VINUNI WELCOMES COHORT 6, INAUGURATES NEW PROVOST AND DISTINGUISHED ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP

VinUniversity has officially held its Opening Ceremony for the 2025–2026 academic year under the theme “Breakthrough to Lead”, welcoming over 700 outstanding freshmen and introducing its new Provost – Professor Yap-Peng Tan, former senior leader of Nanyang Technological University (NTU, Singapore), together with a distinguished academic leadership team. The event reaffirmed VinUni’s aspiration to pursue excellence and realize its ambition of joining the world’s Top 100 universities.

The ceremony welcomed more than 700 freshmen, including 37 international students. With international students now representing 5% of the student body and coming from 35 countries and territories, VinUni is steadily becoming a trusted destination for global learners. This academic year, the university expects to host an additional 600 international students at both undergraduate and graduate levels through exchange and international partnership programs.

This year’s incoming class has set a new benchmark of quality: freshmen achieved an average SAT score of 1480 and an average IELTS score of 7.5. Remarkably, 100% of the new students have earned academic awards or demonstrated exceptional talents in extracurricular, cultural, artistic, or athletic pursuits.

The ceremony also marked the official appointment of Prof. Yap-Peng Tan, former Deputy Dean and Interim Dean of the College of Engineering at NTU, as Provost of VinUniversity, and Prof. Ling San, former Deputy President and Provost of NTU, as Senior Deputy President of the VinUniversity Council.

Prof. Yap-Peng Tan is a renowned scientist in image and video processing, computer vision, pattern recognition, machine learning, artificial intelligence and data analytics, and a visionary leader who has strongly promoted interdisciplinary education, global partnerships, and co-innovation labs (collaborative research hubs between universities and enterprises) at NTU.

Prof. Ling San is an accomplished mathematician in combinatorial design, coding theory, cryptography, and number sequences. He was also a key academic leader who contributed significantly to NTU’s ascent into the global top tier, helping the university reach 12th in the QS World University Rankings (2026), with many STEM disciplines ranked among the world’s Top 10.

The presence of these two leaders – who helped transform NTU, a young Asian university, into a world-class institution – is expected to propel VinUni toward excellence and strengthen its integrated ecosystem of education, research, and innovation. Prof. Yap-Peng Tan, President of VinUni, shared: “I came to Vietnam to drive breakthroughs together with VinUni. I hope VinUni will become a testament to the power of global collaboration, not only in educating resilient global citizens but also in creating scientific and technological solutions that contribute to Vietnam’s sustainable development.”

At the ceremony, VinUni also announced the initial results of the VinUni 500 Campaign, an initiative to attract 500 global scholars in response to Resolution 57-NQ/TW (2024) of the Politburo on breakthroughs in science, technology, and innovation.

In the 2025–2026 academic year alone, VinUni has already brought together 100 global scholars, including 45 research faculty, 15 visiting scholars, and 40 assistant professors. Alongside the Opening Ceremony, the university also announced the establishment of new RISE Centers and welcomed leading professors:

• Prof. Vu Ha Van, Yale University professor, appointed as University Council member and Scientific Director of the VinUni Institute for Big Data.
• Prof. Duong Nguyen Vu, former NTU professor, appointed as Vice Provost for Graduate Studies and Scientific Director of the AI Research Center.
• Prof. Edmund J. Malesky, Duke University professor, to establish and lead the Smart Green Transformation Center.
• Prof. Phan Manh Huong, University of South Florida professor, to establish and lead the Advanced Materials Innovation Center.

Speaking at the event, Prof. Phan Manh Huong shared: “On this Opening Day, when we talk about ‘Breakthrough to Lead,’ I am reminded of the journey of science: every advancement begins with curiosity and perseverance. I hope that VinUni’s Class of 2029 will persist with difficult questions, because breakthroughs in thinking are what enable us to make meaningful contributions to the future of Vietnam and the world.”

The new research centers will be developed into interdisciplinary clusters focusing on smart health, smart environment, artificial intelligence, and big data. Here, R&D experts from the enterprise ecosystem – particularly from VinFast, Vinmec, VinRobotics, and VinMotion – will collaborate with VinUni faculty and students to build strong research groups, promote scientific publications, develop patents, advance technology transfer, and foster innovative startups.

With the leadership of esteemed academic figures and a growing community of global scholars, VinUni is entering a new phase of development – reaffirming its breakthrough aspirations and contributing to elevating Vietnam’s intellectual standing on the global academic map.