Australia's prestigious RMIT University makes a mark in Vietnam

Vietnam branch of Australian university has most students among 15 international campuses surveyed

Published: 13-Feb-12

PHNOM PENH (Cambodia Herald) - The Ho Chi Minh City branch of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (pictured), an Australian public university, had the highest number of students among 15 international branch campuses of universities surveyed in 2010-2011, the English edition of Sai Gon Giai Phong reported Monday.

The report by the Vietnamese newspaper quoted British-based Borderless Higher Education as saying that RMIT International University Vietnam had 5,145 students last month with 5,000 undergraduates and 145 doing postgraduate studies. The nearest competitor in terms of student numbers was the Malaysian campus of Monash University, another public Australian university also from Melbourne, with about 5,000 students, the report said.

Professor Merilyn Liddell, the president of RMIT Vietnam, was quoted as saying that the campus now had more than, 6,000 students.

“We’re pleased to see that the success of RMIT Vietnam in attracting students is being recognized in such a prestigious international publication,” she said.

“It’s notable that universities originating from Australia feature very prominently on the top 15 list, even though they make up only six per cent of the total of all universities with international branch campuses – 12 out of 200, in contrast to 78 universities linked to institutions in the United States."

Apart from Vietnam and Malaysia, the 15 international branch campuses surveyed were located in China, Japan and Singapore as well as Bahrain, Dubai and southern Africa.