November 1, 2022

Nurturing collaborations with partners across the world is the core work of the Global Partnerships team at UBC’s Office of the Vice-Provost International (OVPI). “As Canada aims to enhance its ties with the Asia-Pacific, we want to do something to advance that agenda,” said Haochen Li, Manager of Global Partner Engagement and Strategy. “UBC is a global centre for teaching and research, and Canada’s leading academic resource on Asia. The university plays a vital role in enhancing Canada’s economic, cultural and people-to-people ties with Asia.”

That seed of an idea led to a pilot, the Asia Blueprinting Project, launched in 2021. The initial phase involved researching partnership opportunities in Southeast Asia, and that research identified individual human capital and institutional capacity building as potential areas for collaboration ­— and from that came the plan to run a training program on university management for an institutions in Vietnam.

UBC’s Dr. Christina Hendricks and Dr. Andrea Han, along with Dr. Nguyen Duy Mong Ha from USSH, led the workshop sessions on innovative teaching design and quality assurance (photo: Haochen Li)

Global Partnerships serves as a first point of contact with UBC for international collaborators, welcomes partners to both the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses, coordinates delegation visits, and creates, maintains and forges new partnership agreements, of which UBC has some 300 worldwide.

Li’s research revealed that Vietnamese universities were interested in administration best practices in the social sciences and humanities. Based on that, as a start, the team put together an online training for a group of about 40 mid- to senior-level university administrators from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH) Aug. 8 to 26.  

“While growing fast in scale, Vietnam’s higher education sector lacks human and institutional resources to train talents that can meet the needs of industries,” Li noted.

OVPI Managing Director Cheryl Dumaresq opened the workshop with an overview of Canada’s higher education sector and governance at UBC (photo: Haochen Li)

Based on USSH’s interests, the six-session workshop covered university management and efficiency, a look at the structure of the Canadian higher education system, university strategic planning, quality assurance, student services, faculty administration and research management.

UBC political science professor Dr. Yves Tiberghien led the workshop on the hiring and promotion of faculty members, and research management in social sciences and humanities (photo: Haochen Li)

UBC speakers spearheaded each session, followed by USSH administrator commentary and Q&A with the audience. The roster included USSH Vice-President Dr. Le Hoang Dung with UBC’s Professor Moura Quayle, Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President, Academic Affairs; from the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, Dr. Christina Hendricks, Academic Director, and Dr. Andrea Han, Associate Director, Curriculum and Course Services; Kimberley Rawes, Manager, Career and Professional Development; political science professor Dr. Yves Tiberghien, Konwakai Chair in Japanese Research and Director Emeritus of the Institute of Asian Research.

Dr. Murali Chandrashekaran, former UBC Vice-Provost, International, and Dr. Le Hoang Dung, USSH’s Vice-President, signed a Statement of Cooperation between the two universities (photo: Haochen Li)

UBC faculty and staff delivered the workshop virtually on Zoom with USSH interpretation from English to Vietnamese. Before the first session, UBC and USSH held an opening ceremony where the two universities signed a Statement of Cooperation, which establishes a foundation for enhancing collaboration between the two. The Consul General of Canada in Ho Chi Minh City represented the Government of Canada at the event.

Professor Moura Quayle, UBC’s Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President, Academic Affairs, spoke on the university’s strategic planning process (photo: Haochen Li)

USSH colleagues said UBC speakers offered real-life examples in detail. They said presentations were “clear and focused,” and that they learned “lots of new and practical” insights on university management. Commented one: “It’s helpful to have this opportunity to compare and contrast on how to manage people, evaluate teaching and conduct research.”

Li said the USSH staff are very dedicated to the university’s mission and that “their innovative thinking showed throughout this process. Many are emerging young faculty members who studied abroad, returned back to Vietnam and are working hard to improve the system,” he said.

Behzad Bakakhani, Canada’s Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, spoke at the opening ceremony in support of Canadian universities’ academic engagement with their Vietnamese counterparts (photo: Haochen Li)

Workshop attendees will fill out a post-event survey to help improve the offerings, Li said. The aim is to expand the project to include other universities in Southeast Asia.

“This is a great opportunity to expand our engagement in the region,” said Li, “and it’s a mutually beneficial process. We learned a lot from them.”

Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. As Canada and Vietnam celebrate their 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2023, OVPI hopes to do more with Vietnamese universities so that UBC’s students and scholars will have better opportunities to experience the economic and social dynamism of the country. For one, the Global Partnerships team and Go Global are planning an undergraduate research program in Vietnam in summer 2023.

Find out more about global partnership opportunities and the work of UBC’s Office of the Vice-Provost International.