Rohit Verma, a dear colleague of the service community and Professor at the Cornell University, is moving on to new frontiers: In July, he will become the founding provost of VinUniversity, a new non-profit university in Vietnam developed by Vietnamese real estate conglomerate VinGroup in partnership with Cornell and other American universities.
“Serving as founding provost for [VinUniversity] provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help establish a world-class university in a fast-growing region of the world,” Verma said in a statement to The Sun. “The strong support from two [Ivy] league universities … gives my confidence that VinUni will be able to become successful in establishing high-quality academic programs.”
Verma is currently the Singapore Tourism Board Distinguished Professor in Asian Hospitality Management at the School of Hotel Administration. Although his new position stations him halfway around the globe, Verma will remain a faculty member in the hotel school on leave of absence.
“I consider myself to be a ‘hotelie-for-life,’” Verma said. “While I am not permanently leaving Cornell … I will most definitely miss my daily interactions with wonderful students, colleagues and friends at Cornell and life at Ithaca.”
Under its agreement with VinGroup, Cornell will advise the startup university until 2024 on the creation of a business college as well as academic programs in engineering, hospitality and real estate. The University of Pennsylvania will also consult on the creation of nursing and medical colleges.
“The university will have [global] approach, multi-disciplinary curriculum and strong emphasis on real-world including active programs for external engagement,” Verma said.
Reposte from: https://cornellsun.com/2019/04/07/johnson-dean-rohit-verma-named-founding-provost-at-vietnamese-university/
