ESSENCE project and its impacts at HUMG

For Hanoi University of Mining and Geology (HUMG), ESSENCE project has provided a very good chance to connect with partners in Russia, Latvia, France, Slovakia, and Vietnam and has direct impacts as well as long-term impacts on the higher education in electrical engineering at HUMG.

According to Professor Nguyen Quang Minh, academic supervisor of the project at HUMG: “For the first time, HUMG could approach with more advanced program on Smart Energy System in Europe. Whole framework courses developed by the project partners can be a reference for us to modernize our master and bachelor degree’s programs. The teaching facilities for power engineering were modernized by the support from equipment sponsored by ESSENCE. The ETAP software package helps our students to have an industry-like environment for practicing and the smart presentation board supports our faculty members in doing more interesting and informative lectures. The mobility, although being limited by the COVID-19, is also very helpful to our course developers, faculty members, and administrative staff to learn the administrative model, and to experience the learning environment for new teaching approaches such as student-centered learning and project-based learning. The new approaches teaching maybe applied for not only power engineering but other disciplines at HUMG. This will improve the capacity and competency of our graduates.”

In the long run, HUMG has a plan to fully utilize the curriculum developed in the project, with some courses will be taught in English. The two Vietnamese universities in the project also have an advantage in Vietnam to develop the education and research in the field of Smart Energy System which may eventually lead to a carbon-free economy for Vietnam. The methodology used in the project can be used for course development, reviewing training programs for HUMG in the future. The new approaches such as curriculum co-development, curriculum co-delivery with the industrial partners would be a very good lesson to learn for the other courses’ development. Moreover, the relationships established between project partners can be a good start for new cooperative programs like student exchanges, joint degrees, or research cooperation.