Private education projects to take shape in Vietnam's industrial hubs

A string of private education projects are to take shape in Vietnam's manufacturing hubs of Bac Ninh, Hai Phong, and Dong Nai.

Bac Ninh authorities recently received a proposal from leading dairy products maker TH Group to establish a university in the northern province.

TH Group currently owns the TH School education system, with three campuses at No. 4-6 Chua Boc street (Hanoi), Hoa Lac High-Tech Park (Hanoi), and its Vinh town campus (Nghe An province) in association with Huynh Thuc Khang High School (for 2-year-old kids to high-school students). The corporation also involves high-tech agricultural production.

Under Bac Ninh's plan for 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, Bac Ninh will form university urban areas to attract higher education institutions to relocate from Hanoi or build branches.

Bac Ninh, an emerging industrial hub in northern Vietnam, is home to high-tech giants such as Samsung and Amkor. The province is Vietnam’s biggest recipient of registered FDI in 2024, with $4.8 billion.

Meanwhile, Tien Phong Plastic JSC, a leading plastics firm in Vietnam, on Monday broke ground on its education complex project in the northern port city of Hai Phong.

The over VND1,162 billion ($44.73 million) project covers over 3.7 hectares at No. 2 An Da street, Ngo Quyen district.

It includes a system of inter-level schools, from primary to high school, with functional areas to support comprehensive development of intelligence, physical strength and skills.

At its 2024 AGM in April last year, Tien Phong Plastic agreed on a business expansion plan. The first project in the new direction is to build an educational complex worth more than VND620 billion ($23.87 million) in Hai Phong.

Hai Phong is a busy manufacturing hub in the north with major ports, big industrial facilities, and many modern, new urban complexes.

In another case, Uppingham School, a leading British independent boarding and day school, plans to open its first campus in Asia in Dong Nai province, a manufacturing hub in southern Vietnam.

The announcement was made during a meeting on April 17 between the Dong Nai administration and Viet Capital Asset Management JSC (VCAM), the local firm that will develop the project.

The project, named Uppingham International School Vietnam, is estimated to cost VND2 trillion ($77.3 million) and will cover 6.7 hectares in Long Hung district, Bien Hoa town.

It is expected to enroll 1,900 students in its first phase, with the inaugural academic year slated for 2027-2028.

VCAM chairwoman Nguyen Thanh Phuong said around 20,000 Vietnamese parents currently send their children abroad for boarding school education.

"This is one of the reasons why VCAM wishes to invest in an advanced and modern international education model in Vietnam, to contribute to the development of Vietnamese education and meet the needs of domestic parents," she said at the meeting.

Dong Nai is a major manufacturing hub in southern Vietnam and home to Long Thanh International Airport, which is expected to become the largest airport in the country once operational.