On the morning of October 24, the University of Danang (UD) organized the plenary meeting between Ulysseus European Universities Alliance (Ulysseus) and UD’s leaders. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Vu - Member of Da Nang City Party Committee, President of UD chaired the meeting and worked with the senior delegation from Ulysseus Alliance.

The Plenary meeting at UD

This is the first working visit after the courtesy visit and signing MOU with Côte d'Azur University (French Republic, member of the Ulysseus Alliance) of UD leaders.

President Nguyen Ngoc Vu delivered the opening remark

Attending the meeting were Prof. Jeanick Brisswal- President, Université Côte d'Azur (UCA), (France); Prof. Miguel Ángel Castro Arroyo- Rector, University of Seville (Spain); Prof. Dr. Carmen Vargas- General Coordinator of Ulysseus, Vice-Rector for Institutional Relations and Internationalization, University of Seville (Spain); Prof. Salla Huttunen- Vice President, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (Finland); Prof. Laura Gaggero-Vice Rector, University of Genoa (Italia); Prof. Pekovic Sanja- Vice Rector, University of Montenegro (Montenegro); Prof. Altmann Andrea- Rector, MCI Management Center Innsbruck (Austria); Prof. Mesáros Peter- Rector, Technical University of Košice (TUKE) (Slovakia).

Prof. Dr. Carmen Vargas- General Coordinator of Ulysseus,

Vice-Rector for Institutional Relations and Internationalization, University of Seville (Spain) gave a presentation

Attending the meeting, there were also Ms. Le Thi Thu Hanh - Deputy Director of Da Nang Department of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Le Son Phong - Deputy Director of Da Nang Department of Information and Communications and other departments, agencies, and associations of Da Nang city; Central and local press agencies and UD’s leaders/managers, scientists/experts.

On the side of UD, there was Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Vu – UD President; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Quang Son – UD Vice President; Prof. Dr. Sc. Le Thanh Nhan - Director of UD- Danang International Institute of Technology (UD-DNIIT); Dr. Nguyen Thi My Huong – Dean of the VN-UK Institute for Research and Executive Education and representatives of Administrative Office and relevant departments and centers.

Vice President Le Quang Son briefly introduced the University of Danang

Speaking at the opening session of the plenary meeting, UD President Nguyen Ngoc Vu shared: “It is our honor to warmly welcome a senior delegation from the Ulysseus European Universities to visit and work with the University of Danang. Your presence today shows great affection, the determination to promote the cooperation relationship between Ulysseus and UD after the MoU was signed in Nice, the French Republic in June 2023. It can be said that the official ceremony today is an extremely important event opening a new and promising period of cooperation under the context and development requirements of the two sides”.

President Nguyen Ngoc Vu also shared that with nearly 30 years of establishment and development of UD as well as nearly 50 years of history of its member universities, UD has trained many high-quality engineers, economic managers, teachers, and businessmen, serving the socio–economic development of Central Vietnam and Central Highlands in particular, the whole country in general. Currently, UD is identified as one of the three training and scientific research centers in the country, therefore, the Vietnamese government is planning to upgrade UD to be a national university of Vietnam along with the 2 Vietnam National Universities (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City) to strengthen facilities to meet the development requirements in the upcoming period.

Over the past 25 years, UD has established cooperation relationships with more than 40 universities and institutions from foreign countries in the European Union. The collaborative activities between UD and European universities have brought many opportunities for UD's students and lecturers to experience learning and research as well as enhance the facilities of the Regional University. This cooperation has contributed to improve the training and research capacity of UD, and this capacity is transformed into a valuable resource through training, research, and technology transfer activities

Prof. Jeanick Brisswal- President, Université Côte d'Azur (UCA), (France) shared his ideas

Senior Representatives of member universities of

Ulysseus Alliance shared their ideas

Over the past 25 years, UD has established cooperation relationships with more than 40 universities and institutions of European Union. The collaborative activities between UD and European universities have brought many opportunities for UD's students and lecturers to experience learning and research abroad as well as enhance the facility capacity

Senior Representatives of member universities of

Ulysseus Alliance shared their ideas

As an official member of The ASEAN European Academic University Network (ASEA-UNINET) and The Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), UD has had a great opportunity to learn many experiences in human resource development from European countries, submit and receive the funding for many international projects within the framework of Erasmus+ program, AUF, and other organizations.

President Nguyen Ngoc Vu highly acknowledged and gave special thanks to the support of leaders of European universities for the development of UD. Therefore, becoming an official strategic partner of Ulysseus is a great chance for UD to open extensive international cooperation through the establishment of new relationships with member universities of Ulysseus Alliance.

Representatives of Da Nang Department of Foreign Affairs (outermost

Right image) and relevant Institutes of UD presented presentations

“By becoming the first non-European strategic partner of the Ulysseus Alliance, UD will contribute to diversify and highlight the presence of the Ulysseus Alliance in Southeast Asia, help to connect with authorities of provinces/ cities of Vietnam, especially in the Central region. UD commits to comprehensive support for the operation of Ulysseus Hub which will be located at UD-DNIIT – one of UD’s affiliated units” affirmed President Nguyen Ngoc Vu.

UD President and leaders of member universities of Ulysseus Alliance

signed the Plenary meeting Minutes

On this occasion, President Nguyen Ngoc Vu also hoped that Ulysseus would pay more attention to UD in general and UD’s member universities in particular, as well as support UD to strengthen cooperation relationships with Universities in the Ulysseus Alliance in exchanging lecturers and students and co-seeking joint research projects funded by governments and international organizations, especially projects from the European Community, actively contribute to the socio-economic development, sustainable education,  smart city building, , green and clean energy usage, climate change responses...

UD President (left) and

President of Cote d'Azur University expressed their happiness

with the long-lasting strategic partnership between the two universities

An opportunity for increasing understanding,

connecting cooperation between UD

and European universities

At the meeting, leaders of UD and member universities of the Ulysseus Alliance introduced the overview, potential, and strengths, thereby proposing ideas and directions for bilateral/multilateral cooperation, aiming to meet common needs, interests, and trends.

The highlight of the Plenary Session was the Minutes signing ceremony between the Ulysseus Alliance and the University of Danang, agreeing on working results and the policy of promoting comprehensive cooperation between UD and Ulysseus Alliance.

The two sides agreed on the direction to establish a "Hub" (located at UD- DNIIT) to promote the potential and advantages of UD with the Ulysseus Alliance; opening a new phase of development cooperation for common benefits in the process of Asian European higher education integration.

Group photo taking

On the same day, at UD’s member universities such as UD- University of Science and Technology, UD-University of Economics, UD-University of Science and Education, UD-University of Foreign Language Studies, UD-University of Technology and Education, UD-VN-Korea University of Information and Communication Technology, UD-DNIIT and Ulysseus Alliance also coordinated to organize seminars between leaders, experts, scientists, and research groups to exchange and discuss in-depth contents of collaborative research projects.

The Working visit of the Ulysseus Alliance

And the minutes signing ceremony with UD were a new hallmark

opening opportunities for sustainable development cooperation

This was the basis for representatives of UD’s member universities and research groups to synthesize, report, and unify common cooperation at the Ulysseus-Danang Forum Collaboration in Education-Research-Innovation for Smart City (UDERIF-2023) which was held at UD on October 25.