The prestigious, US government-funded Fulbright University will open its first campus in Vietnam later this year.

The US$70 million education project has been in the works since 2013 and received its license for operation on Monday, making it Vietnam’s first private non-profit university, according to Thanh Nien. 28.5% of the project's cost will be covered by the US government.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam’s office reported that he signed off on the school that will be managed by the Trust for University Innovation (TUIV) in Vietnam in cooperation with the US Department of State.

The university is slated to open later this year in a yet-to-be-announced location, offering programs in public policy and administration; science and technology; engineering; mathematics and medicine, with the goal of “promot[ing] academic freedom in Vietnam and [to] help train the next generation of leaders and scientists”, wrote the newspaper.

According to its website, the program provides 8,000 grants each year and of its 360,000 all-time enrollees, 54 Fulbright alumni have won Nobel Prizes and 82 have won Pulitzer Prizes.

[Image via Fulbright]