About This Department

Department: FACULTY OF ARTS & SCIENCES
Insitution: VinUniversity
  Hanoi
Vietnam
 

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is the first home for all students enrolled at VinUniversity as they embark on a nuanced journey of self-discovery in a state-of-the-art tertiary education designed in collaboration with leading universities in the world, top minds in Vietnam and passionate stakeholders. In this sense, General Education at VinUniversity is essentially a “gateway” between past and future, theory and practice, and local and global. This is where students, faculty and staff collectively take the first step towards realizing VinUniversity’s mission of contributing to the betterment of Vietnam and the world.

Our Faculty of Arts and Sciences takes inspiration from the three principles of education reform, namely “dan toc” , “khoa hoc” and “dai chung” put forth by Vietnam’s longest-serving Minister of Education, the late Professor Nguyen Van Huyen, who strived to develop an education system to build a modern nation for all Vietnamese citizens in the trying times of post-independence Vietnam.

For the betterment of Vietnam as a nation and to contribute to the world as members of the global community, General Education at VinUniversity begins with developing in each individual a conscientious and critical understanding of the self, Vietnam and the world. To develop a reflexive understanding of the self, we encourage students to step out of their comfort zone, self-cultivate an open mind, and most importantly, to dare to dream! Yet, to be able to do so means developing a grounded and critical understanding of the past and present of Vietnam, how we understand ourselves and how others try to understand us, and finally, how we could together look to the future. To find our place in the world and to have a voice in how our future could be, General Education at VinUniversity is thoroughly infused with a global-local approach in the design of class-based courses and co-curricular programs. We approach the global with a view that “digital is the new global” and ask, “What are the possibilities we may uncover in the age of globalization underlined by digital infusion?”

To fully explore possibilities of how the digital could change the world and help us fulfill the primary mission of VinUniversity, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at VinUni aspires to become a model bona-fide interdisciplinary core curriculum in Vietnam. Taking onboard experiences in multi-disciplinary, cross-disciplinary, and interdisciplinary research and teaching from across the world and different intellectual traditions, we adopt a grounded but innovative approach in the design of courses in collaboration with faculty, students, and relevant stakeholders in state and society. Serving as the core curriculum for all VinUniversity students, each course in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is designed to plant the seeds that will help students ask “big questions” about past and present, to develop the capacity to learn new skills and to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Our co-curricular programs, planned in collaboration with a wide of range external stakeholders, extend beyond the initial year to take students out of the classrooms to fully reap the benefits of experiential learning.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is the place where you will encounter like-minded passionate and innovative academics who are devoted to education and grounded in interdisciplinary, socially engaged, and global/digital research specialization.

To competently serve society with heart and mind, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences seeks to begin cultivating in each student six identified attributes, namely: Character, Competence, Critical Thinking, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and National Pride-Global Awareness. Right from the beginning, we encourage students to ask the questions, “what could you do for society” and “how would you go about actualizing your goals?” To enable students to be a part of VinUniversity’s founding mission, we seek to develop future leaders who take pride in their national heritage, are global-minded, have character, and possess an entrepreneurial spirit. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is where this journey begins.