Roger Williams Helps Open University in Vietnam
BRISTOL, R.I.
Roger Williams University is helping establish a private, nonprofit university in Vietnam. American Pacific University was expected to open Jan. 15 in Ho Chi Minh City. It will serve 500 Vietnamese students. It will also provide Roger Williams students an opportunity to study in Vietnam.
Other universities in the United States have academic programs in Vietnam. But the Bristol university will open the Roger Williams Academic Center, which will be located on American Pacific’s campus. That will mark the first time an American university will have a physical presence in Vietnam, according to Roger Williams University officials.
Roger Williams President Roy Nirschel says his university won’t be offering degrees, but hopes to develop programs, including one that would allow students to complete their first two years of college at American Pacific and the second two at Roger Williams. The university is developing similar partnerships with two Chinese universities, he said.
Vietnamese philanthropist Binh Thy Nguyen Tran worked with Roger Williams to develop the university in Vietnam.
Nirschel says a member of the Roger Williams board of overseers introduced Tran to him.
“We’re increasingly on the radar as a university that has a global and international perspective,” he says.
— Associated Press
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