamed as Ho Chi Minh University  of Technology as Saigon was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City (according to the Decision 426/TTg signed by The President of the Cabinet on October 27, 1976). Being one of the three largest universities of technology in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh University of Technology has the mission of training engineers majoring in the fields of capital construction, industry, resources exploration and exploitation, and environment preservation to provide a force of manpower mainly for the southern areas of Vietnam. Since 1981, HCMUT has expanded its scope into postgraduate training. In 1990, HCMUT opened the master's degree training system. Actually , the postgraduate training in HCMUT has been focused since 1981. According to decision 16/CP by the Prime Minister on January 17, 1995, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM) was founded. Ho Chi Minh University of Technology became one among the 9 members of VNU-HCM and was renamed as the University of Engineering. According to decision 15/2001/QĐ-TTg and decision 16/2001/QĐ-TTg by The Prime Minister on December 2, 2001, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City was reorganized with only 3 members; and the University of Engineering gained back its traditional name as  Ho Chi Minh University of Technology. Infrastructure. Ho Chi Minh University of Technology (HCMUT) has two campuses: one is located in the inner of Ho Chi Minh City and the other in the outskirts of the city. The former one has an area of 14 ha, of which address is 268 Ly Thuong Kiet St., Dist.10, Ho Chi Minh City. The campus has 117 classrooms (14.479 m), 96 laboratories (12.197 m), 3 workshops (6.950 m), and 1 library (1.145 m – for both undergraduate and graduate student). The latter one, with an area of 26 ha, is located in Linh Trung  Ward, Thủ Đức, Ho Chi Minh City. The campus has 3 buildings which consist of 54 class rooms and halls, 26 laboratories and a covered stadium. Besides the two campuses, HCMUT also has an inner city dormitory with an area of 1,4 ha. With the expenditures of 101 billions VND, the dormitory was rebuilt in 2004 and was put into operation in 2009. The event of the years between 2001 and 2005 is that, with the self-funded budget (from tuition fees, science research and technology transfer and other training activities), HCMUT focused on rebuilding an area of 26.128 m  (increases 40% in comparison to that of 1995), upgrading classrooms, laboratories, the library, of which total area is 7.670 m (increases 50% in comparison to that of 1995), invested in equipment for training activities. All classrooms are equipped with projectors and computers, laboratories with modern tools for training and science researching (worth 80 billions VND). At HCMUT, a number of teaching and learning materials in various fields are available almost all of the time. Among them, 55% (509 titles) are compiled by HCMUT professors. There are 277 titles of magazines (191 foreign languages and 86 Vietnamese ones), 9460 titles with  more than 36.555 books, 30 computers for internet accessing and other types of materials such as scientific magazines in the library. The library is invested with an annual budget of more than one billion VND in maintenance, learning materials, including printing curriculum for educational purposes. Academics. To fulfill the demands for manpower in industrial and technological majors in Vietnam, the university completed the outcome and thorough academic programs for 34 undergraduate majors and 1 major in college program following the ABET standards, but HCMUT has not been yet accredited. Although most students are advised to follow the recommended studying schedules  since they are already compressed, they are free to determine the number of credits they take up to a fixed specific amount determined by the university each semester. Academic programs. The academic programs in HCMUT operate on a semester calendar from early August to mid May. They are classified in seven types of educational programs: Faculties. Ho Chi Minh University of Technology offers 33 Bachelor's Degrees, 41 Master's Degrees and 41 Doctorate Degrees in 11 faculties. Office for International Study Programs. Office for International Study Program (Abbreviation: OISP) is the center of management, admission, generating all international study  programs of HCMUT such as the Advanced Program, English Programs, Articulation Programs for both undergraduate and postgraduate study and the Executive MBA-MCI Program. History. In 1990, HCMUT initiated its first international partnership in education and research. In 2006, OISP is established to unify and professionalize the management system and operation of HCMUT's international study programs. Partner universities. Australia: Japan: United States: Extra-curricular activities. At HCMUT, students are offered with a variety of extra-curricular activities. Athletics. As there are many courts and fields on HCMUT campuses, students can always take part in an abundance of sport activities  such as basketball, volleyball, football, tennis... Occasionally, students of HCMUT can either take part in sports competitions among Faculties of the school or among institutions in Ho Chi Minh City. Achievements. Students of HCMUT have won 208 Olympic prizes in the fields of Mathematics, Physics, Informatics, Mechanics, Civil and Architecture Engineering in ten years after their first participation. Among those prizes there are 10 First prizes, 29 Second prizes and 72 Third prizes. In the 2014 National Olympic Contest in Mechanics, HCMUT became the leading institution with prizes awarded to 5 winning teams and 49 individuals. In 2015, HCMUT continues  to assert its leading position in this national competition with more prizes awarded to 8 winning teams and 60 individuals. In particular, the winning teams won 1 First prize, 2 Second prizes and 5 Third prizes. Among those 60 individual prizes there are 1 First prize, 14 Second prizes, 21 Third prizes and 24 Consolation prizes. The students have also brought back the Championship of Asia-Pacific Mini Robots Contest in 2002 (held in Japan), 2004 (South Korea) and 2006 (Malaysia). With the total amount of 314 million VND, the school has sponsored two high schools of Thanh Hóa, Long  An Province and Khanh Thuong-Khanh Vinh City, Khánh Hòa Province. 225 million was used by the labor union of HCMUT to build houses of gratitude and 118.6 million VND was used for building house for unfortunate people over the past 10 years. 253 million VND is spent for gifts offered to orphanages, charity-schools, disable children and children who suffer from dioxin. International partnership and Research collaboration. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Ho Chi Minh University of Technology have established a partnership to share academic curriculum and create an exchange program. Some of HCMUT's brightest undergraduate  and master's students will do their PhD research at Illinois. The Norwegian group Roxar AS has established a partnership with HCMUT. Roxar will assist the university in building a high-tech lab. The group hopes that some students will choose to work for it after they graduate. International research collaborations: