Note. This is the final draft. The full paper is published with details below.

Pham, T. (2011). “Doi Moi” (Renovation) and higher education reform in Vietnam.
International Journal of Educational Reform, 20(3), 210-225.

Doi Moi (Renovation) and higher education reform in Vietnam

Abstract
To respond to requirements of the global economy after Doi Moi, Vietnamese higher
education has undergone remarkable reforms. This paper critically examines these
reforms in three areas: teaching and learning, curriculum and governance. New reforms
have demonstrated great ingenuity in responding to market requirements and helped
develop a strong labor force for Vietnam. However, pressures to quickly update
education have brought about severe problems. The paper discusses failures in advancing
learning practices, and raises concerns about quality and teaching staff as being main
issues. This discussion provides policy makers with useful hints to develop healthy
educational policies in the future.

Doi Moi (Renovation) and higher education reform in Vietnam

Abstract
To respond to requirements of the global economy after Doi Moi, Vietnamese higher
education has undergone remarkable reforms. This paper critically examines these
reforms in three areas: teaching and learning, curriculum and governance. New reforms
have demonstrated great ingenuity in responding to market requirements and helped

1
develop a strong labor force for Vietnam. However, pressures to quickly update
education have brought about severe problems. The paper discusses failures in advancing
learning practices, and raises concerns about quality and teaching staff as being main
issues. This discussion provides policy makers with useful hints to develop healthy
educational policies in the future.

Introduction
The phenomenon of globalization has become a widely discussed topic in the
social sciences. Global forces have brought about changes in all aspects of society. Under
the impact of these forces, cultures are being hybridized (Pieterse, 1995); social networks
are transcending national boundaries (Castells, 1996); communications and transportation
are expanding in a context of time and space compression (Robertson, 1995); and the role
of nation-states is declining (Held, 1998). Noticeably, global forces have brought about
significant changes in global economics. Communication technologies and the trend
towards localized marketization have made individual economies much more open and
integrated (Kreitzman, 1999). Capital and commodities are moving easily across national
frontiers due to the internationalization of trade (Burbules & Torres, 2000). Global
economics has been seen as “a tidal wave sweeping over the world, crushing local –
including national – uniqueness” (Robertson & Khondker, 1999, p.30).
Changes in today’s global world have placed all economies in new circumstances:
an individual economy can exist but cannot develop without integrating with others.
Therefore, Vietnam had no choice but decided to end up the close-door policy and
announced the Doi Moi (Renovation) policy in the late 1980s. The new policy
emphasizes that Vietnam is willing to establish collaborations with all countries in the
region and the West. Since coming into being, Doi Moi has brought about
radical/dramatic changes in all aspects of society, especially in economics. These changes
have subsequently led to breakthrough innovations in the higher education system.
Vietnamese higher education before and after Doi Moi is characterized by contrasting
features. This paper examines these features, with particular reference to a discussion of
how Vietnamese higher education has changed to catch up with the global economy since
adopting the new policy. This examination aims to point out that economics and
education have an interdependent relationship. Education is the key for economic
development, thus it often needs to change to respond to the requirements of the

2
economy. This discussion is necessary because there have still been very few studies in
English about higher education in Vietnam, especially about educational reforms during
the last two decades under socio-economic developments. This paper aims to fill the gap
in the body of literature about Vietnamese education. It first discusses the socio-
economic context brought about by Doi Moi as pulls and pushes for reforms in higher
education. Then, it focuses on analyzing significant reforms in higher education under the
impact of economic developments. Finally, it discusses challenges facing the present
higher education system. This may provide some hints for policy makers in Vietnam in
order to develop healthy education policies in the future. To conduct this research, the
author analyzed materials that are largely available in Vietnamese and some in English.
Also, the author conducted interviews with a cross-section of senior academic staff from
different education institutions in Vietnam in 2009.

Doi Moi and changes in the Vietnamese economy

Doi Moi, literally translated as ‘to make a change’, was introduced by the
Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in the late 1980s (CPV 1996). The birth of the Doi
Moi policy was the result of a severe social and economic crisis (Bui, 1995). The policies
brought in by the new government after Vietnam’s reunification in 1975 were not strong
enough to lead the country. The period from 1975 to the 1990s was described as one of
“disillusionment among the Vietnamese” (Bui, 1995, p.135). Many had to survive poor
conditions and endure difficulties. This made the people frustrated and betrayed by the
policies of the government and the Communist Party, and there were many protests raised
against the subjective, irrational and hasty policy of the government (Pham-Dinh, 2000).
Furthermore, there were external impacts. The collapse of the Soviet Union,
Vietnam’s ‘big brother’ in the Socialist Bloc, and of other socialist countries in Eastern
Europe in 1989-1991 brought ideological and economic challenges to Vietnam. The
economic shock waves were far-reaching because the country had been dependant on aid
and investment from Eastern Bloc countries, particularly Russia, for many years. Prime
Minister Phan Van Khai recalled that Vietnam was on ‘the edge of falling apart’ because
it was cut off from all Russian support (Phan, 1999). Under these circumstances, Vietnam
had no way forward other than advocating the opening up of its economy to the region
and Western countries. This new policy was essential not only for the nation’s economic
survival, but also for necessary changes in political and social sectors.

3
 The key plank of this policy was to transform the centrally planned economy into a
market-oriented system capable of competing effectively in the international arena. The
centralized economy, which was dominated by state-owned enterprises, was transformed
to a free market and multi-sector one. The system of subsidies in production and goods
distribution and the use of coupons in consumption have been eliminated. The
government permitted investors with 100 per cent foreign-owned capital or joint-venture
enterprises to operate in Vietnam. A report from the World Bank noted:
The Doi Moi reforms of the late 1980s were extraordinarily effective in
galvanizing the energy of millions of individuals and households who
diversified and expanded their agricultural production rapidly, and set up
many micro-enterprises, especially in the service sector. The later opening to
foreign direct investment in the mid-1990s also had rapid and positive
impact in bringing in resources and technology. (World Bank, 1996b, p. 2)

Economic reforms under Doi Moi take place at both international and national
levels. Internationally, Vietnam has tried to integrate with the world’s economy by
actively joining international and regional organizations such as ASEAN in1995, the
ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1996 and in 1995 applied for membership of the
World Trade Organization (WTO). These links helped eliminate barriers which prevented
Vietnamese exports from going to other countries. Also, it established bilateral
relationships with other countries. In the 1990s, Vietnam signed 39 bilateral investment
treaties, which have provided additional guarantees for foreign investment, and 26
treaties for the avoidance of double taxation on income and capital (Pham-Dinh, 2000).
More importantly, in 2001 Vietnam signed a bilateral trade agreement with the United
States. This agreement is considered a big leverage which is anticipated to boost the
Vietnamese economy because America still holds the “solo balancer of power” in many
world organizations (Tehranian & Tehranian, 1997, p. 147).
Nationally, the implementation of policies to develop a multi-sectoral commodity
economy under market mechanism with state control has resulted in the enlargement of
all services. A great deal of commercial, tourist, and financial activity has sprung up.
Even within budget limitations, the state has endeavored to sustain the domains of
culture, education, science and health. The most spectacular evidence of the renovation
policy, however, is most evident in the industrial and investment sector. Consumer goods
production has grown at the rate of 14% to 15% per annum (Pham-Lan & Fry, 2002).
Under the effect of the implementation of the Law on Foreign Investment in 1988, there

4
were more than forty countries which made direct investments in Vietnam, with the
registered licensed capital being over us $4 billion. In 1992, the capital investment was
double that of 1991 (Thanh-Pham, 2006). Major world consumer goods producers have
come to Vietnam to produce goods of brand names such as Uniliver, Pepsi and Coca
Cola. The presence of foreign investors in Vietnam has helped boost up the infrastructure
and service sectors.
Doi Moi has also gradually eliminated bureaucratic barriers in Vietnam by
depowering and replacing state-owned enterprises by a market-oriented economy. A new
class of entrepreneurs, and the government’s official recognition of the private sector,
which was almost wiped out during the early years of the reunification of Vietnam, came
into existence. Private entrepreneurs have quickly increased in number. Cooper (2002)
reports that the number of state-owned enterprises in Vietnam fell from 12000 in 1990 to
6000 in 1996. Meanwhile, the number of private enterprises has increased remarkably.
There were 14000 in 2000 but this jumped to 21000 in 2001, and capital formation of
these new enterprises roughly doubled (Bui, 1995). This trend reflects that private
dynamism is becoming the key pillar of economic growth in Vietnam. Economic
globalization is truly creating a ‘free-market’ and global capitalism is removing
bureaucratic barriers (Gershon, 1997).

Higher education reform after Doi Moi

Changes in the economy discussed above have influenced Vietnamese higher
education to devote effort and resources to make necessary and relevant reforms in order
to keep pace with the labor market demand. Overall, significant reforms have taken place
in three main areas: teaching and learning, curriculum and governance.

Teaching and learning reforms. Before Doi Moi, Vietnamese education was
predominantly characterized by both the Confucian philosophy and French education
because the country was dominated by the Chinese and French for more than a thousand
years. Confucius taught that students should respect and obey teachers because teachers
are considered to be not only teachers but also models of correct behavior (Confucius,
1947). Students only need to master the content, through diligence and patience, without
questioning or challenging what is presented (Pratt, 1992). They are discouraged to think
independently, challenge the teacher’s knowledge and draw their own conclusions (Ruby

5
& Ladd, 1999). Because individuality and uniqueness are relatively unimportant,
individual interpretations of content are not necessary (Thanh-Pham, 2008). The focus of
teaching is not on how students can create and construct knowledge, but on how extant
authoritative knowledge can be transmitted and internalized in a most effective and
efficient way (Jin & Cortazzi, 1995). In sum, knowledge is strongly emphasized as a one-
way transmission from the teacher to students. Later, under French colonization in the
nineteenth century, Vietnamese education was modeled after an intellectualism-oriented
system, the basis of knowledge was considered to be the teaching of a series of
systematised pieces of knowledge in print (Pham-Dinh, 2000). The French colonial
model of educational governance was very hierarchical indeed (London, 2010). Students
were provided with textbook contents and expected to memorize all what was written in
these books. A common factor of both the Chinese and French education systems was an
emphasis on rote memorization and a passive learning attitude. Questioning, evaluating,
generalizing, debating and analyzing skills were devalued.
When Doi Moi was introduced, the Vietnamese economy was characterized by
the domination of the rapid growth of capitalism, with small enterprises and advanced
technology emerging as predominant parts of the economy. The progressive application
of advanced modern technology enters all sectors including production, business and
management. Therefore, the intellectual investment in goods and products gradually
increases and more and more original creative work is generated. Employees are
expected to have skills which enable them to work cooperatively and interdependently in
production teams with different people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Educators are
required to help students obtain not only scientific and cultural knowledge but also
provide them with such skills as logical reasoning, abstract thoughts and creative
abilities. In other words, education in Vietnam must train students to become independent
thinkers instead of technicians (the Ministry of Education and Training [MOET], 2001).
Renshaw (1998b) claims that when the economy is characterized by capitalism, the
centralized management and teacher-centered learning practices with teachers acting as
surrogate managers and bosses, setting worksheets for students to complete within certain
time limits and students working independently to quickly complete the teacher’s
requirements became inappropriate.
To produce workers who are capable of dealing with the requirements of the new
economy, Vietnamese education needs to undergo pedagogical reforms. Therefore, at the

6
7th Congress Meeting in 1991the State declared that the main task of education and
training would now be to produce a new workforce who would act as a fundamental
component to ensure the implementation of socio-economic goals, building and
defending the country (Nguyen-Xuan, 1995). In this new era, the goal of education has
been stated to prepare contingents of well-trained and retrained workers, including
leading experts who are enabled to access and apply modern scientific and technological
advancements in production (Nguyen & Sloper, 1995). To fulfill these new tasks, new
curricula must aim to elevate people’s knowledge, training human resources, fostering
talent, and producing workers with cultural and scientific knowledge, with professional
skills, creativity, and discipline in the workplace; therefore, teaching and learning
approaches must, accordingly, change as the teacher-centred teaching approach seems
unable to provide learners with such skills (Pham-Minh, 1998). In detail, the State
claimed that:
In order to respond to new demands for different competencies and
increased quality set out by needs in the market-based economy. There
must be radical changes in training methods: to change from passive
knowledge transmission in which teachers are talking and learners are
taking notes, to advise learners on the ways of active thinking and
receiving knowledge, to teach students the methods of self-learning, to
teach students the methods of self-learning, systematic collection of
information and of analytic and synthetic thinking, to increase the
active, and independent attitude of students in learning process and self-
management activities in schools and social work. In sum, students
need to be provided with new skills so that they are capable of
undertaking leadership tasks and preparing the country and a new
generation of workers and citizens for the twenty-first century. (p. 59)

In the education policy issued in 1995, at the outset of implementing student-

centeredness, MOET again strongly emphasized that:
Learning by rote needs to be eliminated from all school levels and
replaced with student-centred learning…Any teachers found failing to
change their teaching style would be listed and provided with video-
tapes showing new teaching techniques. If they still failed to improve,
they would be sent for intensive training. (MOET, 2005, p. 12)

Concurrently, in December of 2001, the government endorsed a 10 year master

plan for educational development. An important element of the plan is to shift from
‘passive knowledge transmission’ to more active and critical thinking and self-learning
(Supalak, 2002). This initial policy was then pushed by a national curriculum reform in

7
2002. One of the most significant characteristics of the new curriculum is the promotion
of ‘student-centred learning’. Unlike the conventional teaching method adopted in
Vietnamese schools, where teachers unilaterally impart knowledge to students, the new
curriculum states that the learners must be placed in the centre of the learning process.
Teachers need to encourage students to engage in thinking, class participation, and
problem-solving. What is required of Vietnamese teachers of today is not theory, such as
‘what is student-centred learning?’ but also applying it - ‘how to implement it in actual
lessons?’ (Hamano, 2008).
The birth of Doi Moi has, to some extent, paved the way for the decline of
Confucius’ philosophical influence on education in Vietnam. During the last decade,
Confucian values have experienced changes, especially among the young generation. In
the process of modernization, cultural values from Western countries are finding their
way to Vietnam and challenging Confucian values. Similar to other countries in the Asia-
Pacific region, recent educational reforms reflect that Vietnam is trying to import
Western teaching and learning practices which are underpinned by constructivism, post-
structuralism, and multiculturalism as a shortcut to advance their education systems (Ng,
2009). To describe this situation, Keeves and Watanabe (2003) and Ng (2009) claim that
the teaching and learning environment in Vietnam and other countries in the Asia-Pacific
region have been widely characterised by the adoption and application of North
American and European models of learning. This trend has demonstrated that in the age
of globalization, mutual influences between societies are massive and immense.
Globalization is reducing cultural diversity as Western cultural values are becoming more
common in Vietnam.

Curriculum reforms. Under the old education system (prior to 1986 when the country
regained its independence), the emphasis in Vietnamese education was to imbue students
with nationalism and human dignity. The program of study at all levels centered on
Confucian classics, Chinese history, Vietnamese history, ancient poetry, and military
tactics (Nguyen-Van, 2000). The people were instilled with an ideology that academic
education with an emphasis on social arts is for the edification of the individual and for
the benefit of society (Thanh-Pham, 2006). Having a high qualification is a means to
maintain face, establish social status, and gain power (Hoare, 2004). Under this system,
practical sciences were devalued and ignored. This model of curriculum led to a crisis

8
because of the lack of a competent workforce when Vietnam started its economic
development under Doi Moi. Investors and employers complained that the country had a
serious shortage of skilled workers who were able to deal with advanced technology
(Pham-Dinh, 2000). Vietnamese employees were ranked very low for those skills needed
to work in an economy characterized by high technology and capital movement in areas
such as information management, communication, computer skills, coaching and
interpersonal skills (Nguyen-Van, 2000). Pham-Dinh (2000) estimated that only 15–20%
of Viet Nam’s labour force had received formal training. Consequently, the
manufacturing industry needed to retrain almost all workers to ensure they could
adequately perform their jobs.
To improve this situation, in 1995 MOET launched a new slogan stating that
Vietnam was a backward country, sciences must be emphasized at all schooling levels to
rid the people of their backward and superstitious practices. Curriculum needed to be
redesigned by implementing the new slogan ‘Opening of the school to life, a social life in
its full development’ that gives the highest priority to the focus on introducing scientific
and technical subjects associated with the modes of production (Pham-Dinh, 2000). The
new pedagogy aims to provide students with an understanding of scientific principles and
modern technical applications in all fields in order to enable step by step innovations in
the methods of production. Perhaps, the most important innovation in curriculum after
Doi Moi is the introduction of the model of the ‘work-and-study’ system (Nguyen-Van,
2000). This model emphasizes that work must be productive, not theoritical. Therefore,
all schooling programs need to establish collaborative programs with enterprises to
enable students and teachers to practice in real production factories. By participating in
this way, students and teachers have the opportunity to join in productive labour,
enabling them to keep in touch with specific workplace realities and develop broader
relationships between the education system and the workplace. The work-and-study
system also engenders a cross fertilization between student and teacher because of the
practical productive efforts applying the scientific and technical knowledge. The
interplay should help find innovative solutions to practical problems, encourage an
inventive mentality, and then to disseminate widely the progressive development of new
methods of production (VNU, 2001).
In the new education policy issued by the MOET in 1998, this point was strongly
emphasized:

9
 Schools need to set up collaborations with enterprises. This would benefit
students, teachers, as well as industrial enterprises. For students, they can
have direct experience of work in industry during their study; their
knowledge and practical experience can be increased. For teachers, they
can be aware of changes and innovations occurring within local industries
and what new skills are required so that they can update the curriculum in
relation with actual needs. (VCP, 2002, p. 34).

The preference towards technology and sciences is also shown through

curriculum designed by private universities. Recently, almost all private higher education
institutions offered such programs as business administration, foreign languages, and
accounting as their main courses. Programs in Information Technology (IT) are
particularly ‘fashionable’. Given growing market demands for graduates with IT skills,
every university and college opened this popular field of study (Tran, 2002).
Also, higher education institutions have now replaced Russian with English as a
compulsory foreign language. When Vietnam implemented the closed-door policy, its
main partners were Russia and former socialist countries. Naturally, the most popular
foreign language was Russian. However, since the country opened its doors to Western
countries and as a consequence of the impact of the movement towards using English as a
communication language, English has become a compulsory subject in almost all college
programs. To enable local students to master the language, many individual schools and
colleges have also established two-way collaborations with foreign counterparts to train
students both in Vietnam and overseas. Favorite countries to establish these programs are
the U.S., England, Canada, Singapore and Australia (Kelly, 2004).

Socializing and privatizing education. Doi Moi has made a big contribution to
changing the education system from a centralized to a privatized and marketized system.
Before Doi Moi, education was considered a priority only for a relatively small and elite
group. Schools were all public educational institutions located in large urban areas
(Nguyen-Van, 2000). During the 1970s and 1980s, the State pursued the development of
a national education system designed to enable Vietnamese to access a publicly financed
K–12 education as a right of citizenship. Higher education was very rare. Over the long
term, the development of state-socialism did not go according to plan. The limits of
education had unintended effects on economic development (Nguyen & Sloper, 1995).
Realizing the difficulty of separating higher education development from the economic
development of the country, the government has therefore changed its governing
10
philosophy of higher education (Overland, 2006). Decree No. 90/CP issued in 1993
stipulated that all people have the right to pursue higher education, and this has led to a
tide of massification of higher education in the country (Pham-Lan & Fry, 2002). For
example, total higher education enrolment grew from 162,000 in 1993 to 1.3 million in
2003, while the number of higher education institutions has grown from 120 in the early
1990s to 224 in 2004 (Institute of International Education [IIE], 2005; Hayden & Lam,
2007).
Noticeably, honouring the regulations of the WTO, the Education Law issued in
2005 in Vietnam no longer prohibits the commercialization of educational activities.
Following the principles of the General Agreement on Trades and Services (GATS), the
Vietnamese government has begun to regard higher education as a commodity; thereby a
spontaneous and immature education market has begun to emerge (Pham-Lan & Fry,
2002). Subsequently, the government has begun to allow the emergence of ‘semi-public’
and ‘non-state’ provision of social services. The first non-public university was
developed in 1988. Since then, non-public higher education has been continuously
increasing its role and function in Vietnam’s higher education system (Ngo, 2006). The
entry into the WTO has further liberated the education market in Vietnam and private
higher education is expanding in the country. The expansion of non-state provision of
education has gathered pace, particularly at the preschool, upper secondary school and
tertiary levels. By 2006, large proportions of preschool and upper-secondary students
were attending non-state schools (Ngoc & Ashwill, 2004).
Financially, before 1986 education was financed by state-socialist economic
institutions and subordinated to relevant administrative authorities of Vietnam’s
integrated state. However, that economic system was built in context of wars, was largely
cut off from world trade, and was riddled with perverse incentives that had the
unintended effect of limiting economic resources available for education. The
government has realized that relying upon the state’s subsidies would never satisfy
people’s pressing educational needs, and diversifying educational finances and
proliferating educational providers has therefore become an increasing popular trend
(Banh, 2006). Therefore, by 1989, Viet Nam’s 35-year experiment with state-socialism
came to an unexpected conclusion. The withering of state-socialist economic institutions
necessitated a reworking of the financial basis of formal schooling and, by implication, a
reworking of educational governance (Mok, 2008).

11
 In the early 1990s, education provision and financing began to change when the
policy of ‘socialization’ (xa hoi hoa) was adopted. Central to the socialization policy is
the shifting of costs from the state onto society in Vietnam; thereby social service
provision is no longer purely a welfare entitlement but citizens have to make financial
contributions when making use of social services (London, 2010). The State began to
permit the collection of fees for schooling. Today, by most estimates, households’
education expenditures account for at least 50% of total education spending. Increased
household earnings have no doubt permitted these increases: per capita GDP has
increased from less than US$200 in the early 1990s to roughly US$1000 by 2010. On the
other hand, shifts in the principles guiding education policies have made out-of-pocket
spending a practical necessity (Hayden & Lam, 2007).

Challenges
Learning reform concerns. Recent reforms that pushed the application of practices
developed in the West as a short cut to advance the education system have resulted in
several teaching and learning failures. Fast development and innovations have put
pressures on educators and researchers to adopt imported practices without careful
examination of their appropriateness. These reforms certainly face some risky degree
because Thomas (1997) claims that learning is strongly shaped and influenced by local
conditions and culture. Practices which are developed based on a set of different cultural
values do not necessarily have the same outcomes in a new context. Therefore, although
Vietnamese policy makers have continuously called for and boosted the application of
Western-value practices, teaching and learning practices at Vietnamese institutions have
not been improved much. The main reason is that the influence of old cultural values
which are predominated by the Confucian philosophy still have their root in the people’s
mentality. These values are not easily and quickly removed because China’s 1000-year
occupation of gave Viet Nam what Alexander Woodside has described as “a
comprehensive initiation into the scholarship, political theories, familial organization
patterns, bureaucratic practices, and even the religious orientations of Chinese culture”
(Woodside, 1971, p. 7). When Western-developed practices are brought into Vietnamese
classrooms, Vietnamese teachers and students still find these practices both theoretically
and practically unsuitable to the socio-cultural context of Vietnam. For instance, while
Western independent learning principles aim to encourage students to open up their own

12
ideas and develop creativeness, Vietnamese students are not yet familiar with face-to-face
discussion because the deep-seated perception of ‘surviving in harmony’ initiated by
Confucius strongly inhibits them from exchanging their true opinions (Hofstede &
Hofstede, 2005). Also, Vietnamese students often dare not question or contradict what
the teacher says because it is still considered rude to behave in such a manner (Phuong-
Mai, 2008). Moreover, infrastructure conditions and resources in Vietnam do not often
meet the requirements of new practices. For instance, student-centred practices often
require small size classes and rich resources of study materials. However, the large
population and limited funding prevent Vietnamese educational institutions from
providing these environments.
Consequently, Thanh-Pham (2010) conducted a study to evaluate the success of
Western-developed learning reforms at a rage of higher education institutions in Vietnam
and found that although advanced practices such as teamwork and group work have been
widely applied in Vietnamese classrooms, a majority of the teachers and students did not
see these activities as being better than their traditional practices in terms of increasing
students’ academic achievement and developing new ideas. The teachers and students
still believed that to succeed in exams, students need to reproduce the teacher’s lectures
and information covered in textbooks. As a result, the initial intent of bringing teamwork
activities to the class so that students can work in a community and are empowered to
develop creative ideas as envisaged by Vietnamese reformers has failed. When evaluating
reform success in the Asia-Pacific region, including Vietnam, Ng (2009) claims that
reformers have usually failed to capture messy realities of influence, pressure, dogma,
expediency, conflict, compromise, intransigence, resistance, error, opposition and
pragmatism in the policy process. Consequently, many reforms in this region have often
appeared very impressive at the beginning but quickly failed.

Low quality. Despite the growth in quantity, there have been concerns raised about the
standard of educational quality. The boom of commercializing education in this global
time is turning Vietnamese higher education into a product to be bought and sold. The
project of changing the present education system – which is offering higher education to
only 1.6 per cent of the population – to a system which can assure 4.5 per cent of citizens
going to university in 2020 (Nguyen-Thi, 2004) has made it much harder for education
providers to provide all students with standardized places. Therefore, the manager of the

13
Vietnamese program at Harvard University, reports that given that the number of students
in Vietnam has increased 10 times during the last 15 years, Vietnamese education
institutions are failing to provide an ensured quality of education for all students
(Vietnam News, 2004). In a recent interview, the Vietnamese minister for education and
training warned that:
Perhaps Vietnamese education has never been criticized as heavily as it is
now. The greatest challenge of Vietnamese present education is its poor
quality and low effectiveness. This problem is taking place at all levels
from primary to tertiary (MOET, 2005).

According to a recent article published in the Chronicle of Higher Education,

Vietnam’s higher education system is still ‘20, even 30 years, out of date ... the country
does not have a single university considered to be international quality’ (Overland, 2006).
Besides, the popularity of English as a lingua franca is moving students from
“south to north”, from “east to west” and from “non English-speaking countries to
English-speaking countries” (Luke, 2001a, p. 38). It is now fashionable that young people
tend to choose to study for foreign degrees, pursuing prestigious educational
opportunities seen to be associated with social advantage (Marginson, 2004). Therefore,
similar to almost all other non-English speaking countries, Vietnam is facing a big
challenge in regard to recruiting and retaining students. A question for Vietnamese
education in the coming years will be how to compete with foreign institutions both in
Vietnam and overseas to not only keep local students but also attract international
students.

Teaching staff. Recently, the shortage of university teaching staff in Vietnam has
become critical. Although the number of lecturers has been increasing, it is not fast
enough to keep pace with the recent explosion in the number of enrolled students. From
the academic year 93–94 up to now, the number of students rose 3.96 times (from
225,274 to 893,754 students), but the number of lecturers rose only 1.47 times (from
20,648 to 30,309 lecturers). The lecturer/student ratio of 1/29 is one of the highest in the
world, indicating an insufficient supply of teachers catering for the increase in student
enrolments (Pham-Lan & Fry, 2002).
Also, in recent years, the MOET as well as many universities have expressed
concerns about the quality of teaching. While the majority of universities, especially
private ones, have learned from Western universities in terms of applying teaching
14
methods and facilities, many staff are not well prepared to implement new teaching
methods. Very commonly, teaching staff cannot read English materials although a
number of programs have been taught in English. Also, scientific research is another
concern. Currently, university staff do not maintain the practice of teaching and doing
research together because they are often overloaded with teaching and many education
institutions lack adequate facilities and laboratories. This problem seems hard to rectify
because there is a severe shortage of state funds. The national budget for the year 2000
was VND 1,375 billion. From this public expenditure, public universities received 3.6%.
Private universities received no government subsidies at all (Pham-Lan & Fry, 2002). To
ensure the high quality of lecturers, universities should have a sound policy requiring
lecturers to both teach and undertake research, therefore applying theory to business or
production problems.

Conclusion
The paper has discussed Vietnamese economics and education after the
implementation of the Doi Moi policy. Doi Moi has marked a transitional stage in
Vietnamese history. It ended the long-lasting closed door policy to bring Vietnam to a
new period that has both opportunities and challenges. On the positive side, it is very
clear to see that the Vietnamese are enjoying a much better quality of life. In Vietnam
now, 93% of the population are literate, and one-fourth of the population are at school.
The network of schools has extended so much that they can be found even in remote and
mountainous regions. This rate is a remarkable achievement because before Doi Moi,
90% of the population were illiterate and schools were only located in big cities (Nguyen-
Van, 2000). It has also been a wise decision for the country to develop the private
education system because this system has already made significant contributions to
educational and economic development. To compete with private institutions, public
schools and colleges have also improved their quality significantly. This reflects the trend
that Japan and the United States have applied to develop their education and economics.
In general, many education institutions have demonstrated great ingenuity in responding
to market requirements by initiating diverse programs. Recent reforms in teaching and
learning, quality evaluations and organizing workshops and seminars to train teachers
have shown that the education authorities have started to shift the system from
quantitative expansion to qualitative improvement.

15
 However, on the negative side, there are still many concerns facing the present
system. The first one is inequality between the children of rich families and those of poor
families. When education was free, it was therefore accessible to all Vietnamese children.
Nowadays, education is getting more and more expensive and many cases have been
reported of parents who are so poor that they have stopped sending their children to
school. Also, teachers get very low pay. A teacher’s salary is 1.7 times the per capita
GDP, less than half of the EFA/FTI Indicative Framework target of 3.5. Furthermore, this
figure is significantly below the Asian average (2.4) (Hamano, 2008). In order to make
ends meet, teachers have to supplement their income by doing other jobs or offering
private classes to their students. This situation discourages teachers from studying for
better qualifications and participating in professional training programs. As a result,
quality improvement programs and the call for upgrading teaching standards have been
taking place very slowly. However, the educational policy of the Vietnamese
government, as well as the international aid being received, are focused on improving this
situation. Although Vietnam still has a long way to go, the MOET and the Council of
Ministers are trying to have suitable policies to strengthen the system so that it can
develop and provide better human resources.

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