Students in the face of the rapid development speed of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), it is forecasted that, by 2030, even maybe shorter, about 30% of workers will have been replaced by robots. In active response to this burgeoning trend, member schools of the University of Da Nang (UDN) have attached the importance to developing fully-equipped facilities, creating very favourable conditions for teaching and learning processes so that students can adapt themselves to new technologies of Industry 4.0.

The wards ceremony of the Smart Campus 2019 contest for UDN students

In particular, the Smart Campus project, the first of its kind in Viet Nam, has been implemented by the International Institute of Technology (DNIIT) with the support of international experts from France-based University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis in cooperation with the member schools of UDN.

Smart Campus focuses on promoting technological applications and invention research to develop automated services based on new connectivity technologies and artificial intelligence.

Accordingly, the ‘smart’ services for universities are built on hardware and software platforms with flexible and open source tools based on IoT and artificial intelligence (AI).

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Doan Quang Vinh, the Rector of the Da Nang University of Science and Technology affirmed that this higher education establishment is ready to use innovative ideas developed by young talented students and lecturers. Besides, special heed has been paid to establishing a network with LoRa (short for long range) technology in association with such services as analysis, design, simulation and management for the sake of ‘smarter’ teaching-learning methods.

Not only does Smart Campus serve as an academic competition, it is also bubbled as a ‘ meaningful playground’ inspiring students to cultivate their creativity to make their ideas to fruition, hereby heading towards the orientation of building Da Nang into a ‘smart’ city’ in the near future.

Over recent years, UDN has been constantly renovating its governance skills, improving the quality of training courses through the application of many advanced teaching and learning methods successfully applied in the world. Notable amongst them are Project Based Learning, CDIO (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate) and Learning Express.

Since the 2017 - 2018 school year, the school has effectively applied the ‘Project-based learning’ method. Accordingly, students are given more time to study and practice their professional skills at businesses.

According to the ‘output standards’, graduates are required to have a high foreign language proficiency and possess such soft skills as self-study, critical-creative thinking, communication and team work to solve real-life professional problems.

Another outstanding achievement UDN has gain is the high efficiency of such high-quality training programmes as PFIEV (Vietnamese-French Training Programme of Excellent Engineers implemented since 1999), the Viet Nam-US Information Technology Programme under cooperative ties with Portland University and Washington University since 2004).

To date, the University of Da Nang has boasted a total of 20 training programmes which meet international quality standards. 17 of them have received certificates from the ASEAN University Network-Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) network and the remaining ones have been recognised by France’s Commission des Titres d'Ingénieur (CTI).

The quality of teaching and learning at UDN has facilitated its graduates to have easier access to employment and start-up opportunities. Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Vu, the UDN President affirmed, “Quality and international prestige are vital factors. The mission of UDN is to nurture talents, createthe most favourable environment to foster the creative spirit associated with the sense of social responsibility for the community”.