Top universities in South Korea, China, Japan and Vietnam have agreed to launch a joint degree program over the next couple of years as part of academic exchanges, officials said Monday.

According to Seoul National University, presidents of Seoul National University in South Korea, Peking University in China, University of Tokyo in Japan and Hanoi National University in Vietnam agreed to work on the joint degree program that allows students to study and earn degrees at the partner schools at the recent president forum BESETOHA conference in Tokyo.

The program will give students who fulfilled graduation requirements a joint degree signed by two or more presidents, officials said.

The four schools will hold a working meeting on the joint degree program at Seoul National University in March next year, according to officials.

Seoul National University has pursued joint degrees with the three foreign universities since 2000, benchmarking EU’s Erasmus Mundus which enable students to earn joint degrees from at least three different education institutions in the European Union member countries.

The joint degree plan kicked off in 2009 when the presidents of South Korea, China and Japan agreed to expand educational exchanges.

“If the program is signed by the top universities in Asia, it will have a great significance on academic networking in East Asia like the EU’s Erasmus Mundus has on European Union countries,” said Kim Joon-ki, the official in charge of international cooperation.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)