was established
in December 1992 by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) of Vietnam.
The initiative to start with ITIMS, found its origin in the cooperation since
1975 between the Universities of Amsterdam and Twente on Dutch side and the
University of Hanoi and the
University of Technology of Hanoi on Vietnamese side.During the First International Workshop on Materials Science held in Hanoi in 1990 and organized by the Institute of Physics and the four mentioned Dutch and Vietnamese universities, scientists from different countries supported the idea to try to establish a new education and research institution. Due to the availability of funds at Dutch side, the initiative got the form of a Vietnamese-Dutch cooperation project.
ITIMS endeavors to undertake research in areas immediately relevant to local needs as well as providing a comprehensive in-house teaching program. The first word of ITIMS, "International", means that ITIMS tries to keep its education and research according to international standards. It implies frequent contacts with the international scientific community through conferences and common research projects. Several foreign visiting professors and a number of foreign students have worked for a short period at ITIMS.
ITIMS has an International Advisory Board (IAB)
with scientists from 6
countries: Vietnam, The Netherlands, Sweden, France, India and England. IAB
meets once a year in Hanoi to discuss the main lines of the education and
research programs of ITIMS.Currently the education and research activities of ITIMS are based on cooperation with the outstanding research groups on Materials Science at Universities of Hanoi and the National Centre for Natural Science and Technology. These research groups (14 in total) form the network groups of ITIMS. The staff of the network groups is carrying out most of the education and research programs of ITIMS. During the coming years, the own staff of ITIMS will gradually increase and is expected to take over the large part of the work the groups are now doing for ITIMS.
From the end of 1997 onwards ITIMS will have its own building where modern laboratories will be set up for efficient training and research and intensified cooperation with the network groups and other national and international institutions.
ITIMS enrolls MSc students annually in August. The MSc program lasts two years. The MSc programs are continuously adapted to the progress of science and technology and to the needs of industries. During last year and in the coming years a lot of attention has been and will be paid to have more engineering components and more practicals in the course.
Since the start of the program in September 1993, 58 students got their Masters degree. In January 1997, in the occasion of the ceremony of graduation of the MSc students ITIMS' 1994, the ITIMS Alumni Association (IAA) has been established. It will be the bridge between ITIMS and the exterior world, industrial and business.
The research program of ITIMS is carried out by PhD students and by ITIMS staff through contacts with industries and other institutions. The ITIMS' PhD program is carried out in two ways: