VinUniversity Launches Global Case Competition

VinUniversity is officially launching the VinUniversity Global Case Competition (VGCC) 2021 for undergraduate and graduate students and research fellows across the globe. The theme for VGCC’s inaugural year revolves around VinFast’s expansion into the US electric vehicle market. The winning team will be awarded a prize value of up to 10,000 USD.

VinUniversity Global Case Competition (VGCC) is an annual competition organized by VinUniversity with advice and mentorship from faculty and experts at Cornell University. This annual competition presents participating teams with global business problems, based on real challenges facing real businesses/sectors. The competition asks teams of students from diverse educational and ethnic backgrounds to work together in order to maximize their chances of winning.

Each year VGCC plans to collaborate with a business to come up with a realistic case study. The theme of VGCC 2021 is “VinFast – Go Global”: How can VinFast – a young Vietnamese business – grow internationally, join the “green” movement, and establish a permanent presence in the US market with its smart electric vehicles. The competition’s methodology and case study were designed with the consultation of Cornell University, a world-class Ivy League institution.

Prof. Rohit Verma, Provost of VinUniversity and Mr. Michael Lohscheller, CEO of VinFast Global shared with students during the webinar introducing the competition. The Organizing Committee is currently receiving registration before 11:59 am (GMT + 7) on October 17, 2021.

Just 8 weeks after its commencement, the competition received approximately 2.000 applications from students from Vietnam and other world-leading universities around the world, such as the University of Oxford (UK), Duke University (USA), Nanyang Technology University (Singapore), and Warwick University (UK), among many others.

Sharing about the competition’s theme, the Organizing Committee stated that the electric vehicle industry has gained increasing attention around the world. “The world is seeing the impact from climate change, and this is also one of the major topics discussed all over the globe. In the future, electric vehicles are expected to play a key role in delivering the solution for this global issue.” –  commented Mr. Michael Lohscheller, CEO of VinFast Global in the webinar introducing the competition.

Furthermore, electric vehicles will open up opportunities for the development of a myriad of other supporting industries and technologies, such as Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, which would improve living standards and customer experience.

The biggest appeal of this year’s theme is the inspirational story of VinFast. “VGCC is a different move from a Vietnamese university and a Vietnamese enterprise. VinFast, with its “Make in Vietnam” brand, brings the desire to promote the global ‘green’ revolution. VinUni, a fledgling university, has called for global students to participate in solving the question of expansion into the US market, one of the most fiercely competitive markets in the world. Unprecedented stories tend to have a great appeal and arouse participating teams’ desires to conquer”, shared Prof. Rohit Verma, Provost of VinUniversity.

Through VGCC, students from various disciplines, such as business administration, engineering, or computer science, have to join forces and apply their knowledge to practice. Students will get to hone their teamwork, research, and analytical skills, in addition to problem-solving and leadership skills. These “real learning – real practice” activities contribute to the attraction of VGCC and demonstrate VinUniversity’s educational philosophy, preparing students for the real world after graduation.

Through VGCC, students will get to hone their teamwork, research, and analytical skills, in addition to problem-solving and leadership skills.

VGCC will be held virtually from October 4th to November 14th, 2021, with a total prize value of nearly 400 million VND (equivalent to 17,000 USD), including the First Prize with a value of over 200 million VND (10,000 USD). Each participating team will consist of 3-4 members, who can come from different universities or countries. Team registration must be completed on the program’s official website https://vinuni-globalcase.com/ before 11:59 AM (GMT+7) on October 17th, 2021. The top 10 teams will be selected to move on to the final round, which is scheduled to take place in November 2021. In addition to the First Prize, the winning team will have the chance to work directly with the business and carry out their solution.

Case study competitions constitute an advanced pedagogical approach which was started by leading universities in the US and rapidly spread throughout higher education across the world.