Vietnam - US Higher Education Cooperation Boosted

Professor Kathryn Mohrman, Director of University Design Consortium (USA), said he was impressed by the seriousness with which the people of Vietnam sought to improve the higher education system. The fact that the governments of Vietnam and the United States have successfully worked together on a joint Education Task Force is an impressive step and the two sides are collaborating to implement many of the Task Force recommendations.

 

Apart from the joint Task Force, the United States also has many education support projects for Vietnam carried out in different regions. In addition to scholarships granted by universities in both nations, each year thousands of Vietnamese students go to study in American universities and many American students study in Vietnam. Many cooperation agreements on training programme exchange, research cooperation, and lecturer and education exchange have been signed by universities of the two countries. Perhaps the most visible accomplishment has been the success in raising the number of Vietnamese students studying in the United States to more than 13,000, quadrupling the rate of study abroad in just four years. They have the potential to make significant contributions to Vietnam’s economic and social development. At present, 20 United States universities have 35 advanced training programmes in Vietnam and have achieved impressive results. Each year, hundreds of US professors lecture these advanced programmes at 23 leading universities in Vietnam. Vietnamese students taking these training programmes have graduated and have been highly appreciated by their employers. Some students have earned master's scholarships at US counterpart universities. This is the foundation for the two countries continue to strengthen education cooperation in the future

 

In addition to cooperation promotion, the Government of Vietnam has given special priority to higher education system development in the past years. A number of major projects have been approved and implemented. The number of students entering universities and colleges increases 10 percent annually. Vietnam has established a diversified educational system with a variety of school models, training programmes and training levels. With 414 universities and colleges, the Vietnamese higher education system provides more than 500,000 graduates to the workforce each year, actively contributing to national industrialisation and modernisation.

 

In spite of obtaining these positive achievements, the Vietnamese higher education system still pursues the requirements of industrialisation, modernisation and deep international integration. One current requirement is how to continually attract lecturing staff and improve the quality of human resources to promote economic growth. Although the number of students studying in the United States has reached 13,000 the challenge will be to make Vietnam’s universities competitive enough to attract those students back after they graduate, so they can enhance Vietnam’s higher education system.

 

At a meeting with Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade at the US Department of Commerce, Francisco Sanchez, in Hanoi in April 2011, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said Vietnam is mobilising more resources to develop its education and training system, particularly for higher and postgraduate education. However, Vietnam's limited resources are not enough to realise all its objectives and thus it hopes to receive more supporting investment from countries with advanced education systems. Therefore, the education cooperation with the United States is a source of huge support that the Vietnamese Government highly appreciates. The Deputy Prime Minister hoped the US will create better conditions for Vietnamese students to study there. To realise educational cooperation programmes between the two countries, Nhan hopes the US Government will build advanced, excellent universities in Vietnam and work with Vietnam to find opportunities for long-term and sustained education cooperation to bring practical benefits to both parties.

 

Undersecretary Francisco Sanchez said the US will continue supporting and assisting Vietnam in the education sector, particularly higher education. Accordingly, Vietnamese students will have the chance to receive scholarships from US education centres for studying at US universities and colleges. With very impressive achievements, the bilateral cooperation between Vietnamese and US universities will continue to be strengthened in the coming time to generate better outcomes.