The University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (USTH) will join a higher education project for Laos’s Ministry of Education and Sports (LMES) as a partner university.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by representatives of the USTH and the LMES’s Department of Higher Education in Hanoi on August 14.

Under the MoU, starting from the 2012-2013 academic year, the USTH will provide scholarships for a maximum of 15 Lao cadres and lecturers annually to attend international master’s courses at its campus.

The scholarships will cover tuition and registration fees for the whole courses while Laos will pay for return flights, accommodation, and other expenses during its students’ stay in Vietnam.

In addition, the USTH will hold extra courses to improve English language skills for Lao students as part of a US$2 million project funded by the Asian Development Bank.

The programme is expected to last until 2016.

USTH is the first international public university in Vietnam to be established under a bilateral agreement between the Vietnamese and French governments to train high-quality human resources for the local science and technology sector.