Analysis of Policy on Privatization in Vietnamese Higher Education

Abstract

Privatization is one of the newly emerged issues in Vietnamese higher education but it has attracted little research attention. This study is undertaken in response to three questions that formed the research problem: What are the existing policies that are of critical importance to the development of the non-public sector in Vietnamese higher education? How are the existing policies on privatization in Vietnamese higher education made and implemented? To what extent have the objectives of the policies on privatization in Vietnamese higher education been achieved? The conceptual framework for this study is based on an understanding of influence of political, cultural, economic and behavioural factors on policy process in higher education. Policy is viewed as a process in which government, political parties, interest groups and the general public influence policy and policy making in different ways. Data were obtained through three principal methods: documentary analysis, interviewing and statistical data collection, which formulate an appropriate triangulation for data collection. In response to the three research questions, data were analysed to furnish information about objectives, major contents of the policy on privatization in Vietnamese higher education and regulatory framework for non-public higher education institutions; about how policy was made and implemented; and about how effective the policy has proved to be. Based on all of these, the measures for further development of the non-public sector in Vietnamese higher education were suggested. This study has gathered basic information about the policy on privatization in Vietnamese higher education as a recently emerging issue in Vietnamese higher education. The prospects for further research are extensive.