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Education in the Asia-Pacific Region:
Issues, Concerns and Prospects 50
Reforming
Vietnamese
Higher
Education
Global Forces and Local Demands
Education in the Asia-Pacific Region:
Issues, Concerns and Prospects
Volume 50
Series Editors-in-Chief
Professor Rupert Maclean, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Dr Lorraine Pe Symaco, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
Editorial Board
Advisory Board
Professor Mark Bray, UNESCO Chair, Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of
Hong Kong, China; Professor Yin Cheong Cheng, The Education University of Hong Kong, China;
Professor John Fien, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia; Dr Pham Lan Huong, International
Educational Research Centre, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Dr Chong-Jae Lee, Korean Educational,
Development Institute (KEDI), Seoul, Republic of Korea; Ms Naing Yee Mar, GIZ, Yangon, Myanmar;
Professor Geoff Masters, Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne, Australia;
Margarita Pavlova, The Education University of Hong Kong, China; Dr Max Walsh, Secondary
Education Project, Manila, Philippines; Dr Uchita de Zoysa, Global Sustainability Solutions (GLOSS),
Colombo, Sri Lanka
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5888
Nhai Thi Nguyen • Ly Thi Tran
Editors
Reforming Vietnamese
Higher Education
Global Forces and Local Demands
Editors
Nhai Thi Nguyen Ly Thi Tran
Monash College Deakin University
Clayton, VIC, Australia Burwood, VIC, Australia
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721,
Singapore
Series Editors’ Introduction
This volume by Nhai Thi Nguyen and Ly Thi Tran on Reforming Vietnamese Higher
Education: Global Forces and Local Demands is the latest book to be published in
the-long standing Springer Book Series Education in the Asia-Pacific Region:
Issues, Concerns and Prospects. The first volume in this Springer series was pub-
lished in 2002, with this book by Nhai and Ly being the 50th volume to be published
to date.
Reforming Vietnamese Higher Education: Global Forces and Local Demands
examines the role of higher education in Vietnam, taking into account its changing
dynamics in response to globalisation. Issues that affect its higher education such as
quality, access, culture, governance and professional development among others are
discussed to give readers a comprehensive overview of the higher education sector
of the country. Divided into five main parts, the book enables readers to realise how
Vietnam responds to the broader internationalisation and globalisation of higher
education systems worldwide.
This book discusses the reforms envisioned for the country’s higher education
institutions to optimally respond to globalisation while at the same time considering
the local demands needed for these to develop. Varied and significant issues such as
graduate employability, curriculum and work-integrated learning are examined,
while some comparative perspectives to other East Asian countries (in terms of
governance) and Australia (for research capacity) are also discussed. Given the ris-
ing economic development of Vietnam, this book contributes to the understanding
of higher education systems in emerging countries, while taking into account the
contextual realities that affect such development.
In terms of the Springer Book Series in which this volume is published, the vari-
ous topics dealt with in the series are wide ranging and varied in coverage, with an
emphasis on cutting-edge developments, best practices and education innovations
for development. Topics examined in the series include: environmental education
and education for sustainable development; the interaction between technology and
v
vi Series Editors’ Introduction
encouraged to approach the series editors either direct or through Springer to publish
their own volume in the series, since we are always willing to assist perspective
authors shape their manuscripts in ways that make them suitable for publication in
this series.
We are indebted to a number of people in the process of shaping this edited book,
entitled Reforming Vietnamese Higher Education: Global Forces and Local
Demands. We the editors, Nhai Thi Nguyen and Ly Thi Tran, would like to express
our sincerest thanks to all our colleagues and contributors whose intellectual inputs,
passion, and wonderful commitment have been invaluable to this book. We are very
grateful to the series editors Rupert Maclean and Lorraine Pe Symaco who saw the
value of this book and to Ang Lay Peng and Lawrence Liu from Springer Nature for
their great support and assistance throughout this book process. We wish to thank
the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions, which help
us significantly improve the manuscript. Our special thanks are extended to
Professor Martin Hayden for his invaluable editorial assistance in the final stage of
our book.
Our gratitude goes to the Asia Pacific Higher Education Research Partnership
(APHERP) Senior Research Cluster led by Professor Sheng-Ju Chen and other
respectful colleagues, including Professor Molly N. N. Lee, Professor Morshidi
Sirat, Professor Rui Yang, Dr. William Yat Wai Lo, Dr. Cheng Cheng Yang, Dr.
Akiyoshi Yonezawa, Dr. Jisun Jung, Dr. Edilberto C. de Jesus, and Dr. Yeow-Tong
Chia. The transnational research project, Exploring Hybrid Universities in East
Asia: Cultures, Values and Changes, has fuelled a critical and productive dialogue
on higher education reforms beyond the national boundaries. We would like to
thank Professor John Hawkins and Professor Dean Neubauer and the East-West
Centre, University of Hawaii, whose intellectual insights, academic wisdom, and
mentorship accompanying our research project have contributed tremendously in
framing such an innovative conceptual framework for our book. Nhai Thi Nguyen’s
sincere thanks are extended to Vietnamese academic colleagues who participated in
her research project, as well as RMIT Vietnam colleagues and students for having
contributed to her project on work integrated learning. This book is in memory of
her wonderful former colleagues, Anais Lacouture and Paul Smith, at the Centre of
Communication and Design in RMIT Vietnam.
ix
Contents
xi
xii Contents
Thuy Thi Ngoc Bui (PhD) graduated from the master’s and doctoral programmes
in Language Policy in the USA under the Ford Foundation and the East-West Center
scholarships. In 2015, she was awarded with the Australian Executive Fellowship to
work as a visiting scholar at the University of Sydney, Australia. She has experience
working as a senior academic manager, a lecturer, and a researcher. Her research
focuses on multilingualism, critical literacy, teacher agency, and the relationship
between language and education policies and socio-economic equity. She has pub-
lished journal articles and book chapters on these topics. Since December 2018, she
has been working as a deputy head of the International Affairs Office at Hanoi
University of Science and Technology (HUST). Besides her academic positions, she
actively works as a community project manager for projects funded by the US and
Australian Embassies.
Khanh Van Dao (PhD) is a former personal assistant to the president and deputy
director of the International Relations and Project Management, Can Tho University,
in Vietnam. Since 2003, he has published journal articles and book chapters (in
English and Vietnamese) relating to higher education governance, management,
quality assurance, and finance in Vietnam. Between 2009–2010 and 2011–2012,
under the supervision of Prof. Martin Hayden, he actively engaged in research and
consultancy for the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training in the ‘New
Model University’ project, funded by the Asian Development Bank, and the ‘Higher
Education Master Plan’ project, funded by The World Bank. He worked for 2 years
as a post-doctoral research fellow in higher education governance and management
at Southern Cross University in Australia.
xiii
xiv About the Editors
Truc Thi Thanh Le (DEd) is a research fellow at Deakin University. Her research
activities and publications focus on transnational academic mobility, academic pro-
fession, staff professional development and learning, culturally inclusive pedagogy,
and English as medium of instruction. She is the coauthor of the 2018 book entitled
Teacher Professional Learning in International Education: Practice and
Perspectives from the Vocational Education and Training Sector, published by
Palgrave MacMillan, and of a commentary entitled ‘Teacher professional learning
is neglected in internationalisation’, published in the World University News in May
2018.
Nga Thi Hang Ngo (PhD) is a lecturer in TESOL at Tay Bac University, Vietnam.
She has had experience in teaching TESOL and training TESOL preservice and in-
service teachers in Vietnam. Her research areas include TESOL pedagogy and
teacher education, particularly teachers in disadvantaged areas. She has published
various articles in these areas.
Hoa Thi Mai Nguyen (PhD) is a senior lecturer in Teacher Professional Learning
at the School of Education, University of New South Wales, Australia. She has
experience in teaching and training preservice and in-service teachers in Asia and
Australia. Her ongoing research interests have been in the areas of teacher educa-
tion, teacher professional development, mentoring, TESOL, and sociocultural the-
ory. She has recently published a book entitled Models of Mentoring in Language
Teacher Education (Springer).
xvi About the Editors
Nhai Thi Nguyen (PhD) is a teacher and unit leader of the Educational Studies
stream at Monash College, Australia. She has woven her 16 years of research, teach-
ing, and industry experiences into the design, development, and delivery of higher
education, cultural studies, and teacher education. She has won a number of awards
and fellowship including Australian Leadership Award, Comparative and
International Education Society (CIES) 2016 International Travel Award for
Distinguished Service in Educational Reforms in Canada, and CIES 2018
International Travel Award for Emergent Scholars.
Quy Nguyen (DEd) is a lecturer in TESOL and dean (Educational Testing and
Quality Assurance) at the University of Foreign Language Studies, the University of
Danang, in Vietnam. He obtained a doctoral degree in Education from Griffith
University, Australia, in 2015 and became an adjunct research fellow at the Griffith
Institute for Educational Research, Griffith University. His research interests are in
educational leadership, university policy, research and teaching nexus, research pro-
ductivity of academics, and English language.
Thu Dinh Nguyen (PhD) is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Foreign Languages,
University of Technology and Education, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMUTE), in
Vietnam. His research interests cover TESOL teacher education, preservice and in-
service teachers training, teacher professional development, mentoring, and socio-
cultural theory in the EFL context of Vietnam.
Hiep-Hung Pham (PhD) currently serves as director of the Center for Research
and Practice in Education, Phu Xuan University, Vietnam. In 2017, he was awarded
his PhD in International Business Administration from the Chinese Culture
University, Taiwan (ROC). In 2013, he was an endeavour research fellow, conduct-
ing research at the Centre of Studies in Higher Education, the University of
Melbourne. His research interests include international education, tertiary educa-
tion management, and scientometrics.
Thi Tuyet Tran (June Tran) (DEd) is a mobile researcher. She has worked in
three countries, Australia, Vietnam, and Germany, and has developed an interest in
interdisciplinary research. Her interests range from labour economics and human
resource management to various areas in management and education research such
as migrant workplace integration, graduate employability, work integrated learning,
university-industry collaboration, language education, and cultural study. She is
currently based at the School of Management, RMIT University, working toward
her research project, namely ‘Workplace Integration in Australia: The Experience of
Professional Chinese and Vietnamese Skilled Migrants’.
xix
xx Abbreviations
VN Vietnam
VND Vietnam Dong
VNU-HCMC Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City
VNU-HN Vietnam National University, Hanoi
VUN Vietnam Universities Network
WB World Bank
WIL Work-Integrated Learning
WTO World Trade Organization
NWU North-West University
List of Figures
xxiii
List of Tables
Table 5.1 Tuition fee per student per month at regular state-sponsored
undergraduate courses in Vietnam���������������������������������������������� 78
Table 5.2 Amount of student loan in Vietnam�������������������������������������������� 80
Table 5.3 Comparison of dual track fee system between Vietnam’s
public higher education institutions and Johnstone’s (2004)����� 81
Table 5.4 Two selected projects funded by government
with high per-student investment����������������������������������������������� 86
Table 5.5 Results of Top 350 QS University Ranking Asia 2016
at some selected countries in ASEAN���������������������������������������� 87
Table 8.1 A snapshot of accreditation in the USA,
Australia and Vietnam���������������������������������������������������������������� 138
Table 9.1 Participant information��������������������������������������������������������������� 158
Table 10.1 Statistics of colleges and universities
in Vietnam 2000–2016��������������������������������������������������������������� 176
Table 10.2 International refereed journal articles of researchers
in East and Southeast Asia countries, 2000–2016���������������������� 179
Table 10.3 The national budget for research and technology
each year (VND Million)����������������������������������������������������������� 180
Table 10.4 The number of universities of each country ranked
in the World’s Top 400 in 2015–2016 and 2016–2017��������������� 181
Table 10.5 The number of universities of each country ranked
in the Asia’s top 200 in 2015 and 2016�������������������������������������� 181
Table 10.6 International refereed journal articles of Ton Duc Thang
University and regional universities������������������������������������������� 182
Table 10.7 International refereed journal articles of academics
in key Australia’s and Vietnam’s universities, 2000–2016��������� 188
Table 12.1 Eight-step model (Mwanza 2002b, p. 86)���������������������������������� 228
xxv
Chapter 1
Impacts of Global Forces and Local
Demands on Vietnamese Higher Education
Abstract The chapter discusses the context of higher education reforms in Vietnam.
It sets the scene by exploring the global forces that have shaped and reshaped the
landscape of Vietnamese higher education. It then examines how the local demands
have affected the higher education sector and concludes with an outline of the book
structure.
Introduction
As the world’s 14th and ASEAN’s third largest nation, with a population of almost
96 million people, Vietnam is well known for a good tradition of teaching and
learning as well as a strong family commitment to education. The country has
achieved 92% of adult literacy, as compared to the average world adult literacy of
98.06% for those aged between 14 and 25, and an average of 94.51% for those who
are 15 years old and older (UNESCO 2015). Despite remarkable achievements in
basic education, health and income (Do and Do 2014), Vietnam’s Human
Development Indicator (HDI) index of 0.683 in 2015 (up from 0.435 in 1990)
(UNDP 2011) ranked 128 out of 187 countries (UNDP 2015). However, Vietnam’s
tertiary education has been identified as the weakest sector in the education system
(Nguyen 2018; Tran et al. 2014, 2017; Tran and Marginson 2018a, b).
The Vietnamese higher education (VHE) system is comprised of both junior col-
leges and universities, which are responsible for awarding diploma, bachelor, mas-
ter and doctorate credentials. There are two national universities and three regional
universities, each with its own distinctive institutional governance arrangements
and member universities, and there are a large number of provincial universities and
N. T. Nguyen (*)
Monash College, Clayton, VIC, Australia
e-mail: Nhai.Nguyen@monashcollege.edu.au
L. T. Tran
Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, Australia
academic institutes. The system includes nonpublic and foreign-owned tertiary edu-
cation institutions, accounting for 19.5% of all higher education institutions (Do
and Do 2014). The number of universities and colleges in the system has expanded
fourfold within the past two decades, reaching 425 by 2015 (UNESCO 2015). It is
estimated that over the decade between 2000 and 2010, one new university, on aver-
age, was being established every week. Over a 6-year period from 2007 to 2013,
133 new universities were established, of which 108 were upgraded from 2-year
colleges (Pham 2015). Vietnam’s institution-to-people ratio is estimated currently to
be 1:212,000. Rapid and fragmented growth in the number of new higher education
institutions with a limited vision of their role has posed significant risks for quality
assurance and governance (Do and Do 2014).
To date, the research literature on the VHE system has not explored the role and
importance of globalisation in sufficient depth. In a postcolonial country such as
Vietnam, it is important to detect transnational linkages, junctures and disjunctures
as well as the stoppages residing within the system. This book seeks to advance a
conceptual understanding, as well as offering practical insights about the system
and the extent of educational reform. The book addresses the following principal
question and sub-questions:
Principal question: ‘How are Vietnamese higher education institutions responding
to globalisation and internationalisation as well as local demands?’
Sub-questions:
(a) What changes have occurred in Vietnam’s higher education system as a con-
sequence of the impact of global forces?
(b) What is the nature of the local forces being exerted on the higher education
system in Vietnam?
(c) What is the impact of Vietnamese culture and values on Vietnam’s higher
education system in a context of global forces?
(d) What are implications of local and global forces for reforming Vietnam’s
higher education system?
2004; Marginson and Mollis 2011). Essentially, these networks of relation extend
beyond the geographical boundaries of the nation-state.
Kenway et al. (2006) argue that the process of deterritorialisation occurring
within the nexus of globalisation has made our social life less structured and
dependent upon physical territories. Neither does it lie in the particularities of
locality or place. Instead, the ‘social relations are “stretched out” across ever-
widening expanses of space’ (Kenway et al. 2006, p. 44). Aspects of social and
cultural life have been isolated from the notion of defined ‘place’, leading further to
an advent of a ‘new scale of social action and social power’ (ibid, p.45). As a result,
these scholars urge us to move away from the comfort of spatiality [the local and the
nation-state] to a social space which involves and invokes transnational social and
cultural activities and formations.
Kenway et al. (2006) also remind us that this social space is embedded with
power geometries. As a consequence, scholars must not be completely bounded by
local place and time. They must be critically aware of the importance of place and
reflexively attend to both embodied and local habits and cultures. These habits and
cultures become seen as observant of the ‘fluidities and mobilities’ alongside with
the ‘stoppages and fixities’ which characterise the social space.
Essentially, globalisation is dispelled at the local production level. The local/the
single place and globalisation are inseparable entities. They precondition the
existence of the other. Often, the politics of local production are subtly embedded in
every activity of supranational production. In Burawoy’s (2001) critique, the
interconnected political struggles should be tied up to every node of the global
production lines. Burawoy (ibid.) therefore urges us to ‘replace abstract globalisation
with a grounded globalisation but also how that experience is produced in specific
localities and how that productive process is a contested and thus a political
accomplishment’ (p. 158, emphasis added). Alongside this political struggle is the
need to restore history and agency at the local reception and contestation of the
global and further relocate the global as produced in the local. Here globalisation is
understood and interpreted as the production of (dis)connections that link and of
discourses that travel (Appadurai 1996; Burawoy 2001; Kenway et al. 2006).
Globalisation has posed numerous challenges to sociocultural life. It has changed
the ways in which humans normally live (Appadurai 1996, 2001a). One typical
example of this change is the vast expansion of individualism in the traditionally
so-called collectivist societies. It subliminally conditions hybridisation of cultural
and social tradition which would have us go beyond economic globalisation to
unpack the education system and its patterns and changes (Marginson and
Mollis 2011).
Neubauer’s (2012) proposal of ‘circuit’ and ‘subcircuit’ of exchange upon the
profusion of globalisation is useful. This scholar locates globalisation in the
landscape of higher education in East Asia, arguing that higher education is actually
made of another circuit of exchange. It is constitutive of multiple subcircuits, each
of which constitutes and is derivative of the delineated geography of networks.
These circuits and subcircuits overlap with one another. Alternatively, according to
Neubauer (2012), they are multiple and hybrid. They characterise modern higher
4 N. T. Nguyen and L. T. Tran
1
Championed as the “21st Century Agreement”, the TPP involves 12 countries including the USA
and Japan. The TPP block produces 40% of the global trade within this trade agreement. Vietnam
successfully signed the TPP agreement on 8 October 2015. Together with other three Southeast
Asian countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei (Hunter Marson, The Diplomat, 25 July
2015), Vietnam is believed to benefit the most from TPP in the fields of garment and textiles
(Retrieved from http://thediplomat.com/2015/07/what-the-trans-pacific-partnership-means-for-
southeast-asia/)
6 N. T. Nguyen and L. T. Tran
lum appears to be fairly out of tune with the labour market, new technologies and
international developments in teaching and learning (Tran et al. 2018). Especially,
current teaching and learning practices tend to be fairly slow to respond to the
demands of the market economy. Preoccupied with pure disciplinary theories and
political indoctrination, the VHE curriculum provides insufficient attention to work-
integrated learning as well as the development of soft skills and attributes for stu-
dents (Tran et al. 2014). Critical reflection and creative thinking have been given
insufficient emphasis in current HE teaching and learning practices. Scholars have
pointed out that many students ‘find it hard to think creatively or to respond flexibly
to emerging challenges’ (Tran et al. 2014, p. 20). This is coupled with the discon-
nectedness between the VHE institutions and the industry, the decreasing university
enrolment rate mentioned previously and the growing concern over university grad-
uates’ unemployment (Pham 2015; World Bank 2012).
At the national level, the Vietnamese Government’s responses to these chal-
lenges have been comparatively aggressive; they have been manifested via a series
of decades-long, post-1986 policies in an effort to create a breakthrough in VHE
quality (Nguyen and Tran 2017). One of the highlights of these policy texts is
Decision No.201/2001/QD-TTG of 28 December 2001. In principle, the Decision is
correlated to the 2001–2010 Educational Development Strategy. It stresses the need
for the VHE system to ‘create a breakthrough in educational quality compatible to
international standard and at the same time, fits well into Vietnamese context’
(Vietnamese Government 2001).
Resolution No.37/2004/QH11 issued by the National Assembly on 3 December
2004 re-enhances Decision No.201/2001/QD-TTG. Overall the Resolution
commands that the Vietnamese universities are supposed to choose amongst a vast
array of international advanced programs to develop an advanced modern
curriculum, thanks to which the VHE institutions can create through teaching and
learning reforms (Vietnamese National Assembly 2004). In 2005, Vietnam’s
Education Law was officially approved by the 11th National Assembly meeting.
The Education Law speculates that the VHE curriculum content must be modern
and advanced; in addition, it has to be synched with basic science knowledge,
foreign language, information and technology literacy and specialised knowledge.
At the same time, it is to meet regional and international standard (Vietnamese
Government 2005). The Resolution14/2005/NQ-CP was issued on 2 November
2005; it showcases, amongst other things, the Vietnamese Government’s
determination to comprehensively innovate the VHE system for the 2006–2020
period and, again, commands the VHE institutions to import and apply the so-called
advanced foreign curriculum and programs (Vietnamese Government 2005).
Most prominently, Decision No.145/2006/QĐ-TTg on 20 June 2006 guides and
orients VHE institutions towards building a Vietnamese university with an
international standard (Vietnamese Government 2006). It is followed by the 10th
National Congress’s Decision in 2010 and the National Standing Committee of the
Vietnamese Communist Party’s report, focusing exclusively on transforming
education and training. Anticipated to thoroughly renew the VHE system and build
an international standard university, it aims to train the Vietnamese talents (Centre
1 Impacts of Global Forces and Local Demands on Vietnamese Higher Education 7
Committee 2010; Vietnamese Communist Party 2010). Further, the higher education
law approved by the National Assembly on 18 June 2012 became effective as of 1
January 2013, and it was appended with a Chapter on International Cooperation
(Chapter VI with 6 Articles).
The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has introduced
various policy texts in attempt to respond timely and effectively to the local
Vietnamese needs. It, at the same time, has to align well with global trends in higher
education. The most prominent policies are the Higher Education Reform Agenda
(HERA) – Resolution 14/2005/NQ-CP (Vietnam Government 2005) and Resolution
73/2012/ND-CP, both of which were aimed at VHE’s ‘fundamental and
comprehensive’ reforms (Vietnamese Government 2012). These policies have,
nevertheless, been subjected to scrutiny; they are said to lack comprehensiveness,
vision and practicality (Hoang et al. 2018; Nguyen and Tran 2017; Tran et al. 2014;
Tran and Marginson 2018a). Neither do these policies could help tackle VHE crisis
at root, nor can they embody a sophisticated educational philosophy driving higher
education reforms. Except for an over-ambitious goal of producing 20,000 PhDs by
2020 regarded as one of strategic human power plans and massive state funding,
these alarming issues have posed numerous constraints to government authorities
(Harman et al. 2010; Hayden and Lam 2010; Hayden and Thiep 2007; London
2011; Pham 2010; Tran et al. 2014).
The burgeoning local demands for the VHE reforms are clearly felt in the field of
university governance and structure, including institutional autonomy, accountability
and academic freedom. The lack of autonomy, accountability and academic freedom
is rooted in the highly centralised and bureaucratic system with top-down
management style and overlapping control of different ministries (Nguyen et al.
2009; George 2011). Consequently, VHE institutional governance falls below
standard and expectation and is commonly tied to power hierarchy. Do Minh Hoang
and Do Thi Ngoc Quyen (2014) further argue ‘the lack of well-planned reforms and
synchronic solutions and measures has led to an unmanageable higher education
system in terms of educational quality’ (p. 48). As a consequence, academics have
been familiar with poor autonomy, underpay and lack of research funding and
professional development. Limited resources and insufficient empowerment have
been commonly cited for hindering Vietnamese academics’ commitment to their
duties and responsibilities. Many of them have turned to ‘informal’ sources of
income so that they could make their ends meet. More alarmingly, they tend to
marginalise their institutional duties rather than seeing them as being core to their
professional life. Apart from selecting, developing, resourcing and regulating
academics’ quality, enhancing academics’ commitment to their university and their
professional duties is key to ensure teaching and learning quality.
Higher education reforms and massification of the VHE system over the past
three decades since economic reforms in 1986 have constrained university leaders
and MOET authorities. The VHE institutes appear to fall short of academic staff.
The consequence is academic staff’s workload has been increased. Further, Decision
No.1400/QĐ-TTG (Vietnamese Government 2008) raised the bar of English
communication skills and standards required for university lecturers. The Decision
8 N. T. Nguyen and L. T. Tran
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