Vietnam will start offering its first graduate program of Space Science and Applications in the next school year, starting in September, under cooperation between a local university and a number of French partners.

The University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (USTH) has agreed to work with Paris 7 (Paris Diderot) University, the Paris Observatory, Reims University, and Toulouse University to run the program, which will take two years to finish.

All courses, co-accredited by Vietnam and France, will be delivered in English, with the teaching of French as a second language. Eighty percent of faculty will be professors from the above French institutions.

The Vietnam National Satellite Center, a state-owned research agency, will employ at least five graduates of this program each year, according to an MOU it signed with the school.

USTH is a public university founded in 2009 through an intergovernmental agreement between the Vietnamese government and its French counterpart.

Vietnam has put considerable investments into the space industry in recent years, evidenced by the launching of its first satellite in 2008. It sent the second into orbit in May of this year.