Hanoi University of Agriculture is a key national university, a leader in human resource training and scientific research for agriculture and rural development, becoming more and more diversified in fields of study with ever increasing prestige among the higher education system of Vietnam.

Hanoi University of Agriculture dates back to the founding of the University of Agriculture and Forestry on October 12, 1956. Since its foundation, the University has been renamed several times with hardships and achievements, all the while striving to advance excellence in teaching and research. It has also shared its human and material resources for capacity building towards establishment of other universities and research institutes in the country.

After many twists and turns, Hanoi University of Agriculture is now known as the leading university among the community of agriculture, forestry and fishery universities in the country.

Hanoi University of Agriculture (HUA), which is under the Ministry of Education and Training, is located in Trau Quy township, Gia Lam district, Hanoi, capital of Vietnam. Situated on a campus of nearly 200 ha, the university has a system of modern lecture halls, experimental and practical facilities, spacious dormitories, a modern library system, a large gymnastic and sports complex, and many other crucial teaching, learning and research facilities.

HUA is a large scale multi-disciplinary University with nearly 1,300 staff members and 25,000 students.

It has 01 graduate School and 13 Faculties, comprised of Agronomy, Animal Science and Aquaculture, Veterinary Medicine, Land Resources Management and Environment, Engineering, Economics and Rural Development, Accounting and Business Management, Political and Social Sciences, Food Science and Technology, Information Technology, Biotechnology, Education and Foreign Languages, and National Defense Education.

The University has four Research Institutes: Agro-Biology, Rice Research, Economics and Development, and Engineering Research and Training.

The University has 12 Centers for Research and Services, 1 publishing house, and 1 company (Ltd.) that functions primarily to transfer technical advances to meet societal demands.

HUA has 46 undergraduate training programs, 15 Master training programs, and 20 Doctoral training programs. In addition to the traditional fields of study related to agriculture, HUA has developed new training programs in other fields in its trend towards a multi-disciplinary university. Of particular note, the University has developed several joint training programs with foreign partners.

Every year, HUA enrolls roughly 9,000 freshmen students pursuing differing types of training, 1,250 Master students and nearly 100 Doctoral students.

Hanoi University of Agriculture considers students the center of education and thus always creates the best conditions for students to be trained, following the motto “Learn to know, learn to do, learn to live together, learn to be”. This teaches students to be well prepared for life-long learning, to work creatively with a high sense of responsibility and cooperation for the sake of mutual benefit of self, community, and the whole society.

Since its foundation, Hanoi University of Agriculture has produced nearly 70,000 undergraduates, 3,500 Masters and 350 PhDs. These alumni have made great contributions to the national development of Vietnam. Many of them have been holding key posts in state agencies at central and local levels, or are famous experts in academic institutions and businesses across the country and overseas.

Since its early days, the University has laid down as a key policy the combination of training with scientific research and practical service under the motto “Scientific research is vital to the University”. Therefore, the University has gained remarkable achievements in scientific research, social service and the transmission of cultural values, especially in regards to agricultural production and rural development:

In the field of crop breeding, following famous rice varieties developed in the past decades, scientists at the HUA have been the vanguard in applying breeding technologies to develop hybrid crop varieties with high heterosis, mastering gene and cellular technologies. HUA is the first agency that was successful in breeding two-line hybrid rice varieties in Vietnam. In recent years, HUA scientists have bred high yielding and highly resistant rice varieties, which have been recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as national varieties and are widely used throughout the country.

HUA is the first agency in Vietnam to breed hybrid tomato varieties bearing the exclusive trademark HT, with high quality, solid pericarp, allowing chemical-free preservation, and meeting the demands of export processing companies and domestic consumers. Different varieties of soybeans, carnation flowers, and non-seed papaya developed by the University have been widely used for production across the country.

In the field of fertilizer, HUA scientists have successfully isolated effective micro-organisms to produce micro-biological fertilizers from household and agricultural wastes, producing a leaf-sprayed fertilizer named POMIOR, as well as pellet NK, NPK and multi-microelement fertilizers that have been recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and extensively used in rice and maize production across the country.

In the field of animal science and veterinary medicine, the most important achievements in the early 1970s was the research work on crossbreeding Dai Bach x Mong Cai pigs and controlling the parasite Trypanosoma evans. These research endeavors have merited the prestigious Ho Chi Minh Awards. Research on nutritional value of various feeds has also received the State Award. Recently, animal scientists have had success research results and transferred into practice technologies for processing crop by-products into animal feeds and animal waste management. HUA has also succeeded in developing a vaccine against cholera in ducks, and a kit for the diagnosis of “blue ear” disease in pigs, which are of high applicability in production, thus contributing to disease prevention and minimizing losses for farmers.

In the field of agricultural engineering, HUA scientists have been successful in developing many models of agricultural machines, such as the cage wheel system named Agriculture No. 1, a pineapple foliage chopping and burying machine, a hole digging machine for forestry tree planting, a cassava harvester, poultry egg incubators, agro-product dryers, and a grain classifying and composting machine, all of which have been used by different companies for machinery production in various localities.

Many other technical advances by HUA have also been recognized and widely applied in practical production, including technologies for rapid multiplication of disease-free potatoes, propagation of orchids, propagation of the cayen pineapple variety by means of tissue culture, enzyme production technology, farming techniques, technology for organic wastes treatment, application of GIS and remote sensing in land use planning, basin management, agro-product preservation and processing, IT applications in lecturing and management, commodity chain analysis, policy analysis, and restructuring animal and crop production systems. The University has also cooperated with different localities to devise maps on land use at district and communal levels, and develop a series of models for appropriate and effective production systems in typical ecological regions.

In addition to recognized scientific and technological products, HUA is also a relied-upon consulting agency for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) as well as other localities across the country. The University has consulted for MARD in solving emerging problems in agricultural production and disease control.

In addition to more and more scientific and technological advances, the number of publications by HUA in scientific journals, and workshop proceedings in-country and abroad has increased continuously.

International cooperation is a HUA strength. It has been constantly expanding in all fields: staff and student exchange, information exchange, and cooperation in research and joint training, thus improving expertise for staff, while strengthening training and research capacity for the University.

With the aim of becoming a research university with better regional and global integration, HUA has constantly strengthened cooperation with prestigious international universities. Every year, HUA organizes many international workshops and seminars, receiving hundreds of delegations from foreign universities, research institutes, and academic organizations to discuss possibilities for cooperation and to participate in lectures and conferences.

Since the 1960s, HUA has trained foreign students. Thus far, HUA has trained for Laos 406 undergraduates, 34 Masters, and 10 PhDs; for Cambodia, 56 graduates, 13 Masters and 9 PhDs. Many of these alumni have been holding key posts in agricultural agencies and have made great contributions to socio-economic development in their home countries.

At present, nearly 100 Lao and Cambodian students are studying at the university, together with students from China, Mongolia, Africa and many short-term internship students from different countries.

So far, HUA has developed cooperation with more than 80 foreign universities, research institutes and international organizations. The university has implemented a good number of major international cooperation programs.

Inheriting a 55 year-old tradition of development, Hanoi University of Agriculture works to develop itself into a multi-disciplinary research university, becoming a leading university in the country and an advanced university in the region, able to solve national and contemporary issues in agriculture and rural development. To this end, firstly, the University commits itself to administrative reform to create a fine, honest and modern educational environment and an open environment for scientific research and creativity to contribute both theoretically and practically to the industrialization and modernization of agricultural and rural areas. Secondly, HUA always strives to be recognized as a key national university. Finally, HUA tries its best to contribute to radical and comprehensive reform of Vietnam’s education and the building of modern sustainable agriculture.