Kasetsart University is the first agricultural university and the third oldest university in Thailand established in 1943 with the primary aims in promoting subjects related to agricultural science. After 74 years of development, the University now covers many more subject areas such as science, education, medicine and health science, etc. To broaden out and open up opportunity of collaboration with more international partners as a vital development strategy, Faculty of Biology, HNUE had a successful visit to two Faculties of Kasetsart University (KU) on 13rd July, 2017.

The first impression to most delegations probably was the huge Bangkok campus where Faculty of Science and Faculty of Education are located. It is so large that there are streets inside itself and we moved between the Faculties by bus!

Awaiting and welcoming 28 delegations from HNUE were the staffs from KU Division Affairs, then we were guided to KU Faculty of Science building. The meeting started with a warm welcome from the representative of the Faculty. Perhaps, each of us was having our own thought while watching a short video showing information about KU but a clear vision, goal of the University were impressive to all. Kasetsart University aims to provide ‘Knowledge of the Land' to promote sustainable development by combining its strength in agricultural sciences with the King's philosophy. The University strives to become a green happy world-class university, and a socially responsible research university. Following that was more detail introduction from Asst. Prof. Sasimanas Unajak, Head of Department of Biochemistry, KU about what have been done and achieved in Faculty of Science. Their noticeable research focus areas are biosensor detection, anticancer and antivirus drug discovery, rationale vaccine design. On behalf of HNUE Faculty of Biology, Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Lan Hung Son appreciated for the hospitality and presented briefly about HNUE and the Faculty. He also introduced what research areas have been focused on in Faculty of Biology and would like to open for collaboration. After that was an exciting discussion on various matter such as how to transfer basic research into commercial products which is strength of KU Faculty of Science or how to find and secure grants for large projects, a common concern of all scientists. It looked really promising that collaborations would be established when everyone involved did not want to end the discussion session while time was running out.

At KU Faculty of Education, it was great honor to be welcomed by Ms. Charlotte Donavanik, a member of University Affairs Committee and Asst. Prof. Pongprapan Pongsophon who is in charge of Science Education in Department of Education. Useful and interesting information of KU Faculty of Education was presented such as their common values: being a change agent and creating innovation or students, like our childs, are the most important. It was an interactive presentation with many questions chipped in as the presentation went along. Training students to be science teachers in English, the length of practical teaching students at demonstration schools are examples of issues discussed. It was intriguing when the presenter started the talk by a question "Vietnamese students perform mysteriously well on tests?" and finished the talk by going back to the same question. To wrap up the meeting, two Faculties gave one another small gifts and both sides expressed a deep interest in promoting collaborations between the two Faculties.

With the effort of Faculty of Biology and the staff, this was the first time such a big group had visited an oversea university. Hopefully, more international collaborations and such visits will be established and continued in the years ahead.

Following are some photos of the trip:

Meeting up with Faculty of Science

Meeting up with Faculty of Education