Friday morning (July 19th) Dr. Phan Dao, Director of the European Cooperation Center (ECC) has brought students from Ton Duc Thang University (TDTU), who are currently studying and practicing under the the Exchange program between TDTU and VSB Technical University of Ostrava (VSB TU Ostrava), to a Tomas Bata University in Zlín (TBU). These two universities (VSB TU Ostrava and Tomas Bata University) are TDTU’s strategic partners.
Prof. P. Saha, Vice-Rector (former Rector, Chairman of the World Polymer Association) and Ms. J. Skloudikova, Marketing Manager and Mr. P. Ticháček, Secretary of the Rector were very welcoming to the delegation. Prof. Saha introduced the students to the university, named after Mr. Tomas Bata, the most famous businessman of the Czechslovakia, now the Czech Republic and Slovakia, known as “the World Shoe King”. The University has 6 faculties, University Institute and Technology Park with nearly 10 000 students. The university has over 100 majors and training majors, of which are more than one third (35 majors) trained in English. Prof. Saha said that the University has it all to meet the requirements and aspirations of TDTU students.
Prof. Saha also said that if they study in Czech language, they do not have to pay tuition fees, but if they study in English, they must pay tuition fees. There are many interesting and useful majors for the Vietnamese students, that ends usually with a job right after graduating.
After a conversation with prof. Saha, the students were guided by Ms. Skloudikova to visit the library, one of the most beautiful libraries of the Czech Republic, to visit the villa and the office of Mr. Bata, now the headquarters of Zlín Provincial Committee. Mr. P. Velev, Fund Director of Tomas Bata introduced the students to the life and career of Mr. Bata. He was an industrialist, had a business and built more than 30 industries in Czechoslovakia, first of all, led by shoe manufacturing, railway construction, chemical industry, automotive industry, printing industry, film industry, paper production ... and also aircraft manufacturing industry. In the early years of the 20th century, he took his own plane to many cities around the world to do business. BATA empire is now available all over the world, from Toronto Kanada, USA, to Italy, Czech, to Dubai, China, Vietnam, Filipin, Australia and African countries. Dr. Phan Dao said that Bata Company before 1975 had successfully operated in Saigon.
The most interesting part of the day, that intrigued interest in students, happened after lunch, the visit of the Polymer Center of TBU. Professor Saha and his student, Dr. Le Quoc Bao, a TDTU lecturer that came to work as a researcher at the Center. The delegation visited 20 modern labs in a total of nearly 100 labs with the most advanced and modern equipment in Europe and the world. The students now know that polymers are used in many fields, not only tires or cushions, but also polymer is used in medicine, in the study of manufacturing the batteries for electric cars and in the aerospace industry… In 3 hours of sightseeing, they were inspired by Professor Saha about polymer.
Return to Ostrava after an exhausting and exciting day. We will return to Zlín, the city of the hills, with Tomas Bata University and especially the Polymer Center. Why not? Vietnam desperately needs rubber processing technology...
TDTU student in front of the first President of the Czech Republic Czech Republic T. G. Masaryk,
Tomas Bata University Square, Zlín (7/2019)
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Villa "World shoe king" Tomas Bata, Zlín (7/2019)
GS. Petr Saha is inspiring the TDTU students by the speech about polymers, Zlín (7/2019)
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Dr. Le Quoc Bao in his lab at the Polymer Center, Tomas Bata University, Zlín (7/2019)
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Dr. Le Quoc Bao in his lab at the Polymer Center, Tomas Bata University, Zlín (7/2019)