IUT Béziers emerges as key player in Vietnam-France education cooperation

The delegation of the Vietnamese Embassy in France visits the Institute of Technology (IUT) Béziers. (Photo: VNA)

At a recent reception for Vietnamese Ambassador to France Dinh Toan Thang at IUT Béziers, Director of the institute Jérôme Azé said the education establishment has an emerging cooperation with Vietnam, demonstrated by the presence of many Vietnamese students at IUT, as well as the students it has sent to Vietnam.

According to Azé, this collaboration was established only about two years ago, coinciding with France's higher education reform programme that transitioned from the DUT (two-year technology tertiary intermediate diploma) to the BUT (three-year one) in 2021.

IUT Béziers is one of 17 training institutions of the University of Montpellier and the only higher education institution in the southern French city of Béziers. With some 600 students, the school offers training programmes focused on commercial technology, multimedia and Internet information, cybersecurity, and telecommunications. To address future challenges, the school recently established a robotics and artificial intelligence department. From 2026, IUT Béziers will expand with a three-year work-study engineering programme in industrial technology, focusing on hydrogen production—a field Vietnam is also interested in developing.

Over the recent past, it has received 10 Vietnamese students, with four currently in their second or third year. Most Vietnamese students focus on commercial technology, as well as multimedia and Internet information areas.

Sandrine Grenier, who oversees second and third-year students in the commercial technology department, said she finds that Vietnamese students adapt very well to the training environment here and have made tremendous progress, with their French proficiency improving daily.

According to Grenier, the clearest evidence of this success is a third-year Vietnamese student currently on exchange at Utrecht University of the Netherlands, a prestigious European institution. A second-year student will be the first in the IUT Béziers history to be selected for an exchange semester at Ireland’s Trinity College, among Europe's leading universities. Another Vietnamese student is participating in a work-study programme and has integrated very well into a French company.

IUT Béziers has not only welcomed Vietnamese students but has also begun sending its own students to Vietnam. Grenier said the school has sent two students and one lecturer to the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (USTH), IUT Béziers' first partner in Vietnam. There, they study in the business analytics, supply chain management, and commercial English departments. Grenier also mentioned that a cooperation agreement is currently being discussed with the Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City.

Future plans include expanded exchange programmes, dual-degree programmes, and collaborative research in advanced technology fields that align with Vietnam’s demand for high-quality human resources.

Ambassador Thang emphasised the desire to enter a new phase of cooperation in training with France in accordance with the comprehensive strategic partnership./.