Vietnam National University, Hanoi was founded in 1906 and is a direct descendant of the colonial-era Universite de Indochinie.
Along with Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, it is "one of two leading multidisciplinary and multisectoral universities, tasked with producing highly qualified human resources for the rest of the country". They operate differently from the rest of Vietnam’s higher education, reporting directly to the prime minister, rather than to the education minister, and they have greater autonomy.
Vietnam National University, Hanoi took its current name and shape in 1993 with the merger of the University of Hanoi, the College of Foreign Languages and Hanoi National Union of Education. It is divided into 12 sub-sections called universities, plus two specialist schools for pupils with exceptional gifts in languages and the natural sciences.
It has the motto "Experience through Knowledge" and a vision that it is "expected to be one of the leading interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary research universities in the world which can contribute to national industrialisation and modernisation".
In 2016 the Vietnam Japan University was opened in order to "create a new momentum of socio-economic development and contribute to adding more value to Japanese investment in Vietnam" as "a centre of cultural and academic exchange between Vietnam and Japan".
The two training and research centres at the university are devoted to national defence and security and physical education and sports. High school students won medals at the 2019 Academic Olympiad for maths, biology and physics.
The university is based across six campuses, the largest at Vuan Thuy.
