On April 14, 2017, the preparatory meeting of the Francophone Doctoral Training Network was held at Hanoi University with the participation of the President of the Association of Faculties and Institutions of Arts and Humanities (AFELSH), representatives of French Faculty of Hanoi University, Foreign Language University – VNU, the Pedagogical University of Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho University and the University of Da Nang.

At the meeting, Dr. Nguyen Thi Cuc Phuong, Vice President of Hanoi University, highly underscored the importance of establishing the Network in the context that Vietnamese Universities are encouraging its lecturers to complete the doctoral degree program, aiming to meet the requirement of the Ministry of Education and Training.

The Francophone Study Network, which Hanoi University plays the role as the coordinator, shall aim to bring together leading experts in Francophone to improve the quality of Ph.D. training high-level human resource sharing, materials, research outcomes with the vision to establish in-depth research groups. The pre-feasibility project was submitted to the Francophone University for approval. When deployed, the project will allow graduate students to have access to Vietnamese, French, and Vietnamese specialists. Postgraduate students may also be eligible for scholarships to collect materials from Europe and attend international and domestic thematic workshops.

In addition to 5 universities of Vietnam, there is also the participation of Rangsit University in this project. The network may continue to expand with the participation of other universities in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

Up to now, AFELSH has supported the establishment of four Ph.D. Training Network in Central Africa (CODFRACEGL) Central and Eastern Europe (CODFREURCOR), Middle East (CODFRAMO) and Madagascar (CODFRAMA).