Ho Chi Minh City Open University was initially Extensive Training Institute established on June 15, 1990. After 31 years of establishment and development, the University is now a multi-disciplinary public university with many levels and training forms and has got many good achievements in the society as well as the learning community domestically and internationally.

Ho Chi Minh City Open University currently delivers a wide range of disciplines in both undergraduate and postgraduate levels from 12 faculties, including 10 disciplines provides advanced studies, 12 for MA and 5 for Ph.D vary in three academic fields: economics, technical, humanities and social science. There are nearly 31,000 learners are currently studying at all levels with 30,000 bachelors (including full-time, part-time training courses and distance education), 970 masters and 59 doctors. The University offers the most flexible and obtainable methods of education to learners such as: on-site and distance learning, e-learning and part-time education. It is a dynamic development over time in accordance with the University’s mission. Especially when the Center for distance education initially started by broadcasting lectures in 1993, has implemented lectures via videoconference since 2009 and from 2016 onwards, there has been such a modern online training system that world. The University also was accredited at institutional level in 2017.

From the very first beginning of its establishment until now, the University has constantly focused on improving the training quality such as refreshing and renewing the curriculum, teaching methods, textbooks, methods for assessing learner outcomes; focus on practical skills; many extracurricular activities; and enhance students’ work behavior and skills throughout the training process so as to match the labor market needs in the society. The University's brand image and reputation is also enhanced. The number of candidates and the standardized score for admission are slightly higher compared to other Universities in the South and there are more and more students with excellent academic performances applying to the University. The average employment rate within 1 year of graduates is 95%, HCMCOU has contributed high-quality human resources to the society and many alumni have achieved great success in many professions and made major contributions to the socio-economic development of the country. In 2020, HCMCOU is the only Vietnam’s representative shortlisted for the Teaching and Learning Strategy of 2020 nomination under the Asia’s Education Awards (THE Awards Asia 2020). This is an award honoring universities in ten categories such as Leadership and Management Team, International Strategy of the Year, Teaching and Learning Strategy of the Year, Technological Innovation of the Year, Workplace of the Year, Outstanding Support for students, etc. In addition, the University ranked 16th out of 178 higher education institutions in Vietnam in the WEBOMETRICS rankings of January 2021; And in May 2021, the University ranked 13th in lists of Vietnamese universities and 349th in Asia on the SCImago rankings; 04 Masters programs in Economics, Finance - Banking, Business Administration, and Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching of HCMCOU have been accredited and awarded by FIBAA (Europe). Moreover, the University is now conducting accreditation of undergraduate and graduate training programs in accordance with national as well as international standards.

Scientific research activities of the University have constantly gained outstanding achievements. Especially in the past 5 years, lecturers and learners of HCMCOU when participating in national examination, the University always stays within the top 10 research Universities under the Ministry of Education and Training and the number of articles published in prestigious international journals by lecturers and students of HCMCOU is persistently increasing. Scientific journals of the University are recognized by the State Council for Professor Title and included in the list of journals that are scored for scientific works (in which there are 2 branches that were scored 0.75: economics and education). Since 2021, the Journal has joined the ACI database system (Asian Citation Index), later, in May 2021, the HCMCOU Scientific Journal ranked 13th, 36th, 40th, 43rd, 54th, 76th in English Specialized Journals, including Economics - Business Administration; Engineering - Technology; Social Science; Vietnamese Specialized Journals, including Social Science; Engineering and Technology, respectively, in the influential indicators’ rankings for scientific journals in Vietnam.

To have such flourish achievements today, the development of highly qualified and professional human resources deserves an honorable mention. Up to now, the University has 650 officers and civil servants who undertake the work of the University. In which, therein 06 Professors, 20 Associate Professors, 130 PhDs, 302 MAs in charge of important positions in teaching and administration. Most of the University's teaching staff are trained and graduated from universities in developed countries around the world.

In addition to scientific research achievements with many articles published in international journals, the University has also promoted international partnerships and made strong developments. There are several affiliate projects such as: Vietnam - Belgium Program (since 1995 until now), Affiliate Program with USQ University (Australia), Affiliate Program with Fresenius University and Berlin School of Economics and Law (Germany), Flinders University and Bonds University (Australia) as well as ROENS University (France). The university continues to maintain its membership in international organizations such as AAOU (Asian Association of Open Universities), ICDE (International Council for Open and Distance Education), SEAMEO SEAMOLEC (SEAMEO Regional Open Learning Center – SEAMOLEC), SEAMEO SEPS (South East Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Center for Sufficiency Economy Philosophy for Sustainability), QM (Quality Matters), AUN-QA (ASEAN University Network – Quality Assurance). Additionally, HCMCOU also cooperates with many universities around the world to exchange lecturers and students.

Since 2016, the University has started participating in Erasmus+ projects and has successfully implemented the Development & Global Studies: Fostering multi-lateral knowledge networks of transdisciplinary studies to tackle global changes (KNOTS) and continues to be sponsored by 02 projects which are RECOASIA (Regional cooperation in the field of recognition among Asian countries) and TRUST (Financial technology and digital innovation to modernize and develop curricula of Vietnamese and Philippine Universities). These international cooperation projects have contributed to capacity building and confirmed the implementation of the University's mission and vision. Many international conferences are held annually that attract a large number of prestigious scientists both nationally and internationally such as VBER, OpenTESOL, ...

Referring to Ho Chi Minh City Open University, the university has comprehensively promoted the implementation of volunteer activities for learners in order to improve the value of community cohesion in recent years. If there was only marked by learners’ outstanding activities through several programs such as Summer Anti-Illiteracy Campaign; Green Summer Volunteer Campaign in rural areas such as the Truong Son mountains and the historic Ho Chi Minh highway, now the social cohesion and voluntary activities have become an indispensable activity of both officers and civil servants as well as the whole community together. These are activities organized by the University Youth Union such as donating traditional costume “Ao dai” to teachers and warm clothing to children in the highlands; launching the anti-plastic waste movement in 2019; carry out environmental protection propaganda activities. Besides, young staff is also very active in volunteer activities such as organizing the Mid-Autumn Festival for children, summer volunteering programs; Organize donation programs of water filtration systems to remote areas. In collaboration with the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health and Hoa Hao Medical Center to organize programs about preventing and controlling liver disease through testing and vaccinating. Particularly, the University has developed free massive open online courses platform (VMOOCs) in an aim to contribute to a learning society available to everyone in the community.

Not only developing strongly in its educational mission, HCMCOU is also an environment to foster employees motivation and contribute to the society in human resource development from work practices. HCMCOU guarantees and unceasingly promotes the material and spiritual living conditions of officials and employees. The income of officials and employees has been focused and developed in recent years, which has helped them to focus on their work and contribute to the cause of education. This is the result of developing reasonable revenue sources and expenditure plans. Besides, with the steady increase in revenue, the number of scholarships for learners has become more diversified. The University spends nearly 20 billion VND on scholarships for students at all levels annually.

With those achievements, the University has been commended by many local and central units, notably the Second-class Labor Medal in 2019. The recognition of achievements and outstanding developments in recent years of the University is the result of the spirit of solidarity, responsibility and unity of each individual’s effort for a great value of the collective. In the following years, HCMCOU continues to promote its achievements, maintaining its educational philosophy with core values ​​that adhere to the school's mission and vision.

With the strength of will, a high spirit of solidarity, associated with humanity, openness, practicality and integration, Ho Chi Minh City Open University will soon become one of the leading multidisciplinary public universities in Vietnam with application orientation, knowledge dissemination and community cohesion; in which distance education can develop on a par with Southeast Asia region.