VISCA Uni Fair: Resilience & Opportunity

WHAT WE PLANNED

This year’s VISCA Hanoi University Fair was set to be our biggest yet: 186 universities from 25 countries, 180 tables across the Blue Sports Center and 9 different rooms across UNIS, student-led session hosts, and two rounds of 40-minute topical presentations alongside a bustling exhibition floor. Our goal: authentic, face-to-face conversations to help students explore programs, admissions, scholarships, and campus life.

THE PIVOT

Overnight flooding made in-person hosting unsafe and impractical. We made the decision to pivot online before any external directives, prioritizing student and community safety. BIS Hanoi ultimately could not host in person either. Instead, we shared the online infrastructure we built—186 breakout spaces—with our partner schools so they could also participate in the afternoon.

What we delivered for students

• Morning online fair (UNIS, Olympia, Delta Global)
  • Two parallel options:
    • “Live” 40-minute university presentations on agreed topics (with limited institutional promo).
    • Individual university breakout rooms for Q&A and follow-up.
  • Shared links and schedules allowed students to move between sessions and ask targeted questions.
  • Parents were invited online from 11:00–11:30 for dedicated Q&A.
  • G9 & 10 students were invited to join the fair during lunch time – I found a grade 9 student asking the University of Cambridge insightful questions about admissions, while another was doing the same with Melbourne University.
• Afternoon access for partner schools
  • Using UNIS’s breakout-room framework, partner schools continued the fair online in the afternoon, expanding access for students and families, who were also invited to join.

IMPACT AND GRATITUDE

Despite the disruption, our students engaged with global universities, compared programs, and practiced informed questioning—skills that matter for applications and beyond. We also reinforced strong relationships with visiting institutions thanks to the professionalism of our community and partner schools. Universities were impressed with our students’ insightful questions and resilience in light of the last minute changes.