Reforming Higher Education in Vietnam: Challenges and Priorities

Abstract

This book provides a comprehensive and scholarly review of various dimensions of the higher education system in Vietnam, including its recent history, its structure and governance, its teaching and learning culture, its research and research commercialisation environment, its socio-economic impact, its strategic planning processes, its progress with quality accreditation and its experience of internationalisation and privatisation. It also explains and analyses Vietnam's Higher Education Reform Agenda (HERA), a plan approved by the Government of Vietnam in 2005 for the comprehensive reform of the higher education system by 2020. For the past two decades, higher education reform has been high on the policy agendas of Southeast Asian nations. In response to globalisation, new trade arrangements and developments in information technology, a number of countries have embarked on major reforms with the aim of developing modern higher education systems that can support economic and social development and facilitate enhanced international trade and communications. In many cases, the key themes of the reforms are identical: marketisation, privatisation, changes in governance, enhanced student access, modern curricula and strong emphasis on science and technology. Like China, Vietnam has moved from a Soviet model of higher education towards a western-styled system. Both countries have restructured higher education in an attempt to provide for much larger student enrolments and greater student diversity, new curricula and teaching methods and an enhanced role for university research with stronger links to business and industry. In pursuing reform, countries like China, Malaysia and Thailand have made more impressive progress than some others towards achieving strong modern higher education systems with significant commitments in research and innovation.