Last year, a delegation of the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training paid a working visit to United States-based educational institutions and universities to discuss enhanced cooperation in education and training between Vietnam and the US. During this visit, the delegation worked with seven universities and consortiums of community colleges in San Francisco, Howard and other cities. Working contents focused on the formation of university - business consortiums, on US’ education institutions’ support for Vietnam in university establishment and doctoral training for Vietnamese university lecturers, formation of accreditation and quality assessment systems for higher education, and on cooperation among Vietnamese and US universities in the implementation of advanced training programmes.
The two sides exchanged cooperation contents and signed agreements on encouragement of universities in Vietnam and the US to cooperate in education, science and technology.
This was one of practical cooperation activities in education, training, science and technology between Vietnam and the US. Along with the strong development of trade and investment relations, the US - Vietnam cooperation in education, training science and technology also achieved positive results. According to statistics, at present, the number of Vietnamese students studying and researching in the US ranked 8th in number of overseas students in the US, with approximately 18,000 students.
Vietnam - US cooperation in education and training contributed effectively to developing high quality human resources for Vietnam. Since the Fulbright Economic Training Programme was launched in 1994 on the basis of cooperation between the Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics and the Harvard-Kennedy School. This school trains masters in public administration, organises in-depth researches on macroeconomics for senior officials, and opens short-term training courses. Professors from Harvard University and John F. Kennedy School of Government have introduced new contents and modern teaching methodologies for students in Vietnam.
In 2002, the US House of Representatives passed a law on establishment of the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) with a budget of US$5 million a year to provide scholarships for Vietnamese students, pay US professors to teach in Vietnam, and research and support the cooperation of universities of the two countries. Until now, 23 Vietnamese universities signed cooperation agreement with US partners. The foundation will operate until 2016 and will be considered for further operation by the House of Representatives.
Vietnam now has 18,000 students studying in the US, mainly self-financed.
In the future, the education cooperation will be raised to a new level when the Fulbright Vietnam University is opened and this will strengthen education cooperation between the two nations.
Le Anh
Vietnamese
