At the ceremony, the British Council Director of Education and Society Hoang Van Anh shared activities related to the internationalization of higher education and some social activities of the British Council being implemented in Vietnam. The higher education globalization program supports the national education reform process in Vietnam, bringing international elements into teaching and learning curricula in universities and colleges. In Vietnam, universities play an important role in socio-economic development and are currently in the development stage, implementing the autonomy model and university governance in the new era.

In his opening speech, VNU Vice President Pham Bao Son said that VNU has all strengths and resources to play a leading role in the higher education system, promoting innovation associated with digital transformation as well as international integration and globalization.

VNU highly appreciates the collaboration and cooperation opportunities between the UK’s and Vietnam’s universities and VNU's scientific community in an attempt to jointly create a science community for sustainable development in Vietnam.

VNU Vice President emphasized that VNU's achievements as well as its social values would not have been possible without the contributions of female leaders. To show respect for the great value that female leaders have contributed, VNU Scientist Links has proposed to build the project “Empowering women leadership in higher education towards digitalization and globalization ages”, which had the honour to be funded by the British Council.

The project aims at awakening the potential and leadership role of women in higher education institutions in the new era; supporting the implementation of VNU’s partner universities’ strategies in digital transformation and innovation orientation. The project also aims to build a network of female leaders from the UK, Vietnam and ASEAN universities to contribute to realizing VNU’s strategy in particular and the innovation of the Vietnamese higher education in general.

Head of the Executive Committee of VNU Scientist Links, Vice Rector of VNU Vietnam - Japan University Tran Thi Thanh Tu said that the project had the purpose of providing knowledge and skills for women leaders in Vietnamese higher education institutions and empowering women leadership in the context of digitalization and globalization.

The project is expected to provide a series of activities including training courses, periodic and annual dialogues, seminars from leading experts in the UK and Vietnam and leaders from Vietnamese higher education institutions.

In addition, by building a digital platform and providing a virtual space, the Project will create a network for women leaders in higher education institutions to exchange knowledge and ideas. Additionally, the experiences and knowledge about digitalization and globalization, shared by professors from the UK and leaders from ASEAN and Vietnam will help the women leaders in Vietnam develop their capacity to better adapt to the process of digitalization and globalization.

Director of VNU Information Technology Institute Tran Xuan Tu expressed his commitment together with VNU Scientist Links to well perform the task of the lead of the project “Empowering women leadership in higher education towards digitalization and globalization ages”.