In deal to boost Asia’s tech workforce, Vietnamese students can earn South Korean degrees without leaving Vietnam

The franchise-style program, dubbed KNU Vietnam, will operate on FPT University’s Hanoi campus and offer degrees in business administration and intelligent information technology. Students will study full-time in Vietnam but receive the same diploma as graduates from KNU’s main campus in Daegu.

They can also transfer to South Korea at any point, according to a memorandum of understanding signed between the two schools on March 5 in Hanoi.

The arrangement became possible after South Korea revised the enforcement decree of its Higher Education Act in 2024, allowing universities to run overseas franchise programs through inter-university agreements without prior government approval, the Korea Times reported.

KNU will supply the curriculum, faculty standards, teaching methods and assessment systems. FPT University will handle campus operations in Hanoi. Classes are expected to begin in the second half of 2026, according to the Korea Herald.

“The KNU program implemented in Vietnam will be operated according to the same academic standards as in Korea,” KNU President Heo Young-woo said at the signing ceremony.

Admission requires an IELTS score of at least 5.5 and a minimum Grade 12 GPA of 6.5. The program aims to reach 1,000 students per year within five to 10 years of operation, KNU Vietnam Director Hoang Viet Ha told Dan Tri.

The partnership comes amid growing demand for skilled technology workers in both countries. Some 10,000 South Korean companies operate in Vietnam, many of which struggle to find employees with advanced technical qualifications, according to Bok Dug-gyou, a deputy director at the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA).

FPT Corporation CEO Nguyen Van Khoa said both Vietnam and South Korea need more than 1.5 million workers in core technology fields such as AI, automation and semiconductors, and the program would help train engineers equipped for the global market.

South Korean Education Minister Choi said training talent with technological knowledge and a global mindset is essential as both countries navigate what he called a sweeping wave of AI and digital transformation.

KNU, a public university founded in 1946 in Daegu, is ranked 519th globally in the QS World University Rankings 2026. In South Korea, public universities established by the government carry “national” in their names to distinguish them from private institutions, which make up the majority of the country’s higher education sector.