Challenges of Higher Education in Vietnam: U.S. Ambassador Michael W. Marine

Vietnam Business Forum would like to introduce some comments of US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael W. Marine on Vietnam’s higher education on the occasion of his visit to Shidler Business Administration College in Ho Chi Minh City under Hawaii University on August 6.

In my three years as the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, I have seen great changes taking place here. The bonds between our two countries have grown broader and deeper than perhaps any of us might have envisioned only a few years ago. While there are many reasons for this deepening relationship, I believe the two most important factors are a fundamental convergence of Vietnamese and U.S. interests in ensuring stability and security in this part of the world, and the growing exchanges between our governments and our people. Economically, Vietnam is making major strides forward. The value of U.S. – Vietnam trade will exceed US$10 billion dollars this year, up from US$1.5 billion in 2001. The United States is Vietnam's top export market and its fourth largest foreign investor.  The newest Asian Tiger, Vietnam expects to attract at least US$15 billion in foreign direct investment commitments this year.

 

All around Vietnam, one sees energy, enthusiasm and hope. But set against its many successes, Vietnam faces significant challenges, not the least of which is its education system. While the country’s sustained economic growth has exceeded expectations, and the Vietnamese people continue to place an extremely high priority on education, the human resource infrastructure here has simply not developed sufficiently to support the growing demands. While this is true at all levels of the system, the state of higher education in Vietnam poses particular concerns.

 

The Government of Vietnam has made very clear that it understands the importance of education to its citizens, and recognizes the urgent need for change. There is genuine social and political desire to effect major improvements at every level of academia in Vietnam, and the Government has passed a number of important legal resolutions – on universal education and governance in the educational system to name just two – that would have significant impact if and when they are fully carried out. While resources and implementation efforts have been insufficient thus far, it is apparent that, at the highest level of this government, there is commitment and will. The United States wants to be a part of this important transformation.

 

The Vietnamese education system has a real champion in Dr Nguyen Thien Nhan, the Minister of Education and Training who was just named to serve concurrently as a Deputy Prime Minister. A former Fulbright Scholar with an MBA from the University of Oregon and several post-graduate study programmes from Harvard and a former Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City’s Provincial People’s Committee, Minister Nhan has enumerated specific goals to transform the scholastic environment in this country.

These objectives include offering universal access to education, with a particular emphasis on enrolment of girls, minorities and the disadvantaged who are underserved in the existing system, revamping teacher training programmes, and overhauling the national curricula for all subjects at all levels. His plan also calls for the development of a consistent and formalized accreditation and assessment process, a new emphasis on vocational training to equip Vietnam’s workforce for the 21st Century, new partnerships with German and U.S. academic institutions, and the upgrading of several of Vietnam’s universities to top-tier and internationally recognized status.
 
As the World Bank report shows, Vietnam desperately needs more PhDs for its overburdened universities, so the Ministry of Education and Training aims to train 20,000 new doctoral graduates by 2010. Ideally, 10,000 of those will receive their doctorate degrees abroad, with at least 2,500 of them trained in the United States. Beyond these specific goals, government leaders recognize the importance of foreign language acquisition – especially English - for students beginning at the primary school level, as well as increased competence in Information Technology.

 

In all of these areas, the United States not only can help, but wants to work as a partner with the Government and the people of Vietnam to address the deficiencies and create an academic environment and system of which every Vietnamese citizen can be proud.

 

One of the premier U.S. academic exchanges is the Fulbright Programme. Designed to increase mutual understanding between people around the world, this programme was established in 1946 and has since expanded to 140 countries. The programme was set up in Vietnam in 1992 and today it receives one of the largest financial contributions from the United States Government of all Fulbright programmes worldwide. This is an unquestionably successful programme, but with a contribution from the Government of Vietnam, it could be expanded to provide graduate level training to even more Vietnamese scholars, thus providing some of the 20,000 new PhDs this country needs to teach its growing number of university students.  I hope this will happen soon. Here in Ho Chi Minh City, we are proud to support the Fulbright Economics Teaching Programme, or FETP. The Fulbright Economics Teaching Programme was established in 1994 with the twin objectives of supporting Vietnam’s burgeoning economic transition and market liberalization process by providing economics training in Vietnamese, while advancing our bilateral relationship through academic exchange. FETP is a joint project between Harvard and the University of Economics here in Ho Chi Minh City. This groundbreaking level of cooperation has been an enormous success. FETP’s flagship course is its one-year programme in applied economics and public policy. Currently, the FETP management is working with decision-makers in Washington D.C. and here in Vietnam to examine opportunities for expanding its programmes. While the United States is home to many of the world’s top “name brand” universities, our education strength lies in the remarkable depth and breadth of American academic institutions. With over 4,000 accredited colleges and universities to choose from, there is quite literally a school for everyone. A number of excellent schools – like the University of Hawaii and Harvard – have already made important inroads in cooperative education, and many others are exploring prospects for working in Vietnam.

 

While Vietnam’s economy is moving ahead quickly, the government recognizes the urgent need to raise the English language level of its citizens. English is, after all, the lingua franca of commerce and this represents a particular challenge to Vietnamese businesses. In too many cases, English is taught by instructors who do not speak the language themselves and have received scant training in how to teach a foreign language. However, this fall, in yet another indicator of our growing relationship with the Government of Vietnam, the Ministry of Education and Training will host a U.S. Government-funded Senior English Language Fellow. For a full year, this Senior Fellow will work with a special team at the Ministry to completely revamp the English language curriculum for the Vietnamese educational system.