China’s Tsinghua, Peking to offer degree pathways to Vietnamese students under cooperation deals

Hanoi Medical University signed a five-year memorandum of understanding with Peking University, which stands 13th worldwide in the Times Higher Education 2026 rankings and 14th in the QS 2026 rankings. Under the agreement, the two schools will exchange faculty and students, jointly train master’s and doctoral candidates, run joint scientific research and clinical trials, and share teaching materials, international publications and training experience.

“This cooperation opens up major opportunities between Hanoi Medical University and a world-leading institution that shares many similarities with us, is geographically close, and enjoys support and priority from both governments,” said Professor Nguyen Huu Tu, the university’s rector.

Peking University’s Health Science Center is consistently ranked among China’s top medical programs, and the Hanoi partnership gives Vietnamese medical students access to joint training, clinical research and international publication opportunities that have traditionally required travel to Europe or North America.

The agreements were signed during Party General Secretary and State President To Lam’s state visit to Beijing between April 14 and 17.

Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City signed a broader deal with Peking that covers the same exchange and research pillars plus double-degree and minor-degree programs, mutual credit recognition, and expanded short-term academic programs.

Hanoi University of Science and Technology anchored its Peking partnership on its core strengths: engineering, technology, data science, innovation and high-quality human-resource training. The school also signed separate agreements with Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Shanghai-based Donghua University.

Vietnam National University, Hanoi signed four agreements covering Tsinghua, Fudan University, Guangxi University and China Foreign Affairs University. Its member institutions, including the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, will deepen training and research ties with Peking University’s School of Foreign Languages and partner with Tsinghua on political science, international relations and linguistics.

The School of Law at Tsinghua University. Photo courtesy of Tsinghua University

Tsinghua, which has held 12th place in the Times Higher Education world rankings for three consecutive years, announced on its official Facebook page on April 17 that it had signed nine agreements with five Vietnamese universities.

Most of the deals were inked on April 14 at the Vietnam-China Forum on Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation, held at Tsinghua University, where Vietnam’s leader To Lam delivered a policy speech.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training said the forum drew about 100 leading institutions from both countries, with the 52 agreements focused on human resource training, scientific research and technology transfer. Vietnamese participants beyond the four flagships included the National Economics University, Thuy Loi University, CMC University and British University Vietnam.

China’s higher education sector has advanced rapidly over the past decade, with around 100 Chinese universities now appearing in major global rankings.

Tsinghua and Peking lead in fields including artificial intelligence, computer science, engineering, materials science, chemistry, business, economics and education. Other standout Chinese institutions include Fudan, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University, Nanjing University, Harbin Institute of Technology and the University of Science and Technology of China.