Vietnam university becomes first globally to offer University of Technology Sydney's program

The tuition fee is equivalent to one-third of the cost in Australia.

The two universities signed an agreement on Wednesday for an international engineering bachelor's degree training program under the Transnational Education model.

Assoc. Prof. Pham Tran Vu, vice rector of HCMUT, said students would complete the entire bachelor's program in three years in HCMC with some classes taught by lecturers sent over by the Australian university.

The degree is awarded by UTS and globally recognized, he said.

"Vietnamese students will have access to a world-class program without having to study abroad. The admission process and output standards will be managed by UTS."

Pham Tran Vu (L), Vice President of the HCMC University of Technology, and Iain Watt, Senior Vice President (International) of the University of Technology Sydney after signing the joint program of the two universities.Photo courtesy of HCMUT

In the first year the program will enroll 200 students in artificial intelligence and information technology.

The tuition is around VND128 million (US$4,945) per semester.

Vu noted said these two fields are in high demand and closely tied to the trends of digital transformation and the digital economy in Vietnam and globally, and they are also strengths of the two universities.

Leo Mian, vice rector of UTS, said students would study UTS's curriculum and have access to its library, online resources and support services just like those studying in the Sydney campus.

They will also be supported by HCMUT's teaching staff and academic advisors.

Prof. Nguyen Ngoc Diep, director of Agile Communications and computing group, the faculty of engineering and information technology, UTS, said many universities in Southeast Asia are interested in tying up with UTS for this program.

But it chose HCMUT because of the quality of the training and research during the 18 years of cooperation between the two universities.

Not many international universities offer these subjects in Vietnam due to the large investment required in labs, software and faculty training.

"Our top priority is to ensure the training quality is the same as in Sydney. UTS lecturers will teach directly in HCMC. Students will benefit from this as the tuition fee is less than one-third of the cost at the university’s main campus," Diep said.

In the long term the two universities plan to expand into fields such as electronics engineering, microchip design and control engineering – automation.

UTS, one of the leading universities in Australia, ranks 88th in the 2025 QS World University Rankings, in which British higher education analytics firm Quacquarelli Symonds ranked more than 1,500 universities worldwide.

Its data science and artificial intelligence programs are in the top 40, and computer science and information systems rank 73rd.

Founded in 1957, HCMUT is the largest center for training, scientific research and technology transfer in southern Vietnam.

It has over 32,000 students at its two campuses in District 10 and Thu Duc City.

According to 2023 Ministry of Education and Training data, there are around 300 international partnership programs across the country.

Of them over 62% of foreign partners are not ranked or are outside the top 1,000 universities globally.