Rhode Island college to open nonprofit university in Vietnam


By ALEX KUFFNER


The Providence Journal


BRISTOL. R.I. – In early January in Vietnam, a private, nonprofit university established by Roger Williams University in partnership with a Vietnamese –American entrepreneur will open with an inaugural class of 500 students


Roy Nirschel, president of Roger Williams, called the opening a major development for the university, one that will expand its global presence while satisfying Nirschel’s desire to serve a greater good by improving education in another part of the world.


“American education is one of our greatest exports,” he said. “If we can take that liberal-arts education to other places around the world, maybe we can do a lot of good. To me, it’s the most powerful force for positive change.”


When American Pacific University opens Jan. 15 in Ho Chi Minh city, it won’t be the first academic institution in Vietnam to use a Western curriculum; an Australian university already has a science and technology school in that city.


But it will be the first school established in Vietnam by an American university.


Students will have made it through an admissions process set up by administrators at Roger Williams. They’ll take courses designed by professors at Roger Williams. And some of them will be given the opportunity to continue their education at the Roger Williams campus in Bristol.


Nirschel says it’s an exciting time to get involved in Vietnam, a Communist country of 83 million people that’s opening up slowly to the West nearly 30 years after the Vietnam War ended.


The proposal for American Pacific University has its roots in a conversation Nirschel had with Marc M. Spiegel, a member of his advisory board, in fall 2003.


Spiegel, a business man who lives in Rome and sets up study abroad center for universities, told Nirschel about Binh Thy Nguyen Tran, a businesswoman and property developer in Seatle who emigrated from Vietnam in 1975.


Under the agreement reached with Tran, Roger Williams isn’t spending any money to set up American Pacific University, said Nirschel.


Tran owns the building where the school is located and is covering the cost of equipment and supplies.


“We’re investing intellectual capital.” Said Nirschel.


The school will have three main programs. It will offer college preparatory courses for Vietnamese students who want to study in the United States, a pre-master’s degree and professional certificate programs, and arrangements for some students to spend their first two years at American Pacific University and their remaining two years at Roger Williams.


Already, as a direct result of the relationship with Tran, 24 Vietnamese students have applied for Roger Williams’ new master’s program in public administration. Four were accepted into the class of 15 students.


American Pacific University aims to build an enrollment of 6,000 over the next five years.