Top Vietnamese scholars will study at NIU

by Tom Parisi

A new agreement between Northern Illinois University and the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) will bring top scholars to DeKalb to pursue their doctoral degrees.

Congress created and funds the VEF, based in Washington, D.C., to promote closer bilateral relations with Vietnam through scholarships and educational exchange programs.

Under a memorandum of understanding with the foundation, NIU will give tuition waivers to the Vietnamese scholars, while the U.S. State Department will provide funding support for other costs related to the fellowships. All fellows are required to return to Vietnam after completing their academic programs in the United States.

Rathindra Bose, NIU vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School, was instrumental in forging the agreement. He said the first Vietnamese fellows are expected to arrive on campus in the fall of 2006. They will concentrate their doctoral studies in areas of strength at the university, including Southeast Asian studies, physics, biology, education and psychology.

“This is a good match for NIU,” Bose said. “Our Center for Southeast Asian Studies is internationally renowned, and we already have some students from Vietnam studying at NIU.

“The new agreement will expand our efforts to bring in very talented students from abroad,” Bose added. “These international educational exchanges help erase misperceptions that foreign students might have about the United States and promote good will between countries.”

The Vietnam Education Foundation is in its second year of operation and receives the full support of the U.S. National Academies in its fellowship selection process. The foundation has more than 100 fellows at 37 top U.S. graduate institutions. Those institutions include Brown, Columbia, John Hopkins, Princeton, Purdue, Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The VEF is governed by a board of directors whose members include Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Treasury John Snow, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and several congressmen.

“These VEF fellows will become leaders in science and education in Vietnam and will help improve the country in profound ways,” said Lynne McNamara, senior program officer of VEF. “We are very pleased that Northern Illinois University has joined the VEF alliance.”

More information on the Vietnam Education Foundation is available online at www.vef.gov.

6-6-05