Higher Education in Vietnam Flexibility, Mobility and Practicality in the Global Knowledge Economy by Lý Thị Trần, Simon Marginson, Ho'ng Minh Đỗ, Quyên Thị Ngọc Đỗ, Trúc Thị Thanh Lê, Nh'i Thị Nguyễn

Higher Education in Vietnam
Flexibility, Mobility and Practicality in the

Global Knowledge Economy
Lý Thi. Trần,
Simon Marginson,
Hoàng Minh -Dỗ,
Quyên Thi. Ngo.c -Dỗ,
Trúc Thi. Thanh Lê,
Nhài Thi. Nguyễn,
ao Thi. Phu’o’ng Vũ,
Th
Tha.ch Ngo.c Pha.m,
Hu’o’ng Thi. Lan Nguyễn
with
Tiên Thi. Ha.nh Hồ
Higher Education in Vietnam
Palgrave Studies in Global Higher Education
Edited by
Roger King, School of Management, University of Bath, UK
Jenny Lee, Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Arizona, USA
Simon Marginson, Institute of Education, University of London, UK
Rajani Naidoo, School of Management, University of Bath, UK
This series aims to explore the globalization of higher education and the impact
this has had on education systems around the world including East Asia, Africa,
the Middle East, Europe and the US. Analyzing HE systems and policy this
series will provide a comprehensive overview of how HE within different nations
and/or regions is responding to the new age of universal mass higher education.
Titles include:
Michael Dobbins and Christoph Knill

HIGHER EDUCATION GOVERNANCE AND POLICY CHANGE IN WESTERN
EUROPE
International Challenges to Historical Institutions
Lý Trần, Simon Marginson, Hoàng -Dỗ, Quyên -Dỗ, Trúc Lê, Nhài Nguyễn, Th
ao
Vũ, Tha.ch Pha.m and Hu’o’ng Nguyễn
HIGHER EDUCATION IN VIETNAM
Flexibility, Mobility and Practicality in the Global Knowledge Economy
Christof Van Mol
INTRA-EUROPEAN STUDENT MOBILITY IN INTERNATIONAL HIGHER
EDUCATION CIRCUITS
Europe on the Move
Palgrave Studies in Global Higher Education

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Higher Education in
Vietnam
Flexibility, Mobility and Practicality in the
Global Knowledge Economy
Lý Thi. Trần
Senior Lecturer, Deakin University, Australia
Simon Marginson
Professor of International Higher Education, Institute of Education, University of
London, UK
Hoàng Minh Đỗ
Lecturer at Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam
Quyên Thi. Ngo.c Đỗ

Researcher, University of Melbourne, Australia
Trúc Thi. Thanh Lê

Nhài Thi. Nguyễn

Senior Lecturer, RMIT International University, Vietnam
Thao Thi. Phương Vũ

Tha.ch Ngo.c Pha.m

Researcher at Victoria University, Australia and Lecturer at Hanoi University, Vietnam
Hương Thi. Lan Nguyễn

with

Researcher, University of Technology, Sydney Australia
© Lý Trần, Simon Marginson, Hoàng -Dỗ, Quyên -Dỗ, Trúc Lê, Nhài Nguyễn,
Th
ao Vũ, Tha.ch Pha.m and Hu’o’ng Nguyễn 2014
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Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
Preface and Acknowledgements viii
About the Authors xii
Introduction
1 Education for Flexibility, Practicality and Mobility 3
Lý Thi. Trần and Simon Marginson
Part I Students and Structures

2 Higher and Tertiary Education in Vietnam 29
Hoàng Minh Đỗ and Quyên Thi. Ngo.c Đỗ
3 Towards more Flexible Organization 54

Hoàng Minh Đỗ
4 Curriculum and Pedagogy 86

Lý Thi. Trần, Trúc Thi. Thanh Lê and Nhài Thi. Nguyễn
5 The Student Self 108

Nhài Thi. Nguyễn and Lý Thi. Trần
Part II The Global Challenge

6 Internationalization 127
Lý Thi. Trần, Simon Marginson and Nhài Thi. Nguyễn
7 Policy Borrowing 152

o Thi. Phương Vũ and Simon Marginson
Tha
8 Foreign Language Policy 169

Tha.ch Ngo.c Pha.m
Part III Extending the Boundaries

9 Research in Universities 187
Hương Thi. Lan Nguyễn
v
vi Contents
10 Vocational Education and Training 208

Conclusion
11 Modernization with Vietnamese Characteristics 229
Simon Marginson, Lý Thi. Trần and Hoàng Minh Đỗ
References 237
Index 260
Figures and Tables
Figures
2.1 Structure of education system in Vietnam 38

2.2 Vocational upper-secondary schools (USS) and junior
colleges (JC) by geographical area 40
7.1 Major influences on Vietnamese education before Đổi
Mới in macro-historical terms 156
9.1 Organizational structure of the S&T system in Vietnam 196
10.1 Structure of vocational education in Vietnam 215
10.2 Management structure of vocational education system
in Vietnam 216
10.3 Comparison between MOET and MOLISA framework 220
Tables
3.1 Growth in higher education in Vietnam since 2000 57

3.2 Tertiary education institutions in Vietnam, 2012 60
3.3 Governance of tertiary education institutions in
Vietnam 67
7.1 System and institutional levels of policy borrowing in
Vietnamese higher education 159
9.1 Government organizations with highest estimated
expenditure for R&D in 2013 198
vii
Preface and Acknowledgements
This book had its genesis in a Vietnam Reading Group set up in early
2010 at the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the Univer-
sity of Melbourne, Australia. At the time a number of doctoral students
from Vietnam, mostly from Hanoi-based universities, were working at
the University of Melbourne. The Group consisted of these students, Lý
Thi. Trần, who had previously completed a doctorate in Melbourne, and
Melbourne academic staff with an interest in Vietnam. Subsequently
more doctoral students came from Vietnam to the Centre for the Study
of Higher Education and joined the Group, as did another doctoral
student from Victoria University.
After two years of fruitful, enjoyable and constructive discussions of
readings from the literature, it was decided at the end of 2011 to attempt
the production of a full-length research-based original book focused
directly on issues and problems of higher education in Vietnam. The
Group was and is strongly motivated by a desire to contribute to the
lifting of higher education and research in Vietnam. Education and
research were and are seen as integral to national development and
defence and to the forward influence of Vietnam in the world.
In much of East Asia, higher education is improving fast, as was
studied by the Group in its pre-book discussions. In most countries par-
ticipation is growing, institutions are lifting in quality, research papers
in science and technology are multiplying and world-class universities
are rising. These changes are blending East Asian traditions in education,
state and society, with newer themes of modernization, openness and
closer global engagement, and with internationalization programmes
that are opening national education systems to transformation, while
at the same time maintaining and developing national identity. How-
ever, education and research in Vietnam are not progressing in the
mode of rapid development that characterizes Korea, China, Taiwan and
Singapore, or Japan at an earlier time. ‘Why is this so?’ we asked. In the
preparation of this book, we sought to identify the barriers that have
been holding back Vietnamese higher education, and the steps needed
to lift its contribution to the nation.
Part of the problem is too much dependence on educational tradi-
tions inherited from the past and part of it lies in dead-weight political
viii
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
habits that have emerged more recently. But governance and tradition
also provide essential resources, provided that they are used creatively
and flexibly, and are continually developed in terms of national needs.
We believe that higher education in Vietnam should embody the best
traditions of Vietnam, while at the same time it should be modernizing,
incorporating the best ideas about education from around the world, in
the cosmopolitan manner that was practised by President Hồ Chí Minh.
Using this creative hybrid approach, national tradition is continually
modernized, and the best of the past continues into the future, while at
the same time national development takes a Vietnamese character.
The approach is summarized in the book’s central themes: flexibility,
practicality and mobility. These themes are seen as integral to the his-
tory of the Vietnamese nation with its striving always for independence
and freedom. At the same time, the principles of flexibility, practicality
and mobility provide us with continuing guidance today as we respond
to the challenges of national evolution; the expansion, reform and
advance of the educational system; and global integration.
It was decided to adopt an approach to existing practice that was both
critical and constructive. We saw ourselves as supporting national effort,
and understanding the conditions and limitations facing government
and the education system, while hoping for the best. We also set out
to be open and fearless in identifying problems and areas that needed
improvement.
It was also decided that our method of preparing the book should
be consistent with the collective approach that is part of national tra-
dition, so as to maximize the contributions of every member of the
Group. We planned the book in outline together, identifying chapters
and authors. The small author groups responsible for each chapter pre-
pared detailed plans and first drafts and brought the texts back to the
whole group for ongoing discussion. The first draft of the opening
chapter began in May 2012 and that chapter was not finalized until
early 2013 after a number of full-length discussions of its contents, in
which many new ideas emerged. Chapter drafting took more than 15
months, with chapters 9–11 the last to be discussed by the Group.
The first named author for each chapter contributed the majority
of the writing of the first draft of the chapter with the other named
authors contributing lesser amounts. However, responsibility for author-
ship does not stop there. All chapters aside from Chapter 10 were
thoroughly discussed in Group meetings and were changed as a result of
those discussions. Almost every individual member of the Group con-
tributed materially to each chapter during the processes of discussion
x Preface and Acknowledgements
of drafts, followed by redrafting and further discussions. The book is

a genuinely collective product, grounded in consensual agreement. All
the named authors on the front of the book take responsibility for the
contents of the chapters.
The authors’ names on the front of the book have been placed in the
order they appear in the chapters. The order of names does not repre-
sent a hierarchy of importance or reflect inequalities in contributions
to the book. All are essentially equal as authors, though publishing and
citation conventions require that the names be used in one order on a
consistent basis.
In the exceptional case of Chapter 10, Tiên Thi. Ha.nh Hồ did not take
part in the Group discussions during production of the book and has
no responsibility for chapters other than her own work on Vocational
Education and Training (VET). Therefore she is not named as one of the
book’s authors. We are very grateful to Tiên for contributing a chapter on
VET that complements the rest of the book. While the book is predom-
inantly focused on universities and other higher education institutions,
we recognize that the topics of some chapters, such as those on inter-
nationalization, governance and the student self, are equally relevant
in vocational training. We did not have a comprehensive set of data
on vocational training to match our material on higher education, but
Tiên’s chapter goes part of the way in redressing the lack. Chapter 10 was
reviewed by the whole group, and all authors are happy to endorse it.
We are grateful to Oanh Dương, Alan Williams, Cate Gribble and
Melissa Barnes who contributed to meetings of the Vietnam Reading
Group before and in the early stages of the production of the book.
We thank Hiê.p Hùng Pha.m who provided the first critical review of
the book manuscript. Hiê.p’s tremendous knowledge of higher educa-
tion and government in Vietnam resulted in a number of significant
improvements to the text. We also thank the anonymous reviewer of
the manuscript, our constructive Palgrave publisher Andrew James, the
coordinators of the Palgrave book series Roger King, Rajani Naidoo and
Jenny Lee, our skillful production manager Arvinth Kumar.
We also thank Richard James and Sophie Arkoudis, who were directors
of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) at the Univer-
sity of Melbourne during 2010–2013. The CSHE provided administrative
support and hosted Group meetings over the four-year period, besides
housing the doctoral studies of the majority of the book’s authors.
At one point Richard joked that the CSHE was becoming the ‘Centre
for the Study of Vietnamese Higher Education’! We also thank Leo
Goedegebuure who directs the LH Martin Institute for Higher Education
Preface and Acknowledgements xi
Leadership and Management that is located alongside CSHE. Meetings

of the Vietnam Reading Group were held in the LH Martin Board Room.
We also thank our families for their great support during the book
project, and in all our work, and for the happiness that our children
bring. One of us (Thao Thi. Phương Vũ) gave birth to a daughter just
after completing the consolidated reference list at the end of the book –
and revised the references only three weeks after the birth. Our children
make us more optimistic about the future and explain why we do work
such as this. People do not exist to fulfil the needs of structures. Struc-
tures exist to fulfil the needs of people. Our growing children remind
us how important it is that higher education in Vietnam be as good as
humanly possible.
About the Authors
Lý Thi. Trần is a senior lecturer at the School of Education, Deakin Uni-

versity, Australia. Her research interests are in international education,
student mobility, teacher professional development in international
education and Vietnamese higher education.
Simon Marginson is Professor of International Higher Education at the

Institute of Education, University of London, UK. He is Joint Editor-
in-Chief of the academic journal Higher Education and an Honorary
Professorial Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Higher Education,
University of Melbourne, Australia. His research interests include higher
education policy, higher education and globalization and comparative
and international higher education. Much of his recent research has
been conducted in East Asia.
Hoàng Minh Đỗ is a doctoral student at the Centre for the Study of
Higher Education, University of Melbourne. His research interests are
in higher education governance and quality assurance. Hoàng was pre-
viously Dean of the Faculty of English Teachers Education, University
of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University,
Hanoi, Vietnam.
Quyên Thi. Ngo.c Đỗ is a doctoral student at the Centre for the Study
of Higher Education, University of Melbourne. Her research interests
encompass educational effectiveness, university governance, perfor-
mance indicators and quality assurance and improvement, specifically
accreditation and benchmarking. Quyên was previously Manager of
Quality Assurance Research, Institute for Education Quality Assurance,
Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Trúc Thi. Thanh Lê is a doctoral student at the Centre for the Study
include transnational academic mobility, professional development and
teacher education. She was previously a lecturer at Thua Thien Hue
College of Education, Vietnam.
xii
About the Authors xiii
Nhài Thi. Nguyễn is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre of Communication

and Design, RMIT International University, Vietnam. Her research inter-
ests include international education, sociology of education, language
education and comparative education in the Asia Pacific region.
Thao Thi. Phương Vũ is a doctoral student at the Centre for the Study
include human resource management in higher education and the indi-
genization of higher education policies. Thao’s background is in English
language education and higher education management in both public
university and international university settings in Vietnam. She previ-
ously worked at the Faculty of English Teachers Education, University
of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University,
Hanoi, Vietnam.
Tha.ch Ngo.c Pha.m is a doctoral student at Victoria University,

Melbourne, Australia and a lecturer in English at Hanoi University,
Vietnam. His research interest is in using media for English language
teaching.
Hương Thi. Lan Nguyễn is a doctoral student at the LH Martin Insti-

tute for Higher Education Leadership and Management, University of
Melbourne. Her PhD thesis is currently under examination. Her research
interests are in higher education policy and management, including
research capacity building, particularly in developing countries. Hương
was the Foundation Dean of the Foreign Language Faculty, Hanoi
University of Industry, Vietnam.
Tiên Thi. Ha.nh Hồ is a doctoral student at the Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney. Her research focuses are ped-
agogical practices in vocational education and training and workplace
learning. She is a lecturer and a senior officer at the Department of
Scientific Management and International Cooperation, Hue Industrial
College.
Introduction
1
Education for Flexibility,
Practicality and Mobility
Lý Thi. Trần and Simon Marginson
Introduction
Vietnam is a country of over 90 million people, the third largest nation

in Southeast Asia after Indonesia and the Philippines, and with more
people than any European country except Russia. Though parts of the
country are very fertile, it includes challenging mountainous terrain,
and some agricultural land is still recovering from military despoliation.
The people include 54 ethnic groups. The largest group, the Kinh, is
dominant in the principal cities of Hà Nô.i and Hồ Chí Minh. Vietnam
also includes more than four million citizens living, working and study-
ing abroad, an important resource with a continuing connection to the
country.
After a long period of warfare, in which the land was invaded and
partly occupied by Japan, France, the principal colonial power, and the
United States, Vietnam finally achieved national unification and found
its unchallengeable place in the world with the defeat of the American
army in 1975, the first military reverse ever inflicted on the leading
global power. This repeated the earlier success of the Đa.i Viê.t 1000 years
before, in achieving independence after a long invasion by the great-
est power of the time, China. As the founder of the modern nation,
President Hồ Chí Minh stated: ‘Không có gì quý hơn đô.c lâ.p tự do’
[Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom]. In win-
ning the American war, Vietnamese people, men, women and children
demonstrated great bravery, determination, flexibility, practicality and
the deep ability to work together for a common goal.
The newly unified Vietnam stabilized its southwestern border with
Cambodia in 1978, beat back a land invasion from China in the north
in 1979 and began the long process of national reconstruction, the
3
4 Education for Flexibility, Practicality and Mobility
modernization of the nation and the creation of a better and more

fulfilling life for its families. Today Vietnam has an expanding and
increasingly open economy and the nation has a growing role in East
Asia and the world. The task now is for Vietnam to make the best use of
its independence and freedom: to work with the determination of the
war years to make up for the time lost during the wars; to use, develop
and change Vietnam’s national traditions to best effect; and especially
to augment its individual and collective human resources which are
the ultimate source of economic value, and of technological and social
development. To catch up with other nations in the region and in the
world. To make a better future for all. And in the global knowledge econ-
omy in which all nations now find themselves, higher education and
research are especially important in building the emerging nation.
Education and Vietnam

Not all great leaders survive the test of time, but President Hồ Chí Minh
remains a source of both inspiration and ideas for national develop-
ment, more than 40 years after his death. Hồ Chí Minh was known
as ‘the teacher’ [Người Thầy]. He was well aware that education is the
key to a better future, for individuals, for their communities and for
the nation as a whole. Vietnam has a long tradition of commitment to
learning, which is part of the Confucian cultural heritage that Hồ Chí
Minh valued, although he was also aware of its limitations. Teachers are
held in high esteem by Vietnamese parents and children, which is both
part of the Confucian tradition and one of the keys to the future. In a
globalizing world, education and research are the keys to the continuous
process of adapting to technology that is a continuous part of modern
economies, and education and research also facilitate adaptation and
reform in government. When society becomes more educated and at a
higher level, government becomes more open, transparent and account-
able. Hồ Chí Minh’s love for learning is increasingly right for Vietnam.
The future quality of education, training and research will decide the
knowledge and skills of the people and shape the life of every person,
and the place of the nation in a globalizing world. In a sense, everything
depends on modernizing and improving education. It cannot substi-
tute for good government, smarter industry and productive work, but it
helps make them possible.
This book will centre on the reform of Vietnam’s tertiary education,
focusing largely on universities and other higher education institutions,
and their research activities, with some discussion also of technical and
vocational education. In this chapter and this book, we argue for a
Lý Thi. Trần and Simon Marginson 5
system of higher education and tertiary training that enables the devel-
opment of flexible, practical and mobile citizens, one that is also founded
in a flexible, practical and mobile view of knowledge so as to best equip
Vietnam for the challenges of an ever-changing world.
In this book we argue that the reform of the higher education sys-
tem in Vietnam needs to both modernize and change where change is
needed, while also drawing on the nation’s traditional strengths. Both
national tradition and modern challenges emphasize the need for flex-
ibility, practicality and mobility as core national virtues. The sections
that follow discuss how Vietnamese history of thousands of years has
been the cradle for the nurturing of ‘flexibility’ and ‘practicality’ as
national characteristics, and how ‘mobility’ has emerged as an increas-
ingly important dimension of Vietnam’s way of life in the period of
modernization. With this as background, we go on to critically ask
the crucial question of the chapter: ‘Does the higher education system
address the demands of the nation and people within the global age?’
The later chapters in the book will further develop and discuss answers
to this crucial question.
Flexibility and practicality as principles of life
The notions of flexibility and practicality have evolved naturally in

Vietnam, and the development and flourishing of flexible people and
social organization are rooted in Vietnamese survival and culture. This
section explores how the concepts of flexibility and practicality are
interrelated with basic principles underpinning Vietnamese culture,
including the strands of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism in that
culture, and have also been shaped by Vietnam’s history against for-
eign invasion. Likewise, flexibility and practicality have been integral
to government-led responses to social and economic changes since the
unification of the whole country in 1975 and the opening up of the
economy in 1986.
Vietnamese culture and religions

Notions of flexibility and practicality, and also forms of communism,
were always at the heart of Vietnamese traditional ways of living and
engaging with the surrounding world. In this sense, Vietnam is an
agriculture-based society (Trần, 1999, 2009). Farmers’ life and well-
being are largely dependent on nature. It has always been essential for
Vietnamese farmers conditioned by the paddy rice civilization to draw
on the collective strength and solidarity of the whole community in
order to protect crops from natural disasters such as flood, storm and
drought. Vietnamese farmers’ ways of cultivating and living need to be
flexible, practical and communally oriented in response to the constant
and uncertain changes of nature for effective agricultural cultivation.
In addition, the communal virtue also shapes the individual’s unwaver-
ing commitment to maintain harmony with oneself. The ‘flexible’ life
philosophy of ‘ở bầu thì tròn, ở ống thì dài’ [Live in a gourd, you grow
round. Live in a tube, you grow long] and ‘khéo ăn thì no, khéo co thì
ấm’ [Those who know how to eat will have their fill, those who know
how to use a blanket will be warm], which refers to efforts to flexibly
adapt to a particular circumstance, has been cultivated and developed
throughout the agriculture-based culture. This logic of thinking and
behaving has contributed to a tendency to be adaptable, which is now
an essential resource in the transition to a more industrial and urban
society.
Buddhism is the most common religion in Vietnam, and flexibility
is one of the fundamental principles underpinning Buddhist ideology.
Flexibility is embraced in the Buddhist idea of ‘Tùy duyên bất biến’ –
acting flexibly depending on particular situations without losing one’s
identity and core values [Thuâ.n theo hoàn canh mà xử sự, nhưng không
đánh mất ban tính của mình]. The aspiration cherished in this primary
principle of Buddhism ‘tùy duyên bất biến’ can itself be regarded as
a very Vietnamese concept. It embraces flexibility, fluidity, adaptabil-
ity and practicality in response to new demands and changes in life
and society instead of being rigid and static. This principle has drawn
on opposite integration to guide people on how to engage with the
community and the world around. In the light of this opposite inte-
gration, people are advised to nurture flexible attitudes and adaptive
ways of life [tùy duyên] but at the same time retain their own iden-
tity, core values and self-determination [bất biến]. Emphatically, this
principle does not encourage either sole flexibility or rigid adherence
to basic beliefs. This Buddhist idea integrates opposites that can exist in
an integrated whole: flexibility while embracing identity, aspiration and
self-determination.
The way that Vietnamese people are oriented to flexibility, and thus
the way they engage with the world, is also influenced by Taoism. The
essence of Taoist belief is the harmonization between human beings
and nature. Taoism has found its place in Vietnamese culture because
it matches with characteristics of Vietnamese agricultural life and the
tendency to maintain harmonization in ways of life of the Vietnamese.
Flexibility and practicality as primary features of Vietnamese agricultural
life are intimately related to the yin–yang principle (Tran, 1999, p. 59),
which focuses on the flexible relationship and balance between different
factors containing yin and yang in life. The yin–yang principle is bound
to both the ‘dynamic whole’ and the ‘harmony of opposites’ (Soo, 1981,
cited in Luk-Fong, 2005).
In essence, flexibility, practicality and harmony – modern principles
on which an education system can be built – fit with Vietnamese ways
of seeing and making sense of the world. Vietnamese people learn to
value these principles all their lives.
Vietnamese people have also been flexible in adapting Chinese
philosophies such as Confucianism and Taoism, and religions such as
Buddhism, to ensure that these principles can be made suitable to
the way of living and spiritual life of the Vietnamese. These systems
of thought have been Vietnamized so as to leave out or adapt those
elements that are rigid, involve essentialist beliefs, or do not match
well with nature, Vietnamese cultural heritage, Vietnamese tradition
or Vietnamese core values. For example, Confucianism is the product
of Chinese feudalism and as such it encourages patriarchal behaviour
and absolute loyalty to the ruler [Trung]. This appears to be opposed to
the idea of freedom for the grass roots, and the idea of national libera-
tion from imperial control. So the Confucian idea has been adapted and
changed in Vietnam. In Vietnam, ‘loyalty to a monarch was conditional
upon his success in defending national territory’ (Vietnam-political cul-
ture, 2012). Furthermore, ‘trung, hiếu’ has been Vietnamized to be in
line with the nation’s political agenda, ‘trung với nước hiếu với dân’
[loyal to the Nation, pious to the People].
Trần Đình Hượu (2009) concludes that the Vietnamese traditional
approach towards national, community and personal development is
to ‘du nhâ.p và linh hoa.t ứng du.ng’, meaning importing and flexibly
adapting foreign values. It is imperative for Vietnam to capitalize on
these traditional strengths and continue to adapt and marry foreign
ideas relevant to the national context, blending them with the distinc-
tive features of Vietnamese culture. This is how an evolving Vietnamese
identity can be created for modern times.
Many well-regarded scholars of Vietnamese culture and history have
emphasized that flexibility is central to Vietnamese cultural identity (for
example, Trần Quốc Vượng and Trần Đình Hượu). The saying ‘Biết nhu
biết cương biết công biết thủ’ (Trần, 2000) [knowing when to be gen-
tle and tough, when to attack and defend] reflects the flexibility and
adaptability of the Vietnamese people and the Vietnamese way of living
and national culture. According to Trần Đình Hượu (2009), the three
essential features of Vietnamese culture include practicality, flexibility

and harmony. The author contended that the aspiration for remarkable
creativity may not be visible in Vietnamese culture. What is central to
Vietnamese culture is sensitivity, flexibility and adaptability to deal with
challenges in life and to maintain harmony.
Flexibility and practicality as featured in history against

foreign invasion
Resilience, solidarity, self-determination, flexibility and practicality are
interwoven with the national history of more than 4000 years. This his-
tory has consisted of numerous campaigns against foreign invasion and
domination. Resilience and human solidarity have enabled the whole
nation to sustain long-lasting fights for peace, independence and unifi-
cation and to rebuild the country again and again after devastating wars.
Coupled with the Vietnamese nationalist spirit, the Vietnamese peo-
ple’s commitment to self-determination, agency and flexible response
has been demonstrated not only in war time but also in the current
modernization of the country.
The so-called art and science of war – the strategy of flexible response
[tác chiến linh hoa.t] (Đào, 2012) – is important in military conflict.
It has been even more fundamental for Vietnam’s army throughout
the country’s national history, due to its unique military circumstances.
Being a small nation in the Southeast Asian region, Vietnam experi-
enced Chinese incursion for over 1000 years, French colonization for
almost a century and American occupation for nearly 30 years. The
Vietnamese had to tactically live with and fight against much stronger
opponents in order to protect territorial integrity and achieve indepen-
dence. According to the military analyst and colonel Đào Văn Đê. (2012),
the capability to foresee opportunities and respond flexibly and practi-
cally to the emergent opportunities – by developing suitable and timely
strategies that place the enemy in a situation that they find unexpected,
confusing and complicating to cope with – is the key to Vietnam’s
victory during the war with America. On the occasion of the 37th cele-
bration of the reunification of the country on 30 April 2012, The People’s
Army, the leading magazine of the Vietnamese army, had a special issue
devoted to reflecting and analysing the factors underpinning victory in
the war with America. Amongst these factors, the military art of acting
flexibly, practically and correctly to changing circumstances during the
war was identified as primary (Quân Đô.i Nhân Dân, The People’s Army,
2012).
This conversation between the American Colonel Summers and
Vietnamese Colonel Tu on 25 April 1975 in Hanoi, five days before the
reunification of the country, implicitly conveys the enormous signifi-

cance of ‘flexibility’ and ‘practicality’ in deciding victory in the war:
‘You know you never defeated us on the battlefield,’ said the

American colonel.
The Vietnamese colonel pondered this remark a moment. ‘That may

be so,’ he replied, ‘but it is so irrelevant.’
Conversation in Hanoi, April 1975
(cited in Summers, 1984, p. 1)
The American colonel still maintained the ideology of conventional

warfare, where logistics and weaponry were decisive on the battlefield.
This principle was irrelevant to the context of the anti-America war,
which was a people’s war or guerrilla war. The guerrilla war tactic was
the flexible, practical and relevant response to an enemy that was much
stronger in terms of logistics and weaponry. Most Vietnamese civilians
were mobilized in active participation in the course of warfare on differ-
ent fronts, including the political, cultural, economic and agricultural,
not just on the battlefield. The reunification of the country was the
triumph of the persistent struggles of the Vietnamese people, together
with a flexible and practical military strategy, cultivated in nationalism
and Vietnamese patriotic tradition. This was successful against the most
advanced modern weaponry. It again illustrates how flexibility and prac-
ticality have been nurtured and developed in Vietnam’s history and way
of life.
Mobility as a dimension of Vietnamese tradition
Mobility is multi-dimensional. It involves not only physical mobility,

but also regional mobility, virtual mobility and cross-border intellectual
mobility including the mobility of ideas. Physical mobility is the more
traditional idea, and often links to a sense of locality, while intellec-
tual and virtual mobility appears to be more fluid and open-ended. The
mobility of knowledge is remarkable. Many learned skills can be applied
in a flexible way in different jobs; and knowledge itself is exception-
ally mobile, flowing across national borders and between different fields
of human activity. Ideas and information that emerge in one domain
are often used in others. Skill mobility, and especially intellectual and
virtual mobility, has emerged more strongly in response to the current
stage of modernization and globalization. But all forms of mobility are
becoming more important in an ever-changing world.
The virtue of mobility has been nurtured in Vietnamese life and is par-
ticularly embraced in our aspiration to enrich knowledge and develop
a well-rounded human being. Physical mobility and intellectual mobil-
ity are interconnected, as reflected in well-known Vietnamese sayings:
‘Đi cho biết đó biết đây. Ở nhà với me. biết ngày nào khôn’ and ‘Đi
mô.t ngày đàng, ho.c mô.t sàng khôn’ [travelling forms a young man].
Criticism of those who are immobile and do not attempt to enhance
´
their learning is shown in the Vietnamese proverbs ‘Êch ngồi đáy giếng’
[the frog at the bottom of the well] and ‘An phâ.n thủ thường’ [feeling
smug about one’s present circumstance/rest on one’s laurels]. There-
fore, in Vietnamese tradition, along with flexibility and practicability,
the notion of mobility has been nurtured in relation to the desire to
continue learning from the broader world, and the desire to perfect
oneself.
Yet mobility as a Vietnamese traditional virtue has also been gender-
biased and male-oriented. Traditionally, the man was expected to travel
beyond the ‘village bamboo’ to increase his understanding of the world
outside and thus become a ‘real man’. This belief is demonstrated in the
following folklore, which are also common lullabies:
Làm trai cho đáng nên trai

Xuống đông đông tı̃nh, lên đoài đoài yên
[As a man, be worth a man
Pacifying east and west, wherever you go]
Làm trai cho đáng nên trai,
Phú Xuân đã trai, Đồng Nai cũng từng
[As a man, be worth a man
Phu Xuan, Dong Nai, you surely have gone]
Such male-oriented mobility is consistent with not only traditional

Vietnamese male-dominated society but also the history of resistance
wars, where it was most often males who were mobilized to join the
army. The lifestyle embedded in male-oriented mobility reflects ‘chí làm
trai thời chinh chiến’, that is, the determination and responsibility of
men to engage in mobility and sacrifice their lives for their homeland’s
peace and justice. However, in the current time, women and men engage
in mobility more equally, given that priority for travelling is more linked
to opportunities rather than responsibilities and given that families are
smaller than in the past, because of which some families may have only
daughters.
Mobility has been an effective tactic, in connection with flexibility,

in our history of wars against foreign domination. Mobility features
as a necessary dimension in certain well-known strategies and cam-
paigns of the anti-American war: Chiến thuâ.t đánh nhanh rút go.n
[quick attack, prompt withdrawal], vườn không nhà trống [vacant gar-
den, empty house], đường mòn Hồ Chí Minh [Hồ Chí Minh Trail]
including đường mòn Trường Sơn [Trường Sơn Trail] and đường mòn
Trường Sơn trên biển [Trường Sơn sea route], bếp Hoàng Cầm [Hoàng
Cầm mobile kitchen], chiến di.ch hành quân liên tu.c and đánh du kích
[continual operations and guerrilla attacks]. Mobility was the core prin-
ciple in building mobile temporary military bases, organizing mobile
military forces and sustaining a mobile supply line for the war against
the American army.
The internal and transnational mobility and mobilization of nation-
alist spirit is reflected in the protests of the Vietnamese both within the
country and from over 30 cities around the world against China’s illegal
deployment of the Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig inside Vietnam’s exclusive
economic zone near Vietnam’s Paracel Islands. Vietnam mobilizes the
patriotism of the Vietnamese from all walks of life including Vietnamese
overseas students and expatriates as well as the support of international
communities and peace-lovers against China’s incursion into its mar-
itime zones and China’s nine-dash line claim to almost the entire South
China Sea (Taylor, 2014; Thayer, 2011, 2014). These are examples of how
Vietnamese people drew on physical, intellectual and patriotic mobility
in order to mobilize manpower, materials and patriotism against foreign
invasion.
Mobility in the life of Hồ Chí Minh

Hồ Chí Minh is perhaps the most influential leader throughout the
history of Vietnam and is regarded as the symbol of crystallization of
Vietnamese traditional values. His life exhibits both Vietnamese patrio-
tism and globally mobile, flexible and cosmopolitan being. Though Hồ
Chí Minh was brought up in a family with a strong Confucian tradition,
he was able to identify not only the positive aspects of the tradition, but
also aspects that were outdated or were not compatible with the patri-
otic pathway to the independence of Vietnam. He was determined to
go abroad so as to enhance his understanding of the world and bet-
ter develop a suitable agenda to protect the nation against colonialism
and foreign domination. That agenda drew flexibly on both nationalism
and socialism. Hồ Chí Minh revealed ‘tự do cho đồng bào tôi, đô.c lâ.p
cho tổ quốc tôi’ [freedom for my people, independence for my country]
(Nguyễn, 2011) as the ultimate aspiration underpinning his need to be

globally mobile and to learn in a flexible manner about the world, its
values and its knowledge.
In particular, Hồ Chí Minh believed that in order to work out the
right strategy to lead the Vietnamese to freedom, it was imperative to
understand the country that was imposing colonization upon his moth-
erland. While his decision for transnational mobility was based on his
commitment to national patriotism, his method was to a certain degree
cosmopolitanism-oriented. His transnational mobility enabled him to
learn about new values, outside the Confucian tradition he learned
in his youth, such as freedom, social justice, humanity, democracy
and socialism. These values greatly shaped the so-called Hồ Chí Minh
ideology.
Hồ Chí Minh was able to flexibly draw on and harmonize different
principles including communism and socialism embraced in Marxism–
Leninism, the values underpinning the French revolution ‘Tự do, bình
đăng, bác ái’ [freedom, equality, humanity/charity], the American ide-
ology of freedom especially the spirit of the American Declaration of
Independence and Oriental ideologies including Confucianism, Tao-
ism and Vietnamese traditional values. All played a role in developing
his guideline for national liberation. His determination to engage in
transnational mobility and undertake overseas travels, to learn how to
liberate the country, was a very advanced approach compared to that of
most other leaders in the early twentieth century.
In sum, his mobility was grounded in an ethno-relative cosmopolitan
outlook, an openness to ideas from abroad and the capacity to creatively
combine those new ideas with traditional values. These were distinc-
tive virtues of Hồ Chí Minh’s quest for practical knowledge. Vietnamese
higher education can build on this approach now. In fact, in a more
global age, Hồ Chí Minh’s cosmopolitan and mobile approach is even
more necessary than it was in his time.
Dimensions of mobility in modern Vietnam
Mobility has been nurtured in Vietnamese tradition for years, but this
principle has become more important in the era of modernization and
globalization. There are different dimensions of mobility with implica-
tions for the higher education system: regional, social, transnational,
cross-sectoral and virtual mobility. The chapters in this book highlight
the critical need for Vietnam’s tertiary education, knowledge and skills
to respond to current economic and social developments, for example,
issues of skill shortages that are intimately linked to these dimensions

of mobility. In particular, the book emphasizes the role of education in
facilitating social mobility, overcoming regional and gender disadvan-
tages and inequalities and developing Vietnam in the global context,
in which change and mobility are both continuous. It also discusses
the way knowledge itself has become much more mobile in the global
environment. The nation needs universities in Vietnam that can confi-
dently develop new knowledge of a flexible and practical kind, to meet
the needs of economy, society and government, able to be applied in
mobile ways across the country. Vietnam also needs many graduates
prepared in the skills of research who can make practical use of mobile
knowledge flowing into Vietnam from other parts of the world.
Regional and social mobility

Regional mobility is related to the mobility of learners from rural to
urban areas and vice versa. Vietnamese learners tend to concentrate in
more densely populated urban areas of Vietnam, which has contributed
to the inequitable distribution of human resources and economic devel-
opment in the rural and urban areas of Vietnam. Hà Nô.i and Hồ Chí
Minh City account for about half the total higher education population
of the nation. For many students originally from rural and remote com-
munities, a university qualification is associated with the opportunity
for themselves and their families to migrate to urban areas and ensure
more stable living conditions. In those instances, regional mobility is
also social mobility. Many learners from regional universities have relo-
cated and attempted to obtain employment in major cities such as Hà
Nô.i, Hồ Chí Minh and Đà Năng.
˜
While the migration of learners from rural to urban areas is very
common in Vietnam, from 2011 learners have been granted with incen-
tives to work in the countryside and in mountainous and remote areas
as part of the Vietnamese government’s agenda to poverty alleviation
and sustainable development for Vietnam’s countryside. The govern-
ment issued Decree No. 30 regarding poverty reduction and sustainable
development for 62 poor districts. A new initiative of this Decree is the
recruitment of 600 young learners to be the Vice Chairs of commune
people’s committees in 62 regional and remote areas. This initiative
was realized through Decision No. 170/QĐ-TTg issued on 26 January
2011 (Nguyen, 2012). The government is according great emphasis on
both bringing graduates into regions and getting regional people to
bring their skills and knowledge back to the region. The results of this
initiative have not yet been confirmed.
Transnational knowledge and skills mobility

In the increasingly globalized world we now live in, Vietnam embraces
the opportunity to integrate into the world but faces challenges in
gaining recognition throughout the world for Vietnamese skills and
knowledge. There are over 60,000 Vietnamese students undertaking
overseas study (Runckel, 2009). Further, recent years have witnessed
labour migration from Vietnam to foreign countries under the labour
despatch programme. According to Mr Pham Viet Huong (2012), Head
of Planning and Finance Division, Department of Overseas Labour, Min-
istry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Vietnam has 500,000
migrant workers abroad. The main labour markets for Vietnam are
Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Laos. Of the total, 53 per cent work
in the services sector and 42 per cent in industries, agriculture and
aquaculture (VietNews, 2011).
While unqualified Vietnamese workers working abroad are often
appreciated in receiving countries, it is ironic that graduates with a
Vietnamese qualification are not valued in the Asian region and around
the world. While Vietnamese low-skilled labour is recognized interna-
tionally, high-skilled labour is not. Many Vietnamese graduates would
like the opportunity to work beyond national borders in the Asian
region or around the world but find it very hard to obtain employment
outside Vietnam. Many also find it difficult to be recognized as well
qualified to work for joint venture and foreign enterprises in Vietnam.
Vietnamese enterprises and organizations are often more interested in
employing foreigners and foreign-trained Vietnamese graduates. Cur-
rently the Vietnamese higher education system and the vocational
training system are not producing a well-qualified, flexible and practical
workforce that can meet regional and international demands.
Cross-sectoral knowledge and skills mobility
Because of the market economy and Vietnam’s changing social and
employment structures, many graduates have moved from public-sector
to non-public-sector jobs, and many graduates work in areas different
from their major discipline. In total, 50 per cent of Vietnamese gradu-
ates do not work or have been unable to secure employment in their
area of specialization (Hương Giang, 2012).
While this may indicate that Vietnamese higher education is largely
isolated from the actual demands of the labour market, and that the
mission of Vietnamese higher education needs to be reconsidered,
it also has significant implications for flexible capacity building and
human resource development in the current context of Vietnam. Higher
education institutions need to help learners develop a capacity to nav-

igate the knowledge, skills and attributes to perform effectively across
a broad range of sectors of society and professional fields, and in par-
ticular to secure employment and stay employable in a fast-developing
economy and society. It has been argued that reforms in higher educa-
tion need to take into account learners’ employability as an important
objective (Vu, 2011). However, what constitutes ‘employability’ within
the current Vietnamese context and what are the implications for higher
education are areas that require significant research.
Labour flexibility and mobility are central features of all modern
economies. Many graduates wish to change professions after being
in the workforce for some time; and in a developing and globalizing
world, new professions or transformed professions are always emerging.
Graduates are required to be flexible and adaptable, engaged in contin-
uous learning and always building capacity so as to be able to move
between sectors and embark on new employment challenges. Accord-
ing to Barnett (2006), ‘the situations in which learners are likely to
find themselves through the rest of their lives are open-ended’ (p. 51).
As the career paths for Vietnamese graduates are no longer static but
are becoming more diverse and fluid, addressing the demand for a flex-
ible workforce is an important task confronting the reform of Vietnam
tertiary education.
Vietnam is undergoing significant changes in the labour market, as
a result of the downsizing and restructuring of the public sector, and
particularly the rapid increase of private and foreign direct investment
(FDI) enterprises (Trần, 2010). According to Mori et al. (2010), the total
value of approved FDI projects was US$ 71.7 billion in 2008, which was
more than three times the level in 2007, US$ 21.3 billion. The authors
mentioned that the availability of a diligent (and low-wage) labour force
is the main factor determining FDI in Vietnam.
In addition, Vietnam is a nation that has engaged with virtual mobil-
ity at a rapid pace. The use of information and communication tech-
nologies affects people from all walks of life and most workplaces and
sectors of Vietnamese society. E-work, e-commerce and e-services includ-
ing e-learning have become much more common activities. Towards the
end of 2010, the number of people using mobile phones in Vietnam had
reached 30.2 million (VNPT Ha Noi, 2011).
Knowledge economy and research

So far, in discussing the higher education system, we have focused
largely on the pragmatic educational and training roles of universities
as graduating students and argued for a tertiary education system that

produces flexible, practical and mobile learners/graduates. In the Soviet
model of higher education, this was the core role universities as edu-
cation and training institutions, and that model has shaped higher
education in Vietnam in many ways (see Chapter 2 for further dis-
cussion). However, under the Soviet model, universities and research
institutions are treated as separate bodies. This model is increasingly
inadequate to meet the economic and social needs of countries today.
In China, which once followed the Soviet model, the functions of edu-
cation and of research are now being joined together in comprehensive
institutions.
Universities are more than just teaching and training institutions.
They are supposed to produce knowledge that helps develop the nation,
especially in a knowledge economy, which the countries of the whole
world, including Vietnam, are moving towards. In a knowledge econ-
omy, all functions, including those of government and services, are
assisted by technologies, and benefit from the spread of skills in
research, including social research. In a knowledge economy context,
knowledge itself is highly mobile, as noted, moving freely across bor-
ders. It is applied in very flexible ways. Open flows of ideas and
knowledge are a typical trait of globalization (Appadurai, 1996). In a
knowledge economy, knowledge itself changes and develops rapidly. It is
no longer a body of fixed truths. With the free exchange of knowledge
taking place on a worldwide scale, it is always improving. A changing
view of the characteristics of the learners (the need for more flexi-
ble, mobile and practical graduates) goes hand in hand with the same
view of knowledge (knowledge that is mobile, flexible, and practical).
Research universities contribute to the development of both people and
knowledge.
This means that research must become increasingly important in
Vietnamese universities in the era of globalization. To be effective, uni-
versities must teach their students that knowledge itself is not fixed
(in this respect departing from Confucian tradition) but is always devel-
oping and changing in response to new discoveries and emerging needs.
Universities need to train their graduates in learning how to learn
and prepare graduates whose core intellectual foundations are strong
enough for them to take up new branches of knowledge later in life after
they leave university. And the country will need many graduates who
are themselves capable of creating new knowledge, which will mostly
be of a flexible and practical kind.
Knowledge is theoretical but, above all, useful knowledge is also prac-
tical. Nations need advanced levels of knowledge in science, engineering
and applied science technologies to build effective industries and

assist the development of regions in an efficient and environmentally
sustainable manner. Agriculture also benefits from improvements in
science and technology. Education itself needs people trained in educa-
tional research, in order to develop better programmes for educational
improvement. To be able to develop and apply knowledge and technolo-
gies from abroad, in a flexible manner – and to create new knowledge
that is useful to the nation – Vietnam needs many more people trained
in research skills. Only people who fully understand knowledge, an
understanding that itself depends on the capacity to create new knowl-
edge, can effectively use knowledge developed elsewhere, applying it in
flexible and practical ways.
If Vietnam continues to lack a developed national research capacity,
the nation will remain stuck in a position of dependence. Therefore,
one of the most important roles of research universities is the training
of researchers and the spread of genuine research skills. In a knowledge
economy, many of those who complete research PhDs in universities
do not end up working in universities but take their advanced skills to
industry and government.
The role of universities in research and research training is further dis-
cussed in chapters 2, 6 and 9. Chapter 9 focuses specifically on building
research capacity.
The interface between the traditional and the modern
Flexibility, practicality and mobility also show themselves in the politi-

cal scene. These principles underpin the orientation of the government,
which wants the people to cherish and build on Vietnamese patriotism
and cultural heritage while integrating into the world and developing
global citizenship. Flexibility and practicality are in particular displayed
in the economic and political agenda of the Communist Party over
the past two decades. In 1986, the government initiated Đổi Mới –
Economic Reform – in order to move from a centrally planned socialist
economy to a socialist-oriented market economy. The goal of Đổi Mới
is to develop a multi-sectoral market economy under state management
while reaffirming commitment to socialist orientation (Le, 2013).
Yet the transition to a socialist-oriented market economy has been
beset with numerous social problems such as drugs, prostitution, gam-
bling (Dang, 2009) and the commercialism of what have been regarded
as traditional values such as education and the student–teacher relation-
ship. In addition, modernization, including Westernization and global-
ization, has led to changing family structure and family relationships.
It has generated changing lifestyles, including individualism, and the

enrichment of cultural sources and social traditions through syncretiza-
tion of ideas from other nations. It has also seen the erosion of some
traditional values. In the process of preserving Vietnamese cultural
identity and reconstructing the national image amid contemporary
globalization, various attempts have been made by the government to
revitalize past practices. These include restoring communal rituals of sol-
idarity that are in harmony with the discourse of Đổi Mới and cultural
sites such as communal halls, temples and pagodas that are regarded as
symbols of national culture and identity. The promotion of Buddhism
in recent years has been a flexible political and cultural response of the
government to Westernization, and to the demand for national security.
Buddha’s wisdoms, including harmonization and non-violence, have
ties to Vietnamese traditional values and spiritual life. The encounter
between modernization and Vietnamese culture has resulted in the rein-
vention of a national identity that is rooted in the tradition of the nation
but is simultaneously evolving in response to modernization.
Is education in Vietnam today flexible, practical

and mobile enough?
Đổi Mới is a flexible and practical response of the Vietnamese govern-

ment to the challenges of national development, releasing the talents
of families, communities and corporations to build the national econ-
omy in the common interest, and hastening the process of technological
change and economic modernization. But is there a corresponding
capacity for production, innovation and response in the education
sector? Are education, training and research in Vietnam today suffi-
ciently flexible, practical and mobile to meet the needs of people and
the nation? Can the education system provide Vietnam with the best
possible future?
Unless it is deeply reformed, the education system will not do this.
It will hold back the nation. It will hold back every person in the nation.
It will hold back every family, community, town, city and organization
in the nation. Education and research are public goods. Their effects go
beyond the context of education, and affect personal, social, cultural,
political and economic life. When the quality of education, learning,
knowledge and research in Vietnam are lifted, then the environment in
which everybody lives will be transformed.
Though there is a good tradition of teaching in Vietnam, and a
strong commitment to education in many families, and these factors
contribute to a relatively strong national performance in the 2012

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Pro-
gramme for International Student Assessment (PISA) comparison of
school student achievement (OECD, 2013), there are problems in basic
schooling in Vietnam. Further, the education system is less strong at
the levels of upper secondary education than basic education. And it
is weaker still in higher and vocational education, where much train-
ing is not relevant to the needs of the economy, and scientific research
and social research of genuine world standards are minimal, even in the
country’s leading universities.
Because tertiary education contains the weakest sectors of the edu-
cation system, we in this book are focusing on tertiary education,
including all of vocational training, universities and research, and with
a primary emphasis on universities and other higher education insti-
tutions. Higher education has a special role in modernization and
innovation, in creating a more responsive, flexible and practical econ-
omy and society. It is also one of the keys to the empowerment of people
and the development of capacity and strength.
However, there are widespread concerns that the educational sector
is out of tune with the demands of the market economy, the society
and the globalized world. Many of the beliefs underpinning the higher
education curriculum are rigid and outdated, isolated from educational
reforms in other countries, and the international currents of knowledge,
new technologies and the needs of the country itself. Upper secondary
schooling is geared for social selection, and unfortunately the contents
of learning and the attributes of students are treated as less important.
The focus is mainly on the examinations. There is a serious wastage
of talent. There is low participation in senior schooling by international
standards, especially among minority populations, and many more edu-
cational futures are decimated in the examinations themselves. Once
the fortunate few are accepted into university, the work ethic fades away
and many students coast during their studies. These studies often lack
intellectual stimulation, and also have little connection to the world
of work or contemporary life. Learning occurs more through part-time
work and on the Internet than it does in the classroom.
Institutions of higher education are often inefficiently governed,
trapped in red tape and overly dominated by a small number of senior
male leaders. At every level, education is top-down and bedevilled by a
burdensome hierarchy: this is tradition without flexibility. It is common
practice that students are used to studying without much critical reflec-
tion and without learning knowledge that is challenging and helps them
to think new thoughts. Most students find it hard to think creatively or

to respond flexibly to emerging challenges.
The human values of ‘independence and freedom’ are too often for-
gotten in education in Vietnam today. The result is to worsen the
wastage of talent, because even educated people are not what they
should be, and their skills and knowledge are not used in the ways
they should be. Often, students who go abroad, using mobility in
the interests of the country, cannot put their training and knowledge
into practice when they return, because their skills are not effectively
used. Young people with good new ideas do not get the opportunity
to practise them. Women are disadvantaged and under-recognized as
educational leaders.
Universities and colleges are severely underfunded, not just compared
to richer countries but also compared to other emerging nations for
whom education has been a larger priority for national government in
recent years than it has been in Vietnam. There is serious inequality
in tertiary education between regions, and there is much unhappiness
within education institutions across the country. Too often govern-
ment seeks to control professional educators and managers instead of
fostering autonomous professionals who can operate in a flexible and
practical way in response to need. Teaching and teacher education are
not officially respected enough, as they ought to be in keeping with
Vietnam’s tradition.
Corruption is rife in some institutions, but everybody knows that it
will be impossible to eliminate corruption in education and government
until the officers charged with public responsibilities in those domains
are paid at levels sufficient to allow them to concentrate on fulfilling
those responsibilities to the best of their abilities, without needing to
seek financial support elsewhere. Likewise, we cannot expect profession-
als working in tertiary education to be the great teachers and creative,
practical researchers we want them to be – and we know they could be –
until they are free to give all their time to the work and until it is no
longer necessary for them to work in extra paid jobs in order to make
enough for their families to live on.
The position of the learner and the approach to knowledge

The problems of higher education in Vietnam are more than just prob-
lems of inadequate financing, inadequate skills and outdated models
of organization – real though these problems are. These are also prob-
lems deeper down, widely throughout the tertiary education system, in
the approach taken to the knowledge that is imparted in educational
institutions. This in turn is associated with the core issue of how the
learner is positioned, in the whole education system, and with ideas
about the role of the education system in developing the nation.
In Vietnam knowledge imparted by the teacher has been commonly
viewed as incontestable, rigid, not to be challenged by the student, and
in many cases impractical and out of tune with the development of the
nation, the requirements of work and the modern world (Hoàng, 2007).
This is a downside of Confucian tradition in education. This view of
knowledge is demonstrated in the curriculum, teaching methodology,
and assessment and testing. It is still common practice in a class that
the teacher dictates and students write, and that exams are mainly to
copy what the teacher has dictated and what the students have noted.
This is common at many levels of education, from primary education
through to tertiary education, with tertiary education sometimes sarcas-
tically called ‘high school plus’. As a result of this view of knowledge,
rote learning is necessary and cheating is prevalent.
Since the early 1990s there has been discussion and initiatives to
promote more active learning, critical and creative thinking and learner-
centred curriculum. Recently, with several changes in the high-stake
university entrance exams, changes requiring candidates to be criti-
cal and creative, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has
demonstrated its determination to gradually move away from mere rote
and passive learning and promote creative learning and critical think-
ing. In many cases, national exams also require students to draw on their
life experiences and different sources of knowledge, other than formal
knowledge solely from the teacher, in order to successfully complete the
tasks. Yet there is still a lack of a coherent and systemic support structure
and guidance for integrating these important ideas into curriculum and
pedagogy.
On the one hand, the common view of knowledge as discussed con-
solidates the Confucian ideology of giving the teacher highest possible
respect and authority in the classroom. It is also practical to help con-
trol the ‘quality’ of education and to assess teaching and curriculum,
rather than the learner – assuring that the content being taught is fully
transferred to and presumably absorbed by the learner. On the other
hand, this approach raises fundamental questions about the positioning
of the learner in Vietnam’s education system and the goal of educa-
tion system in developing the nation. How is the learner positioned
when the knowledge imparted in educational institutions is viewed as
rigid and incontestable and the teacher is seen as the main source of
knowledge? Would it be possible for the education system to produce
flexible, creative, imaginative, practical and agentive human resources

in that case?
These problems do not have to continue forever without solution.
Vietnam has a talent for knowledge, learning and skills, as well as a
talent for creative and flexible responses to practical issues and prob-
lems. These are qualities that drive the best research the world over. The
spirit of teaching and learning and the respect for scholars and knowl-
edge are deeply embedded in the heart of the nation. These are positive
attributes.
Vietnam could be a great modern education nation. It could be like
the other nations in East Asia that have become very accomplished in
education and research. Vietnam could be just as strong in learning and
knowledge as China or Taiwan or South Korea, if national wealth builds
further, the right policies are followed, the necessary resources are pro-
vided and professional and governance practices are overhauled to meet
the needs of the time. There is no doubt that the people have a gift for
cognitive and social learning, as is shown by the excellent result in 2012
PISA despite resources at school which are low by international stan-
dards, and also as shown by the wonderful work of many Vietnamese
university students when they enter foreign education systems and per-
form at the highest possible level. Vietnam could really be outstanding
in education, a shining example to the rest of Southeast Asia.
Higher education in Vietnam needs deep reform
In summary, the authors of this book believe that higher educa-

tion in Vietnam needs deep and thoroughgoing reform. The solution
does not lie in holistically adopting foreign models, whether from
the United States, China, the World Bank or any other source. Edu-
cation in Vietnam needs to evolve in a manner consistent with the
national tradition, building on the principles of flexibility, practicality
and mobility, and in the light of the demands of the global, national and
local/regional environments. The principles of flexibility, practicality
and mobility are intimately interwoven with one another. The wisdom
learnt from the people’s earlier development in flexibility, practicality
and mobility should be translated into the current reform of tertiary
education in Vietnam, to produce learners who are able to engage and
contribute effectively to their workplaces, their society and the nation.
In the current context of Vietnam, flexible, practical and mobile
learners are those who are able to respond flexibly and effectively to
the demands of their professional life and the society. This includes
the capability to oversee changes, think creatively and develop adap-

tive approaches in response to the changing context of the workplace
and the changing society. An important aspect of this goal is how the
curriculum can help learners develop the ability to translate theories
and knowledge learnt into a specific profession and workplace context.
Members of a flexible and practical workforce also need to mediate learn-
ing, to capitalize on their own intellectual resources, to validate prior
experiences and to adapt knowledge and skills to new and diverse work-
place contexts and different social settings. Also, Vietnam’s economy
and society is shaped by cross-sectoral, regional, social, national and
global mobility. Education is important in facilitating social mobility
and overcoming regional and gender disadvantages and inequalities.
So a reformed education system is essential in preparing learners for
career mobility across professional fields and national and regional
borders.
Vietnam needs learners who are capable of not only being glob-
ally mobile and of mediating multiple identities, but also at the same
time retaining their cultural heritage and cherish their personal agency.
This combination of qualities – both Vietnamese and modern – should
be at the heart of a learner-centred tertiary education that prepares
an educated workforce in which members create their unique individ-
ual identity, but at the same time fit in with the community, in the
Vietnamese way. Such a curriculum can be seen as based on the notion
of person/self in context (Luk-Fong, 2005). This notion highlights the
individual’s capability to capitalize on collective goods, by internalizing
knowledge and intellectual resources, in order to contribute to enhanc-
ing both their own professional development and personal growth,
and also transforming the various communities they interact with.
The evolution of the individual student/graduate as a self-learner, and
the development of personal agency in the social context of the new
Vietnam, is discussed in Chapter 5.
It is equally vital, for the nation, that these qualities be distributed
across the whole country and not just confined to the leading cities and
coastal areas. Higher education, knowledge and learning must reach all
communities, regions and ethnic groups and draw on their wisdom for
the good of the nation. The ethnic diversity of Vietnam is discussed in
Chapter 2.
In short, higher education needs to focus on developing learners’ abil-
ity to locate themselves effectively within the professional and social
community, connect to new developments in science and knowledge
in a practical way and display engaged national and global citizenship.
Graduates should be able to look at the broader issues not only in the
local and regional context but also in the context of national and global
parameters. In this book these issues are discussed in Chapter 4. The
issues are also discussed in Chapter 6.
A higher education system that produces flexible and mobile learn-
ers also needs to provide people with flexible pathways to realize their
educational aspirations, for example, high school to Vocational Edu-
cation and Training (VET) to university to postgraduate, and facilitate
people of different ages who have joined the workforce to go back to VET
or higher education. Another dimension that contributes to producing
mobile and flexible learners is to recognize prior learning, prior experi-
ence and prior credits. Further, the development of mobile and flexible
learners is dependent on the tertiary system and social structure that
recognize the value and status of the diverse types of education includ-
ing formal, non-formal and self-education (online, distance, in-service).
Flexible, practical and mobile beings are also shaped by a tertiary system
that enables learners to foster lifelong learning, search for knowledge
needed for their profession, flexibly navigate and apply both theoreti-
cal and practical knowledge to different professional contexts and to be
responsive to changes. The structure of education is discussed further in
Chapter 2.
A higher education system that supports the development of flexible,
practical and mobile learners tends to balance community needs, eco-
nomic/business needs and individual needs in learning. A curriculum
and a higher education system that is out of touch with the employa-
bility demands and is mainly scholastic and places too much emphasis
on academic excellence is no longer adequate in the current context
of Vietnam. It is essential that the higher education structure facilitate
global, national, regional and cross-sectoral mobility of knowledge and
skills and respond effectively to new challenges in the current context
of Vietnam. At the heart of reform to the higher education system in
Vietnam should be the development of knowledge, skills and attributes
that enable individuals to engage effectively and flexibly across national
and regional borders, and between different sectors of society. Such a
reform is needed to prepare learners for a more adaptive workforce and
more engaged and flexible citizenship within the community and the
nation.
In particular, the curriculum needs to take students beyond either
mere academic achievement orientation or mere instrumentalism where
learning is inextricably intertwined with economic orientations (Levin,
2000, p. 21). Rather, it should facilitate the students’ development of
knowledge, skills and attributes in response to community’s and soci-

ety’s needs as well as individuals’ professional and personal aspirations.
Being flexible and mobile helps create opportunities for individuals as
well as a more flexible workforce and skill set for society and economy.
These issues are explored further in Chapter 4.
Education in Vietnam must be able to learn from good foreign prac-
tices without losing agency or identity. Instead, these qualities can be
enhanced and made more practical during the encounter with glob-
alization. The ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ of policy borrowing are discussed in
Chapter 7 and ‘foreign language policy’ is addressed in Chapter 8.
Vietnam needs a research system, covering both the technologies and
the social sciences, that is equipped to respond to and also contribute
to global developments in knowledge and that can turn this knowl-
edge into practical applications. In short, Vietnam needs a research
system that is flexible, practical and mobile. This is discussed further
in Chapter 9.
Vocational education and training as well as universities have an
important contribution to make, as is discussed in Chapter 10.
Finally, to ensure the operating conditions of an education system
that can meet all these objectives, the nation also needs to pay care-
ful attention to processes of quality assurance and benchmarking of
institutions to achieve improvements. These issues are discussed in
Chapter 3, which takes a critical look at present systems and practices of
governance in higher education.
The next chapter, Chapter 2 provides an overall summary of higher
education in the national context. It helps to set the scene for the
chapters that follow.
Part I
Students and Structures
2
Higher and Tertiary Education
in Vietnam
Hoàng Minh Đỗ and Quyên Thi. Ngo.c Đỗ
It is crucial for educational issues to be placed and discussed in their own

contexts. This chapter provides a national framework, including socio-
economic, cultural and legislative aspects of the country’s education and
higher education system. Here readers are provided with fundamental
facts and figures about Vietnam’s demographic characteristics, recent
economic development and framework of educational legislation. This
will help to shape a preliminary panorama of the system. This chapter
will facilitate a more rounded and insightful analysis and understanding
of the issues to be discussed in other chapters of the book.
The chapter provides an overview of the country, people and educa-
tion system of Vietnam, summarizing present conditions and structures.
The aim is to provide a summary picture as the starting point for explor-
ing the specific issues dealt with in later chapters, which provide more
historical and critical accounts. Thus, for example, this chapter provides
an outline of governance in higher education, but Chapter 3 will include
a more extended examination of the issues in governance. This chapter
concludes with a summary of key challenges.
Vietnam
Population
Vietnam is a developing nation with the world’s 14th and the Associ-
ation of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN’s) third biggest population,
that is, with a population of over 90 million. The average yearly popula-
tion growth rate from 2005 to 2011 is 1.14 per cent. It is now decreasing
slightly (Tổng cu.c Thống kê Viê.t Nam [General Statistics Office – GSO],
2012b). People of working age from 15 to 64 years constitute 56 per
cent of the total population, with 27 per cent aged between 15 and 29
29
30 Higher and Tertiary Education in Vietnam
years (Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN], 2011). Such a

young population is an advantage, but also places strong pressure on
general education, and creates great demands on higher education and
vocational training to fulfil their roles in national modernization and
socio-economic development.
In 2010, about 70 per cent of the population lived in rural and
mountainous areas (ASEAN, 2011; Tổng cu.c Thống kê Viê.t Nam [Gen-
eral Statistics Office – GSO], 2012b). The rural–urban population ratio
changed from 80/20 in 1995 to 70/30 in 2010. The trend, in an agricul-
tural country that has always been farming-based, indicates that a more
industrialized economic structure is developing. It also indicates the
mobility of the workforce from rural to urban areas. This is an important
trend, which has ultimately influenced tertiary education.
Ethnicities and languages

Scattered across the 1650-km-long country are 54 ethnic groups. The
Kinh (Viê.t) people account for over 86 per cent of the population
(Cổng thông tin điê.n tử Uỷ ban Dân tô.c [Committee for Ethnic Minor-
ity Affairs – CEMA], 2013). The Kinh live largely in the delta and
urban areas, while almost all the rest of the ethnic groups inhabit the
highlands and mountainous areas. Although these ethnic groups have
their own languages, including eight language systems, Vietnamese
is the common language of communication. To maintain language
and cultural diversity is part of the national unification and consol-
idation policies. Some television programmes are broadcast in ethnic
minority languages. Because of the demographical features of Vietnam,
bilingualism is natural and common among communities of minority
people. Bilingualism contributes to the increasing mobility of the labour
force between regions and to the development of remote areas.
Although they represent only 14 per cent of the population, minority
people play an important role in national defence and political stability.
In 1946, the government established a governmental agency, currently
known as the Committee for Ethnic Minorities, responsible for studying
and resolving all issues related to the ethnic minorities, in order to main-
tain and ensure social equality, equity and harmonization (Cổng Thông
tin điê.n tử Uỷ ban Dân tô.c [Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs –
CEMA], 2013). Various policies to support the development of minority
ethnic communities and mountainous areas have been adopted. In edu-
cation, enrolment privileges and scholarships are granted to students
coming from ethnic minorities. For example, selected students with
ethnic minority background are sent to provincial boarding schools
Hoàng Minh Đỗ and Quyên Thi. Ngo.c Đỗ 31
or granted access to universities without having to sit for the national

entrance examination. These policies are expected to provide access and
equity for ethnic communities with the hope that after graduation these
individuals will come back and contribute to their communities. How-
ever, the impact of such policies is in question. It appears that there are
problems of poor performance by students, and low rate of return to
their communities.
Language development and policy

Language development in Vietnam reflects the country’s history over a
long period of nearly 2000 years. The Vietnamese language originally
existed only in spoken form. During the near 1000 years of Chinese col-
onization, Chinese characters were used in written language. Although
Nôm, a Vietnamese ancient ideographic vernacular script developed
on the basis of Chinese characters, was devised in the tenth century
when the Viê.t people successfully reclaimed independence from China
(Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation, 2013), Chinese characters
were still the written and instruction language (Nguyen Thien Giap,
2013). It was not until the fifteenth century that Nôm started to be used
widely in literature and education. Nôm was at times the official written
language of the Viê.t people.
With the advent of Quốc Ngữ, the Vietnamese modern Roman-
style script, in the seventeenth century, there existed two spoken
languages (Vietnamese and Chinese) and three written scripts (Nôm
scripts, Chinese characters and Quốc Ngữ). During the French colo-
nization from 1860 to 1945, the French language (written and spoken)
gradually replaced Chinese as the language of instruction Quốc Ngữ was
growing while Nôm was fading out.
Since Vietnam’s independence from France in 1945, the govern-
ment has adopted a relatively consistent policy in terms of language
of instruction, official language, languages of ethnic minorities and for-
eign languages. Vietnamese (Quốc Ngữ) is stipulated by law to be the
official language of instruction at all levels from primary to higher
education (Revised Education Law, 2010). However, at the primary edu-
cation level, the languages of minority people in spoken and written
forms can also be used concurrently (Education Law, 2005). It is also
stipulated in Education Law that foreign languages that are studied
as a subject in educational programmes should be languages of pop-
ular use in international communication. In practice, French, Russian
and English are taught courses in general education, while other lan-
guages such as German, Korean and Japanese are also offered in higher
education. (Note that more detail on foreign language policy is provided

in Chapter 8.)
In terms of the use of foreign languages, before the 1990s, Russian
was the major foreign language in education and at work. This is
because Vietnam maintained an educational, economic, military and
political relationship with the former Soviet Union, above all other
countries. Most scholars and researchers were educated in Russia and
Soviet countries and labour export at the time was also solely targeted
at these countries. Since the 1990s, the Open Door Policy has led to
pervasive business and commercial transactions and cultural exchanges
with the United States and Western countries. As a result, English has
replaced Russian as the dominant foreign language in cultural and
socio-economic life.
The shift to the English language has enhanced the competitiveness
of the local workforce in the country and the ASEAN region. However,
in general, the average level of English competency is low in com-
parison with that in some neighbouring countries such as Indonesia,
the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia. To improve the English level
of Vietnamese youngsters in the next ten years, a national project,
known as the National Language Project 2020, has been approved and
launched since 2008.1 As specified in the project’s implementation path-
way, English will be taught as a subject from primary education; English
teachers’ education, qualification and assessment will be strengthened
to improve teachers’ proficiency and standardization of teacher’s English
proficiency will be an important task. The successful implementa-
tion of the programme will make a significant contribution towards
improving the quality of the education system and ultimately to the
socio-economic development of the country.
Economic development and growth: poverty and inequality

In early 2010, Vietnam was categorized by the World Bank to be a lower-
middle-income country. Its gross national income (GNI) per capita
reached US$ 1030 in 2009. To develop and grow from one of the poorest
countries in 1986 to a middle-income country in 2010, within just 25
years, was a big success for Vietnam and a good lesson for others (World
Bank, 2012). Steady economic growth has led to significant reduction in
poverty. The number of people living on US$ 1.25 a day reduced from
64 per cent in 1993 to 13 per cent in 2008 (Sumner et al., 2012). Also, in
this period, the number of people living on US$ 2 a day or less fell from
86 per cent to 39 per cent.
However, the country’s poverty rate remains high. The overall poverty
rate, which was 12.6 per cent in 2011 (Tổng cu.c Thống Kê Viê.t
Nam [General Statistics Office – GSO], 2012b), is likely to increase to
20.7 per cent in 2012 under the new World Bank’s poverty line of VND
(Vietnamese đồng) 653,000/person/month, or US$ 2.24/person/day
(VUFO-NGO Resource Centre).
Inequality remains a major challenge in the country. The Gini coeffi-
cient, a standard economic measure of income inequality, has worsened
(Sumner et al., 2012). The share of GNI to the poorest 40 per cent and
to the middle five deciles declined from 19.2 per cent and 51.8 per cent
in 1990 to 18.3 per cent and 51.5 per cent in 2009, respectively, while
that to the richest decile rose from 29.0 per cent to 30.2 per cent in the
same period. The 10 per cent richest people earn 30.2 per cent of GNI,
while the 40 per cent poorest earn 18.3 per cent of GNI. As per the latest
statistics, Vietnam’s GINI index in 2011 was 37.6. On this indicator, the
country was ranked 82nd out of 129 countries worldwide (World Bank,
2012).
Inequality is also reflected in the pattern of educational access in small
remote communities. Due to difficulties and challenges such as inade-
quate human resources, different languages, high poverty rates and lack
of adequate financial resources, schooling conditions are hard. It is esti-
mated that 20 per cent of ethnic minority children have no access to
primary education (World Bank, 2007).
The state of the economy has also had a visible impact in terms of
public expenditure on education in general and higher education in par-
ticular. Public expenditure on education has gone up remarkably, from
8.9 per cent of the total government expenditure in 1990 to around
20 per cent between 2008 and 2011. In 2010, Vietnam’s public spend-
ing on education accounted for 5.32 per cent of gross domestic product
(GDP), more than twice the figure of 2.03 per cent in 1990. Compared
with other countries, it is a relatively high rate. However, given the low
total GDP, which was US$ 123.96 billion in 2011 (World Bank, 2012),
the absolute amount of spending is very modest for a system of around
20 million learners at all levels.
People and education

The education reforms that commenced in the late 1980s have led to
certain achievements. After 25 years of innovations, the enrolment rate
in 2010 at primary, junior secondary and senior secondary education
reached 97 per cent, 83 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively (Thủ tướng
Chính phủ, 2012b). In addition, there has been a dramatic increase in

the enrolment in tertiary education. In 1990, only 2.8 per cent of all
people at the official age of tertiary schooling went to a tertiary insti-
tution. The figure was 9.7 per cent in 2000 and 22 per cent in 2010
(Bô. Giáo du.c và Đào ta.o [Ministry of Education and Training – MOET],
2012). In higher education, the number of students in the total popula-
tion in 2011 was 245 students per 10,000 persons, ten times higher than
in 1987, though the number was much lower than that of neighbour-
ing countries (it was approximately 400 in Thailand, for example). The
country has also achieved a high rate of adult literacy, 92.5 per cent.
Despite significant achievements in education, health and income,
Vietnam’s HDI (Human Development Indicators) index has been lower
than the world average, and the East Asia and Pacific region. Vietnam’s
HDI index in 2011 was 0.593 (up from 0.435 in 1990), so that Vietnam
was ranked 128 out of 187 countries (UNDP, 2011). In parallel with the
low human development index, the labour force is judged to be of low
quality and competitiveness. The lack of basic working skills such as
knowledge of the English language, computer skills and other soft skills,
and inadequate technical and professional skills, is holding the nation
back. According to a World Bank survey, up to 60 per cent of vocational
graduates need to be retrained after graduation to be able to meet work
requirements (Tran Thi Binh, n.d.). Another finding of the survey was
that software companies have to retrain 80 per cent of fresh graduates
for a year before they can take over job responsibilities.
National Development Strategy and education

development strategy
Vietnam’s National Sustainable Development Strategy, promulgated in
April 2012, sets general and specific goals and objectives. The key focus
areas are people and social developments, and the national priorities
of development are education reform and improvement. Among the
educational targets, it is expected that in 2020, 70 per cent of the work-
force will be trained, compared to 40 per cent in 2010. The number
of students in every 10,000 people was originally meant to be 300 in
2015, and 450 in 2020 (Thủ tướng Chính phủ, 2012a). The target
was recently adjusted to 256 students per 10,000 population, accord-
ing to Decision 37/2013/QĐ-TTg, dated 26 June 2013, by the Prime
Minister.2 The Strategy also focuses on the appropriate management of
mobility in the workforce to promote the proper allocation of labour
in the population. The Strategy states that there should be substantial
and comprehensive education reforms targeted to quality improvement
solutions, curriculum updating, pedagogic and methodological innova-

tions at all levels of the education system, and catching up with regional
and global educational development.
To realize the goals of the National Sustainable Development Strat-
egy, later in 2012 Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng approved the
Educational Development Strategy. This Strategy sets enrolment tar-
gets of 99 per cent and 95 per cent at primary and junior secondary
education, respectively. At the senior secondary education level, the
graduation rate should reach 80 per cent, and especially 70 per cent
of disabled children should have access to education. In vocational
and higher education, the Strategy focuses on the system structure,
quality assurance (QA) and improvement, graduate competencies and
enhancement of labour force competitiveness. The literacy rate among
the population aged 15 years and more is set to reach 98 per cent.
To realize these goals, the Strategy specifies eight major solution pack-
ages, including (1) reforms in education management; (2) development
of teaching force and management staff; (3) innovation in curricu-
lum, teaching–learning approaches, testing and assessment method-
ologies and quality accreditation; (4) increase in investment and
innovatory funding and financial mechanisms; (5) enhancement of
academic–industry linkages; (6) increased education development sup-
port to remote areas, minority ethnics and other disadvantaged peo-
ple; (7) the development of educational studies; and (8) broadening
and improving the effectiveness of internationalization in education
(Thủ tướng Chính phủ, 2012b). The successful implementation of
these policies will determine the results of the National Development
Strategy.
Legislative framework in education: education law

and higher education law
In terms of the extent of regulation, Vietnam has an adequate system of
legal frameworks and documents specifying educational activities at all
levels from laws and sublaws to rules and regulations. At the top level,
Vietnam’s Education Law was first enacted in 1998, and has evolved
through revisions in 2005, 2009 and 2011. The latest version of the Law
has been in effect since July 2010. This Law, consisting of 9 chapters and
120 articles which cover the entire national education system, specifies
and regulates educational activities in all sectors at the pre-school, pri-
mary, secondary and tertiary levels within the country (Chủ ti.ch Quốc
hô.i, 2009). Apart from the Education Law, there is a set of regulations
on primary schools, junior and senior secondary schools, high schools
and universities and colleges that also play a part in the governmental
management of the education system.
Under much social pressure, the Law of Higher Education was passed
by the National Assembly in August 2012 to provide a separate and
more solid legal framework for higher education entities and activities.
This may be due to the increasingly important role of higher educa-
tion in national development, and its complexity and expansion in
recent years. This Law of Higher Education provides further details of
higher education activities and its system structure that are not spec-
ified in the Education Law. It is also expected to help solve urgent
issues in higher education management such as QA and accreditation,
HEI (Higher education institutions) network planning, HEI accountabil-
ity and autonomy and the management of foreign-invested educational
institutions and joint programmes with overseas institutions.
The Higher Education Law stipulates the status of the two national
universities in the system, Vietnam National University (Hà Nô.i) and
Vietnam National University (Hồ Chí Minh City), thus acknowledging
the special role of this type of institutions (Chủ ti.ch Quốc hô.i, 2012).
However, it has not gained full support from the public because of the
lack of detailed regulations on key issues such as institutional autonomy
and governance (see later in this chapter and Chapter 3).
Education system
Overview
Since national reunification in 1975, the Government of the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam has promoted continuous system-wide education
reforms, focusing largely on the system structure, curriculum and text-
books. The earliest reform in this period was in the curriculum of general
education, the handwriting scripts of the Quốc Ngữ and the structure of
general education in the early 1980s. In 1991, the Law on Compulsory
Primary Education was promulgated, applicable to all children between
6 and 14 years. Ten years later, in 2001, the Resolution on Compul-
sory General Education was approved, assuring the provision of general
education to all Vietnamese aged 11–18. In 2010, the Project on Com-
pulsory Pre-schooling for five-year-old children was initiated. In higher
education, the initial reforms focused on system size and diversification
of institution types and ownership. Since 2005, the focus has some-
what shifted to QA, with the introduction of accreditation as a tool for
controlling educational quality.
The education reforms that began in the early 1980s have recorded
significant achievements. After 25 years of innovations, in 2010 the
enrolment rate at primary, secondary and tertiary education reached
98 per cent, 77 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively. It is notewor-
thy that the rate of enrolment in secondary education has improved
significantly; it was 35 per cent in 1990 and 64 per cent in 2000. There
has been an even more dramatic increase in tertiary education. In 1990,
only 3 per cent of all people at the official age of tertiary schooling
went to a tertiary institution. The number was 10 per cent in 2000 and
22 per cent in 2010. In higher education in 2010, the number of stu-
dents in the total population was 245 students per 10,000 persons, ten
times higher than in 1987 – though this number remains much lower
than that of neighbouring countries (for example, approximately 400 in
Thailand). Vietnam has achieved a high rate of adult literacy: 92.5 per
cent. Yet huge challenges and issues still exist, especially in relation to
educational quality.
Structure and size of the system

The structure of the education system of Vietnam is broadly similar
to that of other countries. It is summarized in Figure 2.1, at the dif-
ferent levels: pre-school education; general education (consisting of
primary, lower secondary and upper secondary education); professional
education; vocational education and higher education. In 2011, the
system consisted of 12,908 crèches and kindergartens, 15,242 primary
schools, 10,143 lower secondary schools, 2,288 upper secondary schools
[USS], 290 professional secondary schools, 223 colleges and 163 uni-
versities as well as over 1500 vocational training institutions. There
were over 20 million students and 1.5 million personnel, not including
institutions in the military and public security forces.
General education
Education is compulsory up to the lower secondary level (year nine)
and there are different pathways to higher learning. While most stu-
dents move on to upper secondary (year 10–12), others may choose to
attend professional high schools and vocational education. After fin-
ishing upper secondary education, students are again provided with
different options for further study: higher education, professional edu-
cation or vocational training. By its structure the system is expected to
offer flexibility and mobility for students. However, mobility between
these different pathways is still subject to further discussion.
Higher education
Doctor of philosophy (4 yrs)

Master (2 yrs)
24 yrs old Vocational education
Tertiary
Bachelor
education 21 yrs old (4–6 yrs) Junior college
(3 yrs)
Voc. Junior college
18 yrs old
Professional Voc. Secondary
Upper secondary education
18 yrs old Non-formal
education (3 yrs) (3–4 yrs) Voc. Primary
General education
education
15 yrs old Lower secondary education (4 yrs)
11 yrs old
Primary education (5 yrs)
6 yrs old
Pre-school education (kindergarten)
Pre-school
3 yrs old
3 months Creche
Figure 2.1 Structure of education system in Vietnam

Source: Authors.
The following sections will introduce in brief each level in the

education system.
Pre-school education
Of all the educational levels mentioned above, pre-school (including
nursery education and kindergarten) is the least regulated and has seen
the most disorganized growth (London, 2011b). In total, 12,908 early
childhood education institutions – about half of which are public –
are taking care of 3.6 million children aged 36–59 months, account-
ing for about 60 per cent of the age group. There are still marked
inequalities in pre-school education, between geographical regions and
in parents’ income groups. These inequalities need to be addressed seri-
ously given the importance of early childhood education in determining
the academic performance of vulnerable groups in higher levels of the
education system.
Primary education
According to the 2005 Education Law and 2009 Amended Education
Law, primary and lower secondary education are compulsory, or ‘uni-
versalized’. This has contributed to the gradual elimination of regional
and income disparities in primary education enrolment and comple-
tion rates. According to MOET figures, in the school year 2010–2011,
there were over seven million students taught by approximately 360,000
teachers in 15,242 primary schools across the country, at least one

school per commune.
Nevertheless, disparities, especially in the costs and quality and facil-
ities of primary schools, still exist among different regions, income
groups and ethnicities. Even though schooling is supposed to be free
of charge, parents have to make ‘voluntary contributions’ to the school
and pay tuitions for their children’s extra learning.
Secondary education
Since the promulgation of the Education Law providing for universal-
ization of lower secondary education, enrolment has increased signif-
icantly. By 2011 there were over five million students instructed by
some 312,000 teachers in 10,143 schools (roughly one in each commune
throughout the country). Like primary education, regional, income and
ethnic disparities have declined significantly in terms of enrolment, but
remain noticeable as far as the costs and quality of lower secondary
schools are concerned.
Several different pathways are offered to students after completing the
universalized lower secondary level. The majority of these students will
compete for a limited number of seats in 1954 public USS; the others
might apply to the 334 non-public secondary schools, 290 professional
high schools or over 400 vocational secondary schools and junior col-
leges (JC). It is the transition from lower secondary to upper secondary
education that is most likely to cause dropouts and discontinuation,
especially among the disadvantaged groups.
Post-secondary education
Vietnam’s tertiary (post-secondary) education includes higher educa-
tion in the form of formal and non-formal academic training, profes-
sional education and vocational training, as illustrated in Figure 2.2.
While professional and higher education is under the auspices of the
Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), vocational education is
largely managed by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs
(MOLISA).
Even though higher education is provided for as in the legislation,
there are different pathways to it. These sectors are in fact some-
what separated and independent from each other. Despite similarities
in the functions, mandates and cohorts of students, professional and
vocational secondary institutions are managed and provided oversight
separately by MOET and MOLISA, respectively. While the focus of the
book is on higher education, vocational and professional education is
JC, 9%
, 9%
USS
JC, 17%
USS, 18%
USS, 36% JC, 43%
JC, 2% USS, 4%
U
SS
,2
USS, 10%
3%
JC, 18%
JC, 11%
Red river delta Northern highlands and

Northern central and mountainous area
central area Highlands
Mekong delta South east
Figure 2.2 Vocational upper-secondary schools (USS) and junior colleges (JC) by
geographical area
Source: Compiled by authors from various Vietnam Government data.
too important to be left out. (We have a separate chapter on professional

and vocational education in this book – Chapter 10).
Professional education
By 2011 the professional education sector included 290 schools with
18,085 teachers providing education for some 686,184 students. These
institutions are under the auspices of different ministries and provinces
but report to MOET in terms of curriculum frameworks and QA.
Students study up to four years from lower secondary education,
and up to two years from upper secondary education, to obtain a
diploma in professional education. Pathways and recognition of pre-

vious learning between professional and higher education are struc-
tured and regulated, perhaps because they are under the oversight
of MOET.
Although similar pathways for students in the vocational sector are
provided in the Education Law, they are currently not feasible in
practice, due to the lack of coordination between the two oversight
ministries, MOET and MOLISA.
Vocational education
Vocational training institutions such as vocational colleges, USS and
training centres managed by the General Department of Vocational
Training (GDVT), a department of MOLISA, provide most of the voca-
tional training courses. The courses can be long term from one to three
years, for professional degrees, or short term (less than 12 months) to
deliver professional or skill certificates.
Currently, the vocational training system consists of 123 vocational
JC, 306 vocational USS and over 1100 vocational training centres.
However, the number of vocational institutions in the northern and
central highlands as well as in the northern mountainous areas is rel-
atively small, accounting for 14.4 per cent, while the number in the
two biggest cities of Hanoi and Hồ Chí Minh City is 104, taking up
24.2 per cent. In addition, over 100 higher education institutions (30
universities and 118 JC), and dozens of upper secondary and non-formal
training centres, also provide vocational training courses. Every year,
about 300,000 pupils and students enrol in short- and long-term courses
provided by this system.
The vocational sector has grown dramatically during the past ten
years. In 2000, there were 157 vocational secondary schools and JC.
In 2010, the number was 419, an increase of 2.6 times. Private insti-
tutions account for about 34 per cent of the total. In 2010, there were
over 1.7 million pupils and students attending vocational courses, a
substantial increase from 792,000 in 2000.
The Vocational Training Law was passed in 2006 and came into
effect from June 2007. Chapter VIII of the Law stipulates regula-
tions on accreditation of vocational training, which kick-started the
accreditation of vocational institutions in 2008. Since then, over 60
institutions have been accredited. Programme accreditation is the next
target.
In terms of governance, the GDVT was established in 1963, as a
department of the at-the-time Ministry of Labour, to take over the
centralized management of the country’s vocational training system.

It was a department of MOET between 1987 and 1997 and then was
transferred back to MOLISA. As the state’s governing body for voca-
tional training, GDVT promulgates programme curriculum and skills
standards, manages the certificate awarding system and manages and
operates accreditation activities and development projects funded by
such bodies as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
By 2015, Vietnam is expected to have a workforce of 60.8 million
people. In its economic structure, agriculture, forestry and fishery will
decrease to 39 per cent of the workforce, compared to 56.8 per cent
in 2005. Every year the number of workers shifting from farming to
industries and services is estimated to be around one million. Population
growth, the low quality of the workforce and the shift in economic struc-
ture pose huge challenges to vocational training system in the coming
decade.
The higher education system
Access: From upper secondary schooling to student selection

Higher education in Vietnam includes academic education at JC and
universities, which award diploma, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral
degrees. At the collegiate and undergraduate level, higher education
institutions select students on the basis of the scores obtained in
the national university entrance examinations. To be eligible for the
examinations, candidates must pass the upper secondary graduation
examination, where the pass rate is very high, at 97.6 per cent in 2012.
The graduation examination is the same for all formal upper secondary
pupils, consisting of six tests on Maths, Vietnamese Literature, Foreign
Languages and other three year-specific subjects, for example, Geogra-
phy, History, Chemistry, Physics and Biology. The university entrance
examinations are discipline-dependent. Depending on students’ disci-
plinary inclination and their own selection, they can be placed into
different groups – A, B, C, D, and so on – for natural sciences, life sci-
ences, social sciences or a mix, and sit different examinations of three
subjects each.
MOET manages the national examinations, conducts the national
tests, organizes the marking and scoring and decides the ‘floor’, the base-
line scores for different levels of higher education. Candidates whose
scores are from the baseline are eligible to enter any university or JC as
long as they meet the required minimum scores set by each institution.
The yearly university entrance examinations are national educational
events, completely intense, with candidates and their families facing a

lot of pressure.
In general, university entrance examinations are reliable, fair and
transparent. Cheating in all forms is strictly controlled and treated seri-
ously. Test papers and questions are treated as confidential documents
at the national top level. Although the examination system has a num-
ber of drawbacks with respect to social effects, it has helped higher
education institutions select the best students and has contributed
significantly to QA in higher education. In contrast, there are huge
doubts about the upper secondary graduation examination because of
unexplainable deviations between yearly cohort results.
Evolution of higher education

The recently promulgated Law on Higher Education provides in Arti-
cle 7 that higher education institutions include JC (awarding three-year
bachelor’s degrees and diplomas), universities and academies (award-
ing undergraduate and postgraduate degrees) and PhD-granting research
institutes (Quốc hô.i [National Assembly], 2012). According to this clas-
sification, the higher education system now comprises 223 JC, 163
universities and academies as well as 76 research institutes that are
allowed to award PhDs. The system also includes two national universi-
ties and three regional universities with special institutional governance
structures, having member universities in their ambit. The system has
expanded dramatically over the past decade, with 89 new universities
and 119 new colleges having been established or upgraded since 2001.
Most of these new institutions have come into existence as a result of
the ‘institutional drifts’ from technical secondary schools to colleges and
from colleges to universities. Examples of this shift are the upgrading
of technical and vocational schools under ministries and major corpo-
rations into colleges or from technical and professional colleges into
universities. Almost all of the 68 provinces now have at least a uni-
versity, and many of these universities were recently upgraded from
provincial colleges of teacher education. The rapid increase in the num-
ber of new higher education institutions, together with limited and
fragmented oversight, has led to risks in relation to system quality (this
is discussed below).
In terms of ownership, the system comprises public, non-public and
foreign-owned tertiary education institutions. Non-public institutions,
including private, people-founded and semi-public ones, account for
19.5 per cent of the total. Recently people-founded and semi-public
institutions were asked to change their status to either public or private.
All non-public institutions are now private in nature. There are only a
few foreign-owned institutions, more commonly referred to as interna-
tional universities. The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)
should be mentioned as a successful case. RMIT, the first foreign-owned
institution in Vietnam opened in 2001, currently enrols about 6000 stu-
dents in 2011 in its degree programmes in two campuses in Hà Nô.i and
Hồ Chí Minh City (RMIT University Vietnam).
Vietnam’s higher education has expanded remarkably in the past 25
years, especially since the first private university started its operation in
1990. In 2008 the number of students was 2,162,106, of which 76 per
cent were full-time students (MOET, 2009). The number of teachers was
74,573, of whom those holding PhD degrees accounted for a modest
10.6 per cent. The ratio of student to teacher was high, 29 to 1. In com-
parison with 1987, the number of institutions, students and teachers
had risen by 2.8, 15.2 and 2.7 times, respectively. These figures indicate
the disproportionate growth of key factors in the system.
Present governance in higher education
MOET and other ministries

Until recently the state maintained tight control over management and
academic affairs in higher education institutions, in an understand-
able effort to curb the system’s chaotic expansion. The state exercises
its authority through various ministries, of which MOET has by far
the most extensive responsibilities. MOET collaborates with the Min-
istry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance in the
allocation of enrolment quotas and control of the maximum levels of
tuitions fees for all public higher education institutions (tuition levels
in private institutions have been wholly liberalized). As a regulatory and
oversight body, MOET controls the curriculum frameworks, administers
the national entrance examinations for admission to universities and
colleges, manages the process of student selection and supervises the
quality and accreditation system to protect the interests of the stake-
holders of the higher education system. MOET is also responsible for
drafting and coordinating the implementation of policies related to the
development of the higher education system in the country.
MOET, together with 12 ministries and provincial governments, is
also representative of state ownership and therefore exercises controls
(or ‘line management’, as the term is called in Vietnam) over all public
higher education institutions in Vietnam. Except for the two national
universities which report directly to the Cabinet, some 60 public higher
education institutions, including most of the ‘key’ universities,3 are

under direct MOET control, while the others are controlled by different
ministries (depending on the areas of study and research) or provincial
people’s committees. Line management of higher education institutions
by ministries (including MOET) and provincial governments includes
allocation of budgets, appointment of rectors and regulation of all major
decisions about income expenditure of the higher education institutions
(Dao and Hayden, 2010; Hayden and Lam, 2007; London, 2010; Pham,
2010).
System governance
The quality of governance and management of the higher education sys-
tem has become a matter of ongoing concern. In its efforts to improve
the situation, the government has stated its intention (in Resolution
14/2005/NQ-CP) to shift the focus of state management from direct con-
trol to a governance mechanism that ensures balance between effective
representation of state interests and better institutional accountabil-
ity and autonomy (Chính phủ [Government of Vietnam], 2005). One
of the measures recommended in the Resolution is to ‘eliminate line-
ministry control and develop a mechanism for having state ownership
represented within public Higher education institutions’. In practice,
however, it is not easy for line ministries to give up their power (and
associated opportunities and gains) in appointing senior personnel as
well as allocating budgets for higher education institutions under their
management (Dao and Hayden, 2010).
Another important role that should be better played by MOET is that
of strategic planning. Given the diversity in Vietnam’s tertiary educa-
tion system, MOET should design and coordinate the development of
an integrated network of institutions with distinct but complementary
missions to meet society’s diverse needs. The widespread upgrading of
specialized three-year colleges in universities in almost all provinces
across the country is an example of the absence of strategic vision. This
suggests that the higher education system would benefit from more, not
less, active and effective oversight and strategic planning (Chirot and
Wilkinson, 2010).
Institutional governance
The governance of university and colleges at the institutional level is
provided for in various legal documents, the most important of which
include Decision 61/20094 on the organization and operations of pri-
vate higher education institutions, Decision 58/20105 on the charter of
universities and the Law on Higher Education applicable to all higher

education institutions, which came into effect on 1 January 2013.
The Charter for Universities and the Law on Higher Education both
require the establishment of governing councils for all universities and
colleges. These documents state that the university council of public
institutions acts as the highest governing body and representative of
ownership of the institution. It is responsible for endorsing the develop-
ment strategy and regulations of the institution, deciding on important
matters relating to training, research and organizational structure of
the institution. It comprises the rector, vice rectors, heads of the party,
unions, youth organizations, representatives of the line management
agency as well as notable people in the relevant training fields and
industry.
In public higher education institutions, however, the real seat of
power and leadership centres around the rector and the management
board, whose members are appointed and can only be dismissed by the
responsible line management agency, not the university council.
All private universities in Vietnam, on the other hand, are respon-
sible to the state through their governing boards, which, like other
private entities, generally have a high level of financial autonomy. Their
autonomy, however, is limited in other areas, as in the case of public
institutions, subject to MOET regulation and supervision, specifically
in terms of admission quotas and the national curriculum framework
(Hayden and Lam, 2007).
The private sector

Before the 1990s, all Vietnam’s universities and colleges were public
institutions. After the Thang Long people-founded University, the first
non-public institution, became officially operational in 1990 (it was
founded in 1988 but was running as a pilot project), 22 new private
higher education institutions were established by 2000. By 2010 the
number had reached 80. Private higher education institutions have
undoubtedly contributed significantly to meeting the increasing social
demand for education. In 2010 the number of students enrolling
in non-public higher education institutions was 333,921, accounting
for 18.2 per cent of the total number of higher education students.
However, this figure was still far below the target levels.
Most Vietnamese private universities operate as for-profit businesses
despite their claim to be non-profit institutions.6 They are almost
entirely dependent on tuition revenues. The only support they get from
the government is tax incentives, as well as access to land at lower
or, in some cases, no costs. The general perception in the country is

that, for the most part, private universities are only second choice (after
public institutions – even though there are signs that some private
universities are lifting their status). While private institutions enjoy con-
siderably greater autonomy and freedom from state control compared to
their public counterparts, there are also concerns regarding their qual-
ity of provision and lack of state oversight. An effective accountability
mechanism is therefore needed to address this ‘piecemeal’ problem in
state regulation of private tertiary education in Vietnam (Chirot and
Wilkinson, 2010; St. George, 2011).
Funding
Finance for the system comes from varied sources: state budget, pri-
vate/corporate investment, household expenditures and other sources,
such as official development assistance and foreign investment. House-
hold expenditures in higher education are mainly in the form of tuition
fees, which represent a large proportion of the total revenue of higher
education institutions. While the state remains the key financier of the
higher education sector, providing 55 per cent of the total budget of
public higher education institutions, tuition fees provide a 42 per cent
share of the budget (World Bank, 2008).
Nevertheless, as with governance of the system, management of
the financing of higher education is also highly fragmented. Respon-
sibility for implementation of the education sector budget is shared
between MOET, other line ministries and local authorities. Budgeting
is a bottom-up process which MOET controls. Higher education institu-
tions under MOET management submit their annual plan and budget
estimates to MOET for approval and consolidation, and other public
higher education institutions submit theirs to the controlling ministries
or provincial people’s committees. This gives rise to some incoherence
and opaqueness in the sector policies in setting enrolment quotas, in
budget allocation and in determining the levels of scholarships and fees
(World Bank, 2010b).
Quality and quality assurance in higher education
Problems of quality
Despite efforts by the government to ensure and enhance the quality
of the higher education system, the rapid expansion of the number of
higher education institutions and growth in enrolments, coupled with
the ineffective financing and governance policies, have put the quality
of higher education at stake in Vietnam. Except for a small number of

top universities, the majority are still facing difficulties in meeting min-
imum quality standards required from a higher education institution.
In general, a large proportion of academic staff in Vietnam do not have
a postgraduate degree and very few have doctorates, yet, internationally,
the proportion of faculty members with doctoral degrees is generally
used as an indicator of the quality of a higher education institution.
Other indicators of poor quality include faculty’s limited involvement in
academic research, as measured by the number of staff publications pro-
duced, a high student/lecturer ratio with negative consequences on the
learning environment and modest spending for research as a percentage
of total government spending on higher education.
With the rapid expansion of low-quality higher education, local and
international educators and researchers are referring to Vietnam’s higher
education as in crisis (for instance, Vallely and Wilkinson, 2008). Due to
the shortcomings in management, governance and planning in higher
education, numerous problems have been reported and discussed in
international journals, local forums and Congressional debates. The
most emergent and urgent issue discussed is the low quality of higher
education, specifically training and research outputs. Graduates are said
to lack basic soft skills such as communication and problem analysis and
solving and fail to apply skills and knowledge at the workplace, needing
retraining for employment. In terms of research outputs, the number
of publications in peer-reviewed journals is considerably lower than in
neighbouring countries (Vallely and Wilkinson, 2008). No higher edu-
cation institutions in Vietnam have been internationally recognized
for quality; no institutions have been listed in the international or
regional league tables or ranking systems even in Asia. Vietnam’s higher
education has lagged far behind even ASEAN countries.
The poor performance of the system is attributable to systematic
problems at both levels: national and institutional. Firstly, the highly
centralized, bureaucratic and loose management system with overlap-
ping control of different ministries leads to a very low level of autonomy,
accountability and academic freedom (Nguyen et al., 2009; St. George,
2011). In addition, the lack of well-planned reforms and synchronic
solutions and measures has led to an unmanageable higher education
system in terms of educational quality. The Minister of Education and
then Deputy Prime Minister, Nguyễn Thiê.n Nhân, confessed in 2009
that the quality of higher education had not been managed for the past
30 years. More seriously, in the private sector, not-for-profit higher edu-
cation institutions turn out to be superprofitable by enrolling as many
students as they can, ignoring MOET’s enrolment quotas, while not

investing in research, library, materials, teaching facilities, space and
staff development.
Meanwhile, the academic weaknesses of the system’s decision-makers
have led to huge problems such as paradoxes in curriculum organiza-
tion, the credit system (Do, 2009), the outdated curriculum content and
teaching facilities (Thanh Nien News, 2011) and inadequate research
competence of academic staff. Academic and research ethics have not
been given attention. Consequently, cheating and plagiarism are a com-
mon phenomenon at undergraduate and postgraduate education levels.
Limited access to library resources such as international journals and
books (both in soft and in hard copy) has made teaching, learning,
and research fall far behind, if not, isolated from the academic world.
Inappropriate human resource management and policies, lacking an
appropriate, fair evaluation system, have made teaching the sole focus
of academic life and discouraged lecturers from doing research and striv-
ing for improvement. All the problems mentioned above make it urgent
to develop a system that is able to ensure and enhance the quality of
education, especially tertiary education.
Development of quality assurance in Vietnam

Modern QA was initially introduced into Vietnam’s higher education via
the World Bank’s First Higher Education Project, whereby the first insti-
tutional Quality Assurance Centers (QACs) were established in the two
national universities: the Center for Education Quality Assurance and
Research Development (CEQARDS) in Hà Nô.i and the Center for Edu-
cational Testing and Quality Assessment (CETQA) in Hồ Chí Minh City.
The government also sent some personnel abroad to study QA systems,
with most of them going to Australia. In 2002, a new office for QA was
established in MOET and in 2003 this office was officially named the
General Directory for Educational Testing and Accreditation (GDETA).
In addition to establishing an accreditation system, it was given the
responsibility for coordinating university entrance examinations and
administering testing across the whole education system (Duong, 2010;
Sheridan, 2010; Westerheijden et al., 2010).
With lessons learnt from the first two QA centres in the two national
universities, other higher education institutions in the country started
to establish their own QA units. The first 20 Vietnamese universities
were involved in a pilot institutional accreditation programme, with
support from the World Bank (HEP1 Project) and the Dutch government
(ProfQim Project). One of the outcomes of this pilot was a set of ten
standards with 61 criteria issued by MOET (Decision 65) in conjunction

with the revised ‘Regulation on Higher Education Accreditation’ (Deci-
sion 76). Since 2008, the process of accreditation has been accelerated,
with more than 70 universities having submitted their self-evaluation
reports by July 2009, and more than 40 having received reviews by exter-
nal panels. The number of institutional QACs has also increased rapidly,
from two in early 2000 to 110 by July 2009. At the national level, a
National Accreditation Council was established on 23 October 20087
with a mandate to make accreditation decisions and provide advice
to MOET on the outcomes. With recent changes in policy regarding
the establishment of independent accreditation agencies,8 the central
approach to quality accreditation was abolished; thus, the role of the
National Council was also abolished.
Although the standards-based accreditation system has its weaknesses,
especially with regard to promoting institutional diversity and encour-
aging quality improvement (Bogue and Hall, 2003), its application in
Vietnam at this stage is better than having no QA system at all. It is the
primary means by which higher education institutions assure quality
to students and the public. It gives signals to all stakeholders and the
public that an institution meets at least minimum standards for faculty,
curriculum, student services and teaching and learning facilities.
Several important decisions still need to be made regarding the future
shape of the QA system as well as standards for accreditation of higher
education institutions in Vietnam (Lillis, 2012). These standards need to
take into account the diversification of higher education institutions in
Vietnam, their types and governance structures, to allow more auton-
omy while ensuring social accountability and transparency; and to be
more output-oriented, not just focusing on input (Nguyen et al., 2009;
Oliver et al., 2006; Sheridan, 2010; The World Bank, 2009).
International cooperation
Before 1987, the higher education system had a strong connection and
cooperation with Eastern European countries and most postgraduate
students were sent for training to the former Soviet Union, Hungary,
Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia or East Germany. Since the Open Door pol-
icy started, the system has had academic cooperation from Western and
capitalist countries such as the United States, European countries and
Australia at the governmental and institutional levels. Joint programmes
have been provided in various forms in cooperation with partners from
various countries. In terms of student exchange, there have been inter-
national students from many countries, instead of mostly Lao People’s
Democratic Republic (PDR) and Cambodia, as in the 1980s. This change

in cooperation in higher education has partly led to the shift in the
use of foreign language from Russian to English. The Open Door pol-
icy and increasing international cooperation in education have made
an important contribution to the diversity and mobility of knowledge
and students, both regionally and internationally. (For more discussion
on international cooperation in education, please see Chapter 6.)
Growth and massification

Catching up with the global trend, Vietnam’s higher education has
undergone the massification process. The achievement so far has been a
drastic increase in the number of students from roughly 133,000 in 1987
to more than two million in 2010.9 Massification in higher education
works in developed systems with fewer side effects. In developing sys-
tems, where the development level is low and where there is no strong
management tool in terms of academic and administrative quality, it
can bring on a mass crisis in the system.
In the case of Vietnam’s higher education, massification in an
unplanned way has led to an increase in low-quality educational pro-
grammes and a situation of ‘excessive abundance of bachelors, shortage
of technical workers’. In the early years of national renovation, there
was a serious lack of trained workers. Twenty years after that, when the
number of graduates has risen by 15 times with 300,000 graduates every
year, the labour market is still in urgent need of a qualified and educated
workforce. Quantitative solutions have helped to stick the university
graduate label on a lot more people, and satisfy people’s need for uni-
versity education, but have not solved the national demand for human
resources.
Conclusions
There are favourable conditions for the development of an education

system that aims at enhancing the mobility, practicality and flexibil-
ity of knowledge and students. These include a young and dynamic
population with diverse ethnic groups and languages, impressive eco-
nomic growth and poverty reduction, a fast-growing education system
supported by a culture that respects learning and the dissemination
of knowledge and, most importantly, the policies and strategies of
the government that consider reforms and the development of educa-
tion, especially tertiary education, as the key to success in its quest for
industrialization, modernization and the development of a knowledge
economy in Vietnam. The reform process since 1986 has brought

about significant achievements in the socio-economic development as
well as in education, with impressive growth and expansion, increased
enrolment and improved teaching and learning conditions.
Although various serious challenges were addressed at the beginning
of the reform period, some of the reform measures by the government
proved difficult to implement or to become fully effective. As analysed
in the chapter, Vietnam’s higher education is still facing mismatches
in meeting the needs for industrialization, modernization and interna-
tional economic integration, while at the same time the subsector does
not meet the people’s demand for tertiary learning. These include the
lack of close linkages between universities, research institutes and real-
ity; the poor training quality and low efficiency; out-of-date teaching
and learning methods; limited resources for education and inefficient
resources; and problems in institutional autonomy and accountability.
These shortcomings and mismatches require further strengthening of
the higher education reforms at both the national and institutional
levels.
At the national level, there should be better coordination among
government instrumentalities in the governance of tertiary education.
Given the difficulty in putting the management of vocational educa-
tion and training (now under MOLISA) and higher and professional
education (now under MOET) under one state agency, the management
of quality can be unified through a national educational QA system,
which will in turn facilitate mobility across various learning modes and
levels in tertiary education. With standardization, it is expected that
the Vietnamese education system will be able to achieve consistency
in diversification and accelerate the process of integration, cooperation
and competition with other advanced education systems, regionally and
internationally.
It is important to develop an open education system which is easily
accessible to everyone, an education system which nurtures and pro-
motes the creativity and mobility of young people and one which is
closely linked with science and technology progress, especially infor-
mation technology and telecommunication. Such an education system
will promote competition among various educational institutions to
improve the quality, and hopefully to gradually raise the status of
Vietnam’s higher education institutions in the region and the world,
through cooperation and competition with foreign educational institu-
tions. This will require concerted efforts from the government, policy
makers as well as other stakeholders such as academic staff, educational

managers, parents, students and the entire society.
Notes
1. Quyết đi.nh số 1400/QĐ-TTG ngày 30 September 2008 của Thủ tướng Chính
phủ: Về viê.c phê duyê.t Đề án ‘Da.y và ho.c ngoa.i ngữ trong hê. thống giáo du.c
quốc dân giai đoa.n 2008–2020’ (Decision 1400/QĐ-TTG, dated 30 September
2008, by the Prime Minister on the Approval of the Proposed Project enti-
tled ‘Teaching and Learning of Foreign Languages in the National Educational
System’).
2. Quyết đi.nh 37/2013/QĐ-TTg ngày 26 June 2013 của Thủ tướng Chính phủ
về viê.c Điều chỉnh Quy hoa.ch Ma.ng lưới các trường Đa.i ho.c, cao đ ăng giai
đoa.n 2006–2020 (Decision 37/2013/QĐ-TTg dated 26 June 2013 by the Prime
Minister on the Amendment of the Masterplan for the Network of Universities
and Colleges for the period 2006–2020).
3. See more about ‘key universities’ in Chapter 3.
4. Quyết đi.nh 61/2009 của Thủ tướng Chính phủ ngày 17 April 2009 Về viê.c
Ban hành Quy chế tổ chức và hoa.t đô.ng của trường đa.i ho.c tư thu.c (Deci-
sion 61/2009 on Regulations on the Organisation and Operations of Private
Universities).
5. Quyết đi.nh 58/2010 của Thủ tướng Chính phủ ngày 22 September 2010 về
Điều lê. Trường Đa.i ho.c (Decision 58/2010 on ‘The University Charter’).
6. This is a controversial claim but the authors of this book all believe it to be
true. See, for example, http://www.nhandan.com.vn/mobile_mobile_giaoduc/
_mobile_tingd/item/21439502.html.
7. Quyết đi.nh 7113/QĐ/BGDĐT ngày 23 October 2008 của Bô. GDĐT về viê.c
Thành lâ.p Hô.i đồng Kiểm đi.nh Chất lượng Quốc gia (Decision 7113, dated
23 October 2008, on the Establishment of the National Quality Accreditation
Council).
8. Luâ.t Giáo du.c Đa.i ho.c 2012 (Law on Higher Education, 2012) and Thông tư
61/2012/TT-BGDĐT Qui đi.nh về viê.c thành lâ.p, gi ai thể và chức năng nhiê.m
vu. của các tổ chức kiểm đi.nh chất lượng giáo du.c (Circular 61/2012 on Pro-
visions of establishment and dissolution, mandates and duties of education
quality-accrediting agencies).
9. http://www.moet.gov.vn/?page=11.0
3
Towards more Flexible
Organization
Hoàng Minh Đỗ
Introduction
A flexible higher education system

In order to best meet the needs of the country, the education system
should be developed on a structure that recognizes and promotes diverse
types of institution, with a high degree of institutional autonomy;
enhances pathways and is based on recognition of prior learning; rec-
ognizes the values and status of both formal and non-formal forms
of instruction; encourages institutions to attract inputs from non-
governmental stakeholders; minimizes the unbalances and inequalities
between regions and income groups and is based on effective quality
management and assurance mechanisms.
Flexibility requires a certain level of autonomy and diversity in the
system and within tertiary institutions. There is a mismatch between
what these institutions can produce and what the economy demands,
the most evident example of which is the paradoxical problem of unem-
ployed university graduates and unfilled positions in basic trade and
industries, often referred to as ‘thừa thầy thiếu thợ’ [surplus of masters,
lack of skilled workers]. For the purpose of this chapter, ‘tertiary’ is used
to refer to all levels of post-secondary education, and training therefore
includes ‘higher education’, professional/technical secondary education
and vocational training. There is overlapping of these categories as well
as blurred boundaries between them, which will be discussed later in the
chapter.
The chapter will begin with an overview of system development in
tertiary education. It will then critically explore issues around gover-
nance of the system and consider the elements that need to be put
54
Hoàng Minh Đỗ 55
in place if Vietnam is to achieve a system than meets the demand for

flexibility, practicality and mobility of graduates and knowledge.
Development of the tertiary system
Tertiary education in Vietnam prior to Đổi Mới

The first university in the country, Quốc Tử Giám (Imperial Academy),
was established in the eleventh century. This institution remained open
until the eighteenth century but provided education only for Vietnam’s
bureaucrats, nobles, royalty and other members of the elite, not for
the general public. The first modern university, Đa.i ho.c Đông Dương
(University of Indochina), was established by the French in 1906 and
provided education for the entire region of Indochina. Contemporary
tertiary education in Vietnam, however, only began its development
after the end of the anti-French resistance war in 1954. After the
re-establishment of Hanoi University following its colonial predeces-
sor (University of Indochina) in 1956, several Soviet style-specialized
universities and colleges were established under various functional
ministries of the government in the late 1950s. A large number of pro-
fessional and vocational schools were also established by functional
ministries, state-owned enterprises and localities to train skilled workers
for the economy. With higher education institutions focusing mainly
on teaching, research was done mostly in research institutes that were
managed within functional ministries.
State governance of the education system was the responsibil-
ity of various ministries and governmental instrumentalities. While
the Ministry of Education was in charge of basic education, the
Ministry of Higher and Professional Education (MHPE) provided
regulatory oversight of post-secondary education, and the Ministry
of Labour exercised state management functions over vocational
training.
Provision and funding of tertiary education

Until the late 1980s, the state was the sole provider and funder of higher
education in the country and trained graduates to work mainly in the
state sector, in line with the centrally planned economy. The economic
crisis coupled with the increasing demand for tertiary education that
far exceeded supply forced the government to find new ways of provid-
ing for and financing the system. The change in the state’s role in the
provision and funding of the system has led to two important changes
to the governance of the system. First, the diversification of resources
56 Towards more Flexible Organization
for education, or ‘socialization’ [xã hô.i hóa], the term used in Vietnam;
and, second, the expansion of the non-public [ngoài công lâ.p] sector
(London, 2010).
Under this new regime, tertiary education was no longer fully sub-
sidized by the state and a system of tuition fees was introduced, as
noted in Chapter 2. Higher education institutions were allowed and
encouraged to maximize their training capacity and raise revenues to
supplement state funding, which were mainly for staff salary and invest-
ment in campus facilities. Higher education institutions were allowed
to organize non-public enrolments (same education but higher fees
than regular full-time education) as well as other non-regular modes of
delivery such as in-service training [ta.i chức], open and distance educa-
tion [mở rô.ng và từ xa] or joint programmes [liên kết]. Another major
development to ease the imbalance between supply and demand for
tertiary education was the establishment of non-public higher education
institutions, initially in different forms: semi-public, people-founded
and private institutions. Recently, all semi-public and people-founded
higher education institutions were requested to change into either pub-
lic or private institutions. These private institutions are funded by the
shareholders and their revenues rely mainly on students’ tuition fees.
They are expected to sharply expand their share of higher education
enrolments.1
These policies of introducing ‘socialization’ in education funding
and expansion of provision were effective in that they helped reduce
demand on the state’s scare resources but at the same time posed
serious problems, such as the risk of commodifying education, equity
challenges and especially the threat to quality. While public higher edu-
cation institutions are encouraged to increase their revenue base, there
is a risk they will shift focus from their main training mission to income
maximization through fee-paying non-regular programmes or sideline
business activities. Most private higher education institutions, whether
they claim themselves to be non-profit or not, in the absence of any gov-
ernment funding support, must rely on self-generated revenues, mainly
from students tuition fees, and therefore try to maximize enrolments,
sometimes at the expense of quality.
Further, the introduction of tuition fees may create access issues for
students from poor socio-economic backgrounds. Scholarships and stu-
dent loan schemes provided by the government can help tackle this
issue, at least for a small proportion of students attending full-time reg-
ular courses at public higher education institutions. The equity access
issue is more problematic in private higher education institutions which
charge substantially higher fees while their students, many coming from
low-income families, are not entitled to government scholarships. The

rapid increase in the number of institutions and students without a cor-
responding increase in quantity and quality of the faculty and teaching
facilities, as well as the absence of appropriate governance arrange-
ments and a quality assurance system, has posed significant challenge
to quality of the system, which will be discussed further later on in the
chapter.
Increase in the number of institutions and students

The scale of the higher education system has grown rapidly, especially
in the last decade. By 2012 there were over 2.2 million students, with
roughly two-thirds enrolled in universities and one-third in colleges.
In the period 2000–2012 the total number of students in higher educa-
tion more than doubled, but in 2012 the share of the private sector was
only approximately 15 per cent, a slight increase from 11 per cent in
2000 (see Table 3.1 below). Note that the faster growth in universities
than in colleges is due partly to the ‘institutional drift’ of many colleges
being upgraded to university status.
The table also shows a noticeable increase in the number of higher
education institutions in the non-public (private) sector as well as in
the number of students enrolled in those higher education institutions.
While most of the private universities are newly established, the major-
ity of the new public higher education institutions are the result of the
Table 3.1 Growth in higher education in Vietnam since 2000
2000–2001 2004–2005 2009–2010 2011–2012
Total institutions 178 230 403 419

Universities Total 74 93 173 204
Public 57 71 127 150
Non-public 17 22 46 54
Colleges Total 104 137 230 215
Public 99 130 199 187
Non-public 5 7 31 28
Students 918,228 1,319,754 1,935,739 2,204,313
University Total 731,505 1,046,291 1,358,861 1,448,021
students Public 642,041 933,352 1,185,253 1,258,785
Non-public 89,464 112,939 173,608 189,236
College Total 186,723 273,463 576,878 756,292
students Public 171,922 248,642 471,113 613,933
Non-public 14,801 24,821 105,765 142,359
Source: Compiled by authors from various sources in MOET (2012).

so-called ‘institutional drift’, that is, the granting of university status

to existing colleges that are under the line management of provincial
governments or ministries.
Legislation
The government’s determination to renew governance of the system
is demonstrated by the promulgation of several important pieces of
legislation. One of the important early documents is the Ministry of
Education and Training’s (MOET’s) Higher Education Reform Agenda
(HERA), which was reflected in a government resolution to implement
‘substantial and comprehensive renewal of Vietnam’s tertiary education
in the 2006–2012 period’ (Resolution 14/2005). With regard to reforms
in the governance of tertiary education, the resolution proposed, first,
the decentralization of management by granting more autonomy to
higher education institutions; second, the elimination of line min-
istry control and the development of a mechanism for state ownership
representation in the higher education institution; and, third, the devel-
opment of a quality assurance and accreditation system for tertiary
education.
Governance of higher education and the role of the state are also stip-
ulated in the Education Law 2005, with several improvements compared
to the earlier Education Law 1998. The Law affirms the state’s role of
‘unified management of the national education system with regard to
objectives, programs, contents and plan of education’ (Article 14). This
gives MOET the power to decide on substantive matters of institutional
governance, for example, issuing curricular frameworks and ratifying
curricula of higher education institutions (Article 41). On the other
hand, the law allows more autonomy to higher education institutions
by prescribing that all universities and colleges should have their own
governing councils with powers to make decisions on missions, objec-
tives, strategies and development plans, as well as on procedural matters
such as the use of finance and assets (Article 53). With a high level
of control accorded to MOET and line management agencies, higher
education institutions enjoy limited real autonomy in governance.
The newly promulgated Higher Education Law 2012 goes a step
further in reforming the governance of higher education. Besides reaf-
firming the power of the governing councils of public higher education
institutions (and the governing boards of private ones) to decide on
matters such as strategies; development plans; guidelines on training,
research, international cooperation and quality assurance; supervision
of the implementation of their resolutions and insurance of democracy
in the institution (Article 16), the law provides greater autonomy to

higher education institutions, notably the power of these institutions
to decide on their own curricula and instruction management. Even
though MOET is still responsible for decisions on enrolment quotas,
admissions and opening new programmes (Articles 33, 34), higher
education institutions are now allowed to decide on their instruction
contents, assessment and degree awards (Article 36). Even so, even with
greater formal autonomy, it is difficult for higher education institutions
to exercise real autonomy, especially in substantive matters, given the
current strong role played by MOET and other line management agen-
cies that are responsible for funding and appointing the rectors of public
higher education institutions.
Present shape of the system
Composition
Even though the focus of this chapter (and the book) is largely on higher
education, in this chapter on system organization and governance,
it would be incomplete and skewed just to discuss higher education
in isolation without mentioning technical education and vocational
training, which are also an integral part of the national education
system and important pathways from secondary to higher education.
(There is more discussion on vocational education and training in
Chapter 10.)
The structure of tertiary education is a legacy of the former Soviet
system, whereby higher education institutions consisting of universi-
ties and colleges focus mainly on teaching, and research is done mostly
in research institutes and businesses. Higher education is also separate
from technical education and vocational training. While most research
institutes are outside the higher education system, many are allowed to
provide PhD training, with MOET approval. Therefore tertiary education
in Vietnam includes:
• 76 research institutes providing PhD training [viê.n nghiên cứu];

• 204 universities offering bachelor’s and graduate degrees [đa.i ho.c và
sau đa.i ho.c];
• 215 colleges offering associate degrees (three to three and a half years)
[cao đăng];
• 295 professional/technical secondary education institutions offering
technical diplomas (two to four years depending on the entry level)
[trung cấp chuyên nghiê.p];
• 121 vocational colleges offering vocational advanced diplomas

(one to three years depending on the entry level) [cao đ ăng
nghề]; and
• 291 vocational secondary schools offering vocational diplomas (one
to four years depending on the entry level) [trung cấp nghề].
Table 3.2 below summarizes the current size of tertiary education and
training of Vietnam.
The structure, legacied from Soviet with different tiers in the hierar-
chy, can enable flexibility and mobility for students at least in principle.
Institutions higher in the hierarchy can provide education at the lower
level, for example, universities can offer associate degrees or colleges can
offer professional diplomas. Graduates from institutions at a lower level
can take pathways to a higher level of education. However, mobility
of students is not so effective in reality, especially between vocational
and higher education subsectors or between private and public insti-
tutions. Moreover, graduate education (master’s and doctoral levels) is
only available at certain public universities and research institutes, not
in non-public or newly established local universities.
Diversity
There is considerable diversity in the system, in terms of sizes, roles,
discipline structures, research capacity, as well as the reputation and
quality of the higher education institutions. Along with the establish-
ment of new universities, there has been expansion and development
of existing ones. The differentiation of higher education institutions
occurs both vertically, with the proliferation of types of institutions; and
horizontally, with the participation of new private providers. The two
national universities and the three regional universities were established
in the 1990s by amalgamating long-standing prestigious universities in
Hà Nô.i, Hồ Chí Minh City and the central region in order to become
Table 3.2 Tertiary education institutions in Vietnam, 2012
Universities Colleges Professional Vocational Vocational

secondary colleges secondary
Institutions 204 215 295 121 291

Students 1,448,021 756,292 623,050 74,424 208,759
Teachers 59,672 24,437 19,956 12,369 10,731
Source: Compiled by authors from various sources in MOET, 2012, and MOLISA, 2012.
multidisciplinary and multi-levelled national and regional centres of

excellence in research and training. Some other ‘specialist universi-
ties’ have also grown in size and developed into multidisciplinary
universities, though not so much as the national and regional univer-
sities. Out of the current 419 universities and colleges, most of which
are small, specialized institutions, 16 larger comprehensive universities
have been officially designated as ‘key universities’2 with the expecta-
tion that they will provide leadership in the process of modernizing
the higher education system, particularly by developing strong research
and quality culture and capability (Hayden and Lam, 2007; St. George,
2011).
In terms of ownership, of the 419 universities and colleges, 82 are
non-public (private). The private sector has grown rapidly in the last
decade, with the first private university established in 1988. The remain-
ing 337 public higher education institutions receive funding from and
are under the direct management of various ministries, governmental
instrumentalities and local governments. The missions of higher educa-
tion institutions are also diverse, with a few ‘key universities’ designed
to become research-focused universities (even though it is not known
when this aim can be realized) and the majority of higher education
institutions focusing mainly on teaching to serve the need for a skilled
workforce in specific sectors and the socio-economic development of
localities.
In terms of governance, while all private higher education institu-
tions operate based on the corporate model with real power centred on
the board, most public universities, except for the two national univer-
sities, are under heavy state control – despite efforts to decentralize state
control and allow more autonomy to higher education institutions.
Despite this diversity in the system, higher education institutions
in Vietnam are still subject to heavy central control, especially in stu-
dent admission, input requirements, approval of new programmes and
quality accreditation standards. The governance of the system will be
discussed in further detail in the next part of the chapter.
Issues
Disconnects
One of the biggest issues in the tertiary education system is the ‘discon-
nects’, both inside the system and with the rest of the economy. These
have a negative impact on the flexibility, practicality and mobility of the
system. All of the five disconnects in the East Asia region identified by
the World Bank (2012) are in existence in the tertiary education system
of Vietnam. These are:
• disconnect between higher education and employers (skill users),

with the paradox of a high unemployment rate among graduates and
unfilled positions in trades;
• disconnect between higher education and companies (research
users), with limited contributions of higher education institutions to
technology adaptation and upgrading in companies;
• disconnect between higher education and research institutes
(research providers), with universities remaining the domain of
teaching with research being administered by government research
institutes and companies;
• disconnect between higher education institutions and other training
providers, as exhibited in the separation between higher education,
professional education and vocational training; and
• disconnect between different levels in the tertiary education system.
There is formal and actual overlapping as well as blurred boundaries

between professional secondary education (under MOET) and voca-
tional training (under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs
[MOLISA]). Even though vocational training is under ‘professional edu-
cation’ together with ‘technical education’ in the 2005 Education Law
(Article 32), the regulation of vocational education is stipulated by
a separate law (Law on Vocational Training) and by a separate min-
istry (MOLISA). Without good coordination, the limited resources for
the development of technical education and vocational training may
become ineffective. The flexibility and mobility of students and knowl-
edge in the system, both horizontally between the institutions and
vertically between various hierarchical levels of the system, will be
affected if these disconnects are not dealt with.
Quality
One of the biggest problems with the tertiary education system in
Vietnam is its quality. The government has already recognized the
serious problems in the system, particularly ‘the training processes,
teaching and learning methods, and the limited capacity of the teaching
staff and educational managers’.3 Students suffer from poor condi-
tions for study: crowded classrooms, inadequate libraries and laboratory
facilities or limited students’ services. Although considerable effort
has been made to improve the training processes and to facilitate
mobility of knowledge and students, for example, the introduction of

the credit-based training system, further improvements are still needed.
For instance, students are still required to choose their area of specializa-
tion early in their course, and once a choice is made, change is usually
difficult or even impossible. Such inflexibility closes off the possibility
that students may learn from experience and change their mind to make
a better choice.
The most frequently cited quality problem is probably that of faculty
capacity. As mentioned earlier, most higher education institutions focus
mainly on teaching while research is done in separate research insti-
tutes under ministries or the central government. Therefore the research
capacity of higher education institutions in Vietnam, including that
of the ‘key universities’, is not good enough. One aspect of quality is
that of the qualifications of teaching staff, with a very low percentage
of PhD degree holders and professors. To make matters worse, many
of these PhD holders and professors are now assuming management
roles either in the higher education institutions or in the government
apparatus, or approaching retirement. Lack of faculty with postgraduate
research skills will limit the level of knowledge imparted to students and
restrict the students’ access to new knowledge and ability to generate
new ideas. Despite the government’s effort in increasing the propor-
tion of PhD holders among teaching staff in higher education, with the
ambitious programme entitled ‘23,000 doctorates by 2020’,4 it will be
long before the current situation of masters, or even bachelors, giving
lectures at universities, or ‘cơm chấm cơm’ [eating rice with rice], can be
eliminated.
Other quality problems highlighted in Resolution 14 are those of out-
dated teaching and learning methods and impractical curricula. Passive
approaches to teaching are no longer relevant in the knowledge-based
world in which flexibility and creativity are key elements in success.
In addition, the poor quality of the system is associated with out-
dated and impractical curricula, as a consequence of the disconnect
between higher education institutions and the industry as skill users,
as well as lack of diversity and practicality in curricular design. In the
absence of a stewardship role of the government, institutions may play
down the important role of providing general (liberal arts) education for
the students. With knowledge growing at unprecedented rates, specific
expertise in technology or business will almost inevitably become obso-
lete. Meanwhile, the ability to learn is an excellent form of preparation
for flexible, knowledge-based careers. Curricula reform should therefore
aim to prepare students for employment as well as lifelong learning,
with meaningful linkages to global knowledge currents (Chirot and

Wilkinson, 2009; World Bank, 2000).
Mobility is needed, not only nationally but regionally and inter-
nationally as well. Thus there is a pressing need for international
recognition of Vietnamese academic qualifications. No university in
Vietnam has ever become part of a reputable international ranking sys-
tem. The government target of having a university in the top 200 of
the world by 2020 seems to be too ambitious in the intermediate future,
given the current quality of the higher education system in Vietnam.
Governance of tertiary education
There are different layers of higher education governance. First, higher

education governance displays the interplay between internal gover-
nance (institutional self-governance) and external governance. How-
ever, the higher education system (sectoral self-governance) is exposed
to external governance from other systems outside the sector, for
example, the state, market, and other social institutions, thus the com-
bination of governance-of-higher education and governance-in-higher
education (Campbell and Carayannis, 2013).
In a similar vein, London (2010) calls these dimensions systemic,
external and internal governance. Systemic governance refers to the
broad relation between the state and other major social institutions,
including the market; external governance refers to the relations
between higher education institutions and supervisor agencies and
internal governance refers to the (self-) governance of individual higher
education institutions. This section of the book will look into the gover-
nance of tertiary education in Vietnam at these three levels – systemic,
external and internal governance – and discuss the ways in which the
governance of higher education in Vietnam facilitates, and also inhibits,
flexibility and mobility.
System governance
At the systemic level, we look at the interplay between the state, the
market and tertiary education.
State role
At the systemic level, higher education is still highly centralized. For
all public higher education institutions – with the exception of the
two national universities which are accountable directly to the Prime
Minster – MOET, together with the Ministry of Finance (MOF), the
Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), the Ministry of Home

Affairs (MOHA), and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST)
have different responsibilities and advise the government on how the
higher education system should accommodate national policies, targets
and development plans.
MOET is responsible for developing policies and strategies for the
sector, providing the regulatory framework for matters concerning the
establishment of new institutions, student recruitment, instruction
management and quality assurance and accreditation.
MOF is responsible for allocating the national budget for higher
education and to public universities.
MPI is responsible for developing the socio-economic development
plans and working with MOET and MOF on decisions regarding
enrolment quotas and investments in public institutions.
Besides, all public higher education institutions are accountable to
MOHA on public service matters such as recruitment, promotion and
payment regulations.
Finally, MOST is responsible for allocating the budget for research
which is accessed by higher education institutions.
There have been efforts by the government to decentralize its control
through these ministries, for example, in the allocation of a budget for
research, with the establishment of the National Foundation for Science
and Technology Development (NAFOSTED), or the pilot implementa-
tion of financial autonomy for some selected universities. However, state
control is still strong. For example, all tertiary institutions still have to
strictly adhere to MOHA sets of regulations regarding recruitment, remu-
nerations, promotions and dismissals of their staff (as civil servants),
with limited flexibility left for the institutions.
While line agency controls are a hindrance to institutional develop-
ment, the state’s regulatory, supervisory and stewardship role of tertiary
education is still very important. Government can help guide the
improvement in the quality of higher education institutions (of course
this depends on how quality is defined); for example, resource alloca-
tion to universities can be based in part on metrics such as the number of
research grants and patent approvals received by the institution and fac-
ulty publications in international peer-reviewed journals instead of on
the traditional measure of student enrolments. This will put pressure on
higher education institutions and faculty to improve, in the directions
that the state would like to see happening. The state should also play an
indispensable role in providing the enabling regulatory framework for
the development of the entire sector. This includes, among others, the
establishment and development of an effective mechanism to ensure
institutions are held accountable to stakeholders and society for their

quality, operations and performance.
Market and social forces

Efforts by the government to channel lower and upper secondary
school-leavers to institutions in different tiers of the tertiary education
system, especially to professional education and vocation training, have
not been successful, in a society and culture where a bachelor’s degree
is considered to be a minimum requirement for success and also a pride
for the family. More than 70 per cent of lower secondary school-leavers
continue with upper secondary education. Other students either enrol
in continuing secondary education [bổ túc (THPT)] or join the work-
force straight away, leaving only a small proportion going to vocational
schools. Many students use professional and vocational institutions as
pathways to higher education rather than real providers of trade training
for them.
Market and social forces also influence the enrolment of higher edu-
cation. For example, in 2005 nearly half of all enrolments were in
two disciplines, education and business, while a very small proportion
enrolled in hard sciences and engineering (World Bank, 2008). In a time
when financial and economic disciplines are considered to be ‘hot’ and
easy to get a job, even the enrolment quota policy of the government
cannot rectify this skew.
External governance of institutions

Table 3.3 below summarizes how higher education institutions in
Vietnam are governed externally.
MOET has the most important oversight role over almost all higher
education institutions in the national system, both public and pri-
vate, in matter related to enrolment quotas, admissions, organization of
instruction and quality assurance and accreditation. Enrolment quotas
for each institution and within individual programmes of study are pro-
posed by the higher education institutions themselves, and approved by
MOET based on assessment of the higher education institution’s train-
ing capacity, and in consultation with MPI regarding socio-economic
forecasts and development plans, and with MOF regarding allocation
of block grants and scholarship support for public higher education
institutions.
Like and parallel to MOET’s oversight role over higher education insti-
tutions, MOLISA is responsible for all vocational institutions in matters
Table 3.3 Governance of tertiary education institutions in Vietnam
Level Type Personnel Funding: capital Admissions Policies, Organization of

management: investment regulations, instruction:
appointing and recurrent development curriculum,
rectors, expenditure strategies, assessment,
approving enrolment learning
strategies, quotas and outcomes,
governing quality assurance awarding degrees
boards, staff
quotas
PhD- National Central Central Institutional MOET approves Institutional

granting government government, autonomy enrolment quotas autonomy with
research Sectoral Ministries Ministry of Science with MOET MOET oversight
institutes and Technology oversight
[MOST], NAFOSTED
Ministries
Universities National Central Tuitions, fees and MOET organizes MOET approves Used to be heavily
government funding from line examinations, full-time regular controlled by
Regional MOET agencies sets cut-off scores quotas, manages MOET, but now
Sectoral MOET and other for entry external quality more institutional
ministries assurance autonomy with
Local Provincial mechanisms MOET oversight,
(provincial) government but still not
Private Board Tuitions and fees self-accrediting
Colleges Sectoral MOET and other Tuitions, fees and
ministries funding from line
Local Provincial agencies
(provincial) government
67
Private Board Tuitions and fees

Table 3.3 (Continued)
68
Level Type Personnel Funding: capital Admissions Policies, Organization of

management: investment regulations, instruction:
appointing and recurrent development curriculum,
rectors, expenditure strategies, assessment,
approving enrolment learning
strategies, quotas and outcomes,
governing quality assurance awarding degrees
boards, staff
quotas
Professional Sectoral MOET and other Tuitions, fees Institutional Institutional

secondary ministries and funding admission autonomy with
Local Provincial from line criteria, based on MOET oversight
(provincial) government agencies Education Law
Vocational Sectoral MOLISA and Tuitions, fees and Institutional MOLISA provides Institutional
colleges other ministries funding from line admission standards for autonomy with
agencies criteria, based accreditation, MOLISA
Local Provincial on Law on administers oversight
(provincial) government Vocational national
Private Board Tuitions and fees training certificates for
Vocational Sectoral MOLISA and Tuitions, fees and vocational skills
secondary other ministries funding from line
schools agencies
Local Provincial
(provincial) government
Source: Authors.
such as policy, regulatory framework, curriculum framework, national

vocational qualifications framework and quality assurance.
It is interesting to note the role played by the General Department of
Vocational Training (GDVT) under MOLISA regarding the state manage-
ment of vocational training. There have been efforts to bring vocational
training to the same ministry with higher education in the past but
the move was short-lived. The GDVT started as an agency in charge of
training technical workers under the Ministry of Labour,5 then became
a separate General Department directly under the government.6 It was
merged later on to the MHPE, in the Department of Professional Edu-
cation and Vocational Training, and was still under MOET when MHPE
merged with the Ministry of Education in 1990. The GDVT was then
transferred from MOET back to MOLISA in 1998.7
It is unlikely that the responsibility for state governance of voca-
tional training will be merged with MOET again. Therefore a feasible
way to systematically develop post-secondary education in Vietnam
would require the establishment of a buffer body that would cover the
responsibilities of both MOET and GDVT of MOLISA.
Another area of strong control by MOET is admissions, under the
principle of ‘three shared admission elements’ [ba chung]. Under this
principle, all higher education institutions use the results of the annual
national entrance examination administered centrally by MOET for
the admission of students. The three shared elements include shared
test questions, test dates and test results. MOET also sets the cut-
off score below which students cannot be admitted to any higher
education institution, public or private. MOET used to control the
organization of instruction through the approved national curriculum
framework, but this has been abolished with the promulgation of Circu-
lar 57/2012,8 which allows higher education institutions to issue their
own curricula.
Apart from being responsible to MOET, as mentioned above, most
public higher education institutions are also accountable to their respec-
tive supervising agencies on behalf of the state. These agencies, includ-
ing at least 10 ministries, 63 provincial governments and several state
instrumentalities, provide the funds and management necessary for the
existence and development of higher education institutions. Currently
MOET manages 54 higher education institutions while other ministries
and local governments are responsible for more than 250 other pub-
lic institutions. The so-called ‘line management’ responsibilities include
providing funding for recurrent expenditures and capital investments
of the higher education institution, appointing the rector and approv-

ing the governing council, if any. This will be discussed in further detail
in the next section.
Line agency control

Line management means providing funding for facilities and opera-
tions of higher education institutions, paying staff, approving strategies,
appointing rectors and governing councils (if any). Most public higher
education institutions in Vietnam are now under direct line man-
agement from either ministries and governmental instrumentalities
(including MOET) or local governments. They are funded by and there-
fore subject to a certain level of control from these state agencies, in
terms of rector appointment, personnel quotas and capital investment
approvals.
Several ministries have their own universities, colleges and institutes,
a legacy from the Soviet-style centrally planned economy. Ministries,
state instrumentalities and large state-owned enterprises used to manage
vocational schools and training facilities in their areas of specialization.
Through their course of development, these institutions were upgraded
to colleges and then universities. The majority of these higher education
institutions are monodisciplinary, for example, the University of Natural
Resources and Environment (under the Ministry of Natural Resource and
Environment), the University of Electricity (under General Corporation
of Electricity), the University of Trade Union (under the General Fed-
eration of Labour) and the University of Procuracy (under the Supreme
People’s Procuracy). Therefore some ministries and central instrumental-
ities now line-manage even more than higher education institutions. For
example, the Ministry of Transport and Communication now directly
controls two research institutes, three universities, three colleges, three
vocational colleges and one academy. The MOF now has two uni-
versities, three colleges, and one research institute under its direct
management. MOET also has line management over more than 50 uni-
versities and colleges, many of which have experienced a long period of
development, including most of the ‘key universities’.
The drawbacks of this line management structure have long been rec-
ognized, but attempts to bring them to MOET in the 1990s were only
partially successful, for example, moving the University of Agriculture
and the University of Fisheries from the Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Development (MARD) to MOET or the University of Commerce
from the Ministry of Industry (MOI) to MOET. There is also a recent
interesting reverse trend of moving higher education institutions from
MOET to ministries, for example, the transfer of medical universities

under two regional universities (MOET) back to the Ministry of Health.9
Nevertheless, the line management arrangement, whether by vari-
ous ministries, governmental instrumentalities or by MOET itself, is
an impediment to the development of higher education institutions
and of the tertiary education system as a whole. The highly central-
ized and controlled tertiary education system and the lack of autonomy
are among the factors that hinder Vietnamese institutions’ flexibility
and responsiveness to workplace needs and learners’ multiple expec-
tations. Vietnam’s current tertiary education sector is characterized by
the inflexible control of the government and the central ministry –
MOET. This system appears to deny universities and institutes the incen-
tive to innovate in their teaching and learning programmes (Hayden
and Lam, 2007). The centralized and controlled management associated
with the demands of compliance and accountability does not tend to
leave room for institutions’ flexibility and responsiveness to learners’
changing needs, changing economy’s demands and changing workplace
contexts.
Obviously, central control inhibits flexibility of an already diverse
system of higher education institutions of different missions (research,
specialist, comprehensive, community), different levels (postgraduate,
undergraduate, associate degrees, advanced diplomas and diplomas),
ownership arrangements (privately and publicly owned) and account-
ability authorities (central government, ministries, local governments).
It is important for better governance to allow more autonomy for higher
education institutions. MOET should move from the current excessive
centralization and control to a more regulatory role. Line management
of higher education institutions should be eliminated, as stipulated in
Resolution 14.
Two conditions for this to happen are, first, the functioning of the
university governing council and, second, the development of a quality
assurance system that holds higher education institutions accountable
for the autonomy they are granted. The biggest hindrance, however, is
the reluctance on the part of ministries and local governments to let
go of their authority over universities and the limited self-governance
capacity of a majority of higher education institutions that are used
to having everything decided for them by the line management agen-
cies. It is not easy to eliminate the ‘asking–approving’ mechanism [cơ
chế ‘xin cho] which is inherent in the system of line management,
either by the ministries or by provincial governments. Important deci-
sions, especially regarding the allocation of funding to higher education
institutions, are subject to approval from the line management agency,

which may lack transparency and maintain favouritism. It is therefore
necessary to develop a practical mechanism for better coordination of
state oversight of tertiary education at the system-wide level.
Private sector
The non-public sector can fill in the gaps in higher education participa-
tion caused by the increasing demand and constraints of public funding,
but the challenge is how to avoid sacrificing quality to quantity. Without
proper oversight, the revenue incentive driving private higher education
institutions may easily lead to commercialization, equity and quality
problems. However, these issues are not the focus of this chapter.
State control of private institutions is ineffective, both too much in
some areas and too little in some others, which is a hindrance to the
flexibility and mobility of the system. Even though private higher edu-
cation institutions enjoy greater self-governance and autonomy than
their public counterparts, the state still has tight controls over such
aspects as allocation of student quotas, the setting of entry requirements
and approval of curricula. Government controls can have negative unin-
tended effects. For example, caps on enrolment quotas and entry-level
cut-off points are supposed to ensure quality but at the same time can
limit access to these private institutions and thus affect their long-term
viability.
State supervision, on the other hand, is minimal as far as quality
assurance is concerned. Once the private higher education institution
gets its licence and its programmes are approved, it is left to do busi-
ness without effective accountability mechanisms to ensure the product
meets (at least) the minimum required standards. With the growing
demand for bachelor’s degrees in society, and without effective oversight
and accountability mechanisms, many of these private institutions may
become ‘degree mills’, especially through unauthorized pathways and
joint training programmes.
There have been, however, efforts to rectify this, at least in formal
terms, with the introduction of the regulations on accreditation and
quality assurance as well as on learning outcomes and quality framework
in the Higher Education Law 2012 and related government documents.
In reality, it is difficult for graduates from private institutions to get
employment, especially with the current quality of private higher edu-
cation institutions. As noted, there is a general perception that most of
these higher education institutions are of low quality and only for stu-
dents with low academic capability. Even though it is stipulated in law
that graduates from public and private higher education institutions are
treated equally, many employers are still reluctant to accept applications
from private higher education institutions graduates.
Dealing with the disconnects

There is a need for system-wide coordination to ensure the function-
ing of a multi-tiered tertiary education system, including more effective
connections between higher education and technical and vocational
training, and between universities and research institutes. This requires
a whole-of-government effort in renovating the system governance of
tertiary higher education towards eliminating line ministry controls,
redefining MOET oversight responsibility and allowing more auton-
omy to higher education institutions, and better coordination between
state authorities in charge or higher education, vocational training and
research development.
One way to enable mobility and connectivity within the tertiary
system, both horizontally and vertically, is the credit-based system
and recognition of previous learning. This allows for student mobility
between higher education institutions, especially from private to public
institutions, and between deferent tiers in the system, for example, path-
ways from vocational training to higher education, thus giving more
options for students and for diversity in the system.
Care should be taken, however, to ensure that professional and voca-
tional training institutions do not move their focus from skills training
to preparing students for transition to colleges and universities.
Institutional governance
This section discusses how higher education institutions in Vietnam
are governed internally, the degree to which they can make their
own decisions and the implications of institutional autonomy for the
development of the higher education system.
‘Institutional autonomy’ is typically viewed as ‘the right to self-
determination in the appointment of academic staff, student admis-
sion, teaching content and methods, standards control, priority setting
and future development’ (Kayrooz, 2006, p. 4, cited in Meek, 2010).
The ‘essential ingredients’ of institutional autonomy include freedom
to select staff and students, freedom to determine curriculum con-
tent and degree standards and freedom to allocate funds (within the
amounts available) across different categories of expenditures (Ashby,
1966). Tight (1992) further elaborates the six ‘freedoms’ within institu-
tional autonomy: to be self-governing, to exercise corporate financial
control, to make staffing decisions, to select students, to decide on

curriculum and to assess and certify the academic performance of
students.
There are different ways to assess the extent of autonomy. Ordorika
(2003) categorizes three broad areas of institutional self-government:
appointive, academic and financial. Appointive autonomy comprises
the hiring, promotion and dismissal of professors, deans and admin-
istrative personnel; academic autonomy includes curriculum and course
selection, degree requirements and academic freedom; and financial
autonomy focuses on university budget and financial accountability.
Berdahl (1990), on the other hand, subdivides autonomy into substan-
tive and procedural issues. Substantive autonomy is the power of the
institution to determine its own goals and programmes, while procedu-
ral autonomy is the power to determine the means by which to achieve
the goals.
There are considerable gaps between ‘formal autonomy’, meaning
what is defined in legislation, and ‘real autonomy’, meaning what hap-
pens in reality, as noted by Enders et al. (2013). As mentioned earlier in
the chapter, all the important legislative instruments, specifically Deci-
sion 58/201010 on the University Charter and Higher Education Law
2012, have affirmed the higher education institution’s freedom to decide
on several aspects of internal governance, including organizational,
financial, academic and management matters. In reality, however, these
‘freedoms’ are limited by the controls exerted by MOET and other gov-
ernmental instrumentalities. For example, higher education institutions
(or their governing councils) are not yet able to freely decide on sev-
eral internal governance matters, such as appointment or dismissal of
the rector (responsibility of line management agencies), recruitment
and payment of staff (line ministries and MOHA), ownership of prop-
erties and use of financial surplus (line ministries and MOF) or student
admissions and programme introduction and self-accreditation (MOET).
Higher education institutions cannot be successful unless they are
able to make their own decisions. Without staffing and management
freedom, it is difficult for the higher education institution to recruit
and retain highly qualified teaching staff, who may be lured to the
higher-paying private sector or international organizations. Without
academic freedom, higher education institutions cannot be flexible and
responsive to the needs of the localities, industries and society. What
should be done to enhance institutional autonomy is bridge the gap
between formal and real autonomy, or, in other words, implement
what has been stipulated in regulatory instruments, especially with
regard to two important issues: the university council and accountability

arrangements.
Governing council
The Higher Education Law 2012 clearly defines the university council
as an important element of the governance structure of a higher edu-
cation institution (Article 16), besides other bodies such as the Office
of the Rector, the Party Committee, the Council of Science and Aca-
demic Affairs (Article 39) and the Consultative Council (Article 40). The
role and powers of the university council have also been specifically
stipulated in Articles 33 and 34 of Decision 58/2010 on the University
Charter. The council, which comprises from 15 to 31 representatives
of the Party, the responsible agency, the management board, lectur-
ers and managers as well as external representatives of the community
and industry, convenes at least once every four months and has the
responsibility for deciding on objectives and strategies, guidelines for
the organizational structure, recruitment of staff, policies on finances,
property and assessment of the management board.
The council cannot appoint or dismiss the rector, which is the respon-
sibility of the line management agency, but can only organize an annual
vote of confidence and make recommendations to the relevant author-
ity. This is probably a challenge in making the council a real seat of
power in the institution. Without the power to appoint and dismiss
the rector, it is difficult for the council to actually hold the rector
accountable for the latter’s management decisions and performance.
Even though all institutions have their Communist Party structure for
exercising a leadership role and for imposing checks and balances on the
rector, they cannot replace the important role played by the university
council. The institution’s ‘Đang Ủy’ [party committee], usually com-
prising the rector and the vice-rectors, the head of the union, women,
youth organizations and a few other elected members from inside the
institution, provides leadership through its resolutions [nghi. quyết]. Even
though the principle of centralized democracy of the party seems to
ensure democracy and balance of views between management and other
stakeholders inside the institution, there are also problems. First, as the
party committee chief, in most cases, is also the rector, the agreement
reached by the party committee is likely to be influenced by the view
of the rector who is also the boss of the committee members. Second,
lack of an effective mechanism to hold the party committee accountable
for its decisions and resolution also means party resolutions can be used
by the rector to release himself/herself from personal accountability for
their own decisions. Third, members of the party committee are all from
inside the institution and their views may not represent those of exter-
nal stakeholders such as the state, students and their families and the
society at large.
A truly functioning governing council, acting as a representative of
state ownership, is a good step towards decentralizing line ministry
control and enhancing institutional autonomy. It can also balance
the interests of the state, management and other stakeholders of the
higher education institution. Without the university council acting as
the supreme body, the seat of power in the higher education institution
normally centres around the offices of the rector, and most internal poli-
cies are likely to be developed with a short- or medium-term horizon,
aligned to the rector’s term of office [tư duy nhiê.m kỳ]. The council, with
external representatives, can also make the higher education institution
responsive to the needs of the localities and industries.
In reality, the university council is absent in most universities or
acts as a nominal body in those few higher education institutions that
have established such councils. It is therefore important to establish
the university council in all higher education institutions and make it
the supreme legal body for public higher education institutions, just
like the governing board of private institutions. There are of course a
number of hindrances to achieving this. First is the reluctance of state
line management agencies to part with their powers and controls of
higher education institutions and transfer them to the university coun-
cils. This requires a certain degree of trust from the line agencies before
they can confidently transfer the long-held powers and controls. Second
is the limited capacity within the higher education institutions them-
selves, especially in self-governance, to ensure the council is capable of
making important decisions in the interests of the institution. Amalga-
mation of small specialist universities into larger comprehensive ones
may create economies of scale and aggregate the management capac-
ity and expertise of these institutions. Again, this requires time and
strong political will from the line agencies as well as initiatives from
the institutions themselves; otherwise the amalgamated institution may
be just another layer of administrative control over the institutions
rather than a facilitating structure for good institutional governance.
Third is the unpreparedness of the rectors to be held accountable to
a governing council representing different stakeholders but for the best
interest of the institution. ‘Governing councils of higher education insti-
tutions are likely to require an extended period of probation and support
before being able to exercise fully and effectively a right to institutional

autonomy’ (Hayden and Lam, 2007).
Accountability arrangements and quality assurance

In exchange for enhanced institutional autonomy, the state can legiti-
mately expect greater accountability to ensure that universities perform
as expected in terms of academic results and the proper use of public
resources. The challenge is to get the mix between public accountability
and institutional autonomy right. Van Damme (2011) recommends that
quality assurance in higher education, as an important form of account-
ability, can work best and help achieve this balance when it ‘supports
institutional autonomy by demonstrating how it can help institutions
to improve; escapes the risk of standardization by making the tools and
instruments more flexible and sophisticated (smart quality assurance);
enhances transparency and trust at system level; and [can] be trusted by
academia as being part of their sphere’.
One important mechanism of accountability is the quality assur-
ance system. There are different approaches to quality assurance:
accreditation, audit and quality assessment. In its early stage of devel-
opment, quality accreditation, both of institutions and of programmes,
has been formally selected and stipulated in the Higher Education Law
2012. The standards-based accreditation system has its weaknesses, espe-
cially with regard to promoting institutional diversity and encouraging
quality improvement (Bogue and Hall, 2003), but at least its applica-
tion in Vietnam at this stage is better than having no quality assurance
system at all. It is the primary means by which higher education
institutions assure quality, and thus accountability, to the state, stu-
dents and the public. It gives signals to all stakeholders and the public
that an institution meets the minimum standards for faculty, curricu-
lum, student services and teaching and learning facilities. In general,
accreditation tends to be a control instrument rather than a quality
improvement instrument but as Vietnam seeks to combine the two,
achieving improvement through control, according to Westerheijden et
al. (2010), the accreditation system has to:
• ‘contain “smart criteria” and a sustained internal quality assurance

scheme that can underpin continued quality improvement’;
• ‘realise that reaching the minimum standards can be a sufficient qual-
ity improvement in itself, if there are many universities expected to
be under that threshold’; and
• ‘maintain a decision-making context with positive incentives to

avoid risk aversion strategies so often found in accreditation
schemes’.
Besides the development of a quality assurance system, the govern-

ment has made several attempts to make higher education institu-
tions demonstrate greater accountability. MOET’s ‘three disclosures’ or
‘three transparencies’ requirement (Circular 09/200911 ) is a positive step
towards accountability. Higher education institutions need to disclose
their committed and actual educational quality standards and indica-
tors; their inputs for quality assurance, including facilities and teaching
staff and their financial income and expenses. In another effort to
enhance accountability, MOET requires higher education institutions
to develop and disclose their own ‘learning outcomes’ (Official Let-
ter 2196/201012 ). MOET is also determined to ensure that institutions
adhere to what they have committed to doing. Its strong measures
include recent decisions to cut enrolment quotas of 23 universities and
colleges by between 10 and 100 per cent because of their failure to
meet required conditions on lecturers and facilities,13 withdrawal of PhD
training licences in 57 specializations in 17 institutions14 and suspen-
sion of 161 MA programmes.15 Of course a more comprehensive system
of accountability is needed to ensure healthy and sustainable develop-
ment of the system. The stewardship role of the state, especially MOET,
is essential here.
The potentials for reform and development: an example
The University of Đà Năng

˜
Notwithstanding the problems and limitations in the system, some
institutions have moved forward in notable ways in recent years, sug-
gesting the broader potential for reform. One such institution is the
University of Đà Năng
˜ (DU).
In the early 1990s, the higher education system in Vietnam consisted
of several small specialist universities. In order to enhance the qual-
ity of the system, the government realized the need to develop centres
of excellence in teaching, research and technology transfer with qual-
ity and status gradually comparable to universities in the region and
internationally. In this context the two national and three regional uni-
versities (including DU) were established to become national flagstaff
DU was established in 1994 by a government decree16 on the basis

of amalgamating and reorganizing a number of existing higher edu-
cation institutions in Đà Năng
˜ (Danang University of Technology; Đà
˜
Năng branch campus of Foreign Language Teachers Training Univer-
sity; Đà Năng
˜ Teacher Training College and Nguyễn Văn Trỗi Technical
School). It was organized into four member universities (University of
Foundation Studies, University of Economics and Business, University
of Engineering and University of Education); one college (College of
Technology) and a number of research institutes and centres.
After nearly 20 years of development, the university has grown
considerably in size and currently consists of four member univer-
sities (University of Technology, University of Economics, University
of Education and University of Foreign Language Studies), two col-
leges (College of Technology and College of Information Technology)
and several research institutes and centres. DU has more than 60,000
students and over 2000 staff members (including nearly 1500 teach-
ing staff) and provides training in 12 doctoral programmes, 20 mas-
ter’s programmes, 70 bachelor’s programmes and 20 college-level and
professional programmes.17
DU has become a large-scale, multidisciplinary, and multi-tiered
comprehensive university, with modern teaching and learning facili-
ties, including a new physical education complex, approximately 7000
square metres of resource centres, an e-library with 350 computers con-
nected to the Internet and a study space for 1500 students besides spe-
cialist libraries of member universities and a new 300-hectare DU village
under construction. DU has also developed a sophisticated IT infras-
tructure throughout the campuses. In short, the university has become
a genuine centre of training, scientific research and technology transfer
in the central region of the country.
As a regional university, DU enjoys greater autonomy in decision-
making, specifically in the self-accreditation of new programmes and in
international cooperation, compared to almost every other university in
Vietnam. DU has been taking advantage of this greater autonomy and
the enhanced status of a large comprehensive multidisciplinary insti-
tution to build new linkages with external partners, both domestically
and internationally. A notable example is its effective partnership with
Aston University and the company Rolls-Royce in the United Kingdom.
These trilateral links between Vietnam and UK education providers and
industry entails two concrete projects. The first project engaged local
employers in the development of an agreed model for an undergradu-
ate degree programme to integrate work-based learning with academic
qualification. The second project involved the delivery of Executive

Education programmes for and with employers. Aston University pro-
vides advice to DU on the basis of its rich experience in forging close
partnerships with business and industry. The inputs from Rolls-Royce
range from programme content development, industrial placement and
apprenticeship to financial support in both projects.
Problems
Despite its efforts and achievements, the university still faces a number
of problems. Like many other universities in Vietnam, the university has
limitations in teaching staff qualifications, research capability, student
services and teaching and learning facilities. However, one of the biggest
problems is the unclear relationship between DU and its member uni-
versities. This highlights the double-level governance structure of DU
(a structure shared with other regional universities and, to some extent,
with the national universities). This is a new and unprecedented model
of university in Vietnam.
According to the Law on Higher Education and its implementation
decree,18 the member universities of DU have their own legal status
like other universities [trường đa.i ho.c] and are also governed by the
University Charter. In other words, each individual member university
under DU is a higher education institution by itself with the governance
structure and operations similar to all other (specialist) universities. For
example, each member university has its own university council, orga-
nized into faculties and departments and headed by a rector. Whereas
DU, like other regional and national universities, is defined in the Law
on Higher Education as ‘Đa.i ho.c’ – a special type of higher education
institutions operating as ‘a federation of universities, colleges, institutes
from different disciplines and specializations, organized into two levels
of governance’. DU also has its own council, organized into universities,
colleges, faculties and departments, and headed by a president.
There is, however, overlapping of responsibilities and functions
between Danang member universities with the (federal) DU especially
with regard to their relationship with MOET. Both DU and its feder-
ated universities are higher education institutions and therefore subject
to line management by MOET. Sometimes DU cannot act on behalf
of its members, which means when MOET organizes meetings with
all university rectors in the country, for example, leaders of both DU
and its member universities have to be present. Apart from the above-
mentioned problem in the relationship between DU and its member
universities, another problem is the limited connectedness between
the member universities themselves. Thus the expected benefits of

pooled resources and shared facilities and the potential for mobility of
students across member universities have not been satisfactorily real-
ized. Without good coordination by DU, member universities even
compete with each other in similar areas of training and fields of
specialization.19
What can be learnt from this case?

Because the majority of universities and colleges in Vietnam are small
in size and limited in areas of specialization, it is difficult to enhance
the quality and competitiveness of the entire higher education system.
One solution is to develop a greater number of large-scale multi-
disciplinary comprehensive universities with enhanced teaching and
research capability. From the case of DU, one can see the obvious ben-
efits of the model of ‘federal’ universities. Amalgamating a number of
existing higher education institutions to form a larger comprehensive
university can create an expanded range of disciplines and specializa-
tions; increased flexibility for credit transfer; enhanced student services;
improved services for teaching and research such as libraries and labo-
ratories and savings on administration by elimination of overlapping
services and more intensive use of facilities and equipment, such as
lecture theatres, classrooms, sports facilities, among others.
However, there are understandable reasons for the reluctance of indi-
vidual universities to merge with other institutions to form a larger
comprehensive university. These include fear of fusion of campus cul-
ture, the potential overlapping of functions, the dangers in ceding
power and autonomy to centralized management and the problems of
a possible additional layer of administration and bureaucracy between
MOET and member universities. The model may risk becoming cum-
bersome, costly, ineffective rather than resulting in cost-effectiveness
thanks to economy of scale and shared use of resources, as was originally
intended.
What should then be done? First, it is important to develop the
framework for the establishment and operation of large comprehensive
‘federal’ universities. While the two national universities are governed
by the respective government decrees and all other universities (includ-
ing member universities of ‘federal’ universities) are governed by the
University Charter, there have not been any regulations governing the
organization and operations of regional universities since they were
founded in 1994, except for a few general provisions in the Law on
Higher Education and its implementation decree. Even though the Law
provides greater autonomy and accountability to regional and national

universities, how autonomy rights are interpreted and exercised is the
initiative of the universities themselves, except for their autonomy
in decisions to approve joint programmes with international higher
education institutions (Decree 72) and develop and self-accredit their
own programmes (Circular 08) without having to submit to MOET for
approval like other universities.
That is why a separate set of regulations to govern the organization
and operations of the existing three (and may be several more) regional
universities are much awaited, especially given that the status of the
‘federal university’ has been confirmed in the Higher Education Law.
Moreover, the government should encourage the amalgamation of
small and specialist universities to form comprehensive universities
through incentive policies and mechanisms such as subsidies or the
provision of higher levels of autonomy. At the institutional level, it is
important that there are feasible mechanisms for effective connections
and shared use of resources between the member universities. While
autonomy and accountability of member institutions are encouraged,
their strategies and plans should be in line with those coordinated by
the ‘federal’ university. In other words, the ‘federal’ university should
provide an enabling environment for its member universities to best
utilize their comparative advantages in a diverse but coordinated and
mutually supported system.
According to former Deputy Prime Minister Nguyễn Thiê.n Nhân,
there should be separation of the oversight and training functions of
regional universities. The question is how to balance and harmonize
between the missions and strategies of member universities, and those
of the federal university, to avoid overlapping and increased burdens.20
Amalgamating several small universities into this model of ‘federal’
universities is an option for Vietnam, provided the shortcomings are
addressed. With the forthcoming Regulation on Regional Universities,
one can hope that there is legal basis for these universities to exercise
their powers and autonomy for stable development.
Once this model proves successful and member universities enjoy the
competitive advantages of economy of scale and the enhanced status of
the regional universities that follows from the reform, other smaller uni-
versities may see the need to amalgamate with each other to form truly
comprehensive universities which can compete with other regional and
international universities. Also, once the problem of double-level gov-
ernance in these regional universities is solved, it will prove more cost-
effective and more rapid to develop existing small specialist universities
into stronger and more competitive comprehensive ones, as compared

to building new universities from scratch.
Conclusions
Vietnam has a diverse system of tertiary education that has developed

significantly, especially since the introduction of Đổi Mới in the late
1980s. The system has grown dramatically in size, both in the student
body and in the number of institutions. The burden on the state bud-
get has been relaxed thanks to the increasing share (though still not as
high as expected) of the private sector in the provision of tertiary educa-
tion. There are still disconnects within the tertiary education system as
well as between it and the national economy, such as the disconnects
between teaching and research, between higher education and voca-
tional training, between education and the workplace and between the
national system and the regional and international context. Addressing
these disconnects to ensure flexibility, mobility and practicality of the
system requires a great deal of effort, especially in improving the current
governance of and in the system.
Even though state control is still strong, there have been efforts by the
ruling Communist Party and government to improve the governance
of tertiary education, especially in moving from state control to state
supervision of education. The Party’s resolutions and guidelines, state
legislations and government policies have all highlighted the need for
decentralization of state control by gradually eliminating line ministry
controls and granting more autonomy to institutions while ensuring
effective regulatory and supervisory role of the state through appropri-
ate accountability mechanisms. Efforts have also been made to enhance
institutional governance, through the introduction of the governing
councils and capacity building for the institutions. Of course there are
inhibitors to the implementation of these policies but at least there are
positive and promising signs of improvement.
Minimizing state control is necessary, but this requires government
efforts, because different state agencies (ministries and local and central
governments) are now involved in the governance of higher education
institutions. At the institutional level, this requires gaining trust and
confidence from line agencies. This can be achieved through the devel-
opment of a better internal governance structure, especially the truly
functioning university council, enhancing institutional autonomy, both
substantive and procedural, and an effective external quality assurance
mechanism. The dilemma between control and autonomy is just like
that of the chicken and egg and can only be solved based on a high
level of trust and accountability, which needs time to build.
Notes
1. Nghi. quyết Số 14/2005/NQ-CP ngày 2/11/2005 của Chính Phủ Về Đổi mới
Cơ b an và Toàn diê.n Giáo du.c Đa.i ho.c Viê.t Nam giai đoa.n 2006–2020 (Res-
olution 14/2005 on the Fundamental and Comprehensive Reform of Higher
Education in Vietnam 2006–2020 by the Government of Vietnam, dated
2 November 2005).
2. 1. Vietnam National University, Hanoi; 2. Vietnam National University, Hồ
Chí Minh City; 3. Thai Nguyen University; 4. University of Da Nang; 5. Hue
University; 6. Can Tho University; 7. National Economics University; 8. Uni-
versity of Economics, Hồ Chí Minh City; 9. Hanoi National University of
Education; 10. Hồ Chí Minh City Pedagogical University; 11. Hanoi Medical
University; 12. Hồ Chí Minh City Medicine and Pharmacy University; 13.
Hanoi University of Agriculture; 14. Hanoi University of Technology. 15. Le
Quy Don Technical University; and 16. Vinh University.
3. Nghi. quyết Số 14/2005/NQ-CP của Chính Phủ ngày 2 November 2005 Về
Đổi mới Cơ ban và Toàn diê.n Giáo du.c Đa.i ho.c Viê.t nam Giai đoa.n 2006–
2020 (Resolution 14/2005 on the Fundamental and Comprehensive Reform
of Higher Education in Vietnam 2006–2020 by the Government of Vietnam,
dated 2 November 2005).
4. http://peo.agu.edu.vn/?q=node/116
5. Nghi. đi.nh số 200-CP ngày 09 October 1969 của Hô.i đồng Chính phủ thành
lâ.p Tổng cu.c đào ta.o công nhân kỹ thuâ.t thuô.c Bô. Lao đô.ng (Decree 200-CP
on the Establishment of the General Department on Training of Technical
Workers under the Ministry of Labour).
6. Nghi. đi.nh 151-CP ngày 24 June 1978 Về viê.c Tách Tổng cu.c đào ta.o công
nhân kỹ thuâ.t khỏi Bô. Lao đô.ng (Decree 151-CP on Separating the General
Department on Training of Technical Workers from the Ministry of Labour).
7. Quyết đi.nh 67/1998/QĐ-TTg Về viê.c Chuyển giao nhiê.m vu. qu an lý nhà
nước về đào ta.o nghề từ Bô. Giáo du.c và Đào ta.o sang Bô. Lao đô.ng – Thương
binh và Xã hô.i (Decision 67/1998 on the transfer of state management in
vocational training from MOET to MOLISA).
8. Thông tư 57/2012/TT-BGDĐT Sửa đổi, bổ sung mô.t số điều của Quy chế
đào ta.o đa.i ho.c và cao đ ăng hê. chính quy theo hê. thống tín chỉ MOET
2012_(Circular 57/2012 on Amendments of Regulations on higher education
Training in the credit-based system).
9. Công văn Số: 1308/VPCP-KGVX ngày 18 February 2013 của Văn phòng
Chính Phủ V/v chuyển Trường Đa.i ho.c Y Dược thuô.c ĐH Thái Nguyên
và Trường Đa.i ho.c Y Dược thuô.c ĐH Huế về trực thuô.c Bô. Y tế qu an
lý (Letter 1308/VPCP-KGVX on Transferring line management of medical
schools under Thai Nguyen University and Hue University to the Ministry
of Health).
10. Quyết đi.nh 58/2010/QĐ-TTg của Thủ tướng Chính phủ ngày 22 Septem-
ber 2010 về viê.c Ban hành ‘Điều lê. trường đa.i ho.c’ (Decision 58/2010 on
the Promulgation of ‘The University Charter’ by the Prime Minister, dated

22 September 2010).
11. Thông tư số 09/2009/TT-BGDĐT Qui chế Thực hiê.n công khai đối với cơ
sở giáo du.c của hê. thống giáo du.c quốc dân (Circular 09 on Regulations on
Transparencies of Education Institutions in the National Education System).
12. Công văn số 2196/BGDĐT-GDĐH V/v: Hướng dẫn xây dựng và công bố
chuẫn đầu ra ngành đào ta.o (Official Letter 2196 on Guidelines on Develop-
ing and Declaring Learning Outcomes for Higher Education Institutions).
13. http://vnmedia.vn/VN/xa-hoi/giao-duc/465_837080/23_truong_bi_cat_
giam_chi_tieu_tuyen_sinh.html
14. Quyết đi.nh số 533/BGDĐT ngày 06 February 2013 của Bô. trưởng Bô. GD and
ĐT về viê.c Thu hồi Quyết đi.nh cho phép đào ta.o trình đô. Tiến sı̃ (Decision
533 by the Minister of MOET, dated 6 February 2013, on the withdrawal of
licences to provide training at the doctorate level).
15. Công văn số 8985/BGDĐT-GDĐH ngày 28 December 2012 của Bô. trưởng Bô.
Giáo du.c và Đào ta.o về Ta.m dừng các chuyên ngành đào ta.o trình đô. Tha.c sı̃
không đủ điều kiê.n (Official Letter 8985/BGDĐT-GDĐH, dated 28 December
2012, on the suspension of substandard master’s programmes).
16. Chính phủ 1994: Nghi. đi.nh số 32-CP ngày 4 April 1994 về viê.c Thành lâ.p
Đa.i ho.c Đà năng
˜ (Decree 32 on the Establishment of the University of Da
Nang).
17. DU website http://www.udn.vn/menus/view/18 accessed 9 December 2013.
18. Nghi. đi.nh 141/2013/NĐ-CP của Chính phủ ngày 24 tháng 10 năm 2013 Qui
đi.nh chi tiết và hướng dẫn thi hành mô.t số điều của Luâ.t giáo du.c đa.i ho.c.
(Decree 141/2013/NĐ-CP by the government on the detailed provisions and
guiding implementation of the Law on Higher Education, dated 24 October
2013).
19. Báo Giáo du.c Online Đa.i ho.c vùng: ‘Chiếc áo’ đã quá châ.t (Newspa-
per Education Online: Regional universities – the shirt has become too
tight). http://giaoduc.edu.vn/news/van-de-su-kien-665/dai-hoc-vung-chiec-
ao-da-qua-chat-158220.aspx. Accessed 9 December 2013.
20. Báo điê.n tử Dân Trí: Mô hình ĐH vùng: Vừa đô.i nón vừa che ô?
(Dantri Newspaper: The regional university model – wearing both a hat
and an umbrella?) http://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc-khuyen-hoc/mo-hinh-dh-
vung-vua-doi-non-vua-che-o-445979.htm. Accessed 9 December 2013.
4
Curriculum and Pedagogy
Lý Thi. Trần, Trúc Thi. Thanh Lê and Nhài Thi. Nguyễn
Introduction
Vietnam is a country with a rich intellectual tradition, enormous love

for learning and great aspiration for knowledge enhancement. The
Vietnamese people are commonly regarded as being hard-working,
achievement-oriented and capable of creatively and flexibly respond-
ing to practical issues and problems in life. The spirit of teaching and
learning and the respect for teachers and knowledge are at the heart
of the nation. Higher education pedagogy and curriculum develop-
ment that is informed by fundamental principles to build on these
intellectual strengths and qualities of Vietnamese people can help opti-
mize effective learning. Yet at the moment, the way the curriculum,
pedagogy and assessment position learners and knowledge is still a
hindrance for the higher education sector to realize the full learning
potential of the nation. In addition, the curriculum is facing increased
demands for reforms to respond to the recent changes of the nation
and the world. Transforming from an education which served the cen-
trally planned economy to an education effectively operating in the
socialist-oriented market economy and responding to the demand of
international integration appears to be a critical need for Vietnam
(Pham, 2011a).
Key dimensions of curriculum and pedagogy that directly affect teach-
ing and learning in higher education cover a broad range. These include
the educational philosophy and beliefs underpinning curriculum and
pedagogy, needs analysis, curriculum design, development and evalua-
tion, pedagogical approaches and assessment. However, as this book is
86
Lý Thi. Trần, Trúc Thi. Thanh Lê and Nhài Thi. Nguyễn 87
concerned with the development of a tertiary education system which

produces flexible, mobile and practical learners and knowledge for
Vietnam, this chapter will turn the spotlight on the manner in which
learners and knowledge are positioned through the higher education
curriculum and pedagogy.
The chapter begins with an overview of the philosophy underpinning
curriculum and pedagogy in Vietnamese education. It then discusses
the crucial paradoxes concerning how learners and knowledge are con-
structed through higher education curriculum content and teaching and
learning approaches. The discussion focuses on the repositioning of the
stance on the Confucian tradition and Vietnamese tradition on curricu-
lum and pedagogy. Next, the chapter highlights the core issues that need
to be addressed and specific implications for curriculum and pedagogy
reforms in response to recent social and economic changes in Vietnam
and to the demand for flexibility, practicality and mobility of graduates
and knowledge.
Philosophy of education
‘Philosophy is the beginning point in curriculum decision making and

is the basis for all subsequent decisions regarding curriculum. Philoso-
phy becomes the criterion for determining the aims, means and ends
of curriculum’ (Goodlad, 1979, cited in Ornstein, 2007, p. 6). Given
the important role that the philosophy of education plays in curricu-
lum design and development, which has also been highlighted by
many other theorists (for example, Aggarwal, 1981; Ornstein, 2007;
Venkateswaran, 1993), the first part of this chapter will provide an
overview of Vietnamese educational philosophy and educational fea-
tures over the key periods in the history of Vietnamese education.
In Vietnamese education and its related literature, until very recently,
there was a blurring of boundaries between the philosophy of educa-
tion in general and the philosophy underpinning higher education in
particular. Therefore, the discussion that follows will address the overall
philosophy of education in Vietnam and then examine the philosoph-
ical principles shaping the current higher education curriculum and
pedagogy. A review of the philosophy of education during the key edu-
cational periods shows that the Vietnamese philosophy of education
has been strongly driven by Confucian values, patriotic heritage and the
political history of the country. In addition, it reveals that the dimen-
sions of flexibility, practicability and mobility have long been present in
the philosophy of education.
88 Curriculum and Pedagogy
Feudal education (up to 1919)

During the feudal period, classic Confucian books like Tứ thư, Ngũ
kinh were drawn on as the main content of teaching and learning. The
teacher and the learner were strictly positioned as knowledge transmit-
ter and receiver, respectively. Education in this period focused mainly
on the development of individuals and training of court officials (Pham,
2011b).
However, even though the Confucian-based, feudal education was
criticized for encouraging incontestable knowledge and rote learning,
it was practical in its educational orientation. In fact, in the examina-
tions for the selection of court officials, apart from the requirement for
the mastery of the set books, candidates were required to apply their
knowledge in proposing solutions to contemporary issues (Tran, 2010).
In addition, the knowledge acquired was then used to deal with differ-
ent problems that arose in daily life or at work. Scholars of the time
such as Chu Văn An, Lê Thánh Tông, Nguyễn Trãi and Lê Quý Đôn are
well known not only for their deep knowledge and respectful personal-
ity but also for their great practical contributions to the protection and
development of the country.
Patriotic education (1919 to August 1945)

Considered a means for the liberation of the country, education in
this period extended the patriotic heritage of the Vietnamese people,
reflected in the three big movements including Đông Du [Eastward
Travel], Đông kinh nghı̃a thu.c [Tokin Free School] and Truyền bá chữ
quốc ngữ [promotion of national language use]. These movements are
good examples of the mobility and flexibility of Vietnamese education
during the patriotic period. The Đông Du movement, which was ini-
tiated by Phan Bô.i Châu in 1905, aimed to send talented Vietnamese
youths to Japan for academic and military training to fight against the
French as well as to build the country afterwards.
The movements of Đông kinh nghı̃a thu.c and Truyền bá chữ quốc
ngữ were flexible responses of the Vietnamese patriotic scholars at the
time to the elite education system and Chính sách ngu dân [ignorant
people policy] imposed by the French colonists. Truyền bá chữ quốc ngữ
was also regarded as a practical and strategic political tool to promote
patriotism and the aspiration for national liberation and independence
during this historical period (Lo Bianco, 2001; Nguyen, 2011). Apart
from these movements, education in this period also reveals mobile
and practical orientations through the promotion of learning about the
advances of the West, which was believed to lead to development and

prosperity, and criticism against the conservative, examination-oriented
education, which seemed to be irrelevant to the urgent, contemporary
needs for national liberation.
Revolutionary education (1945–1954)

Education during this period and beyond was shaped by Hồ Chí
Minh’s educational philosophy. Immediately after the successful August
Revolution in 1945, Hồ Chí Minh’s philosophy was reflected in the anti-
‘ignorant people policy’ and the argument that the illiterate/uneducated
are a weak people. Later, the fundamental mission of education in Hồ
Chí Minh’s time was to build a popular, nationalistic education for an
independent country and to develop useful citizens for the country. The
education based on Hồ Chí Minh’s philosophy offered timely responses
to the practical needs of a country recently gaining independence with
over 90 per cent of the population being illiterate. Hồ Chí Minh’s phi-
losophy also cherished the far-reaching aim of an education that could
help maximize the potential of children as well as value talent in society.
In addition, humanistic education, which places emphasis on the
well-rounded development of human beings, is at the heart of Hồ Chí
Minh’s philosophy. An advanced feature of Hồ Chí Minh’s philosophy
is embedded in the principle that prioritizes interrelated dimensions of
the practicality of learning – learning is accompanied with practice and
theory is associated with reality.
Post-Geneva Agreement education (1954–1975)

Between 1954 and 1975, Vietnam was temporarily divided into North-
ern Vietnam and Southern Vietnam following the Geneva Agreement
in 1954. In Northern Vietnam, the philosophy of education during this
period continued the emphasis on popular education promoted in the
previous period, with the focus on the development of personality and
survival capacity for a useful life. It was then gradually shifted to giáo
du.c dân chủ mới [new democratic education], which promoted nation-
alistic, scientific and mass education. From the 3rd Tenure of the Party
Central Committee (1960) onwards, a comprehensive education was
also highlighted (Pham, 2011b).
Meanwhile, in Southern Vietnam, the philosophy of education was
based on three key principles clearly stated in Basic Principles issued by
the National Education Ministry in 1959 and later in the Constitution of
the Republic of Vietnam in 1967, which are nhân ban [humanistic], dân
tô.c [nationalistic] and khai phóng [liberal] (Mac, 2014; Nguyen, 2014).
Interestingly, although different in political orientations, the philoso-

phies of education in both Northern and Southern Vietnam placed
emphasis on the overall development of individuals and the promotion
of nationalism.
Post-reunification education (1975–1986)

After the liberation and reunification of the country in 1975, the
philosophy of education was reflected in various documents of the Com-
munist Party, which highlighted the important role of education in the
building and development of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Unfortunately, even though education in this period gained certain
achievements, it was heavily affected or driven by rigid political motives
and ideologies and was considered a means to serve socio-political tasks.
Consequently, together with the socio-economic crisis that the coun-
try experienced at that time, Vietnamese education ended the period in
great depression with record rates of both teacher and student attrition
(Pham, 2011b).
Post-Đổi mới education (since 1986)

Along with its positive impact on the country’s economy, the Đổi
mới [Reform] policy has brought new life to Vietnamese education.
After a long period when education was used mainly as a political
tool, Vietnamese education has, over the past 27 years, enjoyed more
rounded attention and increased investment.
Various documents have been issued providing direction, viewpoints
and policies for the development of post-Đổi mới education. These texts
include Resolutions of the Party Central Committee from Tenure VI in
1986 till now, and various other texts by the Central Committee, as well
as the government’s strategies for socio-economic development. The
ideas and viewpoints in such documents indicate a combination of both
the traditional and modern values of Vietnamese as well as the world
philosophies of education. They tend to reflect and try to accommodate
the requirements of the new phases of national development.
Unfortunately, in reality, after nearly three decades of reform,
Vietnamese education remains far from meeting the needs and expecta-
tions of the country and the people. The failure was seriously analysed
and evaluated by the Political Bureau (Politburo) in 2008. The conclu-
sion was that despite the right direction and policies, which consider
education and training the top priority of the nation, the policy imple-
mentation process through different levels was problematic (Pham,
2011a).
Current debate on philosophy of education

In recent years, there have been heated debates over the philosophy of
Vietnamese education with the participation of large numbers of estab-
lished scholars, educational leaders, intellectuals as well as the general
public in national conferences, media interviews and forums devoted to
the topic. The arguments centre on whether or not there exists a phi-
losophy of education in Vietnam and, if yes, what is it and is it still
appropriate in the current time; if no, then should there be one? People
are divided in opinions.
On the one hand, it is pointed out that even though there is no
clearly stated philosophy of education, there are various examples of
sayings, slogans or, more recently, statements in the Party’s and State’s
documents that can serve as guidelines for education development. The
problem is that such statements might no longer be in tune with current
developments of the country and the world, coloured by political drives
or distorted in practice, leading to adverse consequences on the quality
of education (Giap, 2011; Nguyen Chuong Nhiep, cited in Giang, 2011;
Pham, 2011a). On the other hand, other people argue that an educa-
tional philosophy in Vietnam is currently non-existent or unclear (for
example, Nguyen, 2010; Vũ, 2011) and this lack has led to the failure of
education reform efforts during the last decades as well as the current
chaotic state and derailment of Vietnamese education.
Regarding the necessity of a clearly defined and stated philosophy of
education for Vietnam, there is no consensus. Giap (2011) argues that
general orientations for education development are more useful than
a specific philosophy, which he fears can be a ‘language trap/linguistic
game’. He suggests an education system which is Mở, Sáng ta.o, Toàn
diê.n, Hiê.n đa.i, Hô.i nhâ.p [open, creative, holistic, modern and integra-
tive] as guidance for any future education reform. Professor Vu Minh
Giang, former Vice-President of Vietnam National University, Hà Nô.i,
advocates an educational philosophy that is based on the traditional
values of Vietnamese education and culture and the requirements of the
country, the Party and the people of education. He suggests a philosophy
of education reflected in five words – Ái, Tôn, Vi., Tro.ng, Khai – which
promotes patriotism and nationalism, serves human life, values talents,
liberates the people and opens them to the world (Vu, 2011). Mean-
while, Professor Pha.m Minh Ha.c, an established Vietnamese scholar
and expert in this area, and also a former Minister of Education, pro-
poses ‘Triết lý giá tri. ban thân’ [philosophy of the value of the self],
which emphasizes the roles of different stakeholders in helping learners
develop individual values for their own sake as well as for serving their
family and society (Pham, 2011b). More recently, Nguyen (2014) recom-
mends returning to the educational philosophy of the former Southern
Vietnam’s education, which is based on nhân ban [humanistic], dân
tô.c [nationalistic] and khai phóng [liberal] principles while Mac (2014)
advocates inheriting and selecting existing principles, namely, khoa
ho.c [scientific], nhân ban [humanistic], dân tô.c [nationalistic] as the
foundation for the Vietnamese educational philosophy.
While waiting for a clearly defined philosophy of education, which
surely takes a long time to develop and approve, Vietnamese education
seems to have to rely on different available documents to provide it a
guideline for development in the years to come. These include but are
not limited to Strategies for Socio-economic Development 2011–2020,
Strategies for Education Development 2011–2020; Education Law and
Higher Education Law. According to the Strategies for Socio-economic
Development 2011–2020, Vietnam aims to become ‘basically a mod-
ern, industrial country’ by the year 2020. To meet the target, the quick
development of human resources, especially high-quality resources,
has been chosen as one of the three breakthrough aspects. In the
light of the development strategies, the guiding principles for educa-
tion development emphasize the building of a popular, nationalistic,
advanced, modern, socialist education, with Marxism–Leninism and Hồ
Chí Minh’s philosophy as the foundation, and promote deep and broad
integration into the world education, on the basis of conservation and
promotion of national identity, maintenance of independence, auton-
omy and socialist orientation (Thủ tướng chính phủ [Prime Minister],
2012c).
Specifically, vocational and higher education aims to
train people with creative capacity, independent thinking, citizen

responsibility, professional ethics and skills, foreign language compe-
tence, work discipline, industrial manner, capacity to create employ-
ment and ability to make adjustment to the changes of the labour
market and a proportion of the graduates are capable to compete in
the region and in the world.
(Thủ tướng chính phủ [Prime Minister], 2012c, p. 9)
Apparently, at least at the highest policy-making level, there is strong

support for the promotion of a tertiary education system which pro-
duces flexible, mobile and practical learners and for knowledge about
Vietnam which draws on the traditional values of Vietnamese education
and culture, reflects the political orientation of the country but at the
same time meets the demands of new developments in Vietnam and the
world. Yet how are these directions translated into the practice of cur-
riculum development and teaching and learning? The following section
will examine higher education curriculum and pedagogy in more detail.
Curriculum and pedagogy
This section reviews the key features and drawbacks of the curriculum
and pedagogy of Vietnamese higher education. It addresses how knowl-
edge is constituted and how learners are positioned in the curriculum,
pedagogy and assessment practice. This is followed by a discussion of
recent developments in curriculum and pedagogy of Vietnamese higher
education.
The positioning of knowledge and learners through curriculum

The Vietnamese higher education curriculum tends to largely focus on
equipping students with theoretical and scholastic knowledge. On the
one hand, the curriculum is overburdened by theoretical knowledge,
which is often critiqued as being unable to keep pace with the real
world. On the other hand, the Vietnamese higher education curricu-
lum is unique in that around 25 per cent of the curriculum is devoted
to compulsory subjects relating to political indoctrination (Valley and
Wilkinson, 2008).
Notably, the higher education curriculum has been criticized as
according insufficient emphasis on professional readiness and capacity
building for students. There appears to be a disconnect between the
curriculum content and the demand of the socialist-oriented market
economy, the employment market, contemporary life, current develop-
ment of the country and the globalized world. While the integration of
learning and work has been recognized as a major approach to bridg-
ing the gap between the curriculum and workplaces, authentic work-
integrated learning is still absent in most programmes in Vietnamese
higher education. There seems to be a low-level commitment to devel-
oping skills and attributes for the world of work across a wide range of
higher education programmes. Where there are attempts to bridge the
gap, the mismatch between the curriculum focus and employers’ needs
has emerged as a challenge. In particular, Tran and Swierczek (2009)
noted, ‘while employers prioritize learning, communication, informa-
tion processing, problem solving, and interpersonal skills, lecturers lay
their focus on decision-making, learning, and information processing
skills to solve problems’ (p. 580).
It has been widely agreed that graduates’ employability should be

regarded as an important mission in curriculum reform for Vietnamese
higher education (Pham and Tran, 2013; Tran, 2013). However, what
constitutes employability in a variety of professional fields in contem-
porary Vietnamese society and what are the implications for developing
employability within specific higher education programmes are areas
that require significant research and investment.
At the moment, the higher education curriculum is still out of tune
with international currents of knowledge, new developments of knowl-
edge and technologies, world-standard scientific research and social
research. In other words, most Vietnamese institutions have been criti-
cized as being comfortable with an outdated curriculum. They are seen
as lacking the initiative to strive towards working in new and more
flexible ways that address the needs of society and the workplace, and
keep pace with the education reforms that are emerging in the rest
of the world (Hoang, 2008; Valley and Wilkinson, 2008). This is one
of the key dimensions of curriculum crisis facing Vietnamese higher
education.
The highly centralized and controlled tertiary education system and
the lack of autonomy are among the primary factors that hinder
Vietnamese institutions’ flexibility and responsiveness to workplace
needs and learners’ multiple expectations. Vietnam’s current tertiary
education sector is characterized by the inflexible control of the govern-
ment and the central ministry – the Ministry of Education and Training
(MOET) (Hayden and Lam, 2007). MOET still exercises firm control on
the curriculum content and structure. This system appears to deny uni-
versities and institutes the incentive to innovate their teaching and
learning programmes. The centralized and controlled curriculum associ-
ated with the demands of compliance and accountability does not tend
to leave room for institutions’ flexibility and responsiveness to learners’
changing needs, changing economy’s demands and changing workplace
contexts. According to Professor Mai Tro.ng Nhuâ.n (2012), institutions
need to be granted greater autonomy to realize their missions within the
current context. Autonomy is not a privilege. Rather, it is interrelated to
institutions’ capacity to respond to the increasingly changing society
and workplace demands.
The positioning of knowledge and learners through pedagogies

Pedagogies that draw on a comprehensive understanding of learning
theories and how students learn are integral for enhancing students’
learning experiences and outcomes. Behaviourist theory, cognitive
constructivism and social and situated learning theory are the primary
theories of learning often discussed in contemporary scholarly conver-
sations about pedagogy (Stewart, 2012). Despite the changing approach
to university teaching around the world, and the changes in society,
traditional transmission pedagogy still dominates Vietnamese tertiary
education. This approach is intertwined with teacher-centred pedagogy
and practice of spoon-feeding students. Transmission pedagogy shaped
by the Confucian tradition constructs students as passive recipients
of knowledge and teachers as transmitters of knowledge, as opposed
to facilitators of learning and nurturers of creative and transformative
learning. In this sense, transmission pedagogy also shares a common
feature with behaviourist theory in that the teacher is positioned as the
controller of the learning environment.
In accordance with the Confucian tradition, knowledge imparted
by the teacher and from the textbook has been commonly viewed as
incontestable and rigid and students are conditioned to passively accept
knowledge rather than being provided with opportunities to creatively
and critically engage with knowledge. In other words, this approach
appears to prioritize facts over interpretation and reflection (Stewart,
2012). As a result, most students may possess ‘hidden’ ability but are
not educated and encouraged to think creatively outside the box and
respond flexibly to emerging challenges of today’s society. Importantly,
this situation has led to a reality in higher education where many stu-
dents draw on a coping strategy to go through ‘university daze’, and
study without intellectual stimulation, aiming merely to pass exami-
nations and finally graduate. Sometimes learning occurs more through
part-time work, on the Internet and through other forms of engagement
with the outside world rather than in the classroom.
The philosophy underpinning traditional transmission pedagogy
appears to stem from a variety of factors. Confucian educational ide-
ology shaping pedagogy has given rise to providing the teacher the
highest possible respect and authority in the classroom (Nguyen, 1989;
Tran, 1999) and the respect for textbooks that traditionally embody
classic knowledge and wisdom accumulated and transmitted through
generations. Knowledge accumulated from such sources as textbooks
and teachers are often assumed to have a high degree of reliability and
validity, thereby worth being appreciated and reproduced. Transmis-
sion pedagogy also appears to be influenced by Taoism. In the light of
Taoism, maintaining harmony rather than challenging or questioning
knowledge transmitted from teachers and textbooks is fundamental in
the learning process. Noticeably, curriculum and pedagogy innovations
in different parts of the world have recognized the value of the social
and situated learning principle, which emphasizes how learning is medi-
ated through learners’ social engagement and active participation in
distinct contexts (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Vygotsky, 1978). Yet, knowl-
edge transmission and reproduction are still among the dominant
approaches to constructing knowledge in Vietnamese higher education.
Therefore, the Confucian tradition with regard to respect for teachers
and knowledge and aspiration for intellectual enrichment needs to be
flexibly nurtured and wedded with other pedagogical approaches suit-
able for the contemporary Vietnamese educational context, in order to
optimize the learning experiences of students.
Current assessment practice

The current assessment practice in Vietnamese higher education focuses
on assessing teaching and curriculum content, rather than utilizing
assessment as a means to enhance student learning. The examination-
driven system at the tertiary education level has created the need to
draw on the reproduction of the content being transferred and at the
same time conditioned students to be strategic to cope with assessment
pressure.
There are several critical issues facing educational assessment in
Vietnam. Firstly, assessment tasks are often designed to test students’
knowledge as demonstrated through their ability to memorize rather
than their capacity to apply knowledge in specific situations or to
solve problems (Nguyen, 2012). A second associated problem is that
assessment primarily focuses on evaluating the content of teaching and
learning rather than skills or attributes developed during the process
of learning. Noticeably, recent years in educational practice around the
world have witnessed the shift from the positioning of assessment as
merely a ‘measurement of the outcomes of learning’ to the view that
assessment is an ‘integral part of learning’ (Brown and Race, 2012, p. 74).
Yet assessment in Vietnamese higher education is still geared towards
outcome-based measurement rather than assessment for learning. The
issues of how assessment is used to orient and engage students in pro-
ductive learning and how students are encouraged to act on feedback
and actively improve future learning (Brown and Race, 2012) have not
yet been prioritized in assessment practice. Furthermore, as assessment
drives learning, the lack of flexibility and variety regarding the modes
of assessment in higher education has had negative implications on
teaching and learning.
Recent developments in curriculum and pedagogy in

Vietnamese higher education
Changes associated with the national and global employment market,

and increased awareness of curriculum developments from different
parts of the world, have led to growing demands for Vietnamese higher
education to shift towards a more student-centred approach (Pham,
2011) and a more responsive curriculum (Thủ tướng chính phủ [Prime
Minister], 2012c). In fact, even though there was initial discussion
and initiatives were introduced in the early 1990s to promote active
learning, critical and creative thinking and learner-centred curriculum
(Le, 2010b), the pace of change remains slow. This is partly due to
the absence of a transparent, coherent and systemic support structure
and guidance for translating and contextualizing the implications of
student-centred reforms into specific programmes.
The past couple of years have seen MOET’s determination in gradually
moving away from mere rote and passive learning and promoting cre-
ative learning and critical thinking. The high-stake university entrance
examinations over the past two years have included several key tasks
that required candidates to demonstrate critical and creative thinking.
In many cases, national examinations also require students to draw on
their life experiences and different sources of knowledge other than for-
mal knowledge solely from the teacher in order to successfully complete
the tasks. Once this tendency is encouraged in national examinations,
it will hopefully lead to a push for making changes to teaching and
learning approaches and curriculum design.
Another crucial change that has dramatically affected the Vietnamese
tertiary education sector in recent years is the gradual move from the
academic year training system to the credit-based system. This move has
been regarded as an important step towards a more flexible and respon-
sive curriculum. All universities and colleges are expected to complete
the shift by the year 2015 (Thủ tướng chính phủ [Prime Minister], 2012).
The credit-based mode is characterized by a structure which adminis-
ters an educational programme by attaching credits to its components
(Le, 2010, p. 2). A credit-based curriculum is defined as consisting of
core subjects and electives that constitute academic majors (Mason
et al., 2001). This new educational mode provides students with more
autonomy, practicality and flexibility but at the same time requires stu-
dents to take greater responsibility for their own learning pathways (Le,
2010b). In other words, the shift from the academic year system to the
credit-based system is going hand in hand with the re-envisioning of

students as being more flexible, practical and responsive.
Nevertheless, there are many problems arising from the imple-
mentation of the credit-based model. These include improperly structu-
red curricula, issues related to teacher professional development and
quality assurance, insufficient feedback from learners and employers,
insufficient research on innovative pedagogies, lack of guiding docu-
ments from MOET and limited resources and facilities (Le, 2010a; Thai,
2005).
In the past three years, the government has also attached a high
priority to education reform designed to develop a more responsive
curriculum, which is concerned with bridging the gap between train-
ing and social and market needs. The reform focuses on developing
graduate employability and responding to social demands (Thủ tướng
chính phủ [Prime Minister], 2012). Effort to integrate authentic mate-
rials into teaching and learning, authentic work-integrated learning,
practicum and work placements have featured in some higher education
programmes. Yet this initiative has not been consistently implemented
and it varies across different departments and institutions depending on
various external factors. In short, a more responsive and learner-centred
pedagogy and curriculum has been put forward with the aim of more
effectively catering to students’ learning needs and to their professional
and personal aspirations, and for better responding to the changing
demands of the labour markets.
More recently, in response to a growing demand to catch up with the
region and the world, MOET initiated the pilot project for ‘advanced
programmes’ with nine universities in 2006 and officially implemented
the project with a greater number of universities in different parts of the
country in 2008 (Bô. Giáo du.c và Đào ta.o [Ministry of Education and
Training], 2008a). The primary objective of this project is to develop
advanced programmes in some disciplines at some selected Vietnamese
universities in accordance with world standards and accordingly to
ensure that the quality of teaching and learning is internationally and
regionally recognized (Bô. Giáo du.c và Đào ta.o [Ministry of Education
and Training], 2008a, p. 2). These advanced programmes have been
designed based on importing the curriculum from prestigious universi-
ties ranked in the top 200 universities of the world. Specifically, aspects
of curriculum content, pedagogy, structure and educational manage-
ment have been entirely borrowed from partner foreign universities
(Nguyen, 2009a) and English is the medium of instruction for these
advanced programmes.
However, there are a couple of critical issues regarding these advanced

programmes that need significant research and investment to ensure
their missions are effectively realized. There is obviously no one formula
that fits all, so research is needed to gain further understanding of how
these foreign-born programmes have been tailored to suit Vietnam’s
current economic development and contemporary society. How is the
effectiveness of these programmes evaluated in relation to developing
graduate capacity for Vietnam, the region and the world? How are
teachers engaged in professional learning to prepare for teaching in
these advanced programmes? Teacher professional development is thus
another crucial factor that requires significant research and support at
both the policy and practice levels.
Implications for reformed curriculum

and pedagogy
Professor Hoàng Tu.y (2011) argues that current tertiary curriculum

is detached from social realities and changes. The curriculum, argues
Professor Hoàng Tu.y, tends to be inward looking rather than cor-
responding to the fast-changing world and the sweeping effects of
globalization. Taking the scholar’s argument further, we emphasize that
a reformed curriculum should be both inward and outward looking
so as to produce practical, flexible and mobile graduates and knowl-
edge. Akin to the journey of self-understanding of a human being, an
inward-looking curriculum instils an inside-out perspective to promote
an understanding of the curriculum’s core values. An outward-looking
reformed curriculum valorizes these core values within the wider con-
text of globalization that is conditioned by fast-paced changes which
force the curriculum to be proactive to and thus efficiently responsive
to such context.
A reformed curriculum takes us back to the central theme of this book
by asking two-tier deliberative questions. At the first level lie the strate-
gic, philosophical questions relating to cost-efficiency and specifications
of the intended outcomes. The second level engages those specific
tactics linked to the pragmatics of the curriculum in situ concerning
the appropriate pedagogy, the content subjects inclusive of elective
and selective ones, flexible modes of delivery, testing and assessment
and so on. To answer these questions requires conventional practices
of thought to be set aside. A lucid relationship among knowledge,
learner and teacher must be developed and repositioned in a novel
equation.
Typologies of knowledge
There are three aspects of knowledge that must be covered. First is
the core knowledge useful for further education and training – that
is, disciplinary knowledge, information and technological knowledge
and knowledge and language capacities as a strategic weapon primarily
to prepare for the national workforce and national capacity building.
At the same time, such knowledge must be meaningful and practi-
cal to develop graduates into not only the local but also the global
mobile workforce. Second is the knowledge of various cultures (inter-
cultural knowledge and competences), which allows the students to
advance their communicative skills. The United States and Singapore
are exemplary in requiring such knowledge and skills to be acquired
by their citizens. The former aims to well equip college students with
intercultural knowledge (National Panel Report, 2002) while the lat-
ter universalizes these aims in their national, standardized curriculum
(External Review Team, 1997; Singapore Ministry of Education, 1997).
Last is knowledge of the self in which the student has a clear under-
standing of himself/herself and whose agency is strong towards self-
determination and self-direction with regard to their own learning and
life (see Chapter 5). Such knowledge of the self is unfortunately miss-
ing in the neo-liberal education agenda and in Vietnam per se (Pham,
2011b).
Sustaining core values

A reformed curriculum should not negate the existing curriculum. Fur-
ther, education reforms levitated by the simple-minded supply–demand
market principle may well have unforeseeable consequences. Arguably,
higher education reforms must build on the existing core values. These
values can be a manifestation of the merits of Confucian traditions and
are associated with a strong desire for knowledge enhancement, self-
development and moral awareness and cultural responsiveness to the
particularities of Vietnam and its hidden connectivity with global forces.
A foreign-imported curriculum, for example, the advanced programme,
which does not draw on creative and flexible localization and which
undermines the core values discussed here, may generate problems. At
the same time, curricula are often customized within Vietnam. (This
area needs further research, to assess the balance between instances of
foreign curricula imposed on local tradition and thought and instances
of adaptation and nuancing for local tradition and needs. See also
Chapter 7).
The reformed curriculum should not eliminate the centuries-old

impetus of knowledge in national and individual capacity building
(Pham, 2012; Pham et al., 2006). Consider strong nations such as
Singapore, Korea, China and Japan whose Confucian values have been
strongly and creatively sustained while being selectively incorporated
with Western scientific and technological advancements. These nations
have not only enhanced their education quality but also gained great
currency in the global hierarchy of university rankings (Marginson,
2011). In short, Confucian values must be a consistent part of the core
values of reformed education, although they must be blended appropri-
ately with Western-imported curriculum. In other words, the reformed
curriculum must have the identity label of ‘made in Vietnam’.
Empowering students
A responsive and flexible curriculum is fundamental to facilitating the
development of responsive and flexible students who are capable of tak-
ing on the new roles associated with changes in society and community.
Understanding and keeping up with new developments in the regional
and international curricula is integral to building a responsive curricu-
lum which prepares students to be part of a more adaptive workforce
and enables them to practise a more flexible form of citizenship within
the community and the nation.
Therefore curriculum reforms have to prioritize learning processes.
Instead of rigidly adhering to the traditional mode of teacher-centred
delivery, the new curriculum ought to create a joint concert of the tradi-
tional teacher centeredness and the student-centred approach (Benson,
2007; Le, 2004; Le and Barnard, 2009; Little, 1991, 1995). There must
be a radical shift in the teaching and learning approach in which
the teacher should shrink dramatically, but not completely abandon
his/her space. This should make larger room for student’s self-study and
self-acquisition of knowledge.
A viable way of realizing this teacher–student power shift is to
empower students to take control of their own learning, to self-pace
it, to identify their learning needs and to move their self-transformation
forward. Accordingly, curriculum reforms must recognize a new set of
identities attached to students. Students are encouraged to subscribe
to a set of novel identities in which they yearn to be self-determined
and self-informed and self-directed (Nguyen, 2005, 2008). Also, they are
responsible for implementing their own learning, subsequently accu-
mulating knowledge and skills and engaging with creativity, innovation
and critical thinking. In so doing, along with the impetus given by
teacher facilitation, students become their own agents in the learning

process. Such shift is likely to generate more currency for education
quality and put less weight on quantity of knowledge, just as the Pres-
ident of Singapore Lee Kwan Yue famously stated in his 1997 slogan
‘Teach Less, Learn More’ (Ng, 2008).
As more emphasis is now placed on the student’s journey of self-
learning, the syllabus design needs to catch up with this by being
amended appropriately. The existing content load, overburdened by
irrelevant and indoctrinating subjects, should be either completely
removed or simplified. Teaching contact hours, which have been
reduced in response to the implementation of the credit-based system
in universities and colleges, should be further reallocated to allow for
more self-study hours and increase the extent of student consultation
(McCarty and Fink, 2001). In addition, the burden of subject knowl-
edge should be stripped back to core knowledge, while the curriculum is
opened up for knowledge co-construction that comes from the students
themselves.
Enhancing teacher professional development

Moving towards a more responsive and flexible learner-centred cur-
riculum is a holistic process in which teachers and their professional
development play an integral role. Many higher education teachers
are willing to engage in professional learning by stepping beyond
their comfort zone to re-examine the beliefs and values shaping their
pedagogic practice and undertaking innovations whenever conditions
permit. They want to fine-tune their pedagogy. These teachers know
they need to diversify teaching and learning materials, to creatively
draw on resources and facilities available and to enrich the teaching
and learning content (Le, 2007a, 2007b; Le and Barnard, 2009). How-
ever a number of questions remain unsolved. These include how to
sustain teacher commitment to constantly making changes and adap-
tations to curriculum and pedagogy (within the limited autonomy they
are afforded); how to build a transparent, coherent and systemic support
structure and guidance; how to exemplify and learn from good practices
in curriculum and pedagogy innovations; how to develop a commu-
nity of practice that can lead to reforms at a deeper, more sustainable
and comprehensive scale; how to offer incentives for teachers who
demonstrate commitment to undertaking innovations.
Meanwhile, teacher identity is shifting from being a knowledge trans-
mitter to being a facilitator. To smooth this shift calls for incessant,
vigorous strategies. Teachers should equip themselves with not only
disciplinary knowledge but also pedagogical knowledge. Viewed this

way, education is no longer viable as an isolated teaching sojourn.
Knowledge is essentially co-constructed by teachers and students.
At best this enables both the nurturing of creativity and the capacity for
innovation. Both teachers and students must become their own agent
of change.
Maintaining curricula consistencies at all levels

Coherence and cohesion of curricula must be reciprocally maintained at
all levels of the national education system (Hoang, 2004, 2009). Some
important elements of higher education curricula must be introduced
right from secondary education, such as problem solving, communica-
tion skills and vocational education. In the United States, there is a clear
linkage between schools and colleges (National Panel Report, 2002).
In Singapore, ‘Thinking School, Learning Nation’1 was implemented
by the Prime Minister in June 1997. It focuses on developing all stu-
dents into active learners with critical thinking skills and on sustaining
a creative, critical thinking culture within schools.
Diversifying teaching delivery modes

Globalization in education has activated new dimensions of learn-
ing. The attendance in situ of the online/distance learning mode
together with the traditional brick-and-mortar environment, or a blend
of the two, challenges curriculum reformers to incorporate these new
dimensions. The curriculum is, therefore, required to mobilize the pro-
grammes, the students and the professional staff and other relating
resources at a greater level than before (McCarty and Fink, 2001).
For instance, the application of information and communication
technology (ICT) in education, being no longer a novel phenomenon
in developed countries, has contributed to the reallocation of face-to-
face teaching delivery methods and therefore dramatically reduced class
contact hours, allowing teachers more time and space to accommo-
date individualized support and consultation for their students. Teachers
become more autonomous and self-paced in their teaching deliveries
and related services to improve teaching and learning.
The new curriculum must embrace flexible learning and teaching
modes and correspondingly design a more efficient and practical testing
and assessment system. It should be open to more online discussions
and lectures and even adjust testing and assessment methods so as
to create more incentives for students’ personal discoveries of knowl-
edge, their continual development and their self-regulation in learning.
Teaching delivery does not have to occur in the physical class conditions
and learning does not always have to count on students’ physical atten-
dance. A combination of virtual and physical teaching delivery modes
is necessary.
Work-integrated learning
In view of the fact that some graduates are deficient in work skills and
generic skills,2 which results in 60 per cent of these graduates need-
ing retraining, curriculum reforms must be more market-friendly.3 This
means that curriculum reform should draw on work-integrated training.
Work-integrated learning is central to the development of professional
knowledge, skill acquisition and application (Garnett, 2012). Within
the context of Vietnam, work-integrated learning can be promoted in
the form of field trips, internships, work-based learning projects and
work placements assessed by workplace mentors or lecturers (Pham and
Tran, 2013). Curriculum reform should engender increasing opportu-
nities for students to gain industrial exposure imperative to their future
work in ways that ensure that blended work placement is bilaterally ben-
eficial for all stakeholders including university students and employers.
It is crucial that not only the higher education system but also family,
employers, the community and other stakeholders acknowledge recent
changes in society and share the responsibility for supporting graduates
in enhancing their employability (Tran, 2013) and, at the same time,
facilitate graduates’ transition to work.
In addition to increasing industrial engagement, the reformed
curriculum needs to increase its contribution to wider community
development in several ways, including practicum, internship, a more
appropriate theory–practice ratio, with more weight being given to job-
related training within a specialized subject. This in turn would encour-
age students to be more proactive about their career pathway, well in
advance. This is easier said than done. For realizing this ambition, more
resources must be allocated to institutions, especially investment in
infrastructure, job-related services and professional development. Other
initiatives such as alumni engagement, networked career opportuni-
ties and employment advisory capability can be effective in developing
work-connected learning forms that will enhance students’ understand-
ing and their links to their future profession and workplace (Pham and
Tran, 2013).
Another suggestion is for the university to set up a basic guid-
ing framework for the subject-specific syllabus, which specifies work
skills and generic skills, meanwhile raising wider social awareness of
the potency of work placement because of its present significance in

contributing to national capacity building and social development.
Empowering universities and colleges

Centralized power in the design and implication of tertiary education
must be dissembled to create a standardized curriculum, by granting
more autonomy for higher education institutions, not in financial mat-
ters but in curriculum design. Levels of autonomy and empowerment
must be grounded in understanding of the actual needs of the labour
market, leading to appropriate amendments to the curriculum.
Conclusions
This review of curriculum and pedagogy in Vietnamese higher educa-

tion has revealed five crucial paradoxes that need to be addressed when
implementing reforms. The first paradox, on the one hand, is that the
curriculum positions knowledge as being fixed and contestable. On the
other hand, in reality, knowledge itself is neither fixed nor stable, but
fluid, evolving and always changing in response to new discoveries and
emerging needs.
The second paradox is related to the priority of the curriculum and
real-world demands. Society and the workplace require not only knowl-
edge but, equally importantly, graduates’ capacity to apply knowledge in
practical and situated settings. Yet, the present higher education curricu-
lum is laden with pure disciplinary theories and political indoctrination
and places insufficient emphasis on the dimension of practice. The cur-
riculum, pedagogy and assessment should be designed in a manner that
prioritizes not only the enhancement of disciplinary knowledge but also
the development of students’ ability to apply knowledge and theories in
real-life and work situations.
The third paradox is that the curriculum, pedagogy and assessment
position the teacher as the transmitter of knowledge, while the real
world requires the teacher to be the facilitator of learning, the nur-
turer of creative thinking, who can help students develop their skills
and attributes rather than just their knowledge.
The problem of the positioning of the teacher goes hand in hand with
the fourth paradox, which is the positioning of learners. The curriculum
constructs learners as passive recipients of knowledge, but the world
of work and modern society want graduates to be generators of con-
tent, collaborators in solving real-world problems, and co-constructors
of knowledge. Today’s society and workplace require graduates to have
the capacity to search for new knowledge and techniques needed for
their profession, flexibly navigate both theoretical and practical knowl-
edge in different professional contexts, and respond to change as they
occur. Instead of being centred on knowledge reproduction, the cur-
riculum should engage students in learning how to learn and prepare
graduates whose core intellectual foundations are strong enough for
them to take up new branches of knowledge later in life after they leave
university. This suggests the need for a pedagogy that promotes deep,
creative and flexible learning as opposed to rote learning and surface
learning. To respond to emergent demands, the curriculum, pedagogy
and assessment need to position learners as active, practical, flexible and
creative agents.
Finally, there is a conflict between the demands of compliance and
accountability within the examination-driven system and the notions
of a responsive and learner-centred pedagogy and curriculum. Students’
creative thinking and critical reflection, which are at the heart of a
responsive, flexible and learner-centred education, are compromised by
the pressure on teachers to prepare students in passing examinations
and tests. Surface and rote learning are necessarily used by students as a
coping strategy to survive examinations.
To address these paradoxes requires a re-envisioning of the charac-
teristics of learners. They should be flexible, responsive and practical
graduates. This should go with the reconceptualization of knowledge
within the curriculum as flexible, responsive and practical. Such a
re-conceptualization of the learner and knowledge in curriculum and
pedagogy should draw flexibly on the Vietnamese tradition in edu-
cation, which has been closely shaped by Confucian values, patriotic
heritage and the political history of the country. At the same time, it
should take into account the developments in contemporary Vietnam
and the world. It is not a choice between the tradition of the nation and
modernization. It is a blend of both.
Notes
1. Its key strategies include (1) the explicit teaching of critical and creative think-
ing skills; (2) the reduction of subject content; (3) the revision of assessment
modes and (4) a greater emphasis on processes instead of on outcomes when
appraising schools.
2. It is interesting to contextualize these attributes in a larger socio-economic
milieu. In an online public dialogue, Human Resource Development for the
Future of Vietnam chaired by Vietnamnet and the World Bank, with repre-
sentatives from a number of Vietnamese universities and colleagues, invited
World Bank experts indicated prerequisites that enterprises expected from

their potential employees but Vietnamese graduates largely lacked: criti-
cal thinking, communication skills, problem-solving skills and team work.
(See What employers expect from the human resource? http://vietnamnet.vn/
vn/giao-duc/96528/doanh-nghiep-can-ki-nang-gi-o-nguon-nhan-luc-.html as
of 10 November 2012)
3. The National Committee for Education and Training to Meet Social
Demands Period 2008–2015 is founded under Decree No. 1320/QĐ.-TTg (The
Prime Minister Department (2008)). Quyết đi.nh số 1230/QĐ-TTg. Hanoi,
Vietnamese Government. Its aim is to assist the Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan
Dung, in regulating and supervising education and training activities to meet
market demands and in training high-quality human resources for social
economic development of the country.
5
The Student Self
Nhài Thi. Nguyễn and Lý Thi. Trần
Introduction
In Vietnam the spread of globalization and the growth of Vietnam’s

economy since the Vietnam Communist Party introduced Đổi Mới [Eco-
nomic Reform] in 1986 have had both positive and negative impacts
on the country as a whole. While considerable economic growth has
brought back prosperity for the nation and significantly improved the
living standards of its people, the side effects are evidenced in subse-
quent fragmentations of the Vietnamese education system at both the
macro and micro levels.
At the macro level, it is alarming that Vietnamese education, on
encountering globalizing forces and the pressing need for marketization
in education, has been thrown into crisis. There are widespread con-
cerns about the poor quality of tertiary education, the mismatch
between the curriculum and the labour market and the intrusion of
marketization into education. As a result, the whole system has been
placed under accumulative fragmentation. Universities have been strug-
gling to restructure the higher education system and improve quality
by redefining graduate attributes in order to produce more practical and
flexible graduates for the market economy and to gain better market
standing (see Chapter 1).
At the micro level, students, the central agents of Vietnamese tertiary
education, have been wrestling with their deficient professional and
generic skills and knowledge. Graduates have been pushed into a nar-
row path towards the labour market after graduation. Many of them
encounter difficulties in securing an appropriate job after graduation
and lose their confidence with the qualifications they have earned at
university.1
108
Nhài Thi. Nguyễn and Lý Thi. Trần 109
Since 1987, when the first meeting of university leaders was held to
discuss education reforms in Vietnam, the crisis in education has been
much discussed, with constant new governmental and ministerial edu-
cation policies. The outcomes of these ministerial and governmental
reforms are controversial and subject to scrutiny.
The purpose of this chapter is to propose an alternative approach
to incorporating the student self into considerations of tertiary cur-
riculum and pedagogy and into tertiary education reforms in Vietnam.
We acknowledge the current debate concerning self-engagement in edu-
cation and, particularly, we align our argument with that of Professor
Pha.m Minh Ha.c, who, as the ex-minister of the Ministry of Education
and Training (MOET) and an influential scholar, has contributed enor-
mously to the country’s education reforms. The scholar’s main concern
is with the development of a system of self-values in the student which,
he argues, is the epicentre of Vietnamese education reforms at all levels:
primary, secondary and tertiary. We contextualize our analysis within
Vietnamese tertiary education reforms. While supporting the scholar’s
proposal about self-values, we extend his argument and suggest that the
purpose of education reforms is to develop a system of self-values in
flexible, practical and mobile learners. On this basis, we reposition the
student self in our education paradigm.
Our central argument is that reforms in education can be successful
only if the pivotal role of self, firmly anchored in educational phi-
losophy and practice, is nurtured so as to maximize the capacity for
self-cultivation and subsequently self-transformation for flexible, prac-
tical and mobile graduates. The ideas of human self and agency are
understood in the contexts of globalization and Vietnamese culture.
The heart of education reforms is to function and necessarily inform
the shaping of the self-value system – the core of a full person.
The overarching questions we address in this chapter are as follows:
• Who is a tertiary educated person within the current context of

Vietnam and in response to the global age?
• In what ways can the student’s self be engaged in Vietnamese tertiary
education?
We begin with a brief discussion of the theoretical framework under-

pinning the notion of self in educational philosophy. We then pro-
vide an analogue with the notion of self and identities leading to
the main part of the chapter where we reveal our arguments with a
detailed outlay of how the self can be integrated into education reforms.
110 The Student Self
Finally, we discuss implications for the implementation of education

reforms.
Conceptualizing self and identity

Generally, individual identity is defined by answering three fundamen-
tal questions: what makes a person, how that person views and relates to
himself/herself and the world and why, as a result, he/she is this person
and not anyone else (Parekh, 2009). Identity is used to talk about spe-
cific people and their self-representation (self is used for this purpose)
and the self and identity affiliation seem to imply that in most cases our
identity draws meaning from ‘ourselves’.
The self is better understood in terms of self-definition, the beliefs and
values in terms of which a person defines or identifies himself/herself
as a certain kind of person (Parekh, 2009). It constitutes their percep-
tion of themselves or their fundamental orientation and offers a frame
within which they view themselves and the world. Self-definition, like a
compass, guides a person’s morality and intellectuality and encourages
them to live up to its demands. Parekh maintains that self-definition
cultivates self-understanding and self-reflection, which do not occur in
a social vacuum. They have their seeds in one’s past influences, and ide-
als of life, and in the thought processes available in society. They are also
affected by the immediate environment, and in it one’s intellectual and
moral resources, one’s fears and hopes for the future, one’s position in
society and one’s silent and vocal and planned and unplanned dialogue
with significant others (Parekh, 2009, pp. 268–269).
Following Lawrence Grossberg (1996) and Stuart Hall (1996), we argue
that identity, in the broadest sense of the term, is the product of not
only the person themselves, but also spatiality and temporality. The
production of self, which Hall identifies as multiple-way identifica-
tion, addresses a more complex set of questions. The scholar refers to
identity as:
the meeting point, the point of suture, between on the one hand the
discourses and practices which attempt to ‘interpellate’, speak to us
or hail us into a place as the social subjects of particular discourses,
and on the other hand, the processes of which produce subjectivities,
which construct us as subjects which can be ‘spoken’.
(Hall, 1996, pp. 5–6)
On placing identity in the tide of spatiality, temporality and self-

production, we argue that the politics of self and identity are to be
understood in the broad context of global forces and local contexts

(in this case Vietnam and its tertiary education). As Grossberg (1996,
p. 98) argues, we increasingly feel the task to:
locate the ‘machinery’ by which each of these planes of identification

and belonging is produced and subsequently articulated into struc-
tures of individuality, including bodies. Such machinery describes the
nature of human subjectivity, identity and agency as technologically
produced relations which impose a particular organization and a par-
ticular conduct on the specific multiplicities operating on different
planes of effects.
When considering the notion of Vietnamese student self and identity in

the context of Vietnamese tertiary education reforms, we have to situate
these notions in three vectors of global and local forces, including the
vector of global mobility and integration, the vector of practicality and
the vector of flexibility.
For the dimension of diversity, the increasing interdependence of
nations, notably in postcolonial countries like Vietnam, has resulted in
a global network and the rapidly increased mobility of the population.
Global mobility and global integration are evidenced by the flows of
immigration interprovincially, nationally, regionally and globally and
the migration of different cultures into the lands of native people, as
well as the miraculous advancement in science and technology. On this
point, Marr (2000) remarks on demographic changes in Vietnam since
the 1990s:
The trend in the 1990s has been towards diversity and freedom of
choice, certainly in comparison with the Stalinist command and con-
trol environment of earlier decades. In particular, young men and
women are departing the village, loosening family ties, choosing
their own occupations, and joining voluntary associations to a degree
that would have been unthinkable only ten years ago. How persons
in these uncharted waters proceed to look upon themselves is one of
the important questions for the twenty-first century.
(Marr, 2000, pp. 795–796)
These significant changes have exerted profound effects in the mindset

of the Vietnamese population. Different selves and thereby differ-
ent identities, inclusive of both traditional and modern selves, have
emerged out of this trend of mobility. Education reforms have to
incorporate these important changes into their agenda. Second, the

vector of practicality indicates the extent to which the practicality of
education reforms is to embrace the student’s self, which we identify as
the epicentre of human agency and the capacity for self-directedness.
We need to investigate in depth the question, ‘what makes a tertiary
education person?’ For the vector of flexibility, we acknowledge the
overlap between practicality and flexibility (see Chapter 1).
Dimensions of self
The notion of self is glued to the allied concept of subjectivity which

refers to the subject’s idea of who they are, as their particular way of
making sense of themselves and the social world, with stress on the
internal self (Woodward, 1997a, 1997b). In his discussion on subjec-
tivity and self, Foucault (1988a, 1988b) argues that the constitution of
the subject is grounded in the self to form subjectivity. Through self-
control or self-discipline the subject builds a robust self and fashions
himself/herself to become the kind of people that person wants to, an
act that Foucault termed as ‘an exercise of self upon self by which one
tries to work out, to transform one’s self and to attain a certain mode of
being’ (1988a, p. 2).
For Parekh (2009), the self is formed by two essential dimensions,
different but interrelated. In the first dimension, human beings are indi-
viduals with a distinct centre of self-consciousness, an indispensable
inner life and a distinct sense of selfhood or subjectivity, named as per-
sonal identity. However, a person could never split himself/herself from
his/her social life and confine himself/herself to inner life only. Rather,
he/she finds it vital to extend the inner life to the second dimension, the
outer world, forming and transforming himself/herself through social
interactions with diverse others or groups. People become socially tied as
members of different ethnic, religious, cultural, occupational, national
and other groups. They are related to one another in myriad formal and
informal ways which constitute their multiple social identities or multi-
plicities (p. 268). Individual identity is constituted by personal identity,
which relies on self-definition (self-understanding and self-reflection),
and also submission to multiple groups and subgroups, without which
personal identity can hardly find the meanings of its existence.
The self in Confucian perspective

The self in Confucian perspective is considered a point of departure.
A thorough realization of the self departs from the ability to understand
oneself or ‘knowledge of the self’ (echoing the Platonian notion of

‘know thyself’). Remarkably, knowledge of the self in the spirit of
Confucianism implies a ‘realization of human possibility of “intellec-
tual intuition” ’ (Tu, 1985 p. 20). In Vietnamese culture, it is manifest by
´
a proverb: ‘Biết mình biết ta, trăm trâ.n trăm thăng’ [Know yourself and
know your competitors, you defeat all].
Self-knowledge returns to one’s true nature for what Tu Wei-Ming
terms as the ‘inner sageliness’. This real nature is not simply the
state of ‘being known’. Rather, it embraces the activity of self -creation
and self-directedness. However, to emphasize self-knowledge does not
mean a person does not draw on empirical knowledge. Confucian
self-knowledge is ‘either mutually contradictory or mutually comple-
mentary’ to the empirical knowledge, while appreciating the supreme
value of self-knowledge. This type of knowledge also ties its concrete
experience of self to ‘the finite, historical, and culturally specific to
the exclusion of the infinite, trans-historical, and universal’ (Tu, 1985,
p. 10). ‘Learning to be human’ essentially engages a true understanding
of ‘the creative tension between our earthly embedded and our great
potential for self-transcendence,’ states Tu.
Marr, in his discussion of the Vietnamese notion of self, indicates:
most Vietnamese do not receive with equanimity the proposition,

routinely advanced in western self-help manuals, that self-confidence
and self-esteem is achieved by selfishly putting oneself ahead of
others at least some of the time, carving out and defending some
personal space separate from spouse, parents, children or friends. The
idea of each individual struggling for his/her place in the sun remains
disturbing. Instead, one is expected to seek creative harmony with
people around, with nature, and with the universe. It is accepted,
nonetheless, that a person lacking self-respect is unlikely to respect
others.
(Marr, 2000, pp. 795–796)
Apart from the notion of self attached to self-understanding, the self

is configured as the essential ‘imagining self’ in coherence with ‘con-
sistent, rational, ordered thought’ as ‘the conscious life opposed to the
unconscious life’ (Byatt, 1987, p. 25). It is placed at the centre of all
human relationships and their environment. The self is comprehended
as the metaphoric knot which ties all the things around us together;
the genetic code, the language we speak, the national history, the food
we eat, the constraints upon us (implicitly referred as power) and the
people around us. If we have no physical sense of self, this knot is seen
as vulnerable (p. 26).
The Confucian self appraises the social aspects of selfhood to become
the principal ethics. Tu comments: ‘Confucian perspective, they are also
realms of selfhood that symbolize the authentic human possibility for
ethico-religious growth’ (Tu, 1985, p. 58). The act of forming the subject
confines itself not only to the discourse alone but also to what Butler
called ‘mutually constitutive social acts’ (p. 58). Equally, it may be mis-
taken to claim that personal dignity, self independence and autonomy
are not Confucian deep-rooted values, warns Tu (p. 12). The Confucian
self, on recognizing itself as a social being, tends to balance itself in an
array of social interaction with others. Tu observes:
The prevalent view that Confucianism is a form of social ethics which

particularly emphasizes human-relatedness is basically correct, but
it fails to account for the centrality of self-cultivation as an inde-
pendent, autonomous and inner-directed process in the Confucian
tradition. Confucians do maintain that one becomes fully human
through continuous interaction with other human beings, that one’s
dignity as a person depends as much on communal participation
as on one’s own sense of self-respect . . . In fact, the ability of the
Confucian tradition to undergo profound transformation without
losing its spiritual identity lies in its commitment to the inner
resources of humanity.
(Tu, 1985, p. 55)
The Confucian commitment to the inner resources of humanity

(self-knowledge and self-cultivation) that fundamentally lead to self-
transformation house Confucian spiritual identity and the element of
strong agency, confirms Tu. Here we see the emergence of the centring
self in Confucianism.
Singapore and Vietnam

In introducing education reforms on a nationwide scale, the Singapore
government, since independence in 1965, has consistently set two over-
all goals (Popkewitz, 1991; Popkewitz et al., 1982). The primary goal
aims at providing students with a common core of knowledge in order
to equip them with a foundation for further education and training in
a knowledge economy. The secondary goal is to provide students with
a common educational experience essential to build national identity
and cohesion. From fundamental goals, the Singapore government is
able to vocalize its vision: ‘Thinking Schools, Learning Nation’ (The

Singapore Ministry of Education, 1997). This vision is then translated
into the philosophical statement that Prime Minister Lee famously
put as ‘Teach Less, Learn More’, which is regarded as a transformative
teaching and learning philosophy, shifting from quantity to quality –
that is, teaching and learning for ‘less quantity and more quality’ (Ng,
2008).
While Singapore is able to articulate a realistic grounded vision and
practical philosophical statement of its education, Vietnam still seems
to be defining its educational philosophy with a sometimes unrealis-
tic vision of the nation’s education.2 The system tends to ignore the
‘common education experience’, a vital constituent for seeding in our
students a strong sense of national identity and their cohesion with the
wider society (for example, civic/moral education).
In 2001 MOET suggested that education must help Vietnamese
learners obtain scientific and cultural knowledge and facilitate them
in becoming ‘independent thinkers’ imbued with ‘logical reasoning,
abstract thoughts and creative abilities’ (Pham, 2011, p. 214). In addi-
tion, the Vietnam Education Law in 2005 stated that:
the goals of education are to educate the Vietnamese into compre-

hensively developed persons who possess ethics, knowledge, physical
health, aesthetic sense and profession, loyal to the ideology of
national independence and socialism; to shape and cultivate one’s
dignity, civil qualifications and competence, satisfying the demands
of the construction and defence of the Fatherland.
(Vietnam Government, 2005, p. 2)
It is certainly a paradox that the outcomes of Vietnamese education

appear to be focused on political and moral indoctrination, focusing
on, instead of personal development and the betterment of one’s life
and others, meeting the need for the construction and defence of the
Fatherland. The system expects its graduates to be ‘loyal to the ideol-
ogy of national independence and socialism’. Aspects of professional
knowledge and practical skills are mentioned, with specific set of generic
skills required for different categories, ranging from college education,
university education, master’s education and doctoral education.
Further, in terms of linguistic structures, the statement is too con-
densed, with many abstract terminologies strung together within one
sentence, presenting the reader with cloudy understandings and, conse-
quently, lacking clarity and logical interpretation.
Singapore has come up with a more realistic and well-defined idea

of the outcomes for its graduates. In Singapore, the desired outcome of
education is a student who possesses:
a good sense of self-awareness, a sound moral compass, and the nec-

essary skills and knowledge to take on challenges of the future. He is
responsible to his family, community and nation. He appreciates the
beauty of the world around him, possesses a healthy mind and body,
and has a ‘zest for life’.
This model of student is crystallized as follows:
• a confident person who has a strong sense of right and wrong,

is adaptable and resilient, knows himself/herself, is discerning in
judgement, thinks independently and critically, and communicates
effectively;
• a self-directed learner who takes responsibility for his/her own
learning, who questions, reflects and perseveres in the pursuit of
learning;
• an active contributor who is able to work effectively in teams, exer-
cises initiative, takes calculated risks, is innovative and strives for
excellence; and
• a concerned citizen who is rooted to Singapore, has a strong civic
consciousness, is informed and takes an active role in bettering
the lives of others around him (Singapore Ministry of Education,
1997).
The central spirit of Confucianism, with its contextualization and indi-

genization in Singapore, has been successfully translated into education
reforms. Implied in Singapore’s model of a student are outstanding
aspects of self that we interpret, borrowing Confucian terminologies,
as critical, reflexive self, self-directedness and moral self with strong
agency. This suggests the self principally cultivates moral ethics and the
communal self.
Our intention in presenting the Singapore case is very modest.
We do not ambitiously claim that Vietnam’s education reforms should
become a duplicate version of Singapore’s. Rather, taking Singapore as
‘a cross-referencing point’ in the words of Huan-Hsing Chen (2010),
we return to our central argument that proper care and treatment for
the self in Vietnamese tertiary education reforms may offer a viable
alternative way.
Despite having a long-standing cultural system of core values,

and especially Confucian self-cultivation, it seems that Vietnam has
not treated the notion of self appropriately. If ever self-cultivation
has been taken into account, it has been confined to the minority
Vietnamese elites rather than nationwide tendencies. We propose to
reform Vietnamese tertiary education system in ways that education
can nurture and promote a system of self-values among Vietnamese
students, and for all Vietnamese students.
Who is a tertiary educated person?

Returning to the core question, who then is a tertiary educated person?
This question invokes a broad range of interconnected issues of people,
values and education. In responding to the question, we do not mean
to generalize or idealize the tertiary educated person. Instead, we pro-
pose one perspective, among many other possible, to reorient the way
we position our students in the context of globalization and education
reforms in Vietnam.
Initially, a tertiary educated person can locate himself/herself effec-
tively within the paradigm of self and society. Such location has
to begin from the platform of self. Essentially, knowledge of the
self (self-definition) has to be empowered and internalized. Since
self-understanding depends on capacities for self-reflection and self-
understanding, future graduates should constantly reflect upon their
study and their personal development journey. Tertiary education
should generate favourable conditions for the nourishment of the
self-value system. For instance, the Singapore government is keen
to promote self-awareness, together with global awareness and other
competencies, and self-values in its young generation. ‘Knowledge and
skills must be underpinned by values. Values define a person’s char-
acter. They shape the beliefs, attitudes and actions of a person, and
therefore form the core of the framework of 21st century competencies’
(Singapore Ministry of Education, 2012).
Tertiary education should postulate practical experiences in the jour-
ney of self-cultivation in a number of ways. For instance, self-knowledge
should not be taken slightly by equating it with quantifiable knowl-
edge and skills. Graduate students should learn to understand their
strengths and weaknesses while aligning practically to the wider society.
Such a reciprocal movement, between self-understanding and engaging
the self with the wider society, allows students to direct their career
and life project in a more flexible and practical way. Then inner self-
directedness functions as the life compass that helps graduates move
flexibly between self-resources and constantly changing social demands.

However, self-directedness can only maximize its performance when
there is a relatively autonomous and independent self.
Therefore, it is important to incorporate the ‘whole person portfolio’
(Gee, 2002) into our education reforms. Undeniably, acquiring suffi-
cient practical knowledge and skills is imperative for the self-cultivation
of our graduates. As discussed in Chapter 4, the quest for knowledge
is a lifelong enterprise that involves not only the students themselves
and their teachers but also a broad range of stakeholders. However,
knowledge and skills lie in not only its breadth but also its depth.
With the rapid changes in science and technology, a graduate in the
twenty-first century has to accumulate comprehensive (but not lim-
ited to) basic knowledge of information and communication technology
(ICT), through either informal or formal training. Other generic skills are
equally important. Take linguistic competences, communication skills,
critical thinking skills and teamwork as obvious examples.
The whole person portfolio includes not only different dimensions of
knowledge and generic soft skills, but also ‘additional’ capabilities and
experience that are increasingly necessary in the changing Vietnamese
labour markets. These additional capabilities and experiences may
include participation in short courses and workshops, extracurricular
activities, online learning, volunteer work, community-related activi-
ties, professional and social networks, formal and informal work place-
ments and work-integrated learning. Practicality and flexibility are key
attributes that Vietnamese students need to develop.
Other generic skills are equally important (Shannon, 2012; Simon,
2006). Take the obvious examples of linguistic competences, communi-
cation skills, critical thinking skills and teamwork. Research on graduate
employability in Vietnam (Tran, 2010) indicates that the nation’s grad-
uates are disadvantaged in the labour market and fall short of employer
expectations because of the lack of this generic skills set. Anthony Welch
(2010) also expresses his concern over the low quality of Vietnamese
graduates. This is evidenced by the fact that Vietnamese graduates
appear to be ‘deaf and dumb’ in English communication and fail to work
efficiently in teams. Many appear to be ‘bookworms’, lack critical think-
ing skills and need retraining. Arguably, the problems lie in the outdated
curriculum, poor teaching quality, the overload of content, theoretically
based knowledge and the disengagement with practical job skills, soft
skills and life skills3 (Tran, 2010; see also Chapter 4).
A survey carried out by the Centre for Policy Studies, College of Social
Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University4 (VTCNews,
2011), found that the percentage of university graduates who are
unemployed is rising. Between 2009 and 2010, in a total of 3000 par-

ticipants, 58.2 per cent had no idea what job they might apply for
and 27 per cent reported that they could not even find a relevant job
because their study mismatched the needs of the labour market. Mean-
while, 26.2 per cent were unemployed; and 46.5 per cent indicated their
applications were unsuccessful. Also, 42.9 per cent opted for postgrad-
uate studies as an escape from unemployment. For those lucky enough
to secure a job, 61 per cent lacked the necessary job skills, 42 per cent
were deficient in work experience and 32 per cent lacked specialized
knowledge.
In another research project jointly conducted by the World Bank and
the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), Ministry of
Planning and Investment, it was reported that among 350 enterprises in
Hà Nô.i, Hồ Chí Minh City and other provinces, 60 per cent of foreign
employers were dissatisfied with the quality of graduates, saying that
the current standard of the labour force presents them with obstacles,
while 30 per cent of them considered this a barrier to their organiza-
tion’s development. These percentages for local Vietnamese enterprises
are 40 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively (Vietnamnet, 2012).
Global labour markets are becoming extremely competitive, mobile
and constantly changing, leading to individual’s career discontinuities
and, as a result, necessary career adjustments in the course of a person’s
lifetime (Kirpal, 2011). Simone Kirpal maintains that the notions of
‘situated learning’ and career-long skills development have been intro-
duced at the global scale due to the changing global labour market. Our
graduates should be familiarized with these changes and they should
be open to career flexibility rather than confined to the conventional
Vietnamese practices of ‘biên chế’ or ‘công chức’ [government officer],
which destines the person’s whole life within just one profession. The
career paths for Vietnamese graduates are no longer static but becoming
more diverse, fluid and changing. New professions and transformed pro-
fessions have emerged, as a result of the downsizing and restructuring
of the public sector and the rapid increase in private and foreign direct
investment enterprises (Tran, 2010). Graduates must be not only flex-
ible and adaptable, they must be engaged in continuous learning and
in always building capacity so as to readily move between sectors and
embark on new employment challenges.
Vietnam needs learners who are capable of developing their full self-
potentials and are also globally mobile, manage multiple identities and
cultivate a sense of responsibility towards their professional and social
community. The education system should place more emphasis on the
‘self in context’ and ‘integrated self’ notions (Luk-Fong, 2005).
The self in context

The development of the self is shaped by the collective context includ-
ing the family, school, community and society. At the same time,
students should be educated to cultivate and develop a sense of respon-
sibility towards themselves and the context, that is, their family, their
society, their nation and humankind (Luk-Fong, 2005). The notion of
the ‘self in context’ entails flexibility as it indicates the need for the self
to be practical and adaptable to the context.
Embedding the notion of the ‘self in context’ into education goes
hand in hand with enhancing individual students’ capability to capital-
ize on collective goods and internalize such knowledge and intellectual
resources to support their own professional development and per-
sonal growth, while at the same time also transforming the various
communities with which they engage.
The integrated self

The ‘integrated self’ notion is a holistic approach to conceptualizing
the ‘self’ that is relevant to the Vietnamese context. The cultivation
of the ‘integrated self’ includes the academic self (mind), the social self
(self and others), the emotional self (heart) and the physical self (body)
(Shavelson and Marsh, 1996, cited in Luk-Fong, 2005).
In the light of Confucian ideology, the cultivation of these dimen-
sions of self should begin at home and at school and then become
nurtured in the community, the nation and the world (Luk-Fong, 2005).
In the Vietnamese education system, these dimensions of self have been
embedded into teaching and learning in a fragmented, inconsistent and
ad hoc manner at different levels of education. There has not been a
foundational framework for conceptualizing the ‘integrated self’ in the
curriculum.
It is important to emphasize that the self is grounded in the power
to act. It should be neither grounded in the power to choose nor in a
position of passive compliance. The inner self-directedness has to be
controlled by the inner power (self-determination/agency), which is
robust enough to defeat all weakening selves and/or fragmentations.
This means that the students’ agency can be regarded as the battery
of the compass without which the self-directedness of students may
become deactivated.
In their research on the identity formation of Vietnamese students
attending Australian offshore degree programmes in Vietnam, Nguyen
and Leihy (forthcoming) found that the students’ strong agency lies
at the heart of their intrinsic motivation in the pursuit of Western

education. Apart from economic drives such as gaining social and cul-
tural capitals (Western credentials, linguistic competence and social
networks), students’ agency rationalizes the choice of programme and
determines the success of these students. The research confirms that
Vietnamese students internally crave for self-cultivation and thus self-
transformation.
The moral self

The moral self is the hallmark of Vietnamese graduates. The moral self
is what Tu defines as the ethico-religion of Confucianism. This reasons
why we put the moral self in our reform agenda.
The Singapore government places a strong emphasis on the idea of
‘a concerned citizen’ (The Singapore Government, 1997) whose values
stem from Singaporean nationality and a strong civic awareness, which
contributes to community well-being and advancement. In Vietnam,
education includes moral education [đức du.c], intellectual education
[trí du.c] and personal attributes of ‘virtue’ [đức] and ‘talent’ [tài]. This
confirms Marr’s observation of traditional self-values in Vietnam:
Undoubtedly the best known classical prescription incorporating the

self in Vietnam is derived from a pivotal passage in the Confucian
book of Great Learning (Đa.i Ho.c), which positions eight verb–noun
compounds in cause-and-effect sequence: cách vâ.t- trí tri – thành ý –
chính tâm – tu thân – tề gia – tri. quốc – bình thiên ha. [redefine
objects – deepen one’s knowledge – establish concepts – rectify the
heart–mind – cultivate the self – regulate the family – govern the
state – pacify the world] . . . The first five actions take place within
the self, outlining a complicated mental process designed to prepare
one for ethically upright success in human affairs.
(Marr, 2000, p. 773)
Despite being specifically designed in the past for elite social groups in
Vietnam, Confucian intellectual content is deepened in moral teach-
ings (Marr, 1981; Nguyen, 1997; Tran, 1971). It guides the conduct of
Vietnamese people (Marr, 1981). It serves as a point of reference against
which a person’s morality is judged. It shapes Vietnamese value systems
including benevolence, customs, morality and governance.
Essentially, within the sources of the self that we want Vietnamese
graduates to be is the moral self whose power must be nurtured, pro-
moted and embraced. In addition, the self should be grounded in a
strong sense of Vietnamese national identity. Elaborating on Trần Văn

Giàu and Nguyễn Văn Huyên’s work (1944), Professor Pha.m Minh
Ha.c (2011c) advocates for the system of values that characterizes
Vietnamese national identity as ‘patriotism, diligence, heroism, creative-
ness, optimism, charity and devotion’ and the strong communication of
family–village–country. The scholar (ibid) concludes that ‘[t]hey [these
mentioned values] are basic factors in the Vietnamese present system of
values that ensure the ever-lasting existence of the Vietnamese nation
and people. The moral self must be inherent in students’ awareness of
their coherent, consistent core self – and it should be grounded in a
strong sense of Vietnamese national identity while also aligned with
other universal human self values’.
Conclusion: scholarship of self-engagement in Vietnamese

tertiary education
This chapter conceptualizes self-engagement and the development of

a ‘full’ person in Vietnamese tertiary education. The principle of self-
engagement in education is important in the central theme of this book.
At the macro level, it tenders the idea of holistic education, education
to develop a full person in both humanistic and social terms. Carlson
(2008) suggests that ‘the rediscovery of the sacred within the self is
important democratically, for it returns agency to humanity, along with
responsibility for social justice and for advancing a vision of a better
world’ (p. 197).
Promoting the scholarship of self-engagement in Vietnamese tertiary
education, as an aspect of education reforms, is principally to embrace
the values of self-formation. This is a flexible response to the pressing
demand to nurture the kind of self-cultivation which finally aims at self-
transformation. The self is not an end. Instead, it has to be the departure,
the end and the sole mean of actualizing self-cultivation.
A tertiary education that produces flexible, practical and mobile grad-
uates is a system that places the cultivation of a student-integrated self
at the centre and is able to draw on teaching, learning and resources
to enable the development of the student as a full person. That system
should regard students’ individualist self, relational self (self in connec-
tion with others and the community) and embedded self (self embedded
in the Vietnamese culture and contemporary context) as all being crucial
in pedagogy and curriculum reform.
The integration of these forms of student self into teaching and
learning is imperative because they are concerned with developing
individual students’ potential and at the same time enhancing their

capability to effectively engage with, negotiate themselves and perform
in the Vietnamese and global contexts. Engaging the self in educa-
tion and vice versa is also to return to the original value and the
essence of education – to primarily and imperatively promote the self
and recognition of the student as a strong self-forming agent.
Student self-cultivation should be supported by a coordinated
approach that involves not only formal education but also education
at home and in the community. In this sense, self-cultivation is advo-
cated through collective, individual, informal, formal, academic and
non-academic dimensions, of which students’ knowledge of self and
self-transformative capabilities should be considered a basis underpin-
ning their learning and engagement with others and the contexts. Incor-
porating this premise into institutional policy and practice calls upon
active institutional engagement with the student self. At home and
in the community, this involves the nurturing of student self-esteem,
self-values and self in relation with others and the world around.
The cultivation of the student self in Vietnamese tertiary educa-
tion, and also at home and in social contexts, is an essential step
towards preparing Vietnamese students for more responsible, engaged
and flexible citizenship within the community and the nation.
Most importantly, the self should be repositioned as the ontology and
epistemology of education reforms if ever we want our graduates to
become strong self-forming agents – rather than producing a generation
of ‘battery chickens’ who do not function effectively in the real con-
text of their career life and in the globally connected world. Singapore
has incorporated the student self into its overarching educational phi-
losophy. Western countries such as the United States have turned the
self into an education ontology and illustrated pedagogic concerns and
a specific philosophical approach to education approach (holistic edu-
cation or pragmatism proposed by John Dewey). We have precious
Vietnamized Confucian sources of self which, if augmented properly
into contemporary education philosophy and practice, can advance our
education on a more sustainable and practical basis.
Notes
1. Evidence found in the mass media and current research on the Vietnamese
labour market.
2. The Vietnamese government issued Resolution No. 14/2005/NQ-CP, which
drew an ambitious Higher Education Agenda. The Agenda covered two aspects
of reforms including the classification of universities into two tiers – research-

oriented and professional universities – and granting more autonomy to
universities.
3. Insights from university graduates highlight their disappointment and
dissatisfaction with the training quality of their university. See The
Vietnamese youth’s disappointment of Vietnam higher education quality,
11 September 2012: http://vnexpress.net/gl/xa-hoi/giao-duc/2012/09/noi-
buon-cua-ban-tre-ve-giao-duc-viet-nam/
4. Source: http://vtc.vn/538-313303/giao-duc/gan-60-cu-nhan-khong-biet-xin-
viec-o-dau.htm, retrieved as of 6 November 2012.
Part II
The Global Challenge
6
Internationalization
Lý Thi. Trần, Simon Marginson and Nhài Thi. Nguyễn
Introduction
The internationalization of Vietnamese tertiary education has always

been closely shaped by the historical, economic and political circum-
stances of the nation.
Until 1990 international education in Vietnam was largely a recipient
of external influences from China, France, the United States and socialist
countries. Internationalization occurred when Vietnam was colonized,
dominated, controlled or strongly affected by foreign countries, even
while at the same time the nation resisted those forces, and creatively
adapted foreign ideas to the national context, both at the grass-roots
level and in government. Especially, in the case of China during the
1000 years of Chinese invasion, which lasted through the Han and
Tang dynasties, in their long-running struggle for independence the
Viet learned ‘to use China against China’. Vietnam remains in some
respects influenced by China, but this in no way compromises national
sovereignty. The nation’s memory is as long as that of China itself:
indeed, this is one of the ways in which it uses China against China.
Vietnam is always on guard against the southward extension of Chinese
political and military hegemony.
In the last 20 years Vietnam has taken a more deliberate and proactive
approach to the internationalization of tertiary education, and broad-
ened the concept and scope of its internationalization strategies. Inter-
nationalization is now promoted as a fundamental tool enabling the
tertiary education system to enhance quality, keep pace with regional
and international developments and open up further opportunities for
human capacity building for the nation (Dang, 2011; Nguyen, 2009,
2009a, 2013; Welch, 2010; Wilmoth, 2004). The primary dimension
127
128 Internationalization
of internationalization in contemporary Vietnamese education is stu-

dent and staff mobility, particularly outbound flows. Other aspects of
the internationalization of education include international coopera-
tion in programme development and delivery and the establishment
of international schools and institutes.
The explicit term ‘internationalization of education’ is a relatively
new concept in Vietnam (Nguyen, 2009, 2009a). In national policy
texts, internationalization of education is often understood in relation
to the promotion of academic mobility, and international cooperation
and integration (Nguyen, 2009, 2009a; Thủ Tướng Chính Phủ [Prime
Minister], 2012c). Vietnam’s Strategy for Education Development 2011–
2020 sees the expansion and enhancement of international cooperation
in the field of education as one of the eight fundamental initiatives
for the development of Vietnamese education by 2020 (MOET, 2012,
pp. 14–15).
At the institutional level, we see the expansion of international
cooperation and the promotion of ‘advanced programmes’ in some
selected universities. However, certain dimensions of internationaliza-
tion, including internationalization of the curriculum, and internation-
alization of the student experience, are rarely brought to the fore. They
tend to exist only in rhetoric, not in practice. More generally, inter-
nationalization is still largely positioned as a marginal rather than a
central activity of higher education; and it is predominantly referred
to as a ‘goal’ rather than as a ‘process’ (Ota, 2012). Across the nation,
internationalization activities are still fragmented, inconsistent and
ad hoc.
Research on the internationalization of Vietnamese education tends
to focus on three main aspects. The first aspect is related to interna-
tional influences upon Vietnamese education (London, 2006, 2011b;
Ngo et al., 2006; Nguyen, 2006; Pham, 1995; Pham and Fry, 2004;
Welch, 2010). A relatively large body of literature written by Vietnamese
scholars addresses external influences on Vietnamese education, though
most of these publications do not define themselves as internationaliza-
tion research (see, for example, Nguyen, 2006; Nguyen, 2009b; Pham,
1995; Pham and Fry, 2004). The second aspect is rationales for inter-
nationalization (Dang, 2011; Nguyen, 2008, 2009). The third aspect
is internationalization activities in the contemporary context (Dang,
2011; Nguyen, 2009, 2009a, 2013; Pham, 2013a, 2013b, 2012, 2011;
Welch, 2010).
This chapter begins by exploring external influences on the
Vietnamese education system over different historical periods of the
Lý Thi. Trần, Simon Marginson and Nhài Thi. Nguyễn 129
nation, prior to Đổi Mới. Then it addresses the impacts of globalization

and neo-liberal policy on Vietnamese education, before discussing the
Ministry of Education and Training’s (MOET’s) strategy for internation-
alization of tertiary education in contemporary Vietnam. The chapter
highlights a number of aspects of internationalization including student
and staff mobility, the implementation of the ‘advanced programme’ as
a key approach to internationalizing the curriculum and international
cooperation and transnational education activities. Finally, the chapter
reflects critically on the internationalization of tertiary education in
Vietnam.
Note that this chapter discusses the internationalization of both edu-
cation in general and tertiary education in particular. In the past,
international forces influenced Vietnamese education at all levels. In the
most recent decades, internationalization has occurred mainly in the
tertiary education sector. MOET’s current policy is primarily concerned
with the internationalization of tertiary education.
International influences prior to Đổi Mới
The long development of the education system in Vietnam has been

intimately interwoven with external influences on policies, structure,
governance, curriculum and language. It is necessary to understand
these international influences, and Vietnam’s flexible responses to them,
to understand the major developments in the Vietnamese education
system (Welch, 2010, p. 197).
The key international factors that affected Vietnamese education
before Đổi Mới in 1986 came from Chinese invasion for many cen-
turies, as noted, followed later by French colonialism between 1858 and
1954, the American incursion in the South in the 1960s and early 1970s
and the Soviet influence after the end of the anti-American war (see
Chapter 7; London, 2011; Welch, 2010).
Vietnam experienced over 1000 years of Chinese incursion, from 111
BCE to 938 CE (Nguyen, 2006; Pham and Fry, 2004; Welch, 2010).
Whether through direct or indirect rule [cai tri. trực tiếp hay gián
tiếp], the Chinese state implemented a consistent policy of assimilat-
ing Vietnam through culture, education and politics (Nguyễn, 2013).
This imprinted in the structure, content and ideology of Vietnamese
education, which in some respects resembled that of China. The
most notable influence from China was Confucianism, which has
had long-term effects on Vietnamese social structure, educational phi-
losophy and the practical education system (Welch, 2010). However,
Confucian ideologies and values have also been creatively adapted and
Vietnamized, to suit Vietnamese values and sociocultural conditions (see
chapters 1 and 5). This process of adaptation has constituted a purpose-
ful and flexible response to Chinese incursion while at the same time
maintaining national identity.
China had a major influence in terms of language. The Hán script
(Chinese) was the official language in school. Vietnamese children who
were educated were being prepared for serving Chinese rule. Yet the
Vietnamese created their own ideographic Vietnamese, Chữ Nôm, as
early as the thirteenth century. Chữ Nôm was a flexible modifica-
tion that used the classical Chinese characters while Vietnamizing the
Sino-Vietnamese script [Chữ Hán Viê.t] (Nguyen, 2006; Nguyen, 2013).
During the period of Chinese invasion internationalization also took
the form of student mobility. Student scholars crossed borders mainly
to take part in examinations. Elite Vietnamese students gained access to
higher learning in China, especially under the Tang dynasty. Vietnamese
students were allowed to participate in competitive examinations in
Beijing (Nguyen, 2006). Trương Tro.ng, Lí Cầm, Lí Tiến and Khương
Công Phu. were among the earlier scholars who experienced examina-
tion mobility (Nguyen, 2013).
In the seventeenth century, the French missionary and scholar
Alexandre de Rhoads invented chữ quốc ngữ by developing a Roman
script form for the Vietnamese language (Nguyen, 2013). The effect
of the new written language was to increase social awareness of pol-
itics, education and culture (Pham and Fry, 2004). For example, the
social movement Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thu.c [Eastern Capital Non-Tuition
School] was saturated by the works of Montesquieu, Rousseau, Spencer
and Chinese reformists via their publication in chữ quốc ngữ.
The first French troops entered Vietnam in 1858 and the northern
heartland of the nation was the first area brought under colonial control.
During the 80 years of French domination, the Vietnamese higher edu-
cation system was designed as an elite public system (Le, 2013; Le et al.,
2007). During this period, the purpose of higher education in Vietnam
was to produce human resources to serve the colonial aspirations of the
French government. The early institutions of higher education estab-
lished by the French included the College of Medicine and Pharmacy,
the Teacher Training College, the College of Law and Administration
and the College of Engineering. The French-established Indochinese
University enrolled not only Vietnamese students but also students from
the Lao and Khmer parts of the French colony of Indo-china (Pham and
Fry, 2002; Welch, 2010).
During the French colonial period the mobility of scholars and stu-
dents served different purposes, depending on whether the process was
initiated by the French colonizer or the Vietnamese nationalists. On the
one hand, mobility was designed to teach Vietnamese young men
about French civilization and serving colonial imperatives. On the other
hand, it educated the young Vietnamese so as to serve the liberation
of Vietnam from French colonial regime. For example, an outstanding
nationalist, Phan Bô.i Châu (1867–1940), enthused by Meiji reforms in
Japan, sought foreign aid from Japan to send young Vietnamese people
to study in Japan. However, this Đông Du [Visit the East] movement
ended with the Japanese government expelling most of the students,
due to French pressure. The French were concerned about the potential
negative influence of the students upon their return to Vietnam (Pham
and Fry, 2004).
The French government initiated another programme that was
intended to facilitate study by talented Vietnamese in France. The
French state hoped that these young people would be impregnated
by French national genius and learn to understand the foundations
and the superstructures of French civilization (Liconfield, 1933, cited
in Pham and Fry, 2004). These efforts were counterproductive. The
generation of young Vietnamese men thus equipped by the colonizer
became progressive-minded and actively promoted nationalism. The
scheme was ultimately destructive to the maintenance of French rule
in Indochina.
A typical example of mobility during the French colonial period
was Hồ Chí Minh (1890–1969). His overseas experience and worldwide
sojourns in France, the USSR, China and Africa helped him find the
revolutionary pathway to liberation (see Chapter 1). President Hồ Chí
Minh used the knowledge and political skills he acquired in France to
petition the Versailles peace talks in 1919 for recognition of the civil
rights of Vietnamese people in French Indochina. Later he successfully
led the Vietnam Revolution that overthrew the French colony and after
his death defeated American imperialism to gain full national indepen-
dence (Pham and Fry, 2004). Sometimes overseas student mobility can
have very great historical consequences indeed.
Following the victory over the French army at Điê.n Biên Phủ in 1954,
the nation was split into two. The north pursued socialist construction.
In the south national forces waged war against the United States and its
manservant government. The main international education activity in
the north was the education of Vietnamese students in the USSR, China
and Eastern Europe supported by those governments. In the south, as
part of its strategy of ‘winning the hearts and the minds of the people’,
the United States offered scholarships enabling Vietnamese students to
study in US higher institutions. In addition, the US-backed government
of South Vietnam subsidized over 6000 Vietnamese students to study
abroad (Green, 1973, cited in. Pham and Fry, 2004).
American influence on education in the south of Vietnam became
apparent in institutional structure, governance and curriculum. Between
1954 and 1975, higher education institutions were geared to American
institutional styles that differed from the monotechnical institutions in
the north (Welch, 2010). The American model was typified by demo-
cratic decentralization and pragmatic utilitarianism, with a strong ele-
ment of state and local control at the provincial level (Dzung-Nguyen,
2003, p. 41). The influence of the United States also showed itself in the
diversification of education providers and models. Some private insti-
tutions were established, including Đà La.t University and Minh Đức
University, which were both supported by the Catholic Church; and
community colleges were created in Mỹ Tho, Nha Trang and Đà Năng ˜
(Welch, 2010). The curriculum was modelled along American lines,
more academic- than practice-oriented. The key disciplines included
fundamental sciences, law, economics and administration (Nguyen,
2009b).
From 1945 the Soviet Union and other socialist countries strongly
influenced the structure and governance of the education system, and
the curriculum, first in the north and after 1975 in the whole coun-
try, until Đổi Mới in 1986. Vietnam imported its highly specialized
monodisciplinary university model from the Soviet Union. In the 1980–
1981 academic year, there were 85 monodisciplinary public institutions
(MOET, 2004, cited in Nguyen, 2009b). This system lasted until 1993, at
which point some Vietnamese multidisciplinary universities were estab-
lished, departing from the monodisciplinary model (Lam and Vu, 2012).
Soviet influence on the design and structure of higher education was
transmitted by those leaders and senior academics from higher educa-
tion institutions and the MOET who were graduates from the Soviet
Union and Eastern European countries (Le, 2013). Again, following the
Soviet model, universities were defined as mainly teaching and train-
ing institutions, with research institutions treated as separate bodies
(see Chapter 3). Another standard feature of the Soviet system that was
replicated in Vietnamese higher education was the creation of special-
ized higher education institutions that provided training in accordance
with specific demands of line ministries and under the management of
these ministries. According to Hayden and Lam (2007), until 2007, 13

different ministries managed their own institutions.
During 1951–1986 Vietnam’s education system was also shaped by
mobile knowledge from the socialist countries. Textbooks were trans-
lated or adapted from Soviet and East European resources (Le, 2013).
There was also substantial scholar mobility to the Eastern Bloc countries,
both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the USSR, the German
Democratic Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungry, Czechoslovakia and
Romania (Nguyen and Sloper, 1995). Between 1955 and 1975, 30,775
Vietnamese students studied abroad, more than 50 per cent in the USSR
(Dang, 1997, p. 11, cited in Welch, 2010, p. 201).
Internationalization post Đổi Mới
Since Đổi Mới among the key international factors that have affected
Vietnamese education in a more open environment have been global-
ization and the neo-liberal policy. In addition, the national government
has taken an active approach to internationalization, with the inten-
tion of both augmenting the supply of educated human capital and
better equipping the education sector to catch up with regional and
international developments.
The internationalization of Vietnamese tertiary education in this
period can be usefully considered in terms of three aspects: the various
forms of mobility, international cooperation and the internationaliza-
tion of the curriculum. The most significant form of internationalization
has been student and staff mobility. This dimension of international-
ization also entails the mobility of skills, knowledge and research. It is
manifest in the outbound and inbound flows of students, teachers
and scholars and the different modes of international cooperation and
engagement. Programme mobility is another dimension of internation-
alization (Dang, 2011). This can include distance, online and face-
to-face modes of delivery in programmes involving foreign providers,
either jointly with local partners or on a stand-alone basis. Institution
mobility, the establishment of campuses and institutions in Vietnam by
foreign institutions, is a further form of mobility (Dang, 2011).
The next section will discuss the impact of neo-liberal policy and
globalization on Vietnamese education, the national strategy for inter-
nationalization of education and the details of the main forms of
internationalization in Vietnam including student and staff mobility,
advanced programmes and international cooperation in education.
Globalization and neo-liberal policy

The Đổi Mới policy of 1986 marked Vietnam’s transition from a subsi-
dized, centralized economy to a multiple-sectored economy driven by
a market orientation with, at the same time, state control and socialist
governance (Mok, 2007; Ngo et al., 2006; Nguyen, 2006; World Bank,
2008). Đổi Mới provided conditions for the acceleration of Vietnam’s
integration into the global economy and the enhanced impact of global
cultural flows in Vietnam, including education and scientific knowl-
edge. Among the ideas that flowed freely into Vietnam after 1986
were neo-liberal ideas about economic development and state economic
management, and about the organization of sectors such as education,
ideas that have affected many other countries.
Ngo and colleagues (2006) discuss the ‘universalized convergence’
in higher education reform policies amid ‘cross-border education pol-
icy borrowing’, ‘modelling’, ‘transfer’, ‘diffusion’ and ‘appropriation’.
In a comparative study, Mok (2007) expresses concern about educa-
tion policy discourse in Vietnam and China under the influence of
neo-liberal globalization, market forces and the desire to build a knowl-
edge society. Within the Vietnamese setting, neo-liberal forces have led
to the trends towards marketization, privatization, commercialization,
massification, hypercompetition and increased inequality. A number of
other scholars have expressed concerns about neo-liberal policy as real-
ized in education in Singapore, Japan and Korea (Spring, 2006). Ngo
et al. (2006) argues that this cross-border convergence extends beyond
policy borrowing. It is conceptualized within the space of the globe,
rather than nations alone, and reflects the habitus of cosmopolitan
policy communities (p. 230).
A new global policy idea has emerged resulting not only in the
convergence of big policy ideas for higher education, but also
their vernacular manifestation in local contexts, histories and cul-
ture . . . In the policy context, unlike with the cognate social sci-
ences literature, globalization is most often simply equated with
neo-liberalism.
(p. 230)
As part of the convergence in policy making in most Asian coun-

tries, including Vietnam, market forces and the market approach have
become paramount in the shaping of higher education. As indicated by
Marginson and Considine (2000) and Mok (2007), the market exercises
power over higher education in multiple ways. In Vietnam, the official
report on ‘Vietnam’s Education in the Transition Period’ states clearly

that education must serve the market-oriented economy. According to
this report, to serve the market-oriented economy Vietnamese educa-
tion must satisfy the need for human resources by responding to labour
market demand. The report also highlights the need for government
to expand and strengthen international cooperation and implement an
‘Open Door’ policy in education (Nguyen, 2006). However, neo-liberal
globalization and market forces can have potentially harmful effects,
including phenomena such as heightened inequality and hierarchy,
hypercompetition and profit taking (Marginson, 1997).
In Vietnam the first five years after the introduction of the ‘Đổi Mới’
policy saw an alarming crisis in education (Ngo, 2006). There was a
significant decrease in the quantity and quality of education at all lev-
els. There were weaknesses in teaching and learning, and in research
in higher education. There was a shortage of resources for education
and training, and those resources that were available were not utilized
well. In addition, education structure, management and legislation were
inappropriate for the transition period. It was apparent there was an
urgent need to transform education in what became termed as the
renovation period [chấn hưng]. In this context, neo-liberal education
reforms, which purported to provide a blueprint for rendering education
more amenable to capitalist development, emerged as a strong model.
One education scholar, Professor Pha.m Minh Ha.c (2002c), argued for a
‘renovation in thinking of education’ in which education would be con-
sidered not only from the viewpoint of ideological and cultural values
but in terms of its role in the formation of human resources for national
development. In this framework, investment in education was seen as
an investment in development, a capital investment in the knowledge
economy (cf. Nguyen, 2006).
Post-Đổi Mới education reform has centred on three fundamental
policies: the socialization, diversification and democratization of edu-
cation. The policy of socialization, fuelled by decree No. 90/CP issued
in 1993, is seen as changing the conventional governing theory of
education. Decree No. 90/CP affirms that all people have the right to
pursue higher education. That decree has legitimated a shift of part of
the cost of national education from the government to society. Within
the Vietnamese context, the socialization of education is thus equated
with mobilization of the whole society for the implementation of the
education policy and encouragement of the whole population to make
a contribution to national education under state guidance (Nguyen,
2006). After it was announced, the socialization policy was followed
by the massification of education and a rapid escalation of the num-

ber of higher institutions in Vietnam, from 120 in the early 1990s to
227 in 2006 (Ngo, 2006). Wider access to higher education has been
accompanied by the introduction of a fee-paying mechanism, so that
families contribute to the financial costs of provision by paying tuition
fees. Education has been officially shifted from a public good to a pri-
vate good. It has been commodified. ‘Socialization’ means the universal
privatization of a significant proportion of education costs. However,
government has not given up its control of the system, including the
contents of learning and the methods of governance.
The policy of diversification of education has been a response to both
the divergent demands of the population for higher education and the
failure of monodisciplinary institutions to meet the requirement for the
new disciplines needed to facilitate industrialization and moderniza-
tion. The period 1993–1995 witnessed the establishment of a series of
multidisciplinary universities, including two national universities and
three regional ones. This was a direct outcome of Government Decree 97
which established Vietnam National University in Hà Nô.i in 1993. The
goal was to restructure and rearrange the system of universities, colleges,
research institutes and other higher education systems nationwide (Ngo,
2006). As well as the multidisciplinary universities, the two open uni-
versities in Hà Nô.i and Hồ Chí Minh City offered wider access through
flexible delivery modes assisted by technology. Online distance learning
began to flourish. In addition, there were adjuncts to the education sys-
tem including community-funded colleges, people-funded institutions
and semi-public schools and institutions, and the private sector which
also began in the early 1990s (Mok, 2007; Ngo, 2006; Ngo et al., 2006;
Nguyen, 2009b). There has also been investment in vocational training.
In 2006 there were 99 junior colleges, 64 of which were teacher training
colleges, with the rest being institutions that trained workers specifically
for various industries (Ngo, 2006).
The laws governing education have legalized private and foreign
sector investment in education in an attempt to diversify education
providers in Vietnam and enable the system to respond more effectively
to the diverse demands of the employment market. The Education Law
executed in 1998 and 2005 provides a general framework for the gover-
nance of the non-public education sector, though it has been criticized
as inadequate and inconsistent in recognizing private education sector
as ‘profit making’. This Law has had a significant impact on the devel-
opment of private and foreign-owned campuses and joint programmes.
This is discussed further in the section on international cooperation and
transnational education activities.
Following the policies on socialization and the diversification of

education, the policy on the democratization of education has been
intended to provide favourable conditions for the involvement of
all people in managing education and annihilation of authoritarian
bureaucracy in education management. This policy includes the democ-
ratization of student enrolment, democratization of educational plan-
ning and democratization of education management (Nguyen, 2006).
There has been much emphasis on, and extensive public concern
about, decentralizing government control and empowering universi-
ties with greater autonomy. Nevertheless, the devolution of authority
has been only partial and limited to certain functions, and there has
been controversy about the authority assigned to individual universities.
Conflicts over power between the centre and the autonomous univer-
sities have joined other tensions in the system, such as the tension
between efficiency and equality in education and the tension between
quality assurance and the massification of enrolments. In short, the
era of diversification, socialization and democratization contains inner
contradictions (Mok, 2007; Ngo et al., 2006).
The education reform agenda, the core of which is socialization,
democratization and diversification, can be seen as ‘a cog in the wheel’
of Vietnam’s education policy. These changes subtly conform to neo-
liberal ideology and global forces. They propel Vietnam towards the
knowledge society, which in its original conception has a highly cap-
italist form. In this framework, education has been realized as a tool
for promoting the economy. Investment in education is fundamen-
tally regarded as a form of capital investment, while at the same time
education policy implicitly shelters the trends towards marketization,
privatization and massification. Perhaps these reform policies can be
seen as flexible, practical and mobile responses of the government to
overcome the old rigidities and inefficiencies of the education system,
while at the same time also shifting the cost of education from the
government onto the wider society and better meeting the divergent
demands of the multi-sector market economy. These policies also gen-
erate tensions and downsides, and by themselves are an incomplete
blueprint for a distinctively Vietnamese strategy of development in
higher education and research.
National Strategy for internationalization of tertiary

education
In the Strategy for Education Development for Vietnam 2011–2020,

internationalization is one of the eight initiatives fundamental for
the development of Vietnamese education. Here internationalization is

understood as the expansion and enhancement of international coop-
eration in the field of education (MOET, 2012). There are three main
targets for internationalization in the National Strategy:
• Using state funding to increase the number of teaching staff and

students trained overseas, especially the staff of top-tier universities,
major research centres and key science and technology disciplines.
Encouraging Vietnamese citizens to pursue overseas study through
self-funding.
• Expanding cooperation with foreign institutions to enhance
Vietnamese institutions’ capacity in both management and educa-
tion. Facilitating and supporting research, technology transfer and
staff professional development.
• Attracting international organizations, groups, individuals and the
overseas Vietnamese to invest in and support education, participate
in teaching, research and technology transfer and contribute to edu-
cation reforms. Developing modern research centres and institutes
to attract domestic and international scientists to join teaching and
research activities (MOET, 2012, pp. 14–15).
These targets for internationalization are largely concerned with the

development of academic and research capacity for Vietnamese insti-
tutions, so to enable tertiary education in Vietnam to catch up with
regional and international developments. Three dimensions of inter-
nationalization are proposed in order to achieve these targets: staff
and student mobility, the enhancement of international cooperation
and the development of key research centres and institutes. Yet in all
these dimensions, Vietnam still appears to construct its role mainly as
the receiver and importer of education. In terms of student mobility,
unlike other Asian countries including Singapore and Japan (Ota, 2012),
Vietnam mainly engages in outbound flows, with Vietnamese students
seeking overseas study, rather than inbound flows based on attracting
international students to generate financial revenue. This is due to a
number of factors including the level of development and capacity,
the status of education in Vietnam and its policy and bureaucracy (see
below).
As noted, little attention is given to internationalization of the cur-
riculum, and also the internationalization of the student body. However,
some efforts have been made at both the ministerial and institutional
level to engage in internationalization of the curriculum. Here the
objective is for Vietnamese tertiary education to gain regional and inter-

national recognition, mainly through the implementation of ‘advanced
programmes’.
Student and staff mobility
Economic and social factors underpinning student and staff

mobility
The economic development of Vietnam has increased the demand for
qualified and responsive human resources. Vietnam’s transition from a
centrally planned socialist economy to a socialist-oriented market econ-
omy has been accompanied by a rapid increase in private, joint venture
and foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises, and the growth of inter-
national trade. The post-Đổi Mới era has also seen significant growth
in the number of Vietnamese students studying overseas (Dang, 2011;
Nguyen, 2009), from 1139 in 1990 to 25,505 in 2005 (MOET, 2005,
cited in Nguyen, 2009). Current economic growth, including annual
expansion of 8 per cent between 2000 and 2004, has encouraged the
mushrooming of transnational education activities in Vietnam. More
and more families are able to support their student children through
overseas education or study in international programmes in Vietnam.
The country’s participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO)
in 2006 and commitment to the General Agreement on Trade in Ser-
vices (GATS) agreement increased the global integration of Vietnam and
quickened the demand for educational services, including overseas edu-
cation (Pham, 2011; Welch, 2010). A feature of the last two decades
has been the ever-increasing demand for English and foreign qualifi-
cations, especially from English-speaking countries, considered to be ‘a
key to regional and global participation’ (Le, 2007b). From the point of
view of individuals, foreign qualifications are seen to provide graduates
with cultural, financial and language capitals, enabling them to secure
high-paying employment and possibly high social status.
Vietnam’s population of over 90 million (2012), with almost two-
thirds under the age of 30, has created a massive demand for higher
education. The rapid increase in number of school-leavers has created
a significant dilemma for Vietnamese higher education. The current
system does not have the capacity to meet the demand. In 2012,
the number of students who registered for national higher education
entrance examination was 1.8 million (VNExpress, 2012a). The admis-
sion quota was around 560,000 (Dao Tao Net, 2012). This situation
has resulted in overcrowded classes and a higher student–lecturer ratio.
Pursuing overseas education is one solution to the gap between demand

and supply and the growing size of the middle class. International
education is more than a matter of unmet demand, however: in a glob-
alizing world, it is attractive to some families that are able to gain access
to good-quality student places in Vietnam.
MOET policy on outbound mobility

The Ministry’s positive policies on expanding and diversifying inter-
national relationships, and encouraging Vietnamese citizens to seek
opportunities for overseas study, have contributed to growth in the
number of Vietnamese students studying abroad. Prior to 1990, Vietnam
had educational cooperation mostly with the Soviet countries. Since
1990, MOET has been active in expanding international relationships
with a range of countries and international organizations (Nguyen,
2009).
MOET’s strategic policy was encompassed in Instruction No. 270/CT
issued in 1992 on ‘Sending Vietnamese citizens abroad to study in the
new circumstance’. This spelled out the need to ‘diversify countries of
destinations, types of training and financial resources for overseas train-
ing’ (Nguyen, 2009, p. 15). This decision opened an important new
phase in which students privately funded to study abroad were accepted
and encouraged (Nguyen, 2009). The number of scholarships for over-
seas study has increased significantly, through such programmes as
Fulbright, the Vietnam Education Foundation (US), AusAid (Australia),
Eiffel (France), Erasmus Mundus (Europe), the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank (Pham, 2011a).
There were over 60,000 Vietnamese students undertaking overseas
study in 2008 (Runckel, 2009). In 2012 there were 22,551 Vietnamese
students enrolled in Australian tertiary education (AEI, 2012) – Vietnam
is the fourth largest source country for Australia – and other countries
receiving significant numbers of students from Vietnam included the
United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and some
Asian countries including Japan, Singapore, China, Thailand and South
Korea.
The principal effort by the Vietnamese government to engage staff
and students in overseas education has been manifest in the project
‘Training scientific and technical cadres in overseas institutions with
the state budget’, often referred to as ‘Project 322’. Administered by
MOET since 2000, under this scheme 450 of the brightest students
and academics were sent to the United States, the United Kingdom,
Australia, Japan, Europe, Korea and other countries each year at a cost of
100 billion Vietnamese dong to the state budget (Nguyen, 2009; Pham,
2011; Welch, 2010). Towards the end of 2010, 4590 Vietnamese stu-
dents, including 3000 academics and cadres, had been provided access
to overseas study through this scheme at a total cost of 2500 billion
Vietnamese dong (BBC, 2012). Project 322 was planned to continue
until 2014. However, MOET suddenly announced cessation of the pro-
gramme in May 2012 due to insufficient funds (VietnamNet, 2012).
This caused significant distress to candidates, especially those who had
successfully obtained state scholarships to study at foreign universities
under this scheme and had secured the confirmation of enrolment at
those universities.
Project 322 has been replaced by Project 911, which aims to fund
academics in Vietnamese tertiary education to pursue doctoral study at
a cost of 14,000 billion Vietnamese dong, of which 64 per cent is for
overseas study, 14 per cent for the ‘sandwich’ programme, 20 per cent
for in-country study and 2 per cent for resources (Nguyen, 2012). The
latter project was designed to fund 23,000 doctoral candidates for the
period 2010–2020, of whom 10,000 are sent to overseas institutions,
10,000 are enrolled in domestic institutions and 3000 are for ‘sandwich’
doctoral programmes (Nguyen, 2012). The replacement project differs
from Project 322 in the amount of funding and in the fact that whereas
both academic staff and state organization staff were eligible for Project
322, eligibility for 911 is confined to the former group. The budget for
the initial project is almost seven times bigger than that for the latter
one. While Project 322 aimed to provide Vietnamese academics with
access to overseas study, the replacement project tends to diversify the
study modes, which include overseas education, in-country study and
the ‘sandwich’ programme.
In addition, several provinces and cities in Vietnam such as Đà Năng
˜
and Quang Nam have initiated their own scholarship programmes to
provide students and cadres access to overseas study through the provin-
cial or city budget. For example, up to March 2013, 198 students and
cadres had been sent to foreign countries to undertake undergraduate
and postgraduate study by Đà Năng˜ City in accordance with the city’s
‘High quality capacity building project’ [Trung Tâm Phát Triến Nguồn
Nhân Lực Chất Lượng Cao Thành Phố Đà Năng, ˜ 2013]. These students
are required to return to work and contribute to the city’s economic and
social development as part of their contract. (Scholarship awardees are
required to work in the public sector for a period of time at least three
times that of their scholarship abroad. This is an onerous condition and
may discourage some scholarship holders from returning at all).
The government remains formally committed to promoting staff

mobility and overseas training through the plan to graduate 23,000
PhDs by 2020, half of whom will be trained abroad (Nguyen, 2009;
VietnamNet, 2012a). At present, only 14 per cent of university lecturers
have doctorates and 35 per cent have master’s degrees (Minister of Edu-
cation and Training Pha.m Vũ Luâ.n, 2012, cited in VietnamNet, 2012a).
This is considered to be a very ambitious plan, due to the lack of the
necessary financial and human resources, and the absence of strategic
policies at MOET and Vietnamese universities that would enable the
target to be met.1
One of the issues is the need to make better use in Vietnam of
those who have received overseas training. The migration rate of
Vietnamese overseas graduates is 27 per cent (Docquier and Rapoport,
2011). Through the so-called ‘ethnic solidarity’ policy, the Vietnamese
government is calling for the diasporic community and non-returned
Vietnamese graduates to make financial, intellectual, scientific and tech-
nological contributions to the Fatherland (Nguyen, 2013). However, in
reality, many Vietnamese returnees encounter various challenges rang-
ing from dealing with bureaucracy, prejudice, housing, and working
culture, to not being allocated with a suitable job that allows them
to contribute their full potential. These challenges have prevented a
proportion of the Vietnamese diaspora from returning. The govern-
ment has recently offered several incentives in terms of visa conditions,
legal status and citizenship to mitigate the current situation and attract
the return of expatriates. Specially, Decree 24/2008/QH12 has marked
Vietnam as one of the flexible countries that allows its expatriates to
retain their national citizenship while becoming citizens of another
country (Nguyen, 2013).
One of the distinctive contemporary issues for internationalization
in Vietnam is that many young people, having studied abroad, are
reluctant to go back to teach or do research in Vietnam largely due to
the lack of recognition of their capability and potential contributions
and lack of support from authorities and the working environment.
In December 2012 the government released a draft regulation that high-
lighted specific initiatives designed to attract qualified Vietnamese aca-
demics resident overseas to teach and conduct research in Vietnamese
higher education. This is part of a larger scheme that commenced in
2004 (Pham, 2013a). These strategies address returnee concerns such
as bureaucracy and red tape, housing, finance and adaptation to the
working environment and the community. It is a ‘coordinated policy
that involves a wide range of organisations, including higher education
institutions and the ministries of education and training, finance, for-

eign affairs, public securities and science and technology’ (Pham, 2013a,
p. 2). This flexible and responsive policy is a step forward. It shows grow-
ing recognition of the importance of external resources for education,
science and the transfer of knowledge. Yet how this policy is realized
and supported in practice is another matter.
Inbound student mobility

As mentioned above, while inbound student mobility is perhaps
the major component of internationalization in higher education in
English-speaking and some European countries, it is little developed
in Vietnam due to the status of education in Vietnam, problems of
inflexibility and bureaucracy and a lack of courses delivered in English.
However, in the past couple of years there has been growing aware-
ness, in some key universities and MOET, of the need to increase
international student enrolments. For example, the Vice-Minister of
Education and Training, Bùi Văn Ga, has stated that ‘international
student enrolment is one of the criteria to rank [Vietnamese] universi-
ties. Attracting foreign students is also a way for Vietnam to promote
Vietnam’s education to the world’ (2011, cited in Pham, 2011). The
primary means of promoting international student enrolments has
been gaining regional and international recognition. In 2006, Vietnam
hosted 2053 international students (UNESCO, 2008, p. 122). Most of
international students in Vietnam come from the Asia Pacific region,
including China, Japan, Korea, Australia, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand
(Pham, 2011).
The most popular courses among international students are
Vietnamese studies, Vietnamese literature and Southeast Asian studies.
MOET had an ambitious target of 15,000 international student enrol-
ments in Vietnamese universities by 2020 (MOET, 2008). As part of the
strategic plan to increase the number of international students com-
ing to Vietnam, in March 2011 MOET issued a new decree designed to
make the enrolment requirements more flexible for international stu-
dents and enable universities to define their own criteria for enrolling
international students (Pham, 2011a). This decree was accompanied
by initiatives encouraging the provision of more courses using English
as a medium of instruction and attracting international researchers to
undertake research in Vietnam (Pham, 2011a). The development of joint
training programmes and advanced programmes in 2008 (see below) are
seen as key strategies for increasing international student enrolments
and enhancing internationalization.
‘Advanced curricula’ for internationalizing the curriculum
Internationalization of the curriculum is concerned with enabling stu-

dents to engage and perform effectively within local, national and global
contexts. Leask (2009) defines it as ‘the incorporation of an interna-
tional and intercultural dimension into the content of the curriculum
as well as the teaching and learning arrangements and support services
of a program of study’ (p. 209). Even though internationalization of
the curriculum is not referred to as part of the Strategy for Education
Development for Vietnam 2011–2020 (MOET, 2012), the introduction
of ‘advanced programmes’ is the most developed initiative towards that
form of internationalization (also see Chapter 4). MOET initiated the
pilot project for ‘advanced programmes’ with nine universities in 2006.
The budget was US$ 40 million for the first three years (MOET, 2008;
Pham, 2011a). In 2008 the project was extended to a boarder number of
universities (MOET, 2008).
The primary objective is to develop advanced curricula in a number of
disciplines at selected Vietnamese universities, to ensure these universi-
ties reach world standards and international ranking, with the ultimate
objective of achieving some Vietnamese universities in the world top
200 (MOET, 2008, p. 2). In the advanced programmes, English is the
medium of instruction.
In these advanced programmes, curricula are imported from presti-
gious universities ranked in the top 200. In some cases, curriculum
content, pedagogy, structure and system of educational management
have been entirely borrowed from foreign partners (Nguyen, 2009a).
Among the 17 advanced programmes implemented between 2006 and
2008, 14 were developed in partnership with American universities and
three with UK universities (Nguyen, 2009, 2009a). According to MOET,
the first cohort of each advanced programme was taught by foreign lec-
turers or foreign-based lecturers of Vietnamese origin. Then Vietnamese
academics would gradually take over the job (2008, p. 18).
The most obvious feature of these programmes is curriculum borrow-
ing, rather than incorporation of an international dimension into the
curriculum to help internationalize the student experience. This sug-
gests critical questions. How are these foreign-born programmes tailored
to suit Vietnam’s level of economic development and its society and cul-
ture? How is the effectiveness of these programmes evaluated in relation
to developing graduate capacity to think and engage effectively within
the local, national and global contexts? Through these advanced pro-
grammes, MOET aims to increase international student enrolments in
Vietnamese universities to 3000 by 2015 (MOET, 2008), though to this

date only a handful have enrolled (Pham, 2011a). Vietnam already has
a special role in relation to tertiary education in Cambodia and Laos.
In the longer term that would seem to be an essential role in Vietnam
in international education.
With the exception of advanced programmes in selected universi-
ties, internationalizing the curriculum and the student experience has
received little emphasis up to now. There has been some progress
through bottom-up developments. In recent years, in response to the
increasing demands from students for education with internationalized
standards, some universities have introduced courses, instructed wholly
or partly in English, with curriculum adopted from foreign partner insti-
tutions. One high-profile case involved Vietnam National University
in Hà Nô.i. Since 2007, this country’s largest comprehensive university
launched 16 ‘special’ courses, collectively called ‘Nhiê.m Vu. Chiến Lược’,
with textbooks imported via foreign partners. Students are required to
achieve at least 5.0 of IELTS (International English Language Testing Sys-
tem) scores after the first year of intensively studying English so that
they understand specific courses conducted partly by foreign lecturers
in English from the second year on. A score of 6.0 or equivalent is
required by the end of the programme. Vietnam National University,
Hà Nô.i, hopes that ‘Nhiê.m Vu. Chiến Lược’ will lay a foundation for
the internationalization of the institution as well as push it up the rank-
ing league tables. Another considerable case is Duy Tân University, the
biggest private institution in the middle region of the country. In May
2013 it started to require PhD students in business administration and
computer science to publish at least one paper in an ISI (Institute for Sci-
entific Information) journal as a precondition of graduation. Under this
initiative, each PhD candidate is co-supervised by two professors, one
local and one international, chosen from among foreign partner uni-
versities such as University State Pennsylvania and Appalachian State
University.
However, there has been no strategic plan for the internationalization
of the curriculum across the whole higher and tertiary education sectors.
Internationalizing the curriculum is hampered by a number of fac-
tors. First, the centralized and controlled curriculum leaves little room
for flexibility and creativity in incorporating international dimensions
into the curriculum (see Chapter 4). Second, Vietnamese universities
are little motivated to internationalize the curriculum despite growing
awareness that many of the beliefs underpinning Vietnam’s tertiary cur-
riculum are rigid and outdated, being isolated from education reforms
in other countries and international currents of knowledge and new

technologies. Thirdly, there is no official training of staff in relation to
internationalization of the curriculum. The concept is understood only
superficially.
International cooperation and transnational education

activities
One decisive change in the last two decades is that Vietnam has
moved from being merely an importer of education to becoming a
partner in educational cooperation (Dang, 2011, p. 7). This has been
achieved through establishment of joint programmes and the loca-
tion of foreign-owned campuses in Vietnam, and the flurry of pri-
vate domestic and foreign investment in education. Increasingly, the
Vietnamese government has supported these international cooperation
and transnational education activities. Observing other countries in
Southeast Asia, Vietnam’s leaders have seen the advantage in opening
up the education sector to foreign providers. This move helps the nation
increase the supply of skilled professionals and meet growing middle-
class demands for education (Dang, 2010, p. 44; Wilmoth, 2004, p. 187).
Vietnam’s transnational market in education is still at the young, open
and dynamic stage of growth. It is not fully mature like Singapore,
Hong Kong and Malaysia where the government is now highly selec-
tive about foreign providers and regulates them closely. In that respect,
Vietnam’s position is more like China and Taiwan (Mok, 2007; OBHE,
2004).
Vietnam is seen by foreign education service providers as an attractive
site for transnational education. For example, OBHE (2004) reports that
the Dutch government has prioritized Vietnam as a paramount mar-
ket for transnational education providers. The appeal of the Vietnamese
education market has been fostered by the government’s positive
policy changes, designed to promote international cooperation. The
cornerstone for government-supported foreign investment is Decree
No. 06/CP/2000ND-CP on the regulatory framework for foreign invest-
ment in trade and service. The Education Law amendment allows
private and foreign for-profit education providers to operate in Vietnam.
In 2005, the Vietnamese government announced a five-year strategy
to boost the capacity of higher education (OBHE, 2005). This strategy
aimed to establish more than 100 new higher education institutions
by 2010, including a significant component of foreign and private
institutions. This plan shows the government’s particular emphasis on
importing transnational education (OBHE, 2005). Since the licensing of

the first fully foreign-owned university, Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology (RMIT), Vietnam, in 2000 and the promulgation of the reg-
ulatory framework for foreign investment in education, transnational
education has escalated in scale and scope. However, these activities and
programmes are largely confined geographically to the main economic
hubs in Hà Nô.i, Hồ Chí Minh City and Huế City.
The foreign-owned campuses include RMIT Vietnam, Thailand’s Asian
Institute of Technology (AIT), US Roger Williams University campus,
the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIP) and the International
College of IT and Management (OBHE, 2004, 2005). RMIT Vietnam,
a branch campus of RMIT Australia, has been licensed for a period
of 50 years (Wilmoth, 2004). After a decade of operation, it now has
around 5000 students, mainly in business, accounting and finance and
information technology (OBHE, 2005). Thailand’s AIT in Vietnam is a
multinationally funded specialist institution. It began in 2005. AIT has
now opened a second campus at a cost of US$ 20 million to accommo-
date 3000 more students. A third campus is reported to be on track. Also,
in 2005 the US Roger Williams University erected an offshore campus in
Hà Nô.i. Another US branch campus, the International College of IT and
Management whose parent is Troy State University, has been set up in
cooperation with Coventry and Hertfordshire University in the United
Kingdom (OBHE, 2004).
Another important initiative is planned by South Korea’s Seoul
National University, which proposes to offer courses in Korean cul-
ture, language, business administration and IT at both undergraduate
and postgraduate levels. Vietnam also collaborates with France, a tra-
ditional and historically influential partner. In 2006 the French and
Vietnamese governments signed a bilateral agreement to open a multi-
campus business school in Hà Nô.i and Hồ Chí Minh City. In addi-
tion the French–Vietnamese Centre for Management Education (CFVG)
instigated two-year business programmes in French provided by the
Paris CCIP. These programmes target Vietnamese professionals who
seek to upgrade their entrepreneurial skills (OBHE, 2004). A Germany-
backed university is being established in Hồ Chí Minh City, the first
German university in Southeast Asia, offering undergraduate degrees
in civil and electrical engineering and master’s degrees in business and
health care. The new institution aims to recruit 3000 students by 2020
(OBHE, 2008b). Then there is the British University, Vietnam, a venture
mounted by the Apollo Group. Degrees are granted by the Universi-
ties of London and Staffordside through an agreement between these
institutions and the Apollo Group. It provides courses in commerce,

accounting, finance and banking.
There has been parallel growth in the role of joint degree and franchis-
ing programmes. Vietnam’s government has approved the development
of twinning (2+1) programmes in collaboration with foreign institu-
tions (OBHE, 2008a). By October 2007, there were 133 such programmes
(MOET, 2007, cited in Nguyen, 2009). Responsibility for delivery is
shared between a Vietnamese institution and a foreign partner. Australia
reports that nine institutions are involved in this form of collabora-
tion with local Vietnamese institutions, delivering 36 programmes from
undergraduate to postgraduate levels. Other countries are also involved.
Hanoi University of Technology alone is delivering joint degree pro-
grammes with Belgium (one), France (eight), Germany (one), Singapore
(two) and the United States (one) (OBHE, 2008a). The International
School of Vietnam National University, Hanoi, is launching the joint
degree programmes with the United Kingdom, Canada, the United
States, France, Australia, Malaysia and China (Vietnam National Univer-
sity, 2013). Yet Dang (2011) found in comparing cross-border education
in Vietnam with that of China, Vietnam has less power in the decision-
making process and takes less control over the partnerships with foreign
providers. This may suggest that the model of collaboration should be
reconsidered.
Other international collaborative activities are being promoted at a
considerable pace. According to MOET (2005, cited in Nguyen, 2009),
in 2005 there were about 100 projects in various Vietnamese uni-
versities relating to international exchange, teaching, learning and
research supported by international organizations and foreign coun-
tries. On 5 December 2005, sharing the concern of the Vietnamese
government about quality assurance in higher education, the Dutch
government allocated 5.5 million euros to two projects designed to
improve quality. One project entails collaboration between six Dutch
universities and eight Vietnamese institutions in offering teacher train-
ing programmes and developing new curricula more responsive to the
labour market. The other project entails the establishment of quality
assurance centres at five universities. It is limited to public institutions
(OBHE, 2004).
Despite Vietnam’s potentialities in international education and the
government’s commitment to international collaborative programmes
and foreign-owned campuses, Vietnam still faces a range of challenges.
These are associated with the lack of a long-term strategic plan, human
and financial resources, a transparent regulatory framework for quality
assurance and accreditation for these partnership models and key strate-
gies to ensure the sustainability of these programmes. Another problem
is that Vietnam’s position within its foreign collaborations is not always
sufficiently proactive. Research on international collaboration reveals
that ‘Vietnam relies more on development aid style and capacity devel-
opment in the conventional sense between developed and developing
countries’ (Dang, 2011, p. 69) rather than being an equal partner in
international cooperation in education and research.
More adverse impacts of internationalization in Vietnam include
the low quality of many foreign-owned programmes, the profusion of
empty ‘partnerships’ and the ‘second-rate’ nature of foreign academics
in Vietnam. Notably, there have been serious concerns about a num-
ber of foreign-owned and foreign-linked programmes in recent years,
underlining the point about the weakness of quality assurance. In early
2012, seven higher education providers affiliated with institutions in
Singapore, Australia and France were ordered to cease operations and
pay fines due to violation of the rules. They were denounced as ‘unqual-
ified, unlicensed or even operating as degree mills’ (Pham, 2012, p. 1).
Another crackdown in early 2012 led to the closure and fining of the
ERC Institute Vietnam, Raffles International College and ILA Vietnam.
This affected around 900 students. The quality of many foreign aca-
demics in Vietnam is also questionable. In particular, it is common that
a number of foreign teachers and academics teaching English in var-
ious higher education institutions and centres in Vietnam are simply
native speakers of English but did not undertake high-quality train-
ing in methodology. In an effort to tighten up and raise standards in
cross-border programmes and foreign teachers in Vietnam, a new decree
73/2012/ND-CP was issued by Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng on
26 September 2012. The decree focuses on issues including teacher-to-
student ratios, teacher qualifications, a minimum level of investment
per student and the minimum English-language proficiency (Pham,
2012).
Conclusion
Internationalization policies and practices in Vietnamese education

have varied at different points in national history. Generally, the inter-
nationalization of education in Vietnam is predominantly motivated
by an engagement and cooperation approach, and a capacity build-
ing approach, rather than market-driven principles as is the case in
English-speaking countries, where the focus is on creating competitive
advantage for recruiting international students and generating finan-

cial revenue. Aspirations for engagement with the Asian region and
the world have always been the main driver of internationalization in
Vietnam. More recently, internationalization has also been regarded by
the government as a tool for developing a more qualified workforce and
thereby furthering modernization of the country. Again, the focus is
more humanistic and developmental than commercial.
Nevertheless, motives are not always clear, while the practices of
internationalization are incomplete and in need of more systematic
monitoring and evaluation. There are tensions between the curriculum
of the foreign universities operating in Vietnam and national regula-
tion of curriculum content. The nation needs to either enforce its own
requirements more strictly or adopt a more pluralistic approach to cur-
riculum requirements. The latter might be more realistic and enable
more creative approaches among both foreign providers and local insti-
tutions. Transnational campuses can provide a positive stimulus for
higher education in Vietnam provided that the national system is itself
sufficiently flexible to make good use of that stimulus, without conced-
ing national control over education. At times policy and governance
in Vietnam is both too rigid and too brittle, giving in to foreign pres-
sure when there are powerful financial inducements to do so. At the
same time, it is too inflexible in the face of legitimate local demands for
more grass-roots initiative to enable creative and practical responses to
students and to society’s needs.
This problem of too rigid and too brittle shows itself also in the policy
response to international aid projects in Vietnam. Often donors think
they know what is best for Vietnam, yet simply want to replicate the
education system in their home countries, an approach that is neither
desirable nor feasible. International aid projects are readily accepted by
MOET but the conditionalities attached to these projects may contra-
dict each other, and conflict with local priorities, creating fragmented
and contradictory outcomes and a less coherent system. An additional
problem is the potential for leakage of aid money into corrupt practices,
so that internationalization is a means whereby the privileged few can
privately enrich themselves.
Whether the issue is corruption, or the larger problem of the failure
to effectively integrate investment in internationalization with national
policy agendas, the key limitation here is that the government and
the institutions do not always make the best use of the resources and
insights that existing internationalization activities bring (or should be
able to bring) to higher education.
Perhaps the most important example of this weakness is the approach

taken to foreign-trained personnel. PhD graduates returning to Vietnam
are often simply slotted in at the same level as before and some do not
even have jobs when they return, despite the fact that they received
scholarships to go abroad to build national capacity. More generally,
making effective use of foreign-trained nationals is a key issue for
Vietnam. The country needs to do much more to attract the often
highly talented and educated members of its educational diaspora, as
China, South Korea and Taiwan have done to good effect. Here policy
and institutional practice are constrained by the level of development
(Vietnam’s average income per head is less than half that of China). But
as economic growth gradually builds the economy, capacity to build
education will improve. It may be necessary to offer special salaries and
other inducements to diasporic university lecturers, especially if research
capacity is to be built in the universities. As in China, this would result
in individualized salaries and conditions of work, and unevenness in the
levels of pay received by different people during similar work, but aca-
demic labour is a global market and such transitional steps are essential
if brain drain is to be reversed.
Note
1. The picture would be incomplete without mentioning Project 165, which
sends young state officers abroad for study prior to them becoming leaders.
The programme is operated by the Party Central Committee. See http://www.
vp165.vn
7
Policy Borrowing
Tha
Introduction
Changes in Vietnamese society have historically been embedded in its

interactions with foreign influences. So have most transformations in
Vietnamese higher education. Be it an imposed or a self-initiated pro-
cess, the penetration of ideas from outside Vietnam has interwoven into
the very fabric of remoulding the landscape of Vietnamese higher educa-
tion. Now that Vietnam’s integration into the global process of ‘widen-
ing, deepening and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness’ (Held
et al., 1999, p. 2) has become obvious, discourses of transnational mobil-
ity of ideas and ‘policy synchrony’ (Marginson, 2010a) are arguably
of greater significance in relation to the modernization of Vietnamese
higher education.
The globalization era makes sharing across borders more important
than before. It is also an era of uneven geopower in which, like the
previous (imperialist) era, some countries and their ideas and models
of education tend to dominate, and others must work hard to modern-
ize and strengthen their position while maintaining self-determination.
Given this complexity in the globalization milieu, national systems,
countries and institutions (and professionals in education) need to com-
bine two qualities: (a) to engage with global flows and be open to new
ideas, and (b) to maintain a strong sense of own identity and long-term
strategy.
This combination of two qualities – openness and a sense of self –
is the most basic rule of how to operate globally. It is particularly
important when we are talking about pertinent practices such as pol-
icy borrowing, which requires that Vietnam, on the one hand, be open
152
Tha 153
to new ideas and systems and professional practices from abroad and,
on the other hand, adapt and change those ideas where necessary to
fit Vietnam’s context and the long-term interests of the country and
people.
Vietnam’s traditional strengths of flexibility, practicality and mobil-
ity are needed to the utmost here. Mobility of ideas, people, knowledge
and skills in Vietnam while drawing on good foreign ideas and mod-
els is the basis for effective development of education. The question of
what sources of ideas mobility should be directed to also affects the fea-
sibility of indigenizing foreign successes. Vietnam has a long history
of being flexible and adaptive in a practical way in the face of foreign
ideas, even (in the past) ideas imposed on the country, which have been
reinterpreted and ‘Vietnamicized’.
Flexibility here means being open to good new ideas and applying
them in a sensitive ways, consistent with Vietnam’s history and values,
while also being prepared to change. This principle also entails creating
conditions for flexibility to happen because rigid structures, shortage
of preparations for changes to take place and subsequent resistance
apparently hurdle the internalization of good new ideas.
Finally, practicality means using only those ideas that are right in
Vietnam, good for the country and its people, and in adapting them
so they work, consistent with both existing practices and other foreign
models and ideas being used in Vietnam. This principle is specifically
related to critical considerations of educational policy aspects that, once
domesticated, can bring about positive changes to the system, and the
capacity to maintain the sustainability of these improvements in the
long term.
In the discussion of policy borrowing, it is necessary to distinguish
two levels – the system level and the institutional level (see Table 7.1).
Each level of policy borrowing will be elaborated in the later part of the
chapter, but it is apparent that inherent in policy borrowings are both
possible benefits and problems. In other words, some policy borrowing
is positive and developmental in effect, while other policy borrowing
(a) fails because it is not practical in the local context, (b) suppresses
Vietnam’s identity and strategy or (c) has inappropriate effects, partly
because it does not fit Vietnam’s values, goals or the existing system.
We need to handle policy borrowing carefully with full awareness of
both Vietnam’s traditions and values, and also awareness of Vietnam’s
modern needs and long-term development strategy.
This chapter lays out major developments of how foreign influences
have penetrated into Vietnamese higher education, with a focus on the
154 Policy Borrowing
period since Đổi Mới. It is theoretically grounded in a brief discussion

of policy borrowing in higher education, to begin with. Following a his-
torical account of foreign influences in Vietnamese higher education,
we look more closely at examples of policy borrowing that have worked
and those that have not worked. It is important to be open and flexi-
ble about new ways of doing things; many of the best ideas for reform
come from abroad, but to be successful on a lasting basis reform needs
to be fully embedded in the nation and the local institution. To reca-
pitulate, any international systems, policies and programmes must be
adapted according to Vietnam’s practicality, values, strategies and goals.
A theoretical snapshot
In his ‘Plan for Comparative Education’ back in 1816/17, Marc-Antoine

Jullien stated that ‘a wise and well-informed politician discovers in the
development and prosperity of other nations a means of prosperity for
his own country’ (cited in Fraser, 1964). This underlines the histori-
cal desire of policy makers and practitioners to import and domesticate
foreign successes.
Policy borrowing, as it has been firmly termed in the literature, has
long been embedded in almost every arena of socio-economic develop-
ment, including higher education. In comparative education literature,
policy borrowing is enunciated as the ‘conscious adoption in one con-
text of policy observed in another’ resulting from a ‘deliberate act’ to
‘pinpoint an innovation in education and trace it to a model already in
evidence elsewhere’ (Phillips and Ochs, 2004, pp. 774–775). The ‘purpo-
sive’ aspect of this practice is ‘strictly’ accentuated to distinguish itself
from ‘policy transferring’ – an almost identical concept which yet could
be both ‘voluntary’ and ‘coercive’ (Dolowitz and Marsh, 1996, p. 344),
or ‘policy imposition’, which is inherently forcible.
Policy as the subject of policy borrowing entails a broad meaning
in comparative education research. According to Dolowitz and Marsh
(1996, p. 350), the referential spectrum of ‘policy’ may range from ‘pol-
icy goals, structure and content; policy instruments or administrative
techniques; institutions; ideology; ideas; attitudes and concepts’ to ‘neg-
ative lessons’. Ochs and Phillips (2002) also include similar aspects in
their ‘policy’ concept and pronounce them as six layers of educational
policy. The innermost part, also the underpinning layer of an educa-
tional policy, is guiding philosophy/ideology. Further out are goals of
the policy, strategies for policy implementation, enabling structures. The
Tha 155
outermost layers include more observable aspects such as educational

techniques and educational processes (Ochs and Phillips, 2002, p. 330).
The wide range of meanings that ‘policy’ refers to suggests a variety of
forms that policy borrowing may take place.
The operation of policy borrowing in education can be described as
a process. In saying so, there are a number of scholars addressing pol-
icy borrowing as a phenomenon and typically focusing on spelling out
the impetus and the different degrees of borrowing (Benson and Jordan,
2011; Dolowitz and Marsh, 1996; Rose, 2005). The limitation of this
approach is that it may fail to explicate the complexity of how a foreign
policy penetrates into the local system over a period of time. By look-
ing at policy borrowing as a process, educational policy researchers like
Phillips and Ochs (2004) emphasize the consideration of contextual
conditions in explaining (1) what internal and external factors ignite the
desire to use certain ideas from outside, (2) in what manner this desire
is transformed into a decision of policy borrowing, (3) how the deci-
sion is implemented, and, finally (4) to what extent the foreign ideas
are indigenized in the local context. The discussion of policy borrow-
ing as a process will be continued with a reflective account of foreign
influences on Vietnamese higher education before and after Đổi Mới.
We look more closely at the post-Đổi Mới period, as this marks a turn-
ing point when Vietnam legitimately established its national position in
the global flow of exchanges and interactions, which is more conducive
to policy borrowing.
History of foreign influences
Before Đổi Mới, the history of Vietnam higher education witnessed radi-
cal transformations under the influences of the Chinese, the French, the
Americans and the Russians, to name the major ones (Figure 7.1).1
Except for the Russian period, Vietnam’s introduction to foreign ideas
during colonialism was, without surprise, a passive and compliant pro-
cess. Nonetheless, Vietnam’s deliberate choice to retain postcolonial
legacies of the imposed policies arguably exemplifies elements of policy
borrowing (London, 2011b; Pham, 1995).
Chinese influences
Between the first and tenth centuries, Chinese Confucianism was
brought to Vietnam and imposed on Vietnamese education as part of
the invader’s imperial policy. The vast influences of Chinese education
Development
and
incomplete
decay of
Confucian Development
institutions Post-colonial and
state subsequent
formation erosion of
state-socialist
institutions
Colonialism
and anti-
colonial Twentieth
struggle century w
ars
Figure 7.1 Major influences on Vietnamese education before Đổi Mới in macro-
historical terms
Source: Adapted from London (2011b, pp. 1–2).
policy on Vietnamese higher education are evident at the utmost

abstract layer of education philosophy, and more observable policy
aspects such as examination processes, education contents or teaching
and learning methodology during almost 1000 years of Chinese colo-
nialism (see chapters 5 and 6).
It would be fair to comment that Confucianism was the foun-
dation of the Vietnamese education system. However, the ideology
itself was creatively adapted and its values were modified, engen-
dering ‘the Vietnamization of Confucianism’ (Dang, 2009). Different
from the Chinese feature of Confucius wearing a crown, the statue of
Confucius in the first Vietnamese university Quốc Tử Giám [the Tem-
ple of Literature] depicted him wearing a teacher’s hat (ibid). While
doctoral examinations were exclusively for the elite in China and
nepotism was prevalent in most Confucian nations, the Vietnamese sys-
tem was made accessible to scholars from disadvantaged backgrounds,
who stood a chance to work in the royal bureaucracy if they passed
the highest level of the examinations (Encyclopaedia, 2002 cited in
Dang, 2009).
The expulsion of the Chinese in the tenth century did not cause
Chinese influences to perish. Instead, different Vietnamese dynasties
still maintained with adaptations of the ‘Chinese-inspired mechanisms’,
including examinations, for roughly another nine centuries (London,
2011b, p. 6). When the Chinese-inspired system was implemented at
the village level, it was flexibly modified in accordance with Vietnam’s
‘village culture’ and indigenous peculiarities (London, 2011b).
Tha 157
French influences
The export of academic models to their colonies was historically
observed to be common accoutrements of colonialism by European
imperialists (Musselin, 2012), and the French were typical in this regard.
During their roughly 80 years in Vietnam, French imperialists inflicted
‘a restructuring’ of Vietnamese education system with a view to ‘serve
colonial imperatives’ (London, 2011b, p. 9). The restructure, in fact,
was to breed a limited replica without the conventional autonomy
and academic freedom of the mother country’s system in the colonial
country (Musselin, 2012, p. 190). During the late nineteenth century,
the French established different colleges for pharmacy, pedagogy, agri-
culture and engineering. A university of Indochina was founded to
serve students from the Lao and Khmer part of the French colony,
IndoChina (Pham and Fry, 2002). One of the most significant influ-
ences of the French on Vietnamese higher education is the ‘elite system’
with elitist screening of students (Le et al., 2007; Nguyen, 2003). Lega-
cies of the French education system in Vietnam were longer lasting
than the authorities that had set it up. In 1954 the newly estab-
lished Republic of Vietnam still chose to ‘model’ ‘after the French’
when reforming the education system in South Vietnam (London,
2011b, p. 15).
American influences
Legacies of American colonialism in the south of Vietnam included the
decentralization of education governance and testing methods. Changes
in education in the south after 1965 were believed to be influenced
by American philosophy of democratic decentralization and pragmatic
utilitarianism (Nguyen, 2003). Between 1966 and 1972, the educa-
tional governance system in South Vietnam was revised in a way that
‘encourages, strengthens, and promotes state and local control’ from
the province level (p. 41). Local Advisory Educational Councils were
founded in each province, and until 1971, 16 Ministers of Education
were appointed in South Vietnam to share the governance role.
In addition to decentralizing the education system, between 1963 and
1964 American specialists initiated objective tests to replace traditi-
onal essay-type questions for the Baccalaureate examination. Despite
resourceful preparations for the nationwide implementation of the test,
including the establishment of the first Testing and Guidance Centre
in 1964, this initiative was short-lived due to teachers’ strong resistance
and insufficient enabling structures at that time. The traditional elitist
essay-based screening of students, inherited from the French, therefore
remained inside the American-imposed higher education in the south

of Vietnam.
Soviet influences
Concurrent with the expanding influence of the Americans in the south
before 1975 were the Soviet influences in North Vietnam, which was
then in political and military alliance with the Soviet system. From 1975
till Đổi Mới, both North and South Vietnam followed the Soviet model
of higher education (Tran et al., 1995), and the whole country was
fully engaged in knowledge mobility with the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR) network (Nguyen, 2011). From 1951, a large number
of Vietnamese scholars, including researchers and lecturers, were sent to
Eastern Bloc countries like the USSR, the German Democratic Republic,
Poland, Bulgaria, Hungry, Czechoslovakia and Romania (Nguyen and
Sloper, 1995). The majority of universities’ curriculum and programmes
were modelled after those in Soviet Union or Western Europe, with the
exception of medicine, which still followed the French model. As noted
in chapters 2 and 3, the Soviet system typically separated teaching from
research roles (Lam, 2009; Lam and Vu, 2012), and allocated the lat-
ter function to research-focused institutes that were independent from
universities.
A remarkable Soviet influence was the transformation of Vietnamese
higher education towards an emphasis on fundamental natural and
social sciences, particularly courses related to heavy industry. The period
between 1954 and Đổi Mới witnessed the growth of polytechnic insti-
tutes that provided programmes on industry, construction and trans-
portation (Dang, 1997). The Soviet-inspired model also established the
supremacy of the highly specialized monodisciplinary university system
in Vietnam. Until 1993 large Vietnamese multidisciplinary universities
were still absent (Lam and Vu, 2012).
Summary of historical influences

Before Đổi Mới, Vietnam was introduced to foreign ideas typically
through a passive and compliant process. Nevertheless, within this
period of rigidity, the tendency towards flexible adjustments of for-
eign education models and practices was evident, particularly with the
‘Vietnamization of Confucianism’. The legacies of foreign education sys-
tems in Vietnam have been prolonged and are still noticeable in today’s
higher education. This can be partly attributed to Vietnam’s deliberate
choice of retaining postcolonial influences for practical reasons, which
arguably exemplifies elements of policy borrowing.
Tha 159
A critical question is ‘to what extent are these legacies still beneficial
for the development of Vietnam’s higher education in the contemporary
contexts, and in what ways they need to be re-moulded to better foster
the modern Vietnamese higher education?’
Policy borrowing after Đổi Mới

Since the implementation of Đổi Mới policy in 1986, Vietnam’s global
interaction has dramatically expanded, and so has Vietnamese higher
education. To capture concurrent developments of policy borrowing in
Vietnam since Đổi Mới, it is necessary to distinguish two levels – the
system level and the institutional level – of policy borrowing (Table 7.1).
Table 7.1 System and institutional levels of policy borrowing in Vietnamese

higher education
System level Institutional level
Vietnamese Government Institutions or disciplines

agent of
borrowing
Source of Other nations, international Other nations, foreign
ideas/ agencies (for example, the institutions, individuals
practices World Bank, UNESCO) returning to Vietnam after
time abroad, visitors
Possible System-wide borrowing can Flexible – individual
benefits modernize and reform many universities can selectively
government processes and bring in foreign ideas and
institutions at once. This needs people or use benchmarking,
much willpower, energy, skills to progress in selected areas
and adequate finance. Potential for cooperation
Government can overview the between institutions
whole world and be strategic in
selecting what to imitate and
use and adapt (as in Singapore)
but needs good information
Possible Changes forced on Vietnam, as Because institutions are not
problems condition of foreign finance fully autonomous, there is a
and ministry corruption, have limit to what reforms in one
a detrimental impact on the institution can achieve
country Different parts of the
Incoherent system, different institution might adopt
borrowings create contrary different and contrary reforms
approaches
Source: Authors.
Policy borrowing at the system level
At the system level, the Vietnamese government is the agent of policy

borrowing, which strategically looks outwards to seek solutions from
other countries and international agencies such as the United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the
World Bank.
Government–Government policy borrowing

Vietnamese higher education’s international cooperation at the govern-
ment level has proliferated geographically. While China, France and
Russia are still on the list, incrementally, Vietnamese universities have
elevated its mobility in a wider global context. Since political normal-
ization of Vietnam–US relations in the early 1990s, the United States
particularly has become a major partner with Vietnamese universities
(Fast Track Program ULIS, 2012; Marginson, 2010b; Nguyen, 2011).
Other nations that have been highly engaged in transferring policy
to Vietnamese higher education include the Netherlands (Dang et al.,
1995; Nguyen, 2011), Canada, the United Kingdom, Holland, Japan,
Norway, Singapore, and Australia, to name a few (Dang et al., 1995;
London, 2011b) (see also Chapter 6).
Government–International Agency policy borrowing

International agencies are an influential source of external ideas for
policy borrowings of the Vietnamese government. We look closely
at UNESCO and the World Bank as two long-term strategic partners
of the Vietnamese government, exemplifying their interaction with
the Vietnamese government in facilitating the internalization of new
ideas and foreign best practices in Vietnamese higher education since
Đổi Mới.
UNESCO: During the past ten years of cooperation with the Vietn-
amese government in education (UNESCO, 2011a), UNESCO’s support
to Vietnamese higher education encompasses two fundamental areas:
(1) promoting lifelong learning, and (2) improving quality assurance
and accreditation (QAA) mechanisms. This engagement is essentially
conditioned by the Vietnamese government’s formalization of its com-
mitment to the issues and strategies perceived as being important by
UNESCO.
For example, following Deputy Prime Minister Nguyễn Thiê.n Nhân’s
pronouncement in 2010 about the Vietnamese commitment to mak-
ing lifelong learning a national priority in the country’s socio-economic
Tha 161
development, UNESCO conducted a series of programmes with a view

to lay a strong foundation for lifelong learning in Vietnam. Through
conferences and study tours, Vietnamese participants, including lifelong
learning decision-makers, practitioners and professionals, have been
informed of international best lifelong learning practices with examples
of lifelong learning that could be applied to Vietnam (UNESCO, 2011c).
In so doing, UNESCO and the Vietnamese government together create
conducive conditions for external ideas and resources related to lifelong
learning to be externalized in the Vietnamese higher education context.
A similar policy borrowing process has been observable in UNESCO’s
and the Ministry of Education and Training’s (MOET’s) roles in develop-
ing a comprehensive QAA mechanism for Vietnamese higher education
based on international standards since 2010 (UNESCO, 2011b).
The World Bank: The World Bank has offered grants, loans on conces-
sionary terms and technical assistance to Vietnamese higher education
since 1998, adding up to more than US$ 140 million in 2007 (London,
2011b, p. 25). At the heart of its policy-based lending implications,
indebted countries are required to adhere to three core prescriptions for
higher education loans: ‘(1) recommending cutbacks in public higher
education through introducing user fees, (2) developing a credit market,
and (3) decentralising the management of universities and increasing
private provision’ (Klees, 2002 and Mundy, 2002, cited in Dang, 2009).
The World Bank has been supporting the progress of the higher edu-
cation system in Vietnam through a series of funding programmes,
including Higher Education Projects, Higher Education Development
Policy Programs (HEDPO1–3) and the proposed New Model University
Project (World Bank, 2010a, p. 1). The World Bank 2010 report asserts
that the Vietnamese government has welcomed innovations proposed
by the World Bank to improve the higher education system (World
Bank, 2010a).
Indeed, Vietnam’s recent progress in increasing investment on
research and research-oriented universities is very much relevant to the
aims of World Bank programmes. In addition, HEDPO1–3 has directly
resulted in new developments in the Vietnamese higher education
QAA system, including government QAA regulations, the establishment
of the National Accreditation Body to reinforce the quality assurance
system at the central level, an increasing number of higher education
institutions being accredited and the emergence of university-based
quality systems. The expansion of private higher education in Vietnam
also shares significant parallels with World Bank lending policy implica-
tions. Originally, the emergence of private higher education took place
with a lot of hesitation fundamentally because privatization conflicted

with the political regime in a communist–socialist country like Vietnam.
Lately, along with the growing role of the World Bank in Vietnam, pri-
vate provision has become an increasingly important share of the total
sector provision (Bô. Giáo Du.c và Đào Ta.o, 2012; World Bank, 2008).
Summary of system-level borrowing

Vietnam’s engagement in policy borrowing through its cooperation
with UNESCO and the World Bank hints at the penetration of interna-
tional educational policies into Vietnamese higher education. Notably,
such a policy borrowing process in Vietnam has been partially facili-
tated by the normative commitments to the conditions set by these
grant providers. In this sense, the notion of practicality and flexibil-
ity in borrowing the policies, to a certain extent, is restricted by external
conditions. This feature of government–international agency policy bor-
rowing, including its benefits and threats, will be discussed further in a
later section of this chapter.
Institution-level policy borrowing since Đổi Mới

Vietnamese universities have become more proactive in fostering inter-
national collaborations to benefit from the knowledge mobility into
its system, especially in improving the enabling structure, education
processes and techniques. Policy borrowing at the institutional level is
predominantly characterized by flexibility and practicality, as individ-
ual universities usually can selectively bring in foreign ideas and people
that match their needs. This strategic view towards policy borrowing
was pronounced clearly by a university department as follows:
To constantly review and improve the curriculum as needs from the

labor market keep changing is another challenge for ULIS [University
of Languages and International Studies]. It is envisaged to ask the
American Embassy in Hanoi for the continued and shared use of the
current Fulbright fellow now placed at ULIS for syllabus development
and teacher in-service training, and capacity building efforts. From
2013 onwards, The FT [Fast Track] Department will annually collect
international experts’ and the labor market feedback or opinions on
the newly revised curriculum as it is implemented next year.
(Fast Track Program ULIS, 2012, p. 4)
Sourcing educational policies to teaching, research and governance

from higher education institutions globally has become a strategy to
Tha 163
modernize the education system at Vietnamese leading universities

(Marginson, 2010b). Marginson (2010b) cites VNU as an example, who
sees the collaborations with American universities of different disci-
pline as the pathway to improve its educational processes and enabling
structure:
It [VNU] had signed collaborative agreement with Illinois (in chem-

istry), Brown (physics), Wisconsin (mathematics) and the Haas busi-
ness school (economics). Under these arrangements VNU adapted the
American curricula and teaching technology, and sent its staff to the
US universities for training. The American institutions also sent per-
sonnel to Vietnam to conduct staff development, benchmarking and
evaluation exercises.
(Marginson, 2010b, pp. 186–187)2
Such transmission of the know-how of international universities can

also be observed in Thang Long University (the first private univer-
sity in Vietnam) (Sinh-Hoang and Sloper, 1995), Hanoi University with
Resource Exchange International, Vietnam, or the Open University,
Hanoi (one of the first implementing the Open University system) with
Canadian universities. This strategic view to policy borrowing through
‘upwards’ ‘network with universities from stronger nations regardless of
the status position of the developed country universities’ is regarded as
a global trend (Marginson, 2010b, p. 191) that Vietnam universities are
now part of. It also presents an important direction of the mobility of
ideas in the policy borrowing process at the institutional level.
Benefits and dangers of policy borrowing
Possible benefits
Policy borrowing at the system and institutional levels presents distinc-
tive benefits. It is apparent about the top-down, system-wide policy
borrowing that many government processes and institutions can be
modernized and reformed relatively at once, as long as there is enough
willpower and enabling structures are adequate. For instance, pro-
gressive steps in implementing QAA mechanisms across Vietnamese
higher education system were possible mainly thanks to the govern-
ment’s authority to inaugurate formal regulations, and also its capac-
ity to receive consultation and investments from UNESCO and the
World Bank. Moreover, the government also has the power to change
legislative and political contexts so that they are conducive for the
borrowed policy.
The growth of private higher education sector in Vietnam successfully
illustrates incredible changes that would never have been possible unless
it was the government that possesses the authority to unprecedentedly
allow elements of free market economy in a communist–socialist polit-
ical system. Finally, given that the government is well-informed, it can
overview the whole world’s best practices and be strategic in selecting
what to imitate, use and adapt; for example, as in Singapore.
Policy borrowing at the institutional level is also advantageous in its
own way. Given the smaller scope and increasing autonomy granted
to higher education institutions, individual universities can selectively
bring in foreign ideas and people, or use benchmarking to progress in
selected areas of their specific needs and in a manner that matches
their specific local context. This flexibility in turn promotes institutional
incentives to innovate and be accountable.
A successful case in point is a bachelor’s programme in English
Language Teacher Education at the University of Languages and Inter-
national Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (ULIS, VNUH).
Unlike most other tertiary programmes standardized and imposed
nationwide by the MOET, this Fast Track Bachelor Program is the
self-innovated version organically growing from selective applications
of modern Western tertiary educational philosophy, goals, structures,
processes and techniques to the indigenous educational context. The
Fast Track Bachelor Programs are sustained by both government
and institutional initiative: the government provides extra money
to the universities, and the universities decide what to do on the
ground with curriculum design, staff training and other aspects of the
programme.
This particular instance of policy borrowing was ‘spearheaded’ by
the Dean of the English Department at that time (Fast Track Program
ULIS, 2012, p. 11). The Dean himself was a graduate from an Australian
university, and the programme developer team consisted of highly qual-
ified and experienced teachers who graduated from overseas universities
(ibid, p. 8). Considering the limited resource capacity at that time, uni-
versity leaders flexibly decided to implement the programme with a
small group of students at the department level, instead of carrying
out institution-wide implementation of this innovation. Ten years later,
when the programme has become mature and so has the institutional
enabling structure, this model has been disseminated to other depart-
ments as part of the university policy (Fast Track Program ULIS, 2012).
Tha 165
In 2012, the programme was also the first one at ULIS to be accredited
at the regional level, by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) University Network, pioneering a new innovating process as
it was meant to do in the first place.
Possible problems
Discussing the risk of policy borrowing at the system level, scholars have
contended that unless indigenous significance is maintained, develop-
ing countries may put in peril their capacity to shaping their own
national education (Williams, 2009). In the case of Vietnam, flexibil-
ity and practicality in policy borrowing at government–international
agency levels is limited within the normative conditions set by external
agencies like the UNESCO and the World Bank. Amoako (2012) cautions
that developing countries, which are in need of supporting resources
provided by grant providers, may cede some or all of their indepen-
dent policy-making capacity to international donor organizations. For
example, Ghana, an aid recipient country in Africa, is now facing ‘the
distortion of the MoE [Ministry of Education of Ghana]’, as a donor
official succinctly posits:
I think systems are being distorted by donors like ourselves, because

we carry a lot more influence than the Government . . . I think . . . .
mostly what we say carries much greater weight and we can influence
policies, strategies.
(Donor officials, cited in Amoako 2012, p. 66)
Amoako (2012) also asserts that if the aid recipient country does not
critically resist ‘an obligatory imitation of policy and practice from for-
eign context, [ . . . ] policy transfer occurred not through borrowing but
imposition’ (p. 66). In a similar vein, Williams (2009) voices concerns
over the uniformity of neo-liberal economy-oriented education policies
that multilateral lending powers like the World Bank or the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund (IMF) have promoted in developing countries.
The absence of indigenous aspects in education and the attempts at
policy uniformity would bring about the ‘demise of the nation state
that leads to the demise of the goals of national education and the
creation of a national culture’ (Tikly, 2011, p. 153 cited in Williams,
2009, p. 79). While developed countries such as the United States or
Japan would be more immune to this adverse effect, developing coun-
tries would be more vulnerable to this deprivation of decision-making
role and identity loss (Williams, 2009, p. 90). This, in turn, would pave
the way for the continuity of policy imposition that had been started
during colonialism (Amoako, 2012, p. 66; Williams, 2009, p. 82).
Another reason why policy borrowing at the system level could be
problematic is that different borrowings in an incoherent system may
create contrary approaches. For example, the private higher education
sector in Vietnam was emerging while the system still tried to retain
the Soviet socialist ideology and the supremacy of the centralized gov-
ernance of the state. Therefore, the Education Law of 2005 contained
some contradictory statements regarding the profit status of private
institutions with some articles claiming that private institutions could
distribute profits to their stakeholders, but outlawed the commercializa-
tion of education (Hayden and Dao, 2010). These opposing statements
reflect the difficulty that the government has faced in creating public
policy that reconciles both the market economy and the principles of
socialism. Moreover, while the caps on tuition fees could be viewed as
ensuring greater equity, the Vietnamese government’s refusal to fund
the private sector restricts the ability of these institutions to expand, to
be financially self-sufficient and also to provide a high-quality education
(World Bank, 2010a).
Policy borrowing at the system level requires a demanding degree of
resourceful preparation, which itself is a disadvantage. The first imple-
mentation of the credit-based system in Vietnam was typical in this
regard. After a six-year experiment at the University of Da Lat in around
1993, the whole system was abandoned, reportedly due to the absence
of planning and, consequently, the ‘lack of understanding’ from the
teaching staff (St. George, 2010).
A similar failure story is a Dutch-sponsored project to enhance man-
agerial autonomy in curriculum development at eight Vietnamese uni-
versities in 2005. A case study of one university in this project revealed
‘tremendous challenges’ in the systems that had not been addressed suc-
cessfully at the outset of the project (Nguyen, 2011). Specifically, the
policy transfer was not successful in yielding targeted effects mainly due
to (1) the lack of preparations for the teaching staff in the new curricu-
lum philosophy and competence to design such a curriculum, (2) the
inefficiency, rigidity and indifference of the university organization and
management system, and (3) the limited funding for a sustainable effort
of innovation (Nguyen, 2011, pp. 245–249).
To recapitulate, failures to plan and inadequate considerations of
existing contextual conditions lead to flawed policy borrowing, and,
consequently, ‘damaging’ effects on Vietnamese higher education (Ho,
2011, p. 273).
Tha 167
Conclusions
Vietnam’s political integration into globalization as a country after

Đổi Mới policy has augmented its international engagement in
transnational borrowing in higher education. Policy borrowing in the
Vietnamese higher education system, at both the system and the insti-
tutional level, has been attached to wider global space, become more
strategically attached to the modernization process, and become more
sophisticated in its structural processes. Both internal and external
forces have been engaged in purposefully transferring educational poli-
cies from outside Vietnam to increase the capacity of the system and its
global connectedness. However, in the new context, Vietnamese higher
education also has to face threats from adverse effects of flawed prac-
tice of policy borrowing and the potential external intrusion into the
policy-making authority.
Marginson (2010a) notes that the tendency to policy borrowing is
universal but the timing and transformative potentials of the reforms
are not. Policy borrowing does not necessarily bring out the desired
successes observed elsewhere as Sadler metaphorically asserted:
We cannot wander at pleasure among the educational systems of the

world, like a child strolling through a garden, and pick off a flower
from one bush and some leaves from another, and then expect that
if we stick what we have gathered into the soil at home, we still have
a living plant.
(Sadler, cited in Higginson, 1979, p. 49)
For policy borrowing to be positive and developmental in effects, the

following pre-conditions are critical. First, the policy to be borrowed
needs to be practical in the local context. In other words, efforts to
seek for solutions from outside must be preceded by the definition of
the indigenous problems that the policy can potentially address (Rizvi
and Lingard, 2010). Second, Vietnam’s identity and strategy needs to
be respected, and so do Vietnam’s values, goals for the existing system.
‘Contextual-fit’ is fundamental in this regard. At both the system and
the institutional level, agents of policy borrowing have the choice of
changing the local context to make it more conducive for policies from
outside, or adapting the borrowed policies so that they are closer to the
local context. In either way, a flexible and practical approach to making
choice depends ultimately on self-awareness and full knowledge of the
subject of policy borrowing.
Flexibility, practicality and mobility are virtues at the heart of

Vietnam’s evolution as a nation (see Chapter 1). So should they be in
the modernization of Vietnamese higher education. It is important to
be open and flexible about new ways of doing things: many of the
best ideas for reform come from abroad, but to be successful on a last-
ing basis reform needs to be fully embedded in the nation and the
local institution. Vietnamese policy makers and practitioners ought to
draw on the nation’s inherent strengths of flexibility, practicality and
mobility in a strategic and creative way so that transnational policy
borrowing can truly become a springboard for Vietnamese higher edu-
cation to firmly reach a new level of modernization, development and
internationalization.
Notes
1. It should be noted that the timeline in Figure 7.1 is not necessarily linear, as
the influences presented here could be concurrent with each other. For exam-
ple, Chinese Confucianism was still being embedded in Vietnamese education
when the French system was introduced and developed in Vietnam during the
eighteenth century.
2. The programme is called Nhiem vu chien luoc.
8
Foreign Language Policy
Tha.ch Ngo.c Pha.m
Introduction
In the course of development, most countries have explicitly or implic-

itly acknowledged the importance of national language as well as foreign
language(s). Language is considered as one of the most important of
the three connected phenomena: language, nation and development
(Lee and Suryadinata, 2007). Over their history, Asian countries have
changed their language policies to retain their identities, and at the same
time to adapt to globalization. Vietnam is not different. The country has
struggled to promulgate language policies that can maintain national
identity, and simultaneously embrace opportunities to relate with other
nations.
On the home front, the country wants to focus on the national lan-
guage, Quốc Ngữ, spoken by the majority of its population, người Viê.t
[the Viet] or người Kinh [the Kinh], and five main language families
(Brown and Ganguly, 2003), which are the heritage of the 53 ethnic
groups nationwide. Among the ethnic groups, Vietnamese is the lin-
gua franca (Lo Bianco, 2001). The ruling party and the Government
of Vietnam have always identified Vietnamese as the communication
tool for socio-economic development in the multiethnic context of the
country (Tran, 2003).
In the foreign sphere, Vietnam tries to maintain balance between
the various foreign languages that have been in the country since the
Chinese incursion began in 110 BC (Tollefson, 2001; Tsui and Tollefson,
2008). After gaining independence from Chinese rule in 939, Vietnam
has experienced various stages of foreign language presence. Chinese,
French, Russian and English have been the main languages. However,
unlike countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and the
169
170 Foreign Language Policy
Philippines, where English is deeply rooted due to long political rela-

tionships with the United Kingdom or the United States (Lindsay, Tan,
and National University of Singapore. Asia Research, 2003), the above-
mentioned foreign languages were less strongly established as languages
in use in Vietnam. For example, although Han script (Chinese script)
was widely even used after the national independence from China in the
tenth century, chữ nôm or ideographic Vietnamese was created by the
Viet for linguistic expression in as early as the thirteenth century (Do,
2006; Nguyen, 1959). Similarly, during the period of French coloniza-
tion, Quốc Ngữ, Vietnamese modern Roman-style script, was promoted
as the main medium of communication (Brown and Ganguly, 2003).
Quốc Ngữ retains status as the official language today. During the anti-
American war, Vietnam received much support from China and the
former Soviet Union, and thus Chinese and Russian were the two main
foreign languages to be studied. However, their use dropped away as the
result of a land invasion from China in Vietnamese northern border in
the late 1970s, and then the collapse of the Soviet Union in early 1990s.
As for English, it was only after Đổi Mới [renovation] in 1986 that the
language received substantial attention from government agencies and
the public. English is considered a foreign language in Vietnam, like
Chinese, French and Russian.
This chapter starts with a brief account of the development of foreign
languages in Vietnam with special focus on foreign language policy after
Đổi Mới in 1986. This is followed by an overview of English language
teaching and learning in East Asian nations. Next, the chapter high-
lights essential challenges that need to be addressed in order to equip
Vietnamese people, especially the young with sufficient language capa-
bilities to be mobile in the globalized world. The chapter concludes with
recommendations on what to do about these challenges.
Foreign languages in Vietnam
Before independence in 1945

Before Vietnam became independent in 1945, the country’s linguistic
landscape underwent complex changes, experiencing influences from
both Chinese and Indian languages, especially in writing (Brown and
Ganguly, 2003). Before the thirteenth century, Chinese was the language
of education, examination and administration even after the establish-
ment of the first university in Vietnam, the Văn Miếu or the Temple of
Literature. It was in the thirteenth century in the Temple of Literature
that Vietnamese scholars created the Nôm, based on Chinese characters,
Tha.ch Ngo.c Pha.m 171
as a means to depict Vietnamese culture (Tollefson, 2001). The exact date

of the invention of Nôm is unknown, but according to Nguyen (1959),
this script first appeared in poems written by Han Thuyen, a writer and
poet who lived at the end of the thirteenth century. By the eighteenth
century, Nôm was prominent, especially in literature, for example, in
the famous works by Nguyen Du – the Truyê.n Kiều (Lo Bianco, 2001).
Function was the main reason for the diglossic phenomenon in Vietnam
during this period: the use of Chinese in official discourse and Nôm in
literature.
When the Catholic missionaries came to Vietnam in the seven-
teenth century, instead of promoting colonial language, they romanized
Vietnamese and created Quốc Ngữ. This was a process of adapting the
Roman alphabet so that it could be used to write Vietnamese. The
endeavour is usually attributed to Alexandre de Rhodes, a French mis-
sionary working in Vietnam in the early seventeenth century (Tollefson,
2001, p. 227). However, the French did not intend to develop Quốc Ngữ
into an official language: it was used only as the language of instruc-
tion in the first three years of primary education, and then French took
over at all later stages of learning. Nevertheless, only a small number
of Vietnamese people were educated in French (Tollefson, 2001). When
France was defeated in 1945, the young Vietnamese government in the
north launched a bold initiative to use Quốc Ngữ as the language of
instruction at every level of schooling (Brown and Ganguly, 2003; Lo
Bianco, 2001). In the south, in 1948 Vietnamese language was declared
by the Republic of Vietnam as the language of instruction at all school
levels, with French considered as a second language.
After 1945
There are no accurate data about teaching and learning of foreign lan-
guages after the country’s independence in 1945 (Nguyen, 2009). It was
noted by the then Ministry of Education that French and English were
both taught at the school level. However, due to the focus of the coun-
try at the time on fighting poverty, illiteracy and France’s intention to
return to Vietnam, the outcomes of teaching and learning these two
foreign languages were limited.
French: When France returned to control some urban areas of Vietnam
after the 1945 revolution, it made French an official language in educa-
tion. However, with the defeat in Điê.n Biên Phủ in 1954, this came
to an end in the north. The status of French remained very low after-
wards despite the establishment of the French Department at Hanoi
Foreign Languages Teachers’ Training College in 1956 (Do, 2006). In the
south, French was, however, powerful due to continued political and

economic aid from France. Many scholars were sent to France for degree
studies and had high positions in key universities and departments (Do,
2006). Nevertheless, with the stronger presence of the Americans from
1964, southerners switched gradually to English that gave them access
to military and political advantage (Tollefson, 2001).
English: English entered Vietnam at scale mainly due to the involve-
ment of America in the south. People acquired the language for commu-
nication and work purposes. There were nearly half million American
soldiers in Vietnam at the height of the American military intervention
(Nguyen, 2009). Thus English was studied not only by army officials of
the Republic of Vietnam, but also by ordinary people. At school levels
there was a shift from learning French to English, and private language
centres were established to cater for the need of the general public.
In the north, English was added as a foreign language (after Chinese
and Russian) in 1958 (Nguyen, 2009). In 1968 the first official document
of the government was issued that stipulated the teaching and learn-
ing foreign languages in schools, vocational training institutions and
technical cadres. In 1972 the then Prime Minister approved Decision
No. 251 TTg on improving teaching and learning of foreign languages
in schools (Nguyen, 2009). This laid the foundation for a series of legal
documents that supported the development of ‘Western languages’ such
as English and French. It is not known how English was taught but it can
be inferred from some textbooks and dictionaries by Le Ba Kong and Le
Ba Khanh (Hoang, 2010) that English was one of the foreign languages
in use despite its lesser status than French. During the American war,
English was mainly studied for the purposes of understanding, so as to
assist the fight against the United States on the military and diplomatic
fronts (Hoang, 2010).
Chinese: Chinese was used in Vietnam after the country’s indepen-
dence for both economic and political reasons. In the south, the Chinese
community comprised 5.5 per cent of the population and maintained a
considerable position in local economy. Their counterparts in the north
made up only 0.5 per cent of the population and held a less important
position. However, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in the
north developed strong ties with the Chinese Communist Party while
drawing on its support in the resistance against the French (from 1945
to 1954) and the Americans (1954–1975). There were frequent visits of
leaders from China to Vietnam, and vice versa. Many government offi-
cials were trained in Chinese language. Chinese schools were established
in cities like Hà Nô.i, Hai Phòng, and Chinese was a popular language of
communication in Quang Ninh, the closest province with China. The

Chinese language was studied by young people and some were sent to
universities in China (Tollefson, 2001).
The Chinese language thus had an important socio-economic and
political place in the relationships between the two countries until
China’s incursion into Vietnamese land in 1979 and the mass exodus
of refugees in 1978 and 1979. In the south, Chinese language schools
were established to meet the need of the Chinese community living in
Chinatown in Saigon (Do, 2006; Unger, 1987).
Russian: The study of Russian language arose out of the support from
the Eastern Bloc to Vietnam during American war. From 1965 to 1974
over 26,000 Vietnamese students were sent to the former Soviet Union
and Eastern Europe to study languages (mainly Russian) and other dis-
ciplines. This trend continued after 1975 when Vietnam was under
embargo from the Western world. The proportion of Russian learners at
the school level (mainly secondary) was as high as 70 per cent (Hoang,
2010). Russian was the language of choice for those who wanted to enrol
in language-specialized universities, partly due to the bright prospects
of being sent abroad to study or the ease of finding a job after gradu-
ation. Currently, Russian is still studied by a few, and regular activities
are organized to promote the study of the language, such as ‘Week of
Russian language’. Also, Russian is one of the foreign languages taught
on national radio and television.
After reunification
After the country’s reunification in 1975, the status of all foreign lan-
guages was at a low level, due to the embargo from the United States,
and the war against China’s land invasion. From 1975 to 1986, there
were only a limited number of learners of Chinese, French and English
at the Hanoi Foreign Teacher Training College and other specialized
language institutions (Nguyen, 2009). It was only after the Đổi Mới
[renovation] policy in 1986 that the country’s socio-economic develop-
ment as well as the teaching and learning of foreign languages changed
dramatically.
The fall of Russian: From 1975 to 1990, Russian language was the most
popular foreign language taught in Vietnam’s educational system. How-
ever, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought with it the fall
of Russian as the most important foreign language. Within just three
years, from 1988 to 1991, Russian was replaced by English (Grey and
Pohl, 1997). Students at both school and tertiary levels started to switch
to English or other foreign languages such as French or Chinese. Many
teachers who were trained in the Soviet Union in the earlier period
switched to studying English in evening or in-service classes so they
could teach English or seek other jobs. Now Russian is only taught and
learnt in a very small number, mostly at language-specialized schools,
colleges and/or universities.
The return of French and English: Immediately after the country’s uni-
fication in 1975, English and French were considered as the language
of enemies. Chinese joined the list because of its land invasion in
the Northern border of Vietnam in 1979. However, France started to
reintroduce the French language with the recognition of the Social-
ist Republic of Vietnam as a full member of the Francophone zone in
1979 (Tollefson, 2001). Huge investments were made by the Associa-
tion des Universités Partiellement ou Entièrement de Langue Française
(AUPELE) to promote learning of French as a subject or as the medium of
instruction for the study of other disciplines such as medicine, law and
computer science. Currently, French is one of the most popular foreign
languages in Vietnam, second only to English.
In 1986 the Open Door policy triggered the boom in English as the
most important foreign language in Vietnam. Its status was formally
recognized in the country’s educational policy in which English is one
of the six examinations for the national secondary education certifi-
cate (Hoang, 2010). When Vietnam joined the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other trading blocs such as APEC and WTO,
English became more important because the language is the lingua
franca of these organizations. The status of English was promoted by
a decree approved by the Prime Minister in 1994 to require government
officials to study foreign languages, mainly English, so that they could
interact directly with foreigners (Grey and Pohl, 1997).
More recently, the importance of foreign languages in general and
English in particular was further enhanced through Decision No. 1400
QĐ-TTg that approved the Plan for ‘Teaching and Learning Foreign Lan-
guages in the National Educational System in the Period 2008–2020’.
The goal of this Plan is that by 2015 and 2020, there will be a major leap
in foreign language proficiency in the Vietnamese workforce and among
youth, to serve the country’s cause of modernization and industrial-
ization. The Plan uses the Common European Framework of Reference
(CEFR) as a standard to measure users’ proficiency in languages.
Vietnam is not alone in making English learning a priority. In
response to globalization, other Asian countries have developed
national programmes to promote English. For example, Japan has set
a national goal for all Japanese people to have a working knowledge
of English. In South Korea, there is a motto young uh yul poong, which
means ‘English study fervour’ (Sungwon, 2001). In other Asian coun-

tries such as India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Nepal and Bangladesh, English
has been become the most important foreign language to be learnt in
education or the prerequisite for employment in managerial positions
(Tollefson, 2001). In Malaysia, although there is complexity concern-
ing the role of English, which is no longer the medium of instruction,
it (English) is still the second most important language in the country
(Stephen, 2013), and the Malaysian government has made considerable
financial commitment to the teaching of English (Nunan, 2003; Wong
and , 2011). Its Ministry of Education is planning to reintro-
duce English as a medium of instruction to teach science and technical
subjects at the school and university levels (Nunan, 2003).
Other foreign languages: Beside the above-mentioned major foreign
languages, higher education institutions as well as cultural/language
centres are offering courses (degree and non-degree) to the public.
For example, students can enrol to study Japanese, German, Korean,
Portuguese and other languages in the two major language-specialized
universities in Hà Nô.i, that is, at Hanoi University and at the University
of Language and International Studies of Vietnam National University,
Hà Nô.i. In addition, in 2006 and 2007, a memorandum of understand-
ing (MoU) was signed to promote the teaching and learning of German
at the school level (Nguyen, 2009).
Current situation of foreign language teaching and learning
Since the start of the twenty-first century, the Party, National Assem-
bly and the Government of Vietnam have promulgated numerous legal
documents stipulating the teaching and learning of foreign languages
in the formal educational system and in the informal environment.
At the school level, together with teaching English as the first for-
eign language, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) issued
Decision No. 16/2006 QĐ on the teaching and learning of a second for-
eign language (Nguyen, 2009). The most significant development was
the passing of the Plan on ‘Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages
in the National Educational System in the Period 2008–2020’ (MOET,
2008), which focused on enhancing Foreign Language Learning (FLL)
for school pupils, university students as well as government officials.
Foreign languages became one of the criteria in the recruitment of civil
servants, enrolment of master’s and doctoral candidates, the recognition
of associate professor and professor titles.
At the tertiary level, the main foreign languages studied are English,
French, Chinese and Russian. In vocational training institutions that
belong to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA),

a foreign language is one of the compulsory subjects, with English
accounting for 98.6 per cent and French, Russian and other languages
for 1.4 per cent (Nguyen, 2009). These institutions lack both qualified
lecturers and facilities to deliver proper foreign language courses. The
situation is the same for professional secondary schools and universities
that do not specialize in foreign languages. Currently, the number of
universities and colleges that specialize in foreign languages or have a
foreign language department is large (113) with a yearly enrolment of
more than 21,000 students (Nguyen, 2009). These institutions enjoy bet-
ter teaching staffs, facilities and curricula than the non-specialized ones.
However, many graduates are unable to meet job requirements; many
have to work in the areas that are different from their undergraduate
training.
In short, foreign language policies in Vietnam have undergone many
changes in response to the country’s foreign relations with other coun-
tries and its different periods of socio-economic development. Although
the party, government and people recognized the important role of
foreign languages, the lack of a long-term strategy for teaching and
learning has caused numerous problems in both the formal and infor-
mal sectors. This partly explains why the foreign language competence
of Vietnamese people is weaker than in neighbouring countries such
as Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. Furthermore, the notions
of ‘language of enemies’ (Nguyen, 2009; Hoang, 2010) and ‘exclusive
English’ (Lam, 2012) have resulted in a shortage of competent users of
some languages at certain time periods, such as the English language
after the country’s renovation in 1986 or the Chinese language after the
normalization of relations between the two countries. It is hoped that
the Plan on ‘Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National
Educational System for the Period 2008–2020’ will bring about a radi-
cal change in the situation, especially in relation to the teaching and
learning of English.
The next part of the chapter explores experiences from the neighbour-
ing countries with regard to promotion of English as second or foreign
language, and discusses what Vietnam can learn from them.
English language teaching in East Asia
In order to better understand how English could be effectively taught

and learnt in Vietnam, it is helpful to look at the situation in the sur-
rounding countries. East Asia consists of 15 countries and territories
(Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong Special Administra-

tive Region (SAR), Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, Lao People’s Demo-
cratic Republic (PDR), Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam). These countries are different in terms
of history, culture, population as well as the status of English. While
English is the second language in Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, the
Philippines and Singapore, it is a foreign language in the remaining
ones. The difference in the status leads to the way that English is
acquired or learned (Le, 2011).
Theoretically, there is an overlap in the use of two common terms: Sec-
ond Language Acquisition (SLA) and FLL. Indeed, in some cases, they are
used interchangeably (Hall and Verplaetse, 2000). When a distinction is
necessary, FLL often refers to the study of a non-native language in a
native language setting, for example, the study of German in the United
Kingdom or Chinese in Australia. SLA, on the other hand, often means
the study of a non-native language within the environment in which
that language is spoken (Gass et al., 2008), for instance, the study of
English by Chinese people in the United States. So the main difference
lies in the setting where English is used. Multi-ethnic nations tend to
provide a more natural setting for English to be spoken in the informal
setting (society) as well as formal ones (education, government offices).
English is used extensively outside the classroom setting. In countries
with one dominant group of people like China, Indonesia and Vietnam,
such a natural setting does not exist. Students share the same mother
tongue, so they do not have the need and practice of using English
both inside and outside the classrooms (Nguyen, 2011; Pham, 2007).
The natural setting is vital to the development of English, in addition to
national language policies.
The national language policies of all East Asian countries indicated
that English is introduced at an early age and language has become
increasingly important (Baldauf Jr and Nguyen, 2012; Nunan, 2003).
A few countries in the region (Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam)
have even started to use English as a medium of instruction for cer-
tain training programmes, and this trend is considered a key to help
improve students’ English proficiency (Byun et al., 2011), present a com-
petitive advantage to draw students from other countries or regions or
enhance the voice of different stakeholders in the matter (Dang et al.,
2013). However, the increased presence of English in the curriculum,
especially at the school level, also means that countries have to cut
out or reduce some other subjects because educational institutions must
work with a fixed amount of time and a huge amount of preparation
and resourcing is needed, for example, the allocation and administra-

tion of funding, the selection of textbooks and the training of English
teachers.
With regard to teaching methodology, Communicative Language
Teaching (CLT) has been incorporated in national curricula in most East
Asian countries (Le, 2011). However, there are three main issues in the
implementation of CLT in countries without a natural setting for lan-
guage practice, that is, where English is a foreign language. First, it is
difficult for learners to put into use what is taught in the classroom
settings. Their main opportunity for use is occasional encounters with
foreigners or travels to other countries, which is normally possible for
only a few learners.
Second, there is disparity in the abilities of language teachers who
are meant to integrate the four macro-language skills in a lesson. While
teachers in urban areas and/or language-specialized institutions are
capable of practising speaking, reading, listening and writing in one
lesson, those in the rural and non-specialized institutions find such inte-
gration a big challenge. One skill might be taught in isolation of the
others (Ho and Wong, 2004).
Third, there is the problem of assessment practices that focus mainly
on paper-based tests, as in the case of Vietnam where the national lan-
guage entrance test to universities only evaluates grammar and reading
and writing (Le, 2011). This practice has a huge negative impact on the
implementation of CLT methodology at the school level. As both teach-
ers and pupils see it, their main focus in teaching and learning is on
meeting test criteria, that is, grammar, reading and writing only, as in
many other Asian countries, such as Malaysia (Musa et al., 2012). This
is coupled with the practices of many schools that still utilize teacher-
centred methods in which students first listen to their teacher, then
repeat and copy the models. Those practices are not effective for learn-
ing conversation and fit with a scholastic approach that emphasizes
elements such as correct grammar.
Vietnam’s current challenges and solutions
Kam (2002) states three main dilemmas that East Asian countries face
in their teaching and learning English: quantitative versus qualitative
(lack of English teachers versus need for high quality), traditional ver-
sus modern (traditional versus new teaching methods), and continuity
versus change (continuity between the past and present versus change
for application of modern technology). Vietnam shares those dilemmas.
There are also other issues such as enforceability of government policies,

the testing system, teaching methodology, textbooks and the lack of an
English-speaking environment (Baldauf Jr and Nguyen, 2012; Nguyen,
2003a).
So what should Vietnam do to overcome the common challenges
faced by countries where English is considered a second language? How
can educational institutions at all levels equip their learners with proper
language competence that has influence on their earnings, job place-
ment, promotion, and so on (Allan et al., 2004; Chiswick, 2008; Pham,
2010). The next part of the chapter presents broad recommendations
for the teaching and learning of English in Vietnam, especially at higher
education institutions.
Assessment of language competence

First of all, it is now widely recognized by government institutions and
the general public that English is an important enabler for individuals
to pursue their social and economic goals. It is necessary to issue reg-
ulations that are both implementable and motivating, based on needs
assessment. The recent massive rolling out for assessing language com-
petence of English teachers in the scope of the National Language Plan
seems to be top-down in the sense that it requires all English language
teachers to be assessed (S.H., 2012). On the one hand, this might help
MOET maintain a database about the level of English language compe-
tence for English teachers. But what is missing is the motivating factor
to allow for teachers to flexibly choose their own path. Teachers might
take part in the assessment in order to secure a position at their respec-
tive schools rather than to genuinely wish to enhance their language
competence. In the long run, the assessment and training provision for
those who do not meet the requirement may only be able to fix the
problem of quantity (Kam, 2002).
It is suggested that the assessment criteria be widely publicized to all
educational institutions, and assessment conducted on a voluntary basis
when the target teachers see the practical need to be assessed and are
truly committed to the teaching of English as a career. In addition, sur-
veys should be conducted to obtain elementary and secondary teachers’
views about their perception of levels of proficiency needed to teach
English as a Foreign Language (EFL), similar to what has been done
with elementary teachers in Korea, Japan and Taiwan (Butler, 2004).
Such surveys will enable authorities to make informed decisions about
teacher development instead of top-down decision to use the CEFR for
everyone.
Teaching methodology
Second, there should be a thorough review of teaching methodology
to produce a guidebook for trainers and teachers of English. It is agreed
among theorists that we cannot expect a one-size-fits-all model in teach-
ing methodology, because of the different study purposes of various
groups of learners and contextual factors (Pham, 2007). Unless there
is a change in the format of the English entrance examination for uni-
versity, we should not expect teachers at secondary level to completely
switch to CLT methodology in their teaching practice with focus on
listening and speaking. Similarly, we should not expect to train senior
scholars to be fluent in listening and speaking because they may only
need English to read materials. However, for university graduates, a
competent use of all four macro-language skills should be required,
and thus the communicative approach should be strongly promoted for
the teaching and learning of English at the tertiary level, especially at
teacher training institutions.
In short, for the time being, it is important to consider the appro-
priateness of teaching methodology to meet the diversified needs of
different groups of learners and the conditions (Pham, 2007). Note that
language methodologists have mixed views about the value of grammar
(Tomlinson and Dat, 2004). At the current stage of English teaching
and learning in Vietnam, it is a good idea to find a balance between
grammar-based and CLT methodologies.
Textbooks
Third, careful consideration should be given to the use and writing of
English textbooks. There is no single best model in East Asia countries
here. Although one cannot undervalue the importance of textbooks, it
is teachers who know how useful a textbook is, and how to use it (Wen-
Cheng et al., 2011), and they should be encouraged to take part in the
selection of textbook series (Meurant, 2010).
There may be a need for a uniform set of textbooks at the sec-
ondary school level due to the requirements of the national curriculum
and the national secondary school completion examination. In China,
for example, the series Junior English for China and Senior English
for China is adopted by the majority of secondary schools (Kam,
2002). In Vietnam, textbooks written by native speakers of English, and
Vietnamese writers, seem to struggle with sociolinguistic and sociocul-
tural issues (Dang, 2010; Kam, 2002). The series English for Vietnam
developed under the Business Alliance for Vietnamese Education (BAVE)
Project was one of many efforts to incorporate sociocultural aspects into

English language teaching at the school level. At the tertiary level, more
flexibility has been given to higher education institutions to choose
what textbook to use. More attention should be paid to training the
lecturers on how to make the most use of it (Wen-Cheng et al., 2011).
Test validity
Fourth, more focus should be given to testing and assessment. The
biggest challenge does not lie in the identification of levels that each tar-
get groups of users should reach; it is the enforceability of government
authorities that matters. The CEFR has been chosen to set standards
for assessing learners’ language competence. Some English teachers are
sent overseas to be trained in test development skills. However, it is
commonly known in Vietnam that the administration of assessment
events is questionable, and rather subjective. With the exception of the
national entrance examination to universities, most of the other testing
and assessment events suffer from a phenomenon called ‘favouritism’.
Test takers use their relationship advantage or even power to intervene
with the results. Efforts should be made to gradually change the mind-
set of both testers and testees about the validity of tests and assessments.
Priority should be given to test validity.
This is a big challenge, given the cultural aspects of interpersonal
relationships in Vietnam.
Teacher motivation and self-awareness

Fifth, teachers should be motivated, and learners should be self-
motivated, in their teaching and learning of English. For economic
reasons, many teachers of English have to teach extra hours to make
ends meet, especially those in big cities. They do not have the time
and energy to create enjoyable learning lessons for learners in for-
mal contexts. For many schoolteachers, completing their lesson plan
is considered a job done well. Their work is also affected by factors
like class size, lack of facilities and mismatch between the curriculum
and learners’ personal study goals. It is important to encourage local
English teachers to make their formal English lessons more interesting
and motivating.
Teachers should be supported academically to self-reflect so as to iden-
tify factors that impact their motivation in teaching. Issues of financial
support through salary or other means have been debated in different
forums. While waiting for a possible breakthrough in the reform of the
single salary schedule, which is an international norm, a performance-

based approach could be instrumental in raising teachers’ motivation
(Sclafani, 2009).
Student motivation to learn

Sixth, many learners of English do not see the link between their current
study and future opportunities. They blame the lack of an English-
use environment for their inability to have good command of English,
which unfortunately is true. As in other countries where English is a
foreign language, it is difficult to create a natural English-speaking envi-
ronment (Chen and Goh, 2011). In addition, it is not easy for those
who graduate with a Bachelor’s degree specializing only in English to
find a good job. Vietnam is suffering from economic turmoil, which has
negative impact on the employment market.
While the teacher’s strategies in motivating students are important,
it is necessary to encourage students to have high self-efficacy in order
to have high learning outcomes (Hsieh and Kang, 2010). And students
need to learn to be ready when an opportunity presents itself. Research
on successful learners in Vietnam, who become bright due to their
self-motivated learning process, might be beneficial and provide useful
examples for others.
Internet-based learning community

Finally, with the development of information and communication tech-
nologies, especially the Internet, it is recommended that an online
structured learning community for teachers and learners of English
be created and maintained, as in South Korea (Tollefson, 2001). Cur-
rently, there are a few online courses to foster English language learning
in Vietnam such as tienganh123 (http://www.tienganh123.com), glob-
aledu (http://www.globaledu.com.vn), English Discoveries Online (http:
//edo.hanu.vn). One of the main attributes of online learning is its flex-
ibility: anytime, anywhere (Keengwe and Kidd, 2010). However, in the
context of Vietnam where learners’ autonomy is still limited and classes
are of big size (Dang, 2010; Le, 2011), more research is needed to under-
stand better the characteristics of online learners in their interaction
with content, peer and their instructor (Moore, 1993).
Technology alone does not enhance learning and teaching (Keengwe
and Kidd, 2010). It is the perception of leadership, and the teaching
staff, among other things, that are the driving factors in enhancing the
quality of online language learning (Dang et al., 2012). But technology is
a good aid for language learning, a form of mobility that is very flexible
to use. Persistent efforts are needed on the part of both teachers and
learners to make online English language learning effective in practice.
Conclusion
Over different periods under foreign aggression and colonization,

Vietnam has accommodated itself to the languages of the aggressors and
colonizers, and at the same time persistently built up its own language
to maintain national identity and characteristics. The use of foreign
languages such as Chinese, Russian, French and English has been flex-
ible and practically adapted to serve the country’s immediate needs of
the time.
However, since Đổi Mới, the country’s language policies have not
been effectively planned and realized so as to boost the language pro-
ficiency of its people, especially in the English language, to the extent
necessary. Although an official survey has not been done to assess the
level of competence in using English in Asia, it is generally recog-
nized that Vietnamese people are far behind countries like Singapore,
Malaysia, the Philippines and India in the use of English, especially
in listening and speaking skills. It is hoped that with the successful
implementation of the National Plan for ‘Teaching and Learning Foreign
Languages in the National Educational System in the Period 2008–2020’,
Vietnam will make a leap in an effort to equip its people, especially the
young, with a comparative level of competence in using foreign lan-
guages, notably English. The teaching and learning of English should
be made flexible so that teachers and learners find the most effec-
tive paths for their practical needs. Investment from the government
and supports from donors are important, but in order to level up and
maintain English competence for Vietnamese people, it is necessary to
create an environment in which each person sees the practical needs in
studying the language. An understanding of practical needs of different
groups of learners will help decision-makers to promulgate sound lan-
guage policies to serve Vietnam’s industrialization, modernization and
international integration process.
Part III
Extending the Boundaries
9
Research in Universities
Hương Thi. Lan Nguyễn
Introduction
The development of a higher education system depends heavily on its

national policy environment. So does the advancement of a national
academic research system. Whether the university research system of a
particular country can develop relies significantly on how favourable
its overall research policy environment is. In systems characterized
by strong state control of higher education institutions, and the rel-
atively late development of university research, the national policy
environment plays an even more important role.
In Vietnam, prior to the 1990s, research used to be implemented
exclusively in research institutes outside universities. Over the past
decades, the government has encouraged universities to take up research
as a core mission and to improve their research performance. However,
it appears that so far this expectation has been met only modestly.
This chapter critically examines the emerging university research pol-
icy environment in Vietnam. In doing so, first, the study reviews some
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
and Asian and Pacific developing countries’ policies for university
research. This review serves as the basis for analysing national poli-
cies for university research in Vietnam. Then, the chapter provides a
general description of Vietnamese national policies for research devel-
opment, the country’s human resources and organizational structure
for research, research funding and funding allocation mechanisms and
the performance of science and technology (S&T) activities. Next, the
chapter reviews government policies for promoting university research
and research performance.
187
188 Research in Universities
Finally, by relating back to the research policy environment of the

OECD countries and those of the Asian and Pacific developing coun-
tries and of Vietnam, the chapter draws conclusions on the emerg-
ing university research policy environment in Vietnam and provides
recommendations on how the situation can be improved.
Policy instruments for promoting research in

the OECD countries
The leading OCED nations are implementing new policy instruments

in order to improve the effectiveness of their academic research enter-
prises. Dill and Vught (2010) analysed the impact of public policy on
the knowledge economies and higher education systems of eight highly
developed OECD countries. The authors found three major groups of
policies that governments use to promote university research: legal pol-
icy instruments (applied in Finland, the United Kingdom, the United
States, Germany and Japan); financial policy instruments (introduced
in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany,
Australia and Canada) and information policy instruments (used in
Germany, Canada, Japan, Finland, Australia and the Netherlands).
Legal policy instruments

Legal policy instruments are strong tools used by governmental actors
to assert their formal authority. In order to improve the quality and pro-
ductivity of academic research and link academic knowledge to social
economic development, governments shift from direct regulation of
inputs, processes, and outputs to framework setting and ‘remote con-
trol’ mechanisms to provide more space for university entrepreneurial
action in service to society.
For example, new legislation in Finland and Japan provides greater lat-
itude to respond to market opportunities. The United Kingdom’s Higher
Education Acts (1988, 1992) altered the government relationship to
universities from subsidizing to contracting. Regulatory reforms have
been implemented to increase intellectual property rights options in the
United States, Germany and Japan.
Financial policy instruments

Financial instruments reflect the ‘power of treasure’ and have become
increasingly dominant means of steering within national innovation
policies. Allocation is increasingly focused on competitive funding,
performance funding, matching and indirect cost reimbursement.
Hương Thi. Lan Nguyễn 189
For example, in most nations there has been a shift in the bal-
ance within dual funding models (the combination of general uni-
versity funding with competitive research grants) towards an increase
in the proportion of funding allocated through competition. Perfor-
mance funding has been increasingly emphasized in the Netherlands
and the United Kingdom. In this model, core institutional funding for
research is fully determined by a formula based on research publica-
tions and citations, research doctoral graduates and competitive grants
received. Direct funding through competitive tenders is used in Japan
and Germany. Matching grants instruments are applied in Canada, the
Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Full costing mechanisms are used
in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Information policy instruments

Information instruments are used to send out messages, launch ideas,
ask for responses, report on processes and conditions, identify priori-
ties and assure quality and accountability. This model of instrument is
playing an increasingly important role.
Examples of information instruments are the identification of ‘excel-
lence’ in Germany, Canada, Japan and Finland; the assessment of qual-
ity in the United Kingdom’s Research Assessment Exercises, Australia’s
Research Quality Framework and Excellence of Australian Research, the
German Science Council, and the US National Research Council; audits
of quality management in Australia and the Netherlands; and bench-
marking of innovation performance in the European Union’s (EU’s)
Open Method of Coordination.
Dill and Vught (2010) stress that the combination of shifts in use
of policy instruments can have a major impact on higher education
and research institutions, for example, more emphasis on institu-
tional strategies, more corporate type of organization, more institutional
research specialization and concentration of capacities and resources,
higher productivity in publications and graduates, stronger search for
extra funding, stronger entrepreneurial culture and knowledge transfer,
more patents, licences, start-ups, also more ‘soft’ knowledge transfer and
some restriction on the free availability of research results and tools.
Asian and Pacific developing countries’ policies
The availability of sophisticated policy instruments for university

research is rarely a feature of Asian developing countries. There are two
main reasons for this situation. One is the focus of the Asian developing
universities’ mission on teaching and basic issues such as equity, access,

and efficiency (Altbach, 2004, cited in Meek and Suwanwela, 2006). The
other is Asian academic cultures that are unfavourable to doing research.
In many countries in the region the infrastructure, organizational,

and work structures, incentive systems among others are not hos-
pitable to research. For example, faculty member’s work conditions
typically involve heavy teaching responsibilities and research can
only be undertaken over and above the teaching requirement. Libra-
ries, physical facilities and other learning resources lean towards
instructional needs and do not support the specialized require-
ments for sustainable higher-level research programmes. Curricula
emphasize the development and mastery of professional knowl-
edge, and skills instead of developing . . . analytic, critical, and creative
thinking skills. Instruction emphasizes the consumption of research
knowledge rather than problem posing and development of new
knowledge.
(Bernardo, 2004, p. 1, cited in Meek and Suwanwela, 2006)
In short, the main purpose of higher education until recently has been
to provide highly skilled labour forces, not to do research. Asian aca-
demic traditions do not fully support meritocracy and competition,
which is fundamental to research development. Compared to the OECD
countries, the Asia Pacific developing countries are generally at a lower
stage in relation to research development in general, and higher educa-
tion research in particular (OECD, 1998). Nonetheless, some countries
in the region have started to develop different strategies to enhance
knowledge production.
National initiatives
In a pioneering book on national perspectives of knowledge production

and research in higher education in the Asia Pacific region, Meek and
Suwanwela (Meek, 2006) found that in all of the countries, research
management and knowledge transfer have become important issues
at both the sector and institutional levels. Apart from highly devel-
oped countries like Japan and Australia that are not only regional
but also international leaders in research performance, other coun-
tries such as China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand have also
implemented strong policies to promote knowledge production in their
China
China has taken robust steps to improve its higher education
research. In the early 1950s universities did not undertake much
research, as research was done in separate research institutes. After the
mid-1970s China’s leaders, in particular Deng Xiaoping, realized the
importance of universities taking part in research. In the 1980s and
1990s, the Chinese government implemented a number of reforms in
its systems of science and education. The essence of those reforms is to
make China’s research organizations directly serve the needs of national
economic development (Xue, 2008).
In education, the most notable programmes have been Project 211,
designed to strengthen approximately 100 institutions of higher edu-
cation and key disciplinary areas seen as national priorities for the
twenty-first century, which started in 1995, and the Project 985, a con-
structive project for founding world-class universities that commenced
in 1998. The most noteworthy features of these reforms related to
research have been a soar in investment in university research and the
use of competitive funding mechanisms. Over two decades, financial
contributions to scientific research in universities have increased more
than 30 times, from 590 million yuan in 1985 to 21.9 billion yuan in
2002. Universities have markedly increased their numbers of research
projects, national invention awards and research papers.
Universities have become a major force in China’s national scientific
research. The two heated debates in China now are the relationship
between scientific research and teaching in universities and the devel-
opment of high-tech industries and science parks in universities (Yu,
2006).
Indonesia
Although Indonesia has faced a number of burning issues in building a
sustainable research culture in higher education, the country has devel-
oped and implemented impressive policy innovations to improve the
situation.
The system faces problems common to developing higher education
contexts, such as disparity in research capacity across universities and
fields, poor research culture, limited and unpredictable research fund-
ing, poor research management, lack of a national research umbrella
organization, low number of publications, low appreciation of intel-
lectual property rights and limited cooperation with industry and
international institutions (Koswara and Tadjudin, 2006). To solve these
problems, the country has implemented various new policies from the
mid-1990s onwards. The different measures range from establishing a
research culture by applying a competitive research grant scheme to
supporting dissemination of research findings.
The University Research for Graduation Education (URGE) appears to
be the most remarkable. URGE’s ten subordinate programmes’ objectives
are to improve graduate programmes, enhance competitive funding for
graduate education and university research, build up selection processes
for grants and fellowships, incorporate university research and graduate
training and attract highly qualified candidates for graduate educa-
tion. These initiatives have significantly helped to improve institutional
research capacity building.
The Philippines
Fully aware of the undesirable higher education research culture and
environment, the Philippines has developed a number of national
research policies since 1998. However, the impact of these policies has
not been optimized and a number of problems are yet to be resolved.
Under the Higher Education Act of 1994, the Commission on
Higher Education was founded to formulate and recommend devel-
opment plans, policies, priorities, programmes and research on and
in higher education in general including policies on higher education
research. The Commission developed a ten-year National Higher Educa-
tion Research Agenda (NIERA) for 1998 to 2007. The NIERA delineates
policies, priorities and procedures for the encouragement and support
of research in higher education institutions in the Philippines. It defines
higher education research goals, elements of the higher education
research framework and priority research areas. The higher education
research framework provides general policy statements for the devel-
opment of a culture and environment for research, policy directions
for research management and administration, technical assistance pro-
grammes for research and funding for higher education research and
several intervention strategies to increase the quality and quantity of
research outputs of higher education institutions.
In spite of having such policies in place, higher education research in
the Philippines remains suboptimal due to lack of funds and human cap-
ital. The problems of research in higher education in the country revolve
mainly around the research capability of institutions. It is suggested that
different higher education stakeholders should work together so that the
goals of university research can be achieved (Salazar-Clemena, 2006).
Thailand
The need for research in Thailand was recognized in the country’s first
national Economic Development Plan in 1959. The National Research
Council was established in 1961. Three independent agencies for the
promotion of research were established in 1993: the Thailand Research
Fund, National Science and Technology Development Agency and the
Institute of Health Services Research. In 2003, a new Comprehensive
Research Support Scheme was introduced to provide for large vision-
ary research and development (R&D) ventures according to national
priorities.
The need to accelerate research activities at Thai universities was
raised in the early 1970. However, only about 17 per cent of the total
budget for research goes to universities.
Summary
As a result of the increasingly important role that academic research
plays in the knowledge economy, countries worldwide have developed
diverse national policies to promote university research (Arimoto, 2006;
Cummings, 2006; Dill and Vught, 2010; Harman, 2005, 2006; Kleeman,
2003; Koswara and Tadjudin, 2006; Meek, 2006; Meek and Suwanwela,
2006; Vessuri and Teichler, 2008; Xue, 2008; Yu, 2006). However, these
policies differ greatly between the more developed Anglo-Saxon and
large continental European countries and the less developed countries
such as some of those in East Asia.
The OECD countries already have a complete national innovation
policy framework. They concentrate on selecting the best instruments in
order to meet the demands of the knowledge economy. Most of the Asia
Pacific developing countries are still at the stage of completing their pol-
icy framework for research capacity building. This situation may merely
reflect a natural evolution of research policy. However, it can be argued
that if research continues to be neglected in developing countries, the
gap between the developed and the developing countries will become
even wider, especially in today’s knowledge economy. Therefore, appro-
priate policies must be framed to enhance research and development in
developing country contexts.
Vietnam’s national policies for research development
Before the country’s reunification in 1975, Vietnam did not have a sys-
tematic national policy for research. Since 1975, Vietnam has strongly
confirmed the critical role of S&T through a series of national policy

documents.
The Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam states: ‘Science
and technology play a key role in the country’s socio-economic develop-
ment’ (Quốc hô.i, 1992). This key role has also been repeatedly affirmed
by the Vietnamese Communist Party – the exclusive leading party of the
country – via its successive Resolutions Congresses VI (1986), VII (1991),
VIII (1996), IX (2001), X (2006), XI (2011). In particular, at the eighth
Communist Party Congress in 1996, Vietnam set the aim of becoming
an industrial country by 2020, and, accordingly, research and technol-
ogy was positioned as the foundation and motivation for the country’s
industrialization and modernization. Most recently, in 2012 the Resolu-
tion of the sixth Party Congress course XI focused purely on developing
S&T to serve the work of industrialization and modernization (Ban chấp
hành trung ương, 2012). This Resolution states the development and
application of S&T should be a top national policy and one of the most
important drivers of socio-economic development and national defence.
Over the years, the Vietnam National Assembly has passed a num-
ber of laws to manage the S&T portfolio. These include the Law of
Science and Technology 2000, the Law of Intellectual and Copyright
2005 (revised in 2009), the Law of Technology Transfer 2006, the Law of
Standards and Technical Specification 2006, the Law of Goods Quality
2007, the Law of Nuclear Power 2008, the Law of Hi-Tech 2008 and the
Law of Measures 2011. In addition, a Strategic Plan for the Development
of Science & Technology 2011–2020 has been approved, and a revised
version of the 2000 Law of Science and Technology has been drafted.
In short, S&T is expected to play a vital role in Vietnam’s national
development. Vietnam has also developed a legal system to manage its
research and development activities. However, compared to other more
advanced Asian countries’ and the OECD countries’ policies mentioned
above, Vietnam has only provided a leeway for S&T organizations to
operate. It is yet to provide these organizations with strong information
and financial incentives to develop.
Human resources and organizational structures
Human resources
Vietnam has 4.2 million inhabitants with a post-secondary qualifica-
tion. Of these people, 24,000 hold a doctoral qualification and 101,000
have a master’s degree. The number of people directly involved in doing
research is 62,000, equivalent to 7 for every 10,000 people.
The proportion of people doing research in S&T represents

42 per cent, in agriculture 25 per cent, in the social sciences and
humanities 13 per cent, in the medical sciences 11 per cent, and in the
natural sciences 9 per cent. Of these, 9803 doctors and 30,135 master’s
degree holders are from universities (Bô. Giáo du.c và Đào ta.o, 2012, as
cited in T.T.H, Tran, personal communication, 9 April 2013).
Organizational structure
As of 2013, Vietnam had over 1600 R&D organizations (T.T.H, Tran, per-
sonal communication, 09 April 2013). The organizational structure is
presented in Figure 9.1.
Vietnam has two national research academies: Vietnam Academy for
Social Sciences and Vietnam Academy for Science and Technology. As
of 2013, the former had a total of 31 research institutes and centres;
the latter had 37. These two academies are the two national Centres of
Research Excellences. Both of them report directly to the Prime Minister.
At the ministry level, ministries often have several research institutes
that do research to inform policy making for that particular portfolio.
As of 2013, there were a total of 433 such institutes. Some large min-
istries may have large research institutes, also called ‘academies’. For
example, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has two
Academies. The Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences has a total
of 18 research institutes and centres. The Vietnam Academy of Forest
Sciences consists of 13 research institutes and centres.
At the provincial level, each province also has a number of research
institutes undertaking research needed for provincial development.
There were over 413 such organizations in 2013. Additionally, there are
over 340 R&D institutes belonging to the Vietnam United Science and
Technology Associations and its members. There are also a number of
R&D centres owned by businesses. These represents just 5.3 per cent of
the total number of research organizations (Ca and Hung, 2008).
Alongside this system of research institutes, there are a small num-
ber of research institutes and centres from Vietnamese universities, just
11.1 per cent of the total number of research organizations (Ca and
Hung, 2008). Due to historical factors, they are not considered to be the
main actors in the national research and technology system. As noted,
following the Soviet model, universities used to be places for teach-
ing and learning only, while research institutes used to conduct only
research. During the last three decades, although universities have taken
up research, the system of research institutes still exists and takes most
of the national research funding.
196
Prime Minister
Ministry of science
and technology
Universities/Colleges Research institutes
Provincial Vietnam national Ministry of education Other research

Vietnam academies Ministry X,Y,Z Enterprises
committees universities and training agencies
Research institutes Universities/Colleges Universities/Colleges Universities/Colleges Universities/Colleges Universities/Colleges Private/NGOs
Research institutes Research institutes Research institutes Research institutes Research institutes Research institutes Others
Figure 9.1 Organizational structure of the S&T system in Vietnam

Source: Author.
Research funding and funding allocation mechanisms
As a new lower middle income country, Vietnam has a low level of

research funding. In 2011, the total investment in R&D in Vietnam
accounted for about 1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). State
funding made up about 65 per cent of this, and this expenditure con-
stituted 2 per cent of the total state budget. Vietnam plans to increase
this investment in R&D to 1.5 per cent of GDP in 2015, more than 2.0
per cent GDP in 2020 and about 3.0 per cent GDP in 2030 (Ban chấp
hành trung ương, 2012).
Of the 2 per cent of the state budget allocated for R&D, only about
three-fifths was actually spent for research. The remaining part was allo-
cated to all of the ministries and provinces by the Ministry of Planning
and Investment for investment in development. The majority of the
research funding was spent on paying salaries for more than 60,000
employees of all state-owned research institutes throughout the coun-
try. Only about 10 per cent of the total R&D funding was spent on
doing research through various research projects carried out from local
to national levels (Ha, cited in Quân, 2012).
In relation to funding mechanisms, although Vietnam has shifted
from a centrally planned to a market economy, R&D activities are still
carried out based on the old rules of a centrally planned economy
(Quân, 2012). The country allocates its R&D funding to administrative
bodies based on their annual plans. Every year, all state-funded research
activities planned for the next year must be approved by 31 July so that
all of the estimated costs can be added to the annual total state budget
plan. The R&D plan is reported to the government, which then reports
to the Congress for approval. Once the Congress approves the annual
budget plan, usually in November, the Prime Minister allocates fund-
ing to various ministries and provinces at the beginning of the New
Year. These ministries and provinces then allocate their research funding
to the research institutes that they manage. These procedures are con-
sidered inefficient because they are time-consuming, complicated and
demotivating to researchers (Quân, 2012).
As a consequence of this funding mechanism, research funding in
Vietnam is highly dispersed. Table 9.1 provides the example of planned
funding for 2013. Although the largest amount of funding was allocated
to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), it only accounted
for 29.3 per cent of the total state R&D expenditure plan. Direct gov-
ernment research expenditure for higher education institutions made
up a very small proportion. Only 5.6 per cent of state R&D expenditure
Table 9.1 Government organizations with highest estimated expenditure for

R&D in 2013
Nos. Institutions Total Total R&D R&D spending Share of

organization expenditure as share of total state
expenditure (million VND) organization R&D
(million VND) expenditure expenditure
(per cent) (per cent)
1 Ministry of Science 1,581,930 1,260,780 79.7 29.3

and Technology
2 Ministry of 8,575,151 693,540 8.1 16.1
Agriculture and
Rural Development
3 Vietnam Academy 784,000 555,110 70.8 12.9
of Science and
Technology
4 Ministry of 1,963,600 307,140 15.6 7.1
Industry and
Commerce
5 Vietnam Academy 397,330 282,490 71.1 6.6
of Social Sciences
6 Ministry of 6,479,140 239,060 3.7 5.6
Education and
Training
7 Ministry of Natural 2,633,552 230,080 8.7 5.4
Resources and
Environment
8 Ministry of Health 8,310,977 119,670 1.4 2.8
9 Ministry of Civil 2,397,992 81,260 3.4 1.9
Engineering
10 Vietnam National 925,850 73,090 7.9 1.7
University, Hồ Chí
Minh City
11 Vietnam National 679,960 68,640 10.1 1.6
University, Hanoi
12 Ministry of 12,320,450 58,630 0.5 1.4
Transportation
Source: Adapted from Bô. Tài Chính–Ministry of Finance (2013). Appendix 07/CKTC–NSNN.
The central expenditure plan of ministries and central agencies by expenditure areas and
expenditure tasks are based on the state budget plan 2013, issued in accordance with Deci-
sion No. 3299/QĐ–BTC, dated 27 December 2012, by the Minister of Finance on disclosure
of the state budget plan for 2013.
was allocated to universities managed by the Ministry of Education and

Training (MOET). Each of the two national universities was given less
than 2 per cent of the total state budget.
To innovate research funding mechanisms in Vietnam, the National
Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) was
founded by Decree 122/2003/NĐ-CP of the Government of Vietnam
and officially started operation in 2008. NAFOSTED’s main mission

is to make research activities in Vietnam integrate well with inter-
national research norms and practices. NAFOSTED has been man-
dated to establish research centres that meet international standards
and encourage international cooperation to help Vietnamese scientists
apprehend international research knowledge. Most importantly, this
organization is committed to increasing the number of international
peer-reviewed publications published in Thomson-Reuters journals by
Vietnamese researchers. For a researcher to be funded by NAFOSTED,
a prerequisite is to have at least one international peer-reviewed
publication.
This policy is considered to be a ‘revolution’ in research management
in Vietnam. It is well perceived by those who are more ‘international’-
oriented researchers. However, because funding allocated by NAFOSTED
accounts for only a very modest proportion of the total state budget
for research, NAFOSTED is yet to make a strong impact on the research
culture of the whole system.
Performance of S&T activities
In general, as in any developing country with a factor-driven economy,

reliant mainly on low-skilled labour and natural resources, Vietnam’s
R&D performance is poor.
Ca and Hung (2008) examine the evolving role of the Vietnamese
academic institutions in the knowledge economy. In terms of research,
Vietnamese academic institutions have been very useful in bring-
ing technological advancement in traditional areas such as agricul-
ture and forestry, and in economically dynamic regions of the coun-
try, particularly in the south. For example, the Rice Institute of
Mekong River Delta has produced more than 80 per cent of the
rice varieties for the Mekong River Delta. The Institute of South-
ern Fruit Trees has been the main source of providing fruit tree
cultivation methods for farmers. Agriculture-related academic institu-
tions have been important in the success of Vietnam’s agricultural
production.
However, Vietnamese academic institutions play a very marginal
role in providing innovative and technical solutions for other indus-
tries. In fields like engineering and business, only 10 per cent of the
enterprises rely on Vietnamese academic institutions as an important
source for innovative ideas (Nguyen Vo Hung and Nguyen Thanh Ha,
2003, cited in Ca and Hung, 2008). Commenting on the changes in
the academic system in Vietnam, Ca and Hung (2008) suggest that

although reforms in the S&T sector started early following the reforms
in economic activities, changes in the S&T sector lag behind those in
the economic sector. Due to a lack of supporting institutions and com-
mitments, efforts at restructuring the system have failed to deliver the
expected outcomes. For example, S&T organizations have the right to
have commercial contracts with economic entities and to establish their
own centres for commercial purposes (Hô.i đồng bô. trưởng, 1992a).
However, results are very limited.
T. V. Nguyen and Pham (2011) used bibliometric data from the
Institute of Scientific Information to analyse the number of scien-
tific articles published in international peer-reviewed journals between
1991 and 2010 for ten Southeast Asian countries: Vietnam, Cambodia,
Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia,
Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines and Singapore. The study found that
during the 20-year period, scientists from Vietnam published only about
6.5 per cent of the total 165,020 original articles published by all ten
countries. During 1966–2011, on average, the number of scientific peer-
reviewed articles indexed in Web of Science from Vietnam increased by
13 per cent annually. This rate of development is equivalent to that of
Thailand (12 per cent), Malaysia (11 per cent), Indonesia (12 per cent),
and higher than that of the Philippines (7.5 per cent) but lower than
that of Singapore (15 per cent).
However, regarding the actual number of publications, from 1970 to
2011, the total number of publications from Vietnam was 10,745. This
output accounts for only 22 per cent that of Thailand, 27 per cent that
of Malaysia and 11 per cent that of Singapore. Interestingly, regarding
research areas, during this period (1966–2011) the majority of these
publications (68 per cent) were in biomedicine (40 per cent), physics
(15 per cent) and mathematics (14 per cent). In the cases of other impor-
tant areas such as chemistry, materials sciences and engineering, each
area only represents 4–5 per cent of the total publications. Additionally,
in terms of the correlation between the knowledge economy index and
scientific output, Vietnam was ranked in the third group, only before
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Brunei, which were in the fourth group.
In evaluating the current situation of R&D in Vietnam, the
Vietnamese Communist has commented:
Science and technology have been separated from and not yet
become a driver for the national socio-economic development. The
market for science and technology is still primitive. There is not an
effective link between research, training, and production. Investment
in science and technology is very limited and not effective. The

technologies are out-dated and slowly innovated.
(Vietnamese Communist Party, 2010)
Generally, even though research is stressed as playing a very impor-

tant role in the industrialization and modernization of the country,
research capacity in Vietnam is very poor and research tends to be
only loosely connected to the needs of the productive sector. In this
context, Vietnam needs to rigorously review its national R&D system
and develop effective policies for promoting research. Research policies
should be developed in ways that encourage different research sectors to
boost their capacity and meet government’s needs.
Government policies for promoting university research
As stated, in the past, Vietnamese universities did not undertake much

research. However, recognizing the importance of the research mission
for universities, the Vietnamese government has officially encouraged
universities to add research to their portfolio. One of the government’s
first efforts was the decision in 1992 of the Chair of Committee of Min-
isters (the present Prime Minister) to restructure the network of Research
and Development Institutions. The Decision directs linking teaching
with research and thereby considers aligning universities with research
institutes to become a unified system. Following this Decision, univer-
sities are expected to be ‘conducting all types of research from basic
to applied, experimenting and applying research results into life and
production’ (Hô.i đồng Bô. trưởng, 1992b).
The universities’ research responsibilities have been further consid-
ered in the ‘University Charters’ in 2003, updated in 2010 (Thủ tướng
Chính phủ, 2003, 2010b). In its Higher Education Reform Agenda 2005,
the government again states ambitious aims for university research:
to strongly enhance the scope and effectiveness of science and tech-

nology activities in higher education institutions; leading universities
must become the nation’s strong institutions in terms of research;
income from science and technology activities, services and products
aim to account for 15 per cent of the institutions’ total revenue by
2010, and 25 per cent by 2020.
(Thủ tướng chính phủ, 2005)
Most recently, the Higher Education Law (Quốc hô.i, 2012) specified
three broad objectives for university research. Firstly, university research
improves the quality of higher education, research and technology capa-

bility for lecturers, managers and officials. Secondly, university research
aims at teaching and improving learners’ research capability, discover-
ing and nurturing research talents in order to meet the training needs
of highly skilled workforces. Thirdly, university research creates new
knowledge, technology and solutions to advance science and education,
contributing to socio-economic development, assuring national defence
and security.
Strengthening university research is also included in a number of
other national-level documents. For example, research performance and
management is stated to be one of the required standards for Vietnamese
university quality assurance (Bô. giáo du.c và đào ta.o, 2007). The task to
‘strengthen the management capacity and the effectiveness of research
at universities, greatly contribute to enhancing teaching quality and
serving socio-economic development’ is expressed in the Prime Minis-
ter’s order for the MOET to innovate higher education management for
the period 2010–2012 (Thủ tướng Chính phủ, 2010a). In a report at the
National Assembly’s seventh meeting in Hanoi in 2010, the Committee
of the Vietnam’s National Assembly proposed ‘innovating the mecha-
nisms, to create favourable conditions for higher education institutions
to strengthen their research and technology activities and effectiveness’
(Ủy ban thường vu. quốc hô.i, 2010).
Since 2004, the government has identified a group of 16 key uni-
versities (Chính phủ, 2004; Thủ tướng Chính phủ, 2008a, 2008b).
These include 2 national and 3 regional universities and 11 normal
universities specializing in various disciplines such as teacher educa-
tion, medical sciences, economics, agriculture and forestry, technol-
ogy and military forces. These universities are generally expected to
become leading institutions in Vietnam, especially in research. They
are given exclusive rights compared to the remaining higher education
institutions, such as being able to issue their own doctoral qualifica-
tions, delivering new training courses, appointing deans and heads and
recruiting staff members without being controlled by MOET. They are
also given more funding compared to the other universities. However,
it appears that no clear, systematic, long-term policies have been pro-
vided to actually turn these institutions into key institutions. Also,
few specific indicators for these institutions’ development have been
identified.
In addition, since 2006, Vietnam has planned to establish four new
world-class universities with support and sponsorship from the world’s
leading higher education countries. The Vietnamese German University

was established in 2008 in Hồ Chí Minh City, and the University of
Science and Technology in Hanoi was created in 2009 in a partner-
ship with the French government. The other two universities are still
being negotiated. These universities are expected to be ‘a new model,
high quality, that quickly reaches international standards’ (Trần Thi. Hà,
Director of Higher Education Department, MOET, as cited in Ha, 2009).
However, in practice, the first two universities have faced obstacles to
achieving these objectives due to a lack of facilities, unsustainable finan-
cial subsidization and especially a shortage of full-time, highly qualified
academic staff (Pham, 2013).
The Vietnamese authorities have issued different policies on uni-
versity research. Such documents are badly needed in the Vietnamese
higher education context. However, it appears that policies for devel-
oping university research are incoherent. According to Jamil Salmi, the
former World Bank adviser on tertiary education, there are three strate-
gies to create a world class university: build a new institution, upgrade
an existing institution and merge two or more existing institutions.
In Vietnam all three plans are under way: new universities such as
the Vietnamese–German University and the University of Science and
Technology Hanoi (USTH); an upgradation of the Vietnam Russian Uni-
versity from Le Quy Don University and a merger, as in the case of
Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and Vietnam National University,
Hồ Chí Minh. It is unclear which policy to build world-class research is
being implemented. The approach to university research in Vietnam is
fragmented, diluted and inconsistent.
In sum, no single unified policy has been developed for directing
and promoting research in Vietnamese higher education institutions.
In addition, at face value, these present policy documents include only
government’s very general expectations, rather than specific guidelines
for university research. It is unclear what kind of enabling environ-
ment the government creates for universities to develop their research
strategy or how research resources are allocated. As long as Vietnamese
universities enjoy only a very low level of institutional autonomy, this
policy environment is very likely to prevent university research from
thriving.
Performance of university research
Although universities have been encouraged to strengthen research, an

overview of the Vietnamese university research performance reveals that
Vietnamese universities have limited research capacity and low research

productivity and produce poorly utilized and irrelevant research.
Research capacity
Research capacity is very limited. As stated, firstly, the number of capa-
ble researchers is small. In the years 2008–2009, teachers with a PhD
qualification accounted for only 10.16 per cent and those with a mas-
ter’s qualification only 37.73 per cent of the total number of academic
staff (Ủy ban thường vu. quốc hô.i, 2010). Secondly, expenditure on R&D
is generally low. The total state budget spending for R&D in higher
education institutions over nine years (2001–2009) was 4812 million
Vietnamese dong (VND) (equivalent to US$ 229 million), only 9 per cent
of the total national budget for R&D. Meanwhile, the higher education
sector carried out 13.4 per cent of gross expenditure on R&D in Japan,
14.3 per cent in America, 22.5 per cent in the EU and about 27 per cent
in Australia (OECD, 2007). In Australia, Commonwealth Competitive
Research Funding block grants in 2008 alone were US$ 1.21 billion.
In Vietnam, of the 61 per cent of the state budget allocated for higher
education institutions only 4 per cent is spent on research (Ủy ban
thường vu. quốc hô.i, 2010).
Further, time for research is very limited. The number of teachers for
higher education only satisfies 60 per cent of the demand. The teacher/
student ratio in the year 2008–2009 was 1:28 (Ủy ban thường vu. quốc
hô.i, 2010). Lecturers generally have little time for undertaking research.
Research productivity
The volume of research publications from higher education institutions
in Vietnam is low. Studies on Vietnam universities’ research produc-
tivity consistently show that Vietnamese universities produce a limited
number of peer-reviewed international publications (PRIPs). In a study
comparing research performance of 11 Southeast Asian countries, Hien
(2011) reported that Vietnam’s total PRIPs has been less than that of
a single university in Thailand; 234 compared to 602 publications in
2007 (Hien, 2011). Domestic corresponding authors account for only
37 per cent of total PRIP. A majority of the Vietnamese PRIPs are in math-
ematics and theoretical physics. Although this study does not count
research publications purely produced by universities, as late develop-
ers in research, it is highly unlikely that universities produced a much
higher number of international publications than the other research
institutions. Even if this number were actually higher or accounted for
most of the overall productivity, it is still less than that of a single Thai
university.
Technology transfer seems to be extremely poor. There are great bar-
riers from both industries and universities that block this activity from
taking place (Harman and Le, 2010). While industries are not active in
renovating their technologies and not accustomed to seeking support
from universities, universities have poor research performance. There
is a lack of capacity, lack of demand and lack of institutional mech-
anisms for universities and industries to cooperate. Therefore research
commercialization can hardly take place. As a result, although the gov-
ernment set universities the goal of raising research revenue equivalent
to at least 15 per cent of institutions’ total revenue, by 2010, statistics
from the MOET show that, on average, only 4 per cent of total insti-
tutional revenue was generated from research and technology transfer
activities across seven university groups between 2006 and 2008.
Research utility and relevance

Vietnamese universities’ contribution to the socio-economic develop-
ment of the country is limited to the production of an educated labour
force rather than innovation. This may result from the fact that after
most of the research projects are finished, their resulting reports are
placed on the shelf, used for finance clearance, and contribute to the
measured performance of researchers applying for promotion to asso-
ciate professors or professors. This is a ‘substantial waste of national
budget’ (H. Nguyen, 2010).
Therefore, besides improving its research capacity, Vietnam also
urgently needs to ensure that research engages more effectively with
practice, to serve the needs of national socio-economic development.
Summary and conclusion
It is too early to know how effective have been the early moves
to build research capacity in Vietnam and to encourage commercial-
ization of research. However, the present policy framework does not
appear to be strong. The literature shows a sharp contrast between the
policies in Vietnam on the one hand and the national policies devel-
oped by countries in the OECD and the rising Asia Pacific nations
on the other hand. Countries from the OECD group such as Finland,
the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Australia and Canada
mostly have a comprehensive framework for national research devel-
opment including research enhancement at university. They are now
focusing on devising the most effective research strategies for research

and innovation. A number of the newly emerging countries have
research policies focused on boosting national research productivity
to meet the demand of knowledge in the knowledge era. Neverthe-
less, the majority of the developing countries in the Asia Pacific region
are still at the stage of building up a complete national legal frame-
work for research capacity building. Some developing countries, such as
Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, have implemented strategies to
boost research. Although outcomes have been observed, for research in
these countries to be fully developed, a number of problems still remain
to be tackled.
As a new lower middle income country, in developing university
research, Vietnam is lagging behind not only Northeast Asia and
Singapore but most of the above-mentioned Asia Pacific developing
countries. Since the country’s unification of the north and the south
in 1975, the country has consistently confirmed the important role of
S&T for national development. As a result, the country has developed
a complete legal structure for managing the S&T portfolio. A number
of laws have been passed to manage R&D development activities such
as Law of Science and Technology 2000, Law of Hi-Tech 2008 and most
recently the Law of Measures 2011. However, compared to the other
more advanced regional and international countries, these constitute
only the most basic legislative framework for the operation of S&T
activities.
The national framework for research development is not really moti-
vating. Although the country spends 1 per cent of its GDP for R&D,
this amount of funding is limited, especially given the heavy system
of state-owned research institutes subjected to line ministries. About
90 per cent of overall state research funding is spent on running this sys-
tem, mostly in paying salaries for a total number of over 66,000 tenured
staff. Only about 10 per cent is used for actual research projects. Rather
than using independent research councils, government administrative
bodies are largely in charge of allocating research funding. Rather than
employing competitive performance-based funding mechanisms, they
used plan-based averaging mechanisms to allocate block grant funding.
Bureaucratic and outdated procedures are often applied for allocating
project-based funding.
The conclusion that can be drawn from the emerging university pol-
icy research environment in Vietnam is that although research has
been assigned as a core mission of Vietnamese universities for more
than two decades, there have been almost no powerful and/or special
strategies, policies and processes put in place to enhance university

research. In other words, the policy research environment in Vietnam
may not necessarily be adequate or relevant for university research
development.
In building a more flexible, practical and mobile university research
system, this study suggests that Vietnam should critically evaluate the
research policy environment at the national level and research capac-
ity building at the institutional level. Then, following this evaluation,
the country should rely on the experiences of developing academic
research systems in both neighbouring and more advanced countries,
to develop a comprehensive national policy framework for accelerating
research. Given that universities in Vietnam have been at a disadvantage
because of being late in conducting research but, at the same time, uni-
versities are often a key knowledge creator, more favourable and specific
strategies should be developed to help them build research capacity and
gradually boost research performance.
Such measures may include investing heavily in existing research in
high-performing universities, conferring more autonomy to them and
allocating research funding based on performance rather than plans.
It will also be necessary to achieve a more productive division of
labour between research in the universities and research in the research
institutes.
However it is done, building university research is vital to the future
of the country. The ability of Vietnam to select, adapt and use knowl-
edge will be critical for sustained economic growth and improved living
standards.
10
Vocational Education and Training
Tiên Thi. Ha.nh Hồ1
Introduction
London (2011b) states that education in Vietnam has been seen as

‘an avenue to social mobility’. It can also function as ‘an obstacle
to such social mobility, as a giant sorting mechanism that generates,
reproduces, or transforms existing social inequalities’ (London, 2011b,
p. 3). Vocational education and training (VET), an essential component
of Vietnamese education, is playing an increasingly important role in
response to the national demand for a high-quality and skilled labour
force.
Vietnam is a wet rice civilization, and Vietnamese people popularly
pursued vocational learning at family workshops, or in traditional craft
villages. This traditional form of vocational training created a skilled
labour force for Vietnamese society and preserved the cultural values of
traditional craft villages in Vietnam. From ‘informal’ vocational train-
ing at traditional levels to the ‘formal’ vocational education system that
began in the nineteenth century, VET in Vietnam has changed its focus
over time in accordance with training needs, economic changes, poli-
cies and strategies. Aligning with globalization, VET in Vietnam is now
changing to keep pace with the development of the region and the
world.
The National Assembly of Vietnam passed the Education Law and
the Vocational Training Law in 2005 and 2006, respectively, to rec-
ognize vocational training as part of the national education system.
This chapter provides an overview of VET in Vietnam. It begins with
the importance of VET in the Vietnamese context, followed by a brief
description of the background of the VET sector. It then examines VET
flexibility and practicability, mobility and internationalization within
VET and concludes with a discussion on the reform of VET in Vietnam.
208
Tiên Thi. Ha.nh Hồ 209
Importance of vocational education and training in Vietnam
In recent years, the status of VET has been highlighted in both

developed and developing countries in response to the global econ-
omy, the pace of technological change and the era of knowledge
(Guthrie et al., 2009; Majundar, 2011; T.K.Q. Nguyen, 2010; Rauner
and Maclean, 2009). Globalization generates new demands for a high-
quality labour force empowered with new skills and knowledge. This
can be clearly seen in developing countries as they engage in modern-
ization and industrialization. Therefore, the shortage of skilled labour
needed to meet social requirements is a common issue in most emerg-
ing economies. Vietnam, where approximately 15 per cent of the labour
force is vocationally trained (Freire, 2011), is an example of this phe-
nomenon. Many research projects at both national and international
levels are being conducted to find good solutions and improvements
to vocational training in order to supply skilled workers. A fine exam-
ple is the Vietnam–Germany cooperation in Technical and Vocational
Education and Training, namely, the Project on Vocational Training
for the Agricultural Labour Force by 2020 and the Project for Train-
ing Soldiers in Vietnam (General Department of Vocational Training,
2012a). Aligning itself to global development, Vietnam has adopted the
principle of educational renovation, which includes vocational training;
offering new opportunities for the development of vocational training
(General Department of Vocational Training, 2012b). At the national
level, vocational research centres have been set up, such as the National
Vocational Research Institute (in 2008) conducted by the Ministry of
Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA). This raises the status and
importance of Vietnam VET in the present era because VET is seen
to contribute to solving labour shortages and providing society with
necessary skills.
Over the last decade, VET in Vietnam has attracted government atten-
tion and achieved economic success, thanks to the reform policy. The
government has recognized the importance of human resource devel-
opment and endeavoured to improve education and training. Reforms
have influenced curriculum development, management systems and
cooperation with international Technical and Vocational Education and
Training (TVET) institutes (TVET VN, 2008), and the network of TVET
institutions has spread throughout the country. By 2020, it is envis-
aged that the labour force will reach approximately 63 million of which
agriculture will account for 35–38 per cent; industry and construction,
31 per cent; and services, 27–29 per cent. Today, there are 44 million
210 Vocational Education and Training
trained human resources, including 34.4 million with vocational train-

ing (Vietnamese Government, 2012). Vocational training and research
on vocational training are seen as principal ways of providing the labour
force with the practical, flexible and mobile knowledge and skills that
Vietnam needs.
The Vocational Training Development Strategy of Vietnam by 2020,
approved by the Prime Minister on 29 May 2012, aims to train a high-
quality and skilled labour force across all forms of formal, informal and
non-formal education. The quality of vocational training is regarded
as a critical element in the socio-economic development of human
resources and is one of the three strategic breakthrough targets in the
Vocational Training Development Strategy of Vietnam by 2020 (Prime
Minister, 2012). This Strategy supports occasional training in different
learning sites and in a variety of forms of education, while encourag-
ing enterprises to take part in vocational training and to cooperate with
vocational institutions in curriculum design and training needs analysis
(Prime Minister 2012).
Background of the VET sector
Vietnam’s VET sector, which is now a part of the higher education

system, has changed rapidly over the last two decades. It has spread
throughout the country. Before 1987, there were over 200 technical and
vocational colleges and 125 vocational schools. They trained and sup-
plied hundreds of thousands of workers and technicians (Ministry of
Education and Training, 2006).
Nevertheless, there has long been an imbalance between demand
and supply in the labour force. Recent examples demonstrate the
problem. According to a research paper on the cooperation between
the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the
US Agency for International Development’s Vietnam Competitiveness
Initiative (USAID/VNCI) (2009), only 28 per cent of enterprises rated the
quality of vocational training provided by local government agencies
(MOLISA, Districts, Wards and Communes) as good or very good. At the
same time, 39 per cent of enterprises considered the quality of the labour
force as medium and the rest as low or very low (The Vietnam Provin-
cial Competitiveness Index PCI, 2009). Additionally, for 100,000 jobs
offered in 2009, only 6 per cent of job seekers satisfied the qualification
requirements and criteria demanded by recruiters (Bô., 2010).
The percentage of untrained labour is very high (64 per cent), while
78 per cent of youth aged 20–24 are considered unqualified for the job
market. Furthermore, in 2009 many enterprises in Hồ Chí Minh City

complained that they were unable to find qualified workers to fill 61,527
job vacancies, though the number of graduates from vocational insti-
tutes had increased. The imbalance between demand and supply in the
labour market is a major concern for policy makers, vocational training
providers and universities in Vietnam.
Why does this problem exist? When the Vietnamese economy moved
towards a market orientation, the TVET system was exposed as deficient
in supplying sufficient numbers of workers with the required skills to
meet industry’s needs. It meant that skills and knowledge learned in
TVET programmes were irrelevant and the industry had to take time
to retrain graduates. This may have been the reason why the number
of enrolments in TVET dramatically decreased, from 171,100 (1985) to
62,614 (1995) (World Bank, 2007). In contrast, enrolments into uni-
versities increased quickly. The decrease of VET enrolments caused an
imbalance in the labour force (MOET – Ministry of Education and
Training, 2006).
This would suggest that it is the qualification preference within
the Vietnamese society that leads to such an imbalance among its
workforce. The abundance of university graduates creates the converse
picture of lack of skilled workers. Vocational training is not always
the priority of students and their families. Only students who are
low-performing, unmotivated or fail university national entrance exam-
inations enter vocational institutions (ADB Evaluation Report, 2013;
Mac et al., 2012; Nguyen, 2012). However, as a result of reform poli-
cies and strategies for human resource development and VET quality
improvement promulgated by the Vietnamese government and author-
ities, TVET now shares in the success of the development of the country
and the value of VET is gradually increasing.
Modes of vocational training in Vietnam
Informal learning
As mentioned in the introduction, vocational training in Vietnam was
founded in the early years following the birth of the nation. The
primary form of VET in Vietnam was vocational training in family
workshops and traditional craft villages. This form of vocational train-
ing had been popular in Vietnam since early times. In this model,
masters simply transferred their knowledge and experience to young
vocational learners. This form of learning was more popular in past
decades when vocational schools were not widespread throughout all
areas of Vietnam, but the model is still widely practised. Many people in
Vietnam achieve their skills for future careers by participating in these
informal and family workshops. Some families, especially those from
suburban areas, allow their children to live with a master’s family while
undergoing training. Masters such as tailors, carpenters, hairdressers or
many owning workshops have the responsibility to train their voca-
tional learners to reach a standard to enable them to engage in chosen
careers. Fees for such training may be paid with farming products (for
example, ten baskets of rice) or with gold (for example, one or two rings
of gold) or by cash.
This mode of learning is seen as constituting ‘flexible specialization’,
‘transferable skills’ and ‘performance appraisals’, in which the desired
products are flexible and competent (Garrick, 1998). It has not only
contributed to the skilled manpower of Vietnamese society for many
centuries, it has also shaped current Vietnamese VET. Although the
Vietnamese economy has become increasingly developed and there are
now more formal forms of VET in every city of Vietnam, the informal
vocational training at family workshops is still chosen for a variety of
reasons such as financial issues, literacy requirements for public schools
and children leaving school at an early age.
Vocational training in this mode is popular in Vietnamese Confucian
tradition. However, there is no specific term for it. When discussing
non-formal learning in Vietnam, Tran Kiem (2003) explains that non-
formal learning in Vietnam should include the existence of informal
learning. The term ‘informal learning’ is not popular in Vietnamese
society and people are not familiar with it. Therefore, informal learn-
ing should be understood as a part of non-formal learning to avoid
any complexity. Frankly speaking, these terms are relatively ambigu-
ous in the Vietnamese language. The terms ‘non-formal’ [khong chinh
quy] and ‘informal’ [phi chinh quy] in Vietnamese language are nearly
the same in meaning (Tran Kiem, 2003). Informal learning is not offi-
cially recognized or mentioned in any official government documents,
or within the Vietnamese education system. Those documents just
mention formal education and non-formal education (Tran Kiem, 2003).
Non-formal learning
Another mode of VET learning in Vietnam is non-formal. This refers
to learning programmes conducted outside formal programmes (Tran
Kiem, 2003).
Nguyen (2007) defines non-formal learning as acquired education
sought outside of institutional programmes with the direct interaction
between learners and facilitators to satisfy individual requirements. He

argues that learning at community and distance education centres is
non-formal. Community learning centres at communes and village
centres in Vietnam have recently been established to provide short
vocational training courses for local labourers. As Tran Kiem (2003)
explains, non-formal learning and informal learning in the Vietnam
context coexist. Indeed, Colley, Hodkinson and Malcolm (2003 cited
in Hager and Halliday, 2006) argue that ‘it is not possible to separate
informal/non-formal learning from formal learning and in many ways
they are applicable and share broad agreement’ (p. 1).
Formal learning
Formal learning refers to learning happening within educational insti-
tutions with a structured curricula, and programmes recognized by
formal qualifications (Halliday-wynes and Francesca, 2009; Malcolm
et al., 2003; Marriam et al., 2007). Specifically, Nguyen (2007) explains
that formal learning is mainly undertaken within institutional settings
and taught by qualified teachers processing relevant majors and qual-
ifications equivalent to the level they teach. Tran Kiem (2003) argues
that formal learning refers to programmes conducted by institutions
at all levels (that is, primary schools, secondary schools, high schools,
universities, people-founded schools, private schools, colleges and voca-
tional schools). Formal learning must follow approved guidelines. These
embrace a uniformity of structure, student age classes, a standard cur-
riculum and evaluation. It is expected that these criteria should be
rigidly applied across all levels, to ensure standardization with the
purpose of ultimately achieving a universal standard (this means that
individuals cannot make changes to approved programmes) (Nguyen,
2007).
The initial formal form of vocational training was the vocational
schools established in Vietnam when the French colonists came. The
first three vocational schools were Saigon Vocational School, Hue Voca-
tional School and Hanoi Vocational School [Ecole Professionelle de Hanoi]
adopting the French model. Subsequently, a Soviet model was intro-
duced until, eventually, Vietnam settled on a national model which
is described in Figure 10.1. Under the Vietnamese model, students are
educated in technical and vocational training over a period of one to
four years, gaining knowledge and skills in both practice and theory.
Under the practical aspect of their training, students undertake their
apprenticeships at relevant workplaces over a period extending from a
week to several months.
In recent times, the national model has been supplemented with

advanced models of vocational training from developed countries. The
following institutions – Viet-Singapore Vocational College, Viet-Duc
(Vietnam–Germany) Vocational College, Viet-Phap (Vietnam–France)
Vocational College, Viet-My (Vietnam–America) Vocational College,
Viet-Nhat (Vietnam–Japan) Vocational College, Viet-Han (Vietnam–
Korea) Vocational College and Viet-Xo No. 1 (Vietnam–Soviet) Voca-
tional College – are among examples of advanced VET models operating
in Vietnam.
These colleges are supported by their respective countries and follow
models of the vocational colleges established within them. For exam-
ple, at the Vietnam–Germany Vocational College, students are offered
more chances to practise at workplaces and their training programmes
focus on practical knowledge and skills (http://caodangnghevdht.edu.
vn). Under the agreement between the governments of Vietnam and
Germany in supporting and evaluating the project programme, students
have access to new advanced teaching programmes as well as modern
facilities and infrastructure.
Governance of VET
According to the Law on Vocational Education (2006), the VET

sector includes vocational primary school training, vocational sec-
ondary school training and vocational college training, which are
directly managed by MOLISA. In addition, it also consists of tech-
nical upper secondary education, technical (professional) training
at the college level and technical training at the university level.
This technical (professional) VET sector is under the management of
MOET. The structure of the vocational education system is detailed in
Figure 10.1.
The complexity of governance in the Vietnamese education sys-
tem is clearly apparent in VET in Vietnam. In 2006, through the
Vocational Training Law, a new three-tier qualification structure was
introduced in MOLISA/GDVT. This consisted of the vocational ele-
mentary level provided in vocational training centres, the vocational
secondary level provided in secondary vocational schools, and the voca-
tional diploma level in vocational colleges. The General Department of
Vocational Training (GDVT) additionally runs programmes in technical
secondary schools, while technical and vocational programmes at the
secondary level provided in colleges and universities are under MOET’s
line management (TVET VN, 2008). At the central level, this system is
under the direct state administration of the Ministry of Education and
Technical and vocational system
(Postgraduate education)
Technical, technological, specialist skills universities

• 4–5 years (for technical, technological and specialist
skills training)
• 4–5 years (Technical teacher)
• 1–1.5 years (if from college-level 3)
(Junior) college Vocational college

3–4 years (for technical, and 1.5–2.5 years (training from skilled
specialist skills training – level 3) workers – level 2 – for person who has
upper-secondary education certificate)
The world of work

Technical upper Vocational-upper- Vocational Short-term
secondary education secondary training vocational training
• 1–2 years for education • 1–2 years • Short-term training
learners • 3–3.5 years (from (level 2 – under 1 year
graduated from lower-secondary skilled • Adult education for
upper-secondary education) workers) skills development
schools – graduate with for learners (including for those
• 2–4 years for vocational upper- graduated who have university
learners secondary certificate from degree and college
graduated from (academic skill is upper- certificates)
lower secondary equivalent to lower- secondary • National certificate
schools on professional
schools secondary education)
skills (level 1 – basic
skill)
Continuing Adults who Vocational training from

education centres desire to outside of institutional
(learners drop learn environment (family firms,
out or graduate professional workshops…)
from primary, skills or new
lower or upper skills
secondary
schools)
MOLISA’s management MOET’s management
Figure 10.1 Structure of vocational education in Vietnam

Source: Adapted from London (2011) and vocational training law (2006).
Training (MOET), MOLISA and other ministries such as the Ministry of

Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance. Local authorities also
control it at the local level (see Figure 10.2).
After the renovation of TVET programmes, the Prime Minister pro-
mulgated Decision No. 67/1998/QD-TTg, dated 26 March 1998, which
transferred the responsibility for secondary vocational training system
from MOET to MOLISA. Decree No. 33/1998/ND-CP of the govern-
ment, dated 23 May 1998, establishing the new GDVT, was issued a
few months after Decision No. 67/1998/QD-TTg. MOET retained the
responsibility for higher technical education.
However, responsibility for technical and vocational education still
remains with MOET, under the management of the Secondary Technical
and Vocational Education Department (STVED) of MOET. STVED as
regulated takes charge of such areas as building up national policies
MOLISA
GDVT (General
Line
department of Provinces
ministries 100%
vocational training)
foreign-
invested Enterprise Workshop
companies owners
Respective
departments
Vocational Vocational Teacher Vocational Vocational Vocational Vocational Family

schools schools training schools schools schools schools vocational
workshops
Figure 10.2 Management structure of vocational education system in Vietnam

Source: Adopted from Mac Van Tien (2002).
on TVET, designing strategic plans for TVET, promulgating managerial

regulations under its own authorities, planning TVET institutions sys-
tem, retraining teachers, managing core curriculum of different special
training programmes and developing national qualification frameworks
related to TVET. STVED has been renamed Technical and Vocational
Education Department (TVED) in order to be assigned more tasks and
responsibilities.
At the local level, Provincial Departments of Education and Train-
ing (DOET) administer Professional Offices, which are assigned to carry
out tasks of technical and vocational education administration and
management by MOET (MOET, 2006; TVET VN, 2008).
According to Decree No. 186/2007/ND-CP, dated 25 December 2007,
which regulated functions, responsibilities, authorities and structural
organization of MOLISA, the Ministry has almost overlapped respon-
sibilities with MOET. MOLISA’s main duties are planning vocational
colleges, vocational schools and centres; promulgating core curricu-
lum for vocational colleges, vocational schools, lists of training pro-
grammes, regulations on enrolment, testing, examination, graduation
recognition, degree and certificate templates; regulating standards and
procedures for quality auditing, principles and procedures to build up
national standard skills for VET; and having direct control and cooper-
ating with other ministries to guide policies for teaching and learning
of vocational training (Bô., 2007).
Other ministries such as the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry
of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Transport and Communica-
tions, and the Ministry of Defense also directly manage their own
vocational colleges, in which MOLISA training programmes and/or
MOET programmes must be delivered.
Private enterprises, family workshops and traditional craft villages also

join in vocational training and manage their own vocational institutes,
as shown in Figure 10.2. Private enterprises, nevertheless, are still under
supervision on training programmes by MOLISA or MOET depending
on their training delivery. Family workshops are totally managed by the
workshop’s owners.
This complicated governance and its associated overlapping duties
may lead to the VET sector being ineffective in the implementation of
policies, due to the overlap in duties. This complexity also affects the
VET financial management and financial forecasts.
Funding
VET funding and finance are mainly from the government budget,
vocational learners, enterprises and foreign funding. The government
budget, not including foreign government-provided ODA (Overseas
Development Assistance loans) is the most important financial source
for VET in Vietnam. This is based on the gross domestic product (GDP),
the budget allocation for each year, and the suggestions from the local
VET authorities and related ministries. The budget for VET increases
yearly, and has grown from approximately 1000 billion dongs in 2001
to 10,000 billion dongs in 2011 (Vietnam Vocational Training Report,
2011, 2013).
The vocational learner tuition fee at public and private vocational
institutions is also another source of VET funding and finance. For-
eign financial support under the projects for the VET development in
Vietnam such as those of the One ASEAN Development (OAD), World
Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a small amount but a
great help for VET in Vietnam. Such support contributes to improving
VET quality in Vietnam.
Quality assurance
In order to improve VET quality as well as encourage people to take

part in VET, many policies have been introduced to provide voca-
tional learners flexibility and opportunities for vocational training. The
recognition of quality accreditation is an important tool to improve
training quality. Many policies have been released, such as Decision
No. 08/2008/QĐ-BLĐTBXH, which came into being on 25th March
2008 by MOLISA regulating the procedures for VET quality accreditation
and Circular No. 42/2011/TT-BLĐTBXH, dated 29 December 2011, by
the Minister of MOLISA stipulating the procedures to carry out quality

assurance at vocational institutions. MOLISA established the Vocational
Accreditation Department and GDVT’s National Skills Testing and Cer-
tification Department. As quality accreditation has recently been put
into force, there are only a limited number of vocational institutions
accredited, specifically 2 per cent of vocational centres, 10 per cent
of vocational schools and 43 per cent of vocational colleges (Vietnam
Vocational Training Report, 2011, 2013). Accredited elements include
training objectives, management, organization, teachers and managers,
teaching and learning, curriculum, supporting services such as library,
facilities, and support for vocational learners, financial management.
These criteria are the same with all accredited levels (vocational centres,
vocational schools and vocational colleges).
As the accreditation is new, operating only since 2008, volunteering
for accreditation is a high priority for all vocational institutions. Their
purpose is to confirm their brand name and their vocational training
quality. Since 2011, the new VET quality accreditation system has been
in preparation, based on the experiences of the Australian system and
the American system. This new framework, which will underpin the
development and implementation of a programme accreditation sys-
tem, will be carried out in VET in Vietnam to ensure that industry is
involved in the process. This can help improve the vocational training
quality in Vietnam.
VET curriculum
As shown in Figure 10.1, the vocational education system in Vietnam

includes the technical system and the vocational system that are under
the management of MOET and MOLISA. In the VET curriculum, there
exist two types of training programmes that are curriculum based
(framework curriculum). For the MOLISA curriculum, GDVT determines
the broad content of a training programme and specifies the core sub-
jects a trainee must successfully complete in order to be awarded a
qualification. Based on the framework curriculum, directors of voca-
tional training institutions are responsible for developing their own
curricula.
The MOET curriculum is the same as the MOLISA one, but it is deter-
mined by the Technical and Vocational Training Department (TVTD),
MOET. Directors of vocational colleges and schools, which deliver
MOET training programmes, take responsibility for developing their
own curricula following the MOET framework curriculum. In spite of
the variety in the curricula, the common educational aim is training
Vietnamese people for perfect development in all aspects including

morality, knowledge, health, professional skills, loyalty with the ideal of
the independent people and socialism, cultivating revolutionary virtues,
fostering human dignity and the ability of a good citizen to meet the
demand for developing and safeguarding the country (Education Law,
2005, p. 1). Adopted from this general aim, ministries and institutes set
up their own specific aims for their training programmes.
As can be seen from Figure 10.3, due to the different training
objectives and allocation of the two curricula, students under the
MOLISA training programme have more time for practising their voca-
tional knowledge and skills than those under the MOET one.
The core curriculum for teaching and learning is regulated from the
top (MOET). However, flexibility is also given to institutions and teach-
ers in choosing teaching materials and teaching methods. Apart from
the official training programmes, since the Vietnamese economy is inte-
grating into the world, many advanced education models are being
adapted and applied in its higher education and vocational educa-
tion. As noted, training programmes from Australia, America, Singapore,
Japan, Korea and European countries such as France, Germany and
England are delivered in Vietnam under the cooperation and exchanges
between governments. Thanks to the existence of those training pro-
grammes, there have been a lot of changes in management, assessment,
VET teaching and learning in Vietnam.
VET teaching and learning differ greatly at different modes of educa-
tion as well as at vocational institutions. At some vocational training
institutions, which are invested in by foreign partners or under the
support of international programmes, teachers and students have more
opportunities to approach and use new teaching and learning meth-
ods. At other institutions, although there have been many policies (such
as reform vocational teaching methods, MOET, 2013) to encourage
teachers to use learner-centred teaching methods, traditional teaching
methods in which teachers play their role in transmitting knowledge to
students remain popular in vocational institutions. After over 25 years
of reforms in education, Vietnam is yet to get out of exam-oriented edu-
cation and simple teaching methods based on learning by heart and
copying knowledge. This does not build work-related skills.
Using technology in teaching is also highly appreciated at vocational
institutions. Nevertheless, due to the lack of teaching facilities equipped
at vocational institutions, the application of technology in teaching and
learning is still limited.
Teaching and learning in formal vocational institutes are somehow
different from family workshops or traditional craft villages. Learning by
220
Aspects MOET Curriculum MOLISA Curriculum

Training – Equip learners with – Equip learners with
Objectives comprehensive development; knowledge and skills of
learners are able to reading drawings and related
participate in social activities documents; knowing how to
with professional ethics, calculate, develop, arrange,
knowledge and skills that are mix, cut metals, save the
suitable for the level of a materials; deploying the
technology technician. dimensions, shaping exactly
– Equip learners with on sheet steel and shaped
knowledge on basic steel; straightening, cutting,
principles of Marxism and bending, hole drilling, riveting,
Leninism, Communist Party assembling to create
of Vietnam, Hồ Chí Minh products with high technical
Ideology, foundation requirements in the form of:
knowledge in social tubes, frames, tanks, sinks,
sciences and humanities, bunker – silos, dust filter, for
knowledge in applied the industrial and civil works
mathematics and natural – Equip learners with the
sciences that is suitable to correct awareness of the
the training program. directions for contributing and
Achieve understanding of developing the nation,
characteristics, operation constitution and law,
process of machinery parts responsibilities for one’s work
and mechanical machines. and behaviour.
– Equip learners with skills to – Learners achieve the basic
process mechanical products knowledge, understanding
by normal and high and performance of the
technology metal cutting; common military skills to be
design and transfer ready to perform the task of
technology under the protecting the country
guidance of specialized
engineers; organize, manage
and guide production teams
in enterprises and mechanic
services
Duration 3 years 3 years
Entrance High school graduate or High school graduate or
Requirements equivalent equivalent
Study Amount 95 credits (1885 periods) + 3 37 modules (3750 periods)
physical educational credits
(90 periods) + 135 periods of
national defence education
Figure 10.3 Comparison between MOET and MOLISA framework

Notes: 1 credit in theory training = 15 periods
1 credit in practice training = 30 periods
1 period = 45 minutes
Source: Adapted from the Mechanics framework curriculum of MOET and MOLISA.
Aspects MOET Curriculum MOLISA Curriculum

Curriculum
Allocation
– Compulsory – 805 periods – 450 periods
General + 32 credits (580 periods + 320 periods (Law, Politics,
Education: including the principles of IT, foreign languages)
Marxist–Leninist, Communist + 60 periods of physical
Party of Vietnam, Hồ Chí Minh education
ideology, general law, foreign + 75 periods of national
language, Maths and Advance defence education
Maths, Physics, Chemistry, and
Logistics)
+ 90 periods of physical
educational
+ 135 periods of national
defence education
– Vocational – 63 credits (1305) – 3350 periods
Training Theory training: 45 credits + Theoretical study: 767
(675 periods) periods
+ 23 credits (345 periods) of + Practice time: 2208
basic periods professional periods
knowledge – Basic modules (Advanced
+ 21 credits (315 periods) of Maths, Physics, geometry,
professional knowledge engineering drawing, safety
+ 3 credits (45 periods) of and labour protection, metal
graduation thesis/replacement processing technology,
subjects) mechanical materials . . .):
Practice: 18 credits (630 502 theoretical periods + 23
periods) practical periods
+ 16 credits (450 periods) of – Vocational modules: 265
practice theoretical periods + 2190
+ 2 credits (180 periods) of practical periods)
graduation practice
Figure 10.3 (Continued)
observation, learning by imitating, learning by experience and learning

by doing are often recognized at family workshops. With this approach
of teaching and learning, it contributes to society with a skilled labour
force, though one not officially recognized, for example, in labour
export to foreign markets, and for state enterprises.
Flexibility and practicability in VET
VET in Vietnam is very flexible. The Vocational Training Law, passed in

2006, has increased flexibility in training provision. It changed the VET
system from two types of training ‘long-term and short-term training’
to three distinct levels. As described in Figure 10.1, on the one hand,

those who finish their secondary schools or high schools are eligible for
a place at vocational colleges or vocational schools to acquire the skills
they need. On the other hand, they can pursue their vocational train-
ing at non-public training providers (NPTPs), which was allowed since
1998. NPTPs are private sector training providers, foreign-backed train-
ing institutions and state-owned, enterprise-based training institutions.
This non-public sector now makes up an important share of vocational
training institutions.
However, to get a place at those training institutions, vocational learn-
ers need to have a certain level of literacy and numeracy. Alternatively,
those learners who have no or limited literacy and numeracy knowl-
edge can attend family workshops or traditional craft villages. This is
an advantage of VET in Vietnam in that it provides flexible ways of
vocational training for everyone who wants to have vocational skills for
their jobs. This mode of vocational training is, nevertheless, not offi-
cially mentioned in Decision No. 48/2002/QQ-TTg approving the plan
for vocational networks during the stage 2002–2010 as well as in Deci-
sion No. 630/QD-TTg, dated 29 May 2012, approving the development
strategy for vocational training for the period of 2011–2020. Vocational
training institutes regulated in those decisions are vocational schools,
vocational centres, vocational colleges, professional secondary schools
and technical colleges allocated vocational training.
In addition, the Vocational Training Law allows for flexible and
mobile provision of vocational training. Higher-level institutions such
as universities are also permitted to offer vocational training at lower
levels, so universities can offer vocational training programmes if
they get permission from MOET and MOLISA. Vocational colleges can
deliver intermediate- and primary-level courses, and vocational sec-
ondary schools can deliver primary training programmes. Vocational
colleges can also set up a relationship with universities to offer college
graduates a chance to upgrade their qualification by attending follow-up
courses at the university. Additionally, businesses, cooperatives, pro-
duction and trading units, specialized schools and other educational
institutions are allowed to deliver primary training after registration.
Thanks to this flexibility, vocational learners have more opportunities
to undertake their further study.
Actually, most Vietnamese people still prefer a bachelor’s degree
granted by universities to an associate bachelor’s degree granted by col-
leges. Entering vocational training is considered as the last choice for
students who fail to enter public and private universities. In that respect,
the flexibility in VET is an advantage in attracting more students.
Internationalization and mobility in VET
There has been internationalization in VET during different historical

stages of the country. Previously, many exchange programmes were
established to send Vietnamese people to achieve professional and
vocational skills in France, America and countries in the former Soviet
Union and its allies; or experts from those countries came to provide
VET in Vietnam. Nowadays, international cooperation in vocational
education has developed strongly in Vietnam (Vietnam TVET report,
2011, 2013). Bilateral and multilateral collaboration programmes from
over 40 countries have supported the development of vocational edu-
cation in Vietnam in all aspects, such as curriculum, technical support,
staff training and management skills to improve the supply of labour
with qualifications that meet the demand of industry (Vietnam TVET
report, 2011, 2013). At the request of the Vietnamese government,
in relation to the strategy of human development till 2020, interna-
tional donors such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank
and AusAID are now investing heavily in VET with the purpose of
developing a skilled labour force for Vietnam. Typically, the Vietnam–
Germany Cooperation Technical Vocational Education and Training
Project has been operational from 2008 till now with focus on sup-
port for a vocational training system corresponding to the needs of the
business sector; the creation of a differentiated regulatory framework;
institutional development including private and governmental training
institutions; practice-oriented training and improved opportunities for
women to access vocational training.
Apart from international support programmes, at a national level,
the cooperation between vocational institutions and international part-
ners is encouraged so as to contribute to the development of VET in
Vietnam. Many vocational institutes from developed countries such as
Australia, America, Singapore, Germany, Japan and Korea have been
delivering their advanced training programmes in Vietnam. In effect,
Vietnamese vocational learners are now able to ‘study abroad’ with-
out leaving Vietnam. Nevertheless, training programmes delivered by
enterprises receiving foreign investment, or under cooperative delivery,
are mostly concentrated in applied fields that the market is demanding
such as marketing, finance, business and computer science. Technical
fields, for example, mechanics and electricity, are still in desperate need
of international cooperation.
Thanks to the cooperation with international programmes in VET,
Vietnamese VET teachers and learners have good opportunities to move
towards advanced training programmes. Furthermore, teaching and

managerial staff have been sponsored to attend international seminars
and conferences with the purpose of sharing experiences and approach
to update technology as well as new teaching and management skills.
Nevertheless, there remain several concerns in VET internationalization.
First, the quality of foreign VET institutes entering Vietnam in the role
of investors should be carefully considered. We would like to join in
the global race; however, it does not mean that we welcome all foreign
education institutes entering Vietnam regardless of quality.
In addition, lack of a national vocational skill framework and insuffi-
cient facilities, curriculum, materials and qualified teaching staff with
professional skills and knowledge of foreign languages are disadvan-
tages for VET Vietnam in its efforts to integrate into the region and the
world. Moreover, the lack of policies and strategies to support foreign
investments in VET is a barrier to attracting foreign partners to Vietnam
(Vietnam TVET report, 2011, 2013).
VET reform in Vietnam
Issues such as the low status of VET, the overlapping responsibilities

of MOLISA and MOET over technical and professional education, the
supply-driven VET system, the lack of skills standards that link specific
competencies to labour market needs, society’s preference for an aca-
demic degree over VET and the lack of the infrastructure and teaching
equipment needed to improve vocational training quality (ADB perfor-
mance evaluation report, 2013, Vietnam TVET report, 2011, 2013) all
suggest the need to reform VET in Vietnam.
At the tenth National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam,
the Party laid down its policy on reform and restructure of the economy,
in order to enable quality improvement, effectiveness and competitive-
ness in the global setting (MOET, 2013). VET in Vietnam needs reforms
to integrate with the world because ‘windows of opportunity do not
remain open for long’ (Valley and Wilkinson, 2008, p. 11). Basic and
comprehensive reform of Vietnamese education in general and voca-
tional education specifically is essential to provide a high-quality labour
force for the society. Reforms should include:
• Restructuring the VET management system to reduce the over-

lapping duties among ministries and agencies. The complexity in
management at a certain level is a barrier for financial management,
to attracting foreign investments and to setting up linkages with

enterprises as well as to improving the training quality.
• Establishing a national skill standard set and national qualification
system in order to get recognition from the region and the world
and to offer qualified labour forces for national as well as interna-
tional demands. Achieving regional and international recognition
will build up mobility and flexibility for vocational learners and also
help to increase the number of VET participants.
• Enlarging the linkage with enterprises. This is important to assist stu-
dents find jobs and to lower the burden among training providers.
Due to the disconnect between training providers and enterprises,
training quality has not met the needs of society and employers.
Enterprises are a key beneficiary of skilled labour and hence have
direct interest in skills training.
• Raising public awareness of VET to Vietnamese people to highlight
the importance of vocational education in society. The government
needs to reconsider the balance between investments in vocational
and academic institutions, and step up campaigns to familiarize sec-
ondary and high school students with the benefits of vocational
training (ADB performance evaluation report, 2013) because aca-
demic education is still a preferred choice for students and their
families compared with VET. Poorly performing students who cannot
have access to the university level have to pursue VET. It is the poor
performance at VET entrance that influences VET outputs. Vocational
qualification systems have the potential to improve the link between
education and work, to set up new pathways from education into
employment and to reduce barriers to learning, for example, by using
new forms of pedagogy and assessment, setting up appropriate stan-
dards for the teaching workforce which requires both pedagogical
and industrial experts, setting up an authentic learning environment
to ensure the confidence in VET qualifications and add to the value
of VET in Vietnam.
• Increasing the budget for vocational education, particularly in
developing infrastructure and improving teaching facilities. Indeed,
although the budget for VET increases yearly corresponding to the
GDP, the investment for VET still constituted only 0.45 per cent of
GDP in 2011 (Vietnam TVET report, 2011, 2013).
• Having support policies and strategies to attract foreign investments
in vocational education with the purpose of improving the quality of
vocational training, teaching and management staff, curriculum and
so on. Such policies must be practical and powerful enough to make

them attractive for vocational learners.
Finally, it is important to set up more effective uplinkages between for-

mal and non-formal education, as well as informal learning, to offer
vocational learners opportunities to improve their practical skills and
theoretical knowledge. This is especially necessary for VET in Vietnam.
While formal education is highly regarded in Vietnamese culture and
tradition, the concept of informal learning in VET is still abstract
and ambiguous. The draft Education Development Strategy 2011–2020
(MOET, 2010b) calls for diversification, standardization and specializa-
tion of the national education system. However, in the implementation
there is still much to be done. The relationship between modes of VET
education should be made effective.
It will bring a bright future for vocational learners at family workshops
if they have the chance to get a qualification at a vocational institute.
This should be recognized and clearly articulated in official documents
related to VET in Vietnam. This can contribute to labour mobility and
lift the social expectation of VET in Vietnam.
Note
1. This chapter draws on Tiên Thi. Ha.nh Hồ’s doctoral research undertaken at the
University of Technology, Sydney.
Conclusion
11
Modernization with Vietnamese
Characteristics
Simon Marginson, Lý Thi. Trần and Hoàng Minh Đỗ
In education in Vietnam, the weakest sectors at present are higher edu-

cation, vocational education and training and university research. Yet in
the age of the global knowledge economy, these sectors should play the
central role in human capacity building, providing knowledge and skills
essential to the independent development of the country. Education,
training and research are integral to national development and global
modernization. At the same time, they should ensure modernization
with Vietnamese characteristics.
All nations in East Asia now recognize the importance of tertiary
educated labour, science and technology and are implementing poli-
cies to lift national capacity in those areas. Some nations are achieving
rapid improvements in university enrolments, scientific outputs and the
quality of institutions, but not all nations are moving forward as yet.
Vietnam has a policy commitment to higher education, advanced voca-
tional training and research. But that on-paper commitment needs to be
realized in a practical transformation of the system.
As we see it, reform of higher education and research should be based
on the following principles:
1. People do not exist to fulfil the needs of structures. Structures exist

to fulfil the needs of people.
2. Reform of tertiary education needs to take into account the distinc-
tive developments in contemporary Vietnam, the Asian region and
the broader world.
3. High-quality human resources prepared in education and training
are key to lifting Vietnam’s development. At the same time, within
education and training, high-quality human resources are key to
lifting Vietnam’s educational effort.
229
230 Modernization with Vietnamese Characteristics
4. An effective education system is characterized by flexibility, practi-

cality and mobility in how it works and the contribution it makes to
the emerging nation.
5. Learners should be re-envisioned as flexible, responsive and practi-
cal. This should accompany the reconceptualization of knowledge in
tertiary education as flexible, responsive and practical.
6. Effective reforms will balance and combine Vietnam’s traditions,
values and systems with openness to new ideas and continuous mod-
ernization. Ideas from aboard must be adapted and changed to make
them practical in local contexts.
7. Student self-cultivation should be fostered in both the formal
and informal curriculum. The development of students’ self-
transformative capabilities is fundamental to their learning and their
engagement with others and with the community. Continuous self-
improvement is embedded in Vietnamese culture and contemporary
society.
8. An ongoing transformation of governance is needed in all sectors
and at all levels.
The regulation, organization and provision of education, training and

research should be flexible and responsive to the changing needs of
students, professional educators, industry, community and the nation.
A central purpose of education at all levels, from pre-school learning to
postgraduate research, is to foster both strong self-aware individuals and
the collective capacity of people to work together for the common good,
in keeping with Vietnam’s long tradition.
Flexibility
Preparation for work and life requires the right mix of generic and disci-
plinary knowledge and skills, including those acquired in liberal studies
that focus on personal development, communication and creativity
and occupationally specific skills. This is the best mix for a flexible
workforce. Many of today’s higher education students will change jobs
frequently during their lifetime, and some will move between very dif-
ferent industries, sectors and roles. In the market-oriented economy,
amid Vietnam’s changing social and employment structures, new pro-
fessions, hybridized professions or transformed professions are always
emerging. The challenges of modernization and economic development
in the global setting require flexibility and adaptability; and people
trained in specific occupations often find themselves working in new
Simon Marginson, Lý Thi. Trần and Hoàng Minh Đỗ 231
areas after graduation. At the same time, deep specialist knowledge and
the capacity to acquire complex contents and new skills for contex-
tual use can be equally important; and it is essential that government,
universities and industry together ensure that sufficient specialists are
trained in fields important for the functioning of economy and society.
Flexibility in education is about people and their capacity to learn
to flexibly and adaptively work on their own behalf. This requires the
progressive transformation of classrooms at all levels in Vietnam into
learner-centred environments that help students develop their skills and
attributes rather than just their content knowledge. This does not mean
that teachers become less important (and nor does it mean that con-
tent, and depth of content, becomes less important). Rather, it increases
the complexity and sensitivity of the task of teachers. Instead of being
didactic transmitters of knowledge in large classes in which everyone
is treated the same and repeat back the contents they have learned
by rote, teachers become facilitators of the individual self-development
of each student, helping to install in each student the autonomous
drive to know, to learn, to succeed and to contribute under varying
conditions.
Teachers should be nurturers of not only creative thinking but also
the humanistic development of students. It is vital that the tertiary
education system prepare students not only for the solely instrumen-
tal purpose of participating in the labour market but also for the social
goal of contributing to the community – while at the same time fulfill-
ing their personal aspirations. The best tertiary education structure for
Vietnam is one that nurtures the development of flexible students who
are capable of being socially, regionally and transnationally mobile, and
who develop multiple identities – while at the same time these students
not only cherish their personal agency but also retain and evolve their
Vietnamese heritage.
Likewise, as higher education advances in Vietnam, institutions in
education must further develop their capacity for self-organization,
progressively moving away from top-down and line-managed struc-
tures towards local organizations responding directly to their immedi-
ate environment, and to the agency of stakeholders within in those
organizations – even while working within the framework of national
policies and objectives. Systems and structures should be especially flex-
ible and responsive to changing needs. What really matters is the goals
that they address and the people they serve. There is nothing sacred,
fixed or unmoveable about structures and processes of government,
management and institutional education. Structures, rules and processes
should change over time in response to need. However, this is a new way
of doing things and not everyone is ready. To build capacity in flexible
local management, the country will need to develop and implement
extensive training programmes.
Practicality
Learning occurs and is mediated in social contexts and its applications

are also context-bound. Even while building in students the capacity
for autonomous learning, teachers in higher education foster an under-
standing of the social and economic contexts in which learning will be
used and developed, including the history and traditions of the country,
the diversity of its people, the world of work and cities and regions and
the larger global setting. It is in these varied environments – and often in
more than one at the same time – that what students learn will become
practical knowledge. Deep contextual knowledge enables graduates to
become more socially responsible people and contribute to collective
organization in villages, workplaces, urban environments, institutions
and government.
Higher education is worthwhile for its own sake but above all it has
practical social objectives. The purpose of institutional forms of edu-
cation is to develop in people the capacity for lifelong self-learning
and the effective application of learning in daily life so as they can
live fulfilling lives while contributing to the common good. Therefore
the core of higher education is knowledge: its transmission and shar-
ing, its acquisition and self-formation, its creation and development,
its recovery and use. Yet, the curriculum, pedagogy and assessment
should be planned and enacted in a manner that places emphasis on not
only developing students’ knowledge but also strengthening students’
capacity to translate knowledge and theories into real-life and real-
world situations whether local, national or international. In an effective
higher education system, work experience, work-integrated learning and
other applications of knowledge are built into the processes of formal
education in all programmes.
This points to the need to develop the capabilities of professional edu-
cators. The quality of faculty is a key limitation in higher education.
Not enough people working as professors and lecturers are doctorally
trained. Not enough faculty go on learning during their working life-
times. Not enough faculty have working experience of other sectors
such as industry and government. Not enough faculty are globally com-
petent, as measured by skills in English and Internet use. Not enough
faculty perform to the level consistent with their skills and talents, as
is shown by the low level of output of published research. Developing,
resourcing and regulating faculty quality – and providing better incen-
tives for young people and for ongoing professional development – are
keys to a more practically oriented higher education system.
Mobility
In this global era, people all over the world travel for the purpose of
learning. Ideas flow freely across borders, even more freely than people.
The national interest lies in facilitating the flow of people and being
open to new knowledge, while at the same time attracting mobile talent
into the country, and ‘Vietnamizing’ the wisdom that people acquire
aboard. Vietnam’s educational diaspora is large and capable and con-
tributes to many other countries, especially in the English-speaking
world and Western Europe. It should be contributing more to Vietnam.
The limitation here is not with members of the diaspora. Most people
studying abroad are committed to close links with the homeland and
want to contribute to national development in the future. The diaspora
is a broad and deep resource for the country. It is vital that incentives
and opportunities are organized, and barriers lowered, so as to make
the better use of overseas-trained people, to draw effectively on their
knowledge and skills.
People flows are in both directions. Vietnam needs more talent from
abroad, and it needs its home talent to be able to go abroad and learn
and develop. People who are educated overseas can make an important
contribution to the country in future. But in order for them to study
abroad, their qualifications acquired in Vietnam must be recognized
abroad. At present, qualifications acquired in Vietnam lack sufficient
international standing. The country needs a coherent system of qual-
ifications and skill standards in higher education, including vocational
education and training, and robust systems of quality assurance apply-
ing to local institutions and foreign institutions operating in Vietnam.
Further, equally important to global mobility of qualifications is the
effectiveness of global communications. Advancing English language
competence is a key issue and an area where Vietnam is lagging behind
its regional neighbours. It is especially important to build capacity in
conversation, which has been a long-standing area of weakness, but
language learning needs and methodologies are necessarily diverse and
purpose-driven, and there are also continuing widespread needs for
enhanced reading and writing skills, including technical language.
To enable the higher education system to enhance quality, catch up

with regional and international developments and augment human
capacity building for the country, it is important to facilitate staff
and student mobility, expand international cooperation and support
transnational research and technology exchange. It is also crucial that
the government and institutions develop transparent, coherent and
systemic approaches to making the best use of the resources and
insights that existing internationalization activities, including interna-
tional cooperation, transnational research and technology mobility, can
bring to tertiary education.
In short, to be effective in the global setting, higher education
(and government and industry) in Vietnam needs to combine open-
ness and engagement with partners abroad, with a strong sense of
(evolving) national identity and strategy. This double stance, one of self-
determining global engagement, enables the country to benefit from
new ideas and approaches developed abroad while at the same time
adapting and changing them to fit with Vietnam’s traditions, values and
long-term process of national development.
National commitment
Higher education and research are essential investments in the long-

term future of the country. A nation that remains dependent on other
nations for good-quality education and core capacity in science and
technology will become increasingly dependent over time, as cross-
border knowledge flows become more and more important in shaping
human affairs, and in a globally integrated world its distinctive culture
will become isolated and weakened. In that sense higher education and
research can be seen as both (a) part of national defence and (b) part of the
forward projection of Vietnam in the world, helping the nation maintain
a secure and honoured place, and contribute its distinctive values and
ways of life to the larger human story.
To serve the needs of its citizens, the growing economy and the tasks
of national development, higher education and research need to be
effectively resourced. Most nations in the East Asian region are build-
ing capacity in education and research at a rapid rate and as national
resources grow Vietnam will need to do the same or the country will
fall further and further behind. As the economy and society modernize,
knowledge-intensive production grows and higher education and (espe-
cially) science and technology become qualitatively more important.
It is the mark of a successful economy that the proportion of its

gross domestic product (GDP) allocated to knowledge-related activities,
including higher education, increases significantly over time.
In developing higher education it will become increasingly impor-
tant to address certain areas of need that have been neglected or are
as yet underdeveloped, including science, mathematics and engineer-
ing (where Vietnam’s participation rates are much lower than the norm
in northeastern Asia); the educational needs of ethnic and remote
communities; the equal participation of girls and women at all lev-
els of education and educational leadership; vocational education and
training and research development.
Vocational education is too often seen as a ‘second choice’ system
for those unable to enter universities. This downgrades the quality and
value of skill building for manufacturing and service industries. In the
long run the only way to establish parity of esteem between academic
and vocational learning is to build a strong vocational education and
training system along the lines of, say, Germany, and to focus more
effectively on work experience during training and on the specific cre-
ation of employability skills – which is something that should happen
in all tertiary courses, in both vocational and academic learning.
Research has been especially neglected up to now, partly because of
the cost of science. The first step is to establish policies, priorities, pro-
grammes and processes that can build the national research effort over
time and as more resources become available.
Part of adequately resourcing higher education is to ensure that there
are adequate returns to knowledge and skill within educational institu-
tions. If professional educators and researchers are paid below a living
wage, then they must resort to second and third jobs in order to make
ends meet. This means that their primary responsibilities will not be
properly carried out. The poor level of remuneration is a principal rea-
son why faculty quality in Vietnam is not improving fast enough, why
not enough bright young people want to work in universities and why
corrupt practices are still rife in university administration and examina-
tions. The nation’s capacity to pay adequate salaries depends on overall
economic development, national wealth and income tax revenue. It will
take time to bring remuneration in government and education up to
the levels of neighbouring countries. But it is vital to keep moving for-
ward on this, providing the right signals to educators and to the young
people that will be recruited in future to the great task of educating the
emerging nation.
If higher education and tertiary training in Vietnam are to func-

tion with flexibility, practicality and mobility in line with the country’s
needs, the right conditions must be established. At the top of the list are
improved resourcing over time, better staff development and reform in
educational governance and in government itself.
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Index
adaptation of foreign ideas, 7, 22, 25, 12, 16, 21, 87, 88, 95–6, 100, 101,
100, 127, 144–5, 152–68, 230 106, 112–14, 116, 117, 120, 121,
agency, see identity and agency 123, 129–30, 156, 158, 168, 212
agriculture and agricultural corruption, 20, 49, 150
civilization in Vietnam, 5–7, credit-based systems in higher
30, 208 education, 97–8, 166
American Declaration of curriculum in higher and vocational
Independence, 12 education, 19, 21, 24–5, 36, 63,
assessment, 96, 97, 103, 106 86–107, 218–19
Association of South East Asian
Nations (ASEAN), 176–7 defence of Vietnam, viii, 30,
see also individual country entries 152–3, 234
autonomy of higher education see also national independence and
institutions, 73–5, 77–8, 79, freedom
94, 105 diaspora of Vietnam, including
returning educational diaspora, 3,
Buddhism, 5–7, 18 14, 20, 142–3, 151, 233
distance learning, 103
China, viii, 7, 11, 22, 101, 134, 143, diversity in higher education, 60–1
146, 148, 160, 177, 180, 190–1 Đổi Mới and post- Đổi Mới reforms, 17,
see also colonization and colonial 18, 55–6, 90, 108, 133, 155, 158–9
wars
Chinese language, 172–3, 176 economy of Vietnam and economic
see also colonization and colonial growth, 32–3, 108, 139
wars educational philosophy, 86–92,
collectivity as a social principle, ix, 114–15
5–6, 230 English language, 32, 50, 98, 139, 172,
colonization and colonial wars, 3, 8 174–5, 176–8, 179–83, 232, 233
China, 3, 31, 127, 129–30, 155–6, ethnicity and ethnic communities in
169–70, 170–1 Vietnam, 30–1, 169
France, 31, 55, 127, 129–31, 157, examinations, 19, 43
168, 169–70, 171–2, 213
United States, 8–9, 32, 127, 129, flexibility, throughout and, ix, 5–9,
131–2, 157–8, 169–70 230–2
Soviet Russia, 32, 50, 55, 60, 70, foreign invasion, see colonization and
127, 129, 131–2, 158, 166, colonial wars
169–70 foreign language learning in Vietnam,
Communist Party of Vietnam, 17, 31–2, 50, 169–83
74–5, 83, 90, 91, 108, 151, see also specific languages
169, 224 foreign providers of higher education
Confucian cultural heritage and in Vietnam, 44, 138, 146–8,
educational practices, 4, 5, 7, 11, 150, 224
260
Index 261
French language, 173–4, 175 industry and employers, 62, 104, 225
see also colonization and colonial inequality in Vietnam, 33
wars in education, 56
French Revolution, 12 informal learning, 212–13
funding of education and research, 20, information and communications
33, 47, 225, 234 technologies (ICTs), 15, 34, 103,
182–3, 219
gender, 10 innovation in education, 17, 21,
generic skills, see graduate 95–6, 98
employment / unemployment international aid and cooperation,
global role of Vietnam, viii, 152–3, 50–1, 128, 133, 138, 146–9, 209,
183, 234 217, 223–4, 234
globalization, including globalization international students from abroad
in higher education, viii, 4, 9 ,16, studying in Vietnam, 50–1,
17, 94, 108, 111, 134–5, 140, 138, 143
152–68, 208–9, 232 international students from Vietnam
governance of higher and vocational studying abroad, including
education, 19, 44–59, 61, 64–84, faculty training, 14, 138, 139–42
94, 105, 137, 214, 231–2, 236 internationalization in higher and
systemic, 45, 64–73 vocational education, viii,
institutional, 45–6, 73–7 127–51, 209–10, 223–4
government of Vietnam, 5, 17, 44, 55, internationalization of the
107, 109, 169, 210 curriculum, 128, 144–6, 149–50
government targets for education,
34–5, 138 Japan, viii, 101, 134, 138, 143, 174,
see also specific Ministries, 177, 179, 188–9, 190, 205,
Communist Party of Vietnam, 219, 223
legal framework
graduate employment / knowledge, 5, 16–17, 23, 86,
unemployment, 14–15, 23, 34, 93–100, 105
48, 51, 54, 62, 93–4, 98, 106–7, Korea, South, viii, 22, 101, 134, 138,
108, 118–19, 122, 124, 209–11 143, 174–5, 177, 179, 219, 223
growth of participation in education,
see participation and enrolment labour force and labour markets, 15,
in education 34, 119, 123, 210–11
language policy, 30, 169–83
Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig, 11 learner-centred education, 20–1,
harmony, 6–8, 113 101–3, 182, 219, 230
higher education, throughout legal framework of education in
history of higher education in Vietnam, 35–6, 43–6, 58–9, 75,
Vietnam, 55 80, 92, 146, 175, 194, 201–2, 206,
Hồ Chí Minh, ix, 3, 11–12, 89, 92, 131 208, 215–16, 222
and education, 4, 89 life-long learning, 24
Human Development Index, 34 literacy, 35, 37
identity and agency, personal, 6, 23, Malaysia, 32, 146, 169, 175, 176, 177,
109–13, 117–18, 119, 120–3, 230 178, 183, 200
Indonesia, 32, 191–2, 206 markets and market forces in higher
industrialization, 30, 92, 183, 194 education, 65–6, 108, 134–5
262 Index
Ministry of Education and Training of policy borrowing, 152–68

Vietnam (MOET), 21, 42, 44–5, system level, 159, 160–2, 167
47, 49–50, 52, 58–9, 62, 64–72, institutional level, 159, 162–3, 164
73, 78, 80, 82, 94, 98, 115, 129, see also adaptation of foreign ideas
132, 140–2, 150, 164, 206, population, 3, 29
214–17, 219, 220–2, 224 poverty in Vietnam, 32–3
Ministry of Defense, 216 practicality, throughout and, ix, 5–9,
Ministry of Finance, 44, 64, 65, 216 232–3
Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA), private higher education, 45, 46–7,
64–5, 73 48–9, 56–7, 72–3, 136, 163
Ministry of Industry and Trade, 216 public accountability of higher
Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social education, 77–8
Affairs (MOLISA), 38, 39–42, 52,
62, 66–9, 73, 78, 209, 214–22, 224 qualifications of academic faculty, 48,
Ministry of Planning and Investment, 63, 232–3
44, 64–5 quality of higher education, quality
Ministry of Science and assurance and accreditation, 25,
Technology, 65 36, 47–50, 62, 64, 72, 77–8, 135,
Ministry of Transport and 139, 163, 217–18
Communications, 216
mobility, throughout and, ix, 9–15, recognition of Vietnamese
233–4 qualifications outside Vietnam,
of ideas and knowledge, 9, 16, 94, 14, 64, 73, 233
133, 153 regional and rural development and
between sectors of education, 37, 62 education, 13, 30–1, 33, 40
research, 16–17, 18, 25, 48, 55, 62,
national identity, see tradition, 137, 138, 187–207, 229, 233, 235
evolving national research academies, 195
national independence and freedom, research funding, 197–9
3–4, 7, 11–12, 88, 115, 152–3, 234 research institutes, 195–6
national universities, 36, 64, 136, research performance, 199–201, 203–7
145, 203 research policy in Vietnam, 201–3
nature, 6 research policy instruments in OECD
neo-liberalism, see markets and market countries, 188–9, 193
forces in higher education Russian language, 173–4, 175
see also colonization and colonial
wars
Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development
schooling, 36–9
(OECD), 19, 22
self-determination, 6, 20–3, 100,
109–13, 116, 120–1
participation and enrolment in Singapore, viii, 100, 101, 102, 114–17,
education, including growth of 121, 134, 138, 146, 149, 164, 169,
participation, 33–4, 37, 44, 51, 176, 183, 200, 206, 219, 223
57–8, 60–1, 139 socialism, 11–12, 17, 115, 164
performance management, 65–6 ‘socialization’ policy, 55–7, 135–7
Philippines, 32, 170, 176, 183, 190, soft skills, see graduate employment /
192, 200, 205 unemployment
Index 263
student-centred learning, 108–23 United Nations Educational, Scientific

see also learner-centred curriculum and Cultural Organization
student self, see identity and agency (UNESCO), 160–1, 163, 165
Soviet model of higher education and United States’ education and research,
research, 16, 132–3 22, 101, 103, 123, 160, 188–9,
structure of education and higher 205, 223
education in Vietnam, 37–42, University of Da Nang, 78–83
59–60
student selection into higher Vietnam, throughout
education, 42–3 Vietnamese national language, 30,
31, 130
Taoism, 5, 6–7, 95 Vietnamization of foreign ideas, see
teachers and teaching, 4, 20–1, 32, 86, adaptation of foreign ideas
95–6, 97, 102, 105–6, 123, vocational education and training, 4,
181–2, 231 24, 25, 37, 38–9, 41–2, 59–60, 62,
Thailand, 32, 37, 143, 146, 190, 193, 208–26, 235
200, 204, 206
tradition, evolving, viii-ix, 5, 5–8, 11, work-integrated learning, 104–5
17–18, 92, 101, 106, 122, 167–8, World Bank, 22, 49, 62, 159, 160,
211–12, 230, 234 161–2, 163, 165, 217
tuition fees, 47, 56–7, 136 World-Class Universities, 202–3

Higher Education in Vietnam Flexibility, Mobility and Practicality in the Global Knowledge Economy by Lý Thị Trần, Simon Marginson, Ho'ng Minh Đỗ, Quyên Thị Ngọc Đỗ, Trúc Thị Thanh Lê, Nh'i Thị Nguyễn

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Higher Education in Vietnam Flexibility, Mobility and Practicality in the Global Knowledge Economy by Lý Thị Trần, Simon Marginson, Ho'ng Minh Đỗ, Quyên Thị Ngọc Đỗ, Trúc Thị Thanh Lê, Nh'i Thị Nguyễn

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Higher Education in Vietnam

Flexibility, Mobility and Practicality in the

Michael Dobbins and Christoph Knill

Palgrave Studies in Global Higher Education

Quyên Thi. Ngo.c Đỗ

Trúc Thi. Thanh Lê

Nhài Thi. Nguyễn

Thao Thi. Phương Vũ

Tha.ch Ngo.c Pha.m

Hương Thi. Lan Nguyễn

Tiên Thi. Ha.nh Hồ

List of Figures and Tables vii

Preface and Acknowledgements viii

About the Authors xii

Part I Students and Structures

3 Towards more Flexible Organization 54

4 Curriculum and Pedagogy 86

5 The Student Self 108

Part II The Global Challenge

7 Policy Borrowing 152

8 Foreign Language Policy 169

Part III Extending the Boundaries

10 Vocational Education and Training 208

2.1 Structure of education system in Vietnam 38

3.1 Growth in higher education in Vietnam since 2000 57

of drafts, followed by redrafting and further discussions. The book is

Leadership and Management that is located alongside CSHE. Meetings

Lý Thi. Trần is a senior lecturer at the School of Education, Deakin Uni-

Simon Marginson is Professor of International Higher Education at the

Nhài Thi. Nguyễn is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre of Communication

Tha.ch Ngo.c Pha.m is a doctoral student at Victoria University,

Hương Thi. Lan Nguyễn is a doctoral student at the LH Martin Insti-

Vietnam is a country of over 90 million people, the third largest nation

modernization of the nation and the creation of a better and more

Education and Vietnam

Flexibility and practicality as principles of life

The notions of ﬂexibility and practicality have evolved naturally in

Vietnamese culture and religions

essential features of Vietnamese culture include practicality, ﬂexibility

Flexibility and practicality as featured in history against

reuniﬁcation of the country, implicitly conveys the enormous signiﬁ-

‘You know you never defeated us on the battleﬁeld,’ said the

The Vietnamese colonel pondered this remark a moment. ‘That may

The American colonel still maintained the ideology of conventional

Mobility as a dimension of Vietnamese tradition

Mobility is multi-dimensional. It involves not only physical mobility,

Làm trai cho đáng nên trai

Such male-oriented mobility is consistent with not only traditional

Mobility has been an effective tactic, in connection with ﬂexibility,

Mobility in the life of Hồ Chí Minh

(Nguyễn, 2011) as the ultimate aspiration underpinning his need to be

Dimensions of mobility in modern Vietnam

issues of skill shortages that are intimately linked to these dimensions

Regional and social mobility

Transnational knowledge and skills mobility

education institutions need to help learners develop a capacity to nav-

Knowledge economy and research

as graduating students and argued for a tertiary education system that

and applied science technologies to build effective industries and

The interface between the traditional and the modern

Flexibility, practicality and mobility also show themselves in the politi-

It has generated changing lifestyles, including individualism, and the

Is education in Vietnam today ﬂexible, practical