With the purpose of broadening and improving the effectiveness of international cooperation while maintaining national identity in education & training and nurturing Vietnamese youths, VNU aims to develop long term relations with well-known international universities and organizations by working together to do joint research and technology transfer at university and graduate level, hold international conferences, exchange students and lecturers, etc.

Currently, VNU has relations with 446 universities and educational organizations including the world leading ones such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT, Illinois University, Brown university, Tufts University, Hawaii University, Oregon University, Princeton University, University of California (USA), East London University, Leeds University, Nottingham University, East Anglia University (UK), Paris University of Technology, Paris Sud University, Toulouse University (France), Tokyo University, Kyoto University, Osaka University (Japan), Seoul National University (Korea), Beijing University, Tsinghua University (China), National University of Singapore, etc.

In addition to creating thousands of opportunities for students and staff members to go abroad for further study and welcoming foreign lecturers to work at VNU, we actively establishes partnerships with foreign partners?. Based on the framework agreements signed between VNU and international universities, VNU member universities and schools specify their cooperative research and training programs.

As the leading university in Vietnam, VNU is an official member of East Asian Universities Group (BESETOHA), including Beijing University, Seoul National University, and Tokyo University. It also takes part in the ASEAN University Network (AUN), UMAP, and AUF and is one of 13 members of ASCC. In 2008, VNU President was elected Chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning (ASAIHL). The Director of VNU Library and Information Center was elected General Secretary of Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL) for the 2006-2009 term. VNU member universities are also members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora CITES, etc.

Besides academic awards, VNU position has been asserted by the charisma of the scientists participating in lectures, conferences in the world and the editorial boards of reputable scientific journals. VNU is also internationally known for its successful organization of international meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the third International Conference on Vietnamese Studies, etc.