The Department of Space and Applications was established with the goal of training high-quality human resources in order to contribute to bringing Vietnam’s space industry to the international level.
Table of Content
1. General introduction
Space science and technology is a symbol of a country with a high level of technical development. In the 21st century, space science and technology support strong and sustainable economic growth. In Vietnam, the government is accelerating the development of the space industry in order to contribute to the public economic interests as well as affirm Vietnam’s sovereignty in space, commensurate with the status of a country of one hundred million people.
In that context, the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), under the leadership of the Government of Vietnam, has been promoting the development of space science and technology in Vietnam through the establishment of the Space Technology Institute (STI), the Vietnam National Space Center (VNSC), promoting the development of a space technology park at Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park.
In 2012, the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (USTH) established the Department of Space and Aeronautics, and officially named the Department of Space and Applications (SA Department) since 2016.
2. Education
Currently, the Department of Space and Applications is providing the bachelor, master and doctoral training programs in Space Science and Satellite Technology (SSST). This is the only program in Vietnam that provides the SSST training. All subjects are taught in English. Teaching content includes theoretical and practical parts; given by invited experts from abroad (especially French lecturers) and Vietnamese lecturers.
The University’s training and degree system is based on the LMD model – the Bologna process (Bachelor – Master – Doctorate) – a model that is being widely applied at most universities in Europe. The number of years for obtaining the bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees are 3 years – 5 years – 8 years (Bachelor takes 3 years, Master takes 2 years and PhD takes 3 years).
3. Student
With a network of partners in many countries around the world such as France, Japan, Korea, Canada, etc., on average, 60% of the department’s students could do their final bachelor or master internships abroad. Many students of the SA Department have successfully applied for jobs in prestigious enterprises and research organizations in Vietnam and abroad, such as Vietnam Space Center (VNSC), Viettel, Bosh, FPT Software, etc. or receive scholarships to study advanced programs at famous universities such as Ecole Polytechnique (France), Cornell University (USA), etc.
4. Research
One of the most proud facts of the Department of Space and Applied Science is its strength in research. The Department has the highest average number of scientific publications per tenured faculty in USTH. Research direction focuses on the fields of: climate change, earth system simulation, remote sensing, satellite technology. At the same time, the SA Department also pays great attention to promoting research cooperation with domestic and foreign partners. That contributes to creating an extensive network of research partners for the Department in particular and USTH in general.
