[Book Review] A book about RMIT University in Vietnam - Tran Duc

The book “From the village school to the RMIT international University Vietnam” brings a deep insight about the life of one of the founders of the first international university in Vietnam - Professor Nguyen Xuan Thu. As a RMIT Alumnus, this book is one of my favourite book and It stays in my must-to-read book list. I strongly recommend this book to all people who are part of RMIT community 🎒

The book tells us a journey of a man who was born in a poor family in the Central Vietnam and grew up as an “unlucky boy”, the exact words he used to describe himself. After the death of his parents, he and his sisters had to leave his hometown and moved to the South, seeking for a better life. He then graduated as a teacher and worked in many schools, before gaining a post-graduate degree in U.S.

Suffering from a lot of struggle from the new government after 1975, he became a professor in Australia and started his journey to accomplish his dream - establishing the first International university in Vietnam so that Vietnamese student can have a chance to study in a western university in their home-country with a reasonable tuition fee. In 1994, the first RMIT Vietnam campus was built in Ho Chi Minh City, marking the turning point of Mr Thu’s lifelong mission in improving education in Vietnam.

Through the book, we can learn valuable lessons from the author. Above all is the story of a man with unstoppable action and strong determination to overcome all difficulties in his life to fulfill his burning dream - a modern and international education for Vietnamese students in his homeland.

Nowadays, higher level education is always a hotly debated topic in Vietnam society. In the book, chapters about the establishment of RMIT University- Vietnam campus are an interesting part, which provided us many different views about the Vietnam education at that time.

At the end, Professor Beanland, who has his name given to the RMIT Vietnam library, gives us a short comment about Professor Nguyen Xuan Thu’s book:” Thank you Mr Thu. The actions in education which Mr Thu have conducted have changed many people’s lives forever “.