ABSTRACT
Since 2005, the higher education system of Vietnam has been undergoing a transformation to adopt the new credit-based system. While Portland State University (PSU) assists University of Science (UoS) in curricular innovation, especially transferring proven service-learning and sustainability practices, UoS helps PSU internationalize its research initiatives and student body. PSU leadership has identified partnering with diverse stakeholders in Vietnam as a strategic priority. UoS fully recognizes the need to build engagement capacity in three areas: the institutional fabric of the university, the general curriculum and specific courses offered at the university, and the surrounding communities where the university is engaged. One of the major successes was the establishment of the Center for Educational Excellence, the first of its kind in Vietnam. The CEE gained university- and country-wide reputation for pioneering the efforts to introduce the CB-SL and the new credit-based system into the curriculum.
