The
Currents and Trends in the Vietnamese Education System within the
International(ized) Context: A Comparative Perspective
“Such an ignorance can be possible only by
education” - Bearded Jalal, a street philosopher
Ulaş Başar Gezgin
Abstract
After analysing
the currents and trends of education across the globe, in Asia and China, the
chapter presents the problems of Vietnamese education system as appeared on
newspapers. The commentary on those problems are followed by suggestions for
the current issues, and discussion of future trends in the internationalization
of Vietnamese education system. A comparativist lens is taken on for the
elaborations.
Keywords:
Vietnam, education and internationalization.
1)
The Currents and Trends across the Globe, in Asia and China
One of the main
questions that this chapter aims to answer is the following: “Given that
Vietnamese education system is getting more and more internationalized, to what
extent the problems of Vietnamese education are international?” To answer this
question, the chapter will provide a view of the international trends in
education and especially higher education, and will revolve on a panorama of
the problems of Vietnamese education as they appear on newspapers. The chapter
will conclude by a discussion of the problems within an international
perspective.
Comparative
education research is not new to Asia. Bray (2002) points out that comparative
education research is tilted towards Asia as thousands of copies of comparative
education journals in Asian languages are published in Asia each year, the
Asian membership of Asian comparative education societies is high compared to
non-Asian societies both in absolute and comparative terms, and an increasing
number of research centers and institutes are dedicated to comparative
education research in Asia. The following topics are popular among the Asian
comparativists: The role of education in Asian economic growth; the effect of
Confucian and other traditions on education; and the link between education and
political transition. On the other hand, the scope of comparisons does not
extend beyond North American and European education systems. Comparisons of
Asian education systems with their South American and African counterparts are
virtually non-existent (Bray, 2002).
Shin and Harman
(2009) identifies two recent trends that had a dramatical impact on education
in Asia-Pacific region as well as other regions: Globalization and
massification. Globalization commercialized the schools on the one hand, and
internationalized them on the other; whereas massification posed new challenges
due to the enlargement of the scale. The task is expansion of the education, i.e.
increasing the quantity measured by school enrollment as well as maintaining
high quality. The dilemma of quality and quantity, and privatization lead to
the emergence of quality assurance agencies replacing the government
institutions previously involved in monitoring. According to Shin and Harman
(2009), the consequences of massification are the following: Due to
massification, standardized curriculums are developed, reducing the
significance and initiative of teachers. Recently, it is common to see staff
that does not hold PhD degrees, but teaching university subjects. Likewise, in
Vietnam, 75% percent of the lecturers hold only undergraduate degree (Gezgin,
2009a). Related to this point, since the major source of revenues for the
universities is tuition fees, research role is neglected in many mushrooming
universities. Thus the difference between a high school teacher and a lecturer
disappears. Another consequence of massification is the increase in teaching
hours of the lecturers.
A joint result
of globalization and massification is the increase in the number of private
schools. Furthermore, a significant result of globalization accompanied with
privatization is the fact that the governments are not willing to serve as
service providers, they are more like coordinators of private service providers
(Lu & Zhang, 2008). That directly affects provision of education. The
governments are moving from input control to output control as reflected by
considering the number of graduates as the main criterion for funding decisions.
Shin and Harman (2009) emphasizes that private tertiary education enrollment accounts
for almost 80% for Japan and Korea, 25.5% for US, 16.5% for France and 2.19%
for Australia. Private schools are criticized for two main reasons:
1) They are
against the principle of equal access to educational opportunities.
2) As the
private schools are mushrooming with commercial interests, the quality is
compromised since the regulations seem to be looser for private schools.
Shin and Harman
(2009) mentions another move that ultimately leads to privatization: Lacking
the necessary funds, public schools are increasing their tuition fees. The
increase in government expenditure for tertiary education is not in pace with
the increase in the number of tertiary level students. Thus, government
expenditure per student at tertiary level is declining (Shin and Harman, 2009).
Shin and Harman’s (2009) prediction is that lower costs will be the competitive
edge for the universities in general, and higher costs will be characteristic
of high-quality education.
A third trend
that should be added to Shin & Harman’s (2009) trends of globalization and
massification is the rise of IT and on-line teaching-learning environments.
Ruperes (2003) is optimistic about this trend:
“The possibilities of tele-education provided
by the advances in the Internet and the telecommunications system and the
capacity to re-use, via Internet websites, the educational materials –
appropriately adapted – that the first world is generating and will continue to
generate at a swift rate arouse the hope that a globalization sensitive to
development will make it possible to substantially correct the massive local
deficits in basic knowledge in the course of one generation” (Ruperes,
2003, p.259).
Though that is
not a major problem for Vietnam for the time being, the quality of on-line
programs is a hot topic, and there are problems with the access to IT services
as summarized by the term ‘digital divide’.[1]
A fourth trend
is off-shore campuses (Ka & Xiaozhou, 2008). This is especially common
across Asia. Although Altbach & Knight (2007) provides an excellent review
and discussion of off-shore campuses, we will focus our attention to Asia and
especially China before elaborating the situation in Vietnam. Joint programs
binding a local university with an overseas university are now a regular
component of the Chinese education system. Ka & Xiaozhou (2008) states that
even in 2004, 745 joint programmes were on the run across China. Most of the
joint programmes are concentrated in the vicinity of the eastern coastal cities
that have recorded high economic growth rates for decades (Ka & Xiaozhou,
2008). This is a giant leap from 1995 where only 2 joint programmes were
offered. The overseas partners and their shares in the joint programmes are the
following: Australia (28%), USA (26%), Hong Kong (13%), Canada (9%), France
(7%), UK (5%), Norway (2%), Ireland (2%); Singapore, the Netherlands, South
Korea, Germany, New Zealand, Belgium (1% each), and others (2%) (Ka &
Xiaozhou, 2008). As confirmed by these figures,
Australia and US are the major joint programme providers. Some of these
joint programmes are not partnered with world-class universities overseas and
the majority of the programmes is for Business, Commerce and Economics (Ka
& Xiaozhou, 2008). This high overseas interest for China can be mostly
explained by the fact that Chinese population provides a giant education
market, and that Chinese universities have not been well-versed in providing
international education yet. Ka & Xiaozhou (2008) points out that unlike
Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, foreign universities are not permitted to
open branch campuses in China, and their maximum expansion possibility is by
setting up joint programmes with local partners. This may deter foreign
universities from entering China.
Li (2004) states
that Chinese educational reform that focuses on forming world-class
universities had adverse effects over basic education: The finances to be spent
to improve and expand primary and secondary education are poured into the
tertiary education, and primary and secondary schools not sufficiently financed
by world-class-university-obsessed Chinese government are imposing tuition fees
for students. If this trend will continue, China will be more like India where
Indian technology institutes produce world-class IT experts in a country with
the highest number of illiterates on the world. Indian IT boom is criticized
due to the same problem of funding preferences (Gezgin, 2009b).
World-class-university obsession crowds out people’s inalienable right for
basic education. Unlike Maoist China period, cities are considered to be more
important than villages by the reform-minded Chinese government. This situation
raises issues that involve equality in access to high-quality education. Li
(2004) reports that some primary and secondary school students dropped out
since they can’t pay the fees. Moreover, the growth in the number of high
quality teachers does not keep pace with that of students (Li, 2004).
Convergingly, Wanhua (2009) discusses the adverse effects of the commercialization
of higher education in China: MBA and related programmes mushroomed in China
since 1991, and hundreds of MBA programmes are provided in China now. The funds
are pouring into MBA and related programmes in expense of other programmes. The
faculties are divided into marketable programmes and non-marketable ones.
Wanhua (2009)
sees another trend in Chinese higher education: A move from specialized degrees
that were the legacy of the Soviet education model, toward generic degrees that
can weather structural changes of Chinese economy better. Wanhua (2009) reminds
that in the past when the labor needs of the economy changed, the specialized
labor was useless and outdated.[2]
Likewise, as an example, there are plans to shut down agricultural mechanics
and agricultural economics faculties at Ho Chi Minh City’s Agricultural
Technology School, due to low demand (Viet Nam News, 2009a). The education
system is staggering to follow the structural changes of the economy.[3]
However, in the other extreme, if general degree programmes would dominate,
labor market will be flooded by graduates lacking the specific skills needed by
employers.
As a major
problem of Chinese education system, Wanhua (2009) mentions memorization
problem. The central university entrance examination reinforces memorization.
Thus he concludes that problems of Chinese higher education can’t be totally
addressed without reforming primary and secondary education. Converging with Wanhua
(2009), Zhu (2007) lists the following problems in Chinese education to be
addressed by curricular reform:
1) Theoretical
courses with no practical applications for students,
2) Excessive
reliance on books,
3) Central
university entrance examination.[4]
To address the
first two problems, practical and locally-based courses are added by the basic
education reforms of 2001 (Zhu, 2007). By the latter, the students are able to
know Chinese history as well as the history of their locals, and the curriculum
can be modified based on the needs of the locality. E.g. the students can study
agricultural topics in rural areas.[5]
The power of setting the curriculum is decentralized, shifting from the central
government to locals (Zhu, 2007). Furthermore, elective courses are introduced.
By this reform, Chinese education system is moving from subject-centered
approach to student-centered approach (Zhu, 2007).
The third point
listed by Zhu (2007) i.e. central university entrance examination is discussed
by Zheng (2008): The proponents state that the central examination is a fair
way to select students, as students of all social backgrounds are taking the
same exam. The opponents state that it is an inefficient way to match the
skills and interests of students with the prerequisites of the universities
(Zheng, 2008). Actually, the central exam does not guarantee fairness, as the
students of middle and high income families can afford preparatory classes for
the exam while poor majority can’t do that. Education is perpetuating and
aggravating the social inequalities both with and without the central
university entrance exam. However it is clear that favoritism can’t be avoided
if the central exam is abolished. Then, the point is not about ontology; it is
about epistemology. The point is not keeping or abolishing it, but what to ask
on the exam. Alternatively, a mix of central exam (such as SAT and GRE) coupled
with university’s own decision based on the scores and other factors may be
proposed which reduces the negative effects of both extremes. However, even in
that sense, favoritism will still be an issue.
To raise the
standards of Chinese universities, many universities have been merged to be one
single university. The main assumption was that first class universities should
be large enough to cover most of the academic disciplines. For that purpose,
most medical universities became parts of larger universities (Chen, 2002). In
this process, one of the main challenges for the Chinese education system will
be overcrowded classes (e.g. 200 odd students taught in an auditorium) in
universities, and shortage of lecturers as the enrollment rate doubled in a
couple of years, unmatched with the increase in the number of universities.
Actually, due to amalgamation, the number of universities decreased (Chen,
2004). The pressure for higher enrollment increases, as the university needs to
fund itself by tuition fees. As the higher education fees are increasing,
children of low-income families are mostly excluded from higher education
(Yinmei, 2006). Moreover, another problem emerges out of China’s ambitious
plans to build world-class universities: Wanhua (2009) states that current
international ranking systems are rewarding publishing papers, but they don’t
cover whether the university is solving the real problems of the society.
According to him, the idea of world-class university should be based on solving
the real problems; otherwise the university will publish more with no practical
value.
Although the
directionality of the link between economic growth and education is a moot
issue (i.e. is economic growth because of an increase in education level; or
does education level increase because people can afford schooling due to
economic growth?), Chinese government expanded higher education enrollment in
the last decade (Yinmei, 2006). Yinmei (2006) discusses 4 reasons for Chinese
government’s decision to expand higher education enrollment:
1) To upgrade
the Chinese labor force,
2) To meet the
public demand for education,
3) Postponing
the entry of high school graduates to labor force, to release the pressure over
the government which is in need of creating new jobs matching huge scores of
new entrants to the labor market. This also increases consumption and in turn,
GDP, as the families need to spend money for their children.
4) Reducing the
pressure over high schools to prepare the students for the university exam.
This expansion
is criticized since it leads to inequalities, concerns over the quality of
education and increasing number of unemployed graduates (Yinmei, 2006). The
majority of the university enrollment comes from urban areas, although more
people are living in rural areas than cities in China. Thus Yinmei (2006)
comments that in the short run, the expansion reproduced regional and social
inequalities.
There is more to
discuss about the regional inequalities: As the reforms of 1978 deified
economic growth replacing the lofty principle of equality (Gezgin, 2009c),
post-Mao Chinese education system is characterized by depolitization of
education and priority of efficiency considerations over equity (Ngok, 2007).
On the other hand, Western Chinese universities suffered due to financial
decentralization, since this process left them without sufficient central
government funding. By this way, financial decentralization policies widen the
gaps across cities and rural areas; and eastern and western regions (Ngok,
2007). 75% of illiterates and semi-literates live in rural areas of Western
China (Ngok, 2007). High tuition fees aggravate poverty of rural families
(Ngok, 2007). The total expenses of an undergraduate is equal to 35 net annual
incomes of a Chinese farmer (Ngok, 2007). Still worse is the fact that
unemployment rate among the graduates is higher than 50% in many areas (Ngok,
2007). Chinese government has plans to address these issues (Ngok, 2007).
Before moving to
the situation in Vietnam, a cautionary note on the problems in comparing the
educational systems of different countries is necessary. Grant (2000) warns against
inappropriate comparisons of education systems of different countries and the
resulting copying of the system of one country to another. He reminds that
context, culture and geography should be considered in applying models that
were successful elsewhere. For instance, comparing Vietnam with Singapore and
Hong Kong would be quite inappropriate. The latter two don’t have the heavy
burden of expanding education to rural areas out of the cities. Likewise
Broadfoot (2000) warns against the appeal of silver bullets in comparative
education. According to her, search for general principles that will make the
education policies successful everywhere is misleading, and it often leads to
ignoring useful qualitative data due to the high epistemological status conferred
to figures and statistics. Furthermore,
the meaning of education and words related to education may be different in
various languages (Grant, 2000). As a result, the same education policy leads
to such various results that it is hard to believe that they are the results of
the same policy (Carnoy & Rhoten, 2002).
Then the
question is why this chapter which is on the Vietnamese education system spends
pages and pages on the problems of Chinese education. For one thing, there are
obvious scale differences between Vietnam and China: There are 10 million
teachers and 600,000 schools serving more than 200 million primary and
secondary school students in China (Zhu, 2007). These figures are probably
incomprehensible for Vietnam. On the other hand, the two have much in common: A
Confucian heritage, political structure and economic ideology are the first points
that come into mind. Thus the two countries will be discussed along with the
international significance of the currents and trends of the Vietnamese
education system.
2)
Problems of Vietnamese Education System
Here are the
problems of Vietnamese education as appeared on newspapers from January to May
2009 (the ordering is arbitrary) :
- Unequal access
to high-quality education (Loan & Nguyen, 2009; Thanh Nien Daily, 2009b;
Thanh Nien Daily, 2009c)
- Drop-outs due
to poverty (Viet Nam News, 2009b)
-
Commercialization of education (Thanh Nien Daily, 2009d; 2009e)
- Vocational
training (Van, 2009; Viet Nam News, 2009c; 2009d; 2009e; 2009f)
-
Decentralization of higher education (Le, 2009)
-
Standardization of education (Viet Nam News, 2009g; 2009h)
- Vocational
guidance (Thanh & Khoi, 2009; Viet Nam News, 2009i)
- Endorsement of
student-centered approach (Nguyen & Hoang, 2009; Thanh Nien Daily, 2009a)
- Brain drain
(Lien, 2009)
- Incentives for
teachers (Nguyen & Ha, 2009)
- High school
examinations (Ha & Anh, 2009; Nguyen, 2009)
- English
classes in primary school (Loan, 2009; Thanh Nien Daily, 2009e)
- The effects of
recession (Pomfret, 2009)
- Other problems
such as personality education (Quang & Nam, 2009), cheating (Nam, 2009) and
sex education (Tran, 2009)
The major
problems of Vietnamese education are almost identical with those of Chinese
education system. Unequal access to high-quality education starts even at
pre-school level since parents who can afford it send the kids to kindergartens
where pre-schoolers can gain literacy skills and basic English (Loan &
Nguyen, 2009). It continues at all levels of education and reaches its peak in
preparations for high school graduation and university entrance examinations.
The students who are financially well-off can afford ‘lesson reviews’, others
can’t (Thanh Nien Daily, 2009b). Related to the problem of unequal access to education, more than 86,200
students out of a total 15.3 million left the school in 2009 in Vietnam (Viet
Nam News, 2009j). The main reasons are learning disabilities (33%) and poverty
(30%). Although a new policy that will allow paying tuition fees based on
students’ income level will make great strides towards equal access to education
(Viet Nam News, 2009k), it is hard to say that this move will totally eradicate
the problem. High-quality education is often out of the budget of poor
families. A study should be conducted to check the proportion of poor students
and students of rural and provincial backgrounds getting high-quality
education. This proportion should be compared and contrasted with that of
socially advantaged students. In this vein, foreign-owned universities are
expected to produce more inequalities as they are private universities with
tuition fees that can’t be afforded by poor families. The proportion of poor
students on scholarship at foreign universities is infinitesimal compared to
the proportion of poor in the society. That means poor students will not have
equal access to foreign education. As a suggestion, Vietnamese government may
provide state scholarships for studying at Vietnam campuses of foreign
universities, as an alternative to funding overseas studies of Vietnamese
students. This may be a cost-effective way. Vietnam should find ways to avoid
“pay the piper, call the tune” mentality.
Commercialization
of the schools and research institutes is a hot topic especially for the last
couple of years in Vietnam. This trend is criticized since it gives priority to
commercial considerations at the expense of pedagogical and scientific
evaluations (Thanh Nien Daily, 2009d; 2009e). Likewise, commercialization is
the most observable trend in Australian universities as they are mainly funded
by international fee-paying students. Government funding plummeted due to
neoliberal policies (Lu & Zhang, 2008).
The demands of
labor market should be matched by education system. Nearly half of the
Vietnamese labor force is still in agriculture and forestry sectors (Gezgin, 2009a).
The main challenge for Vietnamese education system will continue to be
vocational training, and updating the skills of agricultural workers (Gezgin,
2008a), as agricultural workers are continuously moving to the cities for job
prospects (cf. Van, 2009). Conversion of agricultural lands to industrial and
residential areas furthers up the mismatch of the demand of the labor market
and the skills of the rural workers (cf. Viet Nam News, 2009f). Between 2001
and 2005, 3.85% of agricultural lands in Vietnam were converted to serve
non-agricultural uses (cf. Viet Nam News, 2009f). In this process, the quality
of vocational training is mooted since sometimes vocational school graduates
don’t have appropriate skills for the labor market, and thus they need extra
training in the work setting (Viet Nam News, 2009e). A massive training program
for 830,000 rural workers by 2010 is among the plans of the Vietnamese
government (Van, 2009). As a springboard for vocational training, the career
orientation programme that is added to high school curriculum (10th
grade) in 2006 to provide vocational guidance (Viet Nam News, 2009i; Thanh
& Khoi, 2009) seems to need reform. The teachers need to be trained to
match the teaching skills required by the programme. It should be admitted that
vocational guidance is a specialization by its own.
60,000
Vietnamese are studying abroad while only 30% returns home after graduation
(Lien, 2009). Discussing how to build a world-class university in China,
Yingjie (2001) raises a critical question:
“This trend puts the top universities in the
developing countries in a dilemma. When they aspire to becoming World-class
universities, they have to follow quality standards set by western
universities. But, the closer they come to western standards, the more
graduates they produce leave for western countries. This brain drainage is a
part of the unfair international exchange of higher education. The general
public would raise the question whether is it a wise policy to invest heavily
in these universities to turn them into prep schools for western universities?
There are no easy answers for this question” (Yingjie, 2001, pp.4-5).
To address this
issue in one sense, Chinese government has been implementing his plans to
upgrade 9 Chinese universities to the world-class level by 2015, which seems to
be unrealistic as it takes decades to form a top-level university (Li, 2004).
This is accompanied by increasing university enrollments by 15% (Li, 2004).
China is facing the same challenge: Increasing the quality and quantity at the
same time. As to Vietnam, the Vietnam branches of international universities
will reduce brain drain, as overseas-educated Vietnamese can be employed in
those universities. A clear policy is required to counter brain drain in Vietnam.
Though it is not
mentioned on newspapers quite often, the main flaw of Vietnamese education
system is teachers’ salaries and incentives to motivate innovation. By the
transformation of the economy, the salary gap between teachers and other white-collar
jobs is widening in Vietnam.[6]
Even if the salaries are low, the country still needs teachers. So how will
this issue be resolved? I predict that the proportion of female teachers will
increase each year, since males are considered to be the major breadwinners,
and teaching is viewed as woman’s job along with childrearing (Gezgin, 2008b).
If teaching is not financially and socially respected, economic growth can’t be
sustainable. In the long run, attracting young talents to teaching profession
is economically more beneficial than building plazas. A focus on plazas rather
than teaching will leave the country with plazas and unskilled labor. Secondly,
the teachers should be encouraged to innovate rather than to follow orders.
Recession is the
last major problem covered in this chapter. Because of recession, people are
losing their jobs. That may partially explain the high drop-out rate in 2009 in
Vietnam. Secondly, international schools are adversely affected across Asia due
to recession, since many expats and their school-age children are moving back
to their home country (Pomfret, 2009).
To add to these
major problems, littering, public urination and unwanted teenage pregnancies
are the problems that may be partially addressed by education. These problems
are clear birthpains of the rapid urbanization of a rural society. Littering
and public urination are common in HCMC. That means personality education is
required. On the other hand, the success of this policy depends on increasing
the number of trash cans and public toilets as well (Quang & Minh, 2009).
Secondly, given that the number of unwanted teenage pregnancies are swelling in
Vietnam, sex education is necessary. Besides these issues, drug use and online
games should be addressed as well.
To summarize,
the main problems of Vietnamese education are the following:
- Unequal access
to high-quality education
-
Commercialization
- Vocational
training and guidance
- Drop-outs
- Brain drain
- Memorization
- Incentives for
teachers
- Recession
3)
Conclusion and Suggestions
Traditionally,
internationalization is considered to involve 4 aspects of education:
1) Partnerships
including joint programmes, exchanges etc.
2) Curricula
3) Students
4) Lecturers
In the first
sense, Vietnam has always had an internationalized education in one way or
another, though the term ‘internationalized’ has taken different meanings in
the meantime. The use of Chinese education system in the past is well known,
and French colonialism replaced the Chinese education system. After Dien Bien
Phu Victory, Chinese, and later on Soviet influences were obvious on Vietnamese
education system. After the normalization of the diplomatic relations with US
by 1990s, American influence is highly observable, for example, in the increasing
number of Vietnamese students studying in US. The founding fathers and mothers
of independent, modern Vietnam were educated in French schools. Uncle Ho is the
most internationalized and internationalist citizen of Vietnam as even a
cursory look at his life story would testify. After Dien Bien Phu Victory, many
Vietnamese had been educated in then socialist countries. In that sense,
Vietnamese education system had been quite international. Another sign of this
internationalization which is often not noticed is the fact that Teacher’s Day
in Vietnam is celebrated on the day agreed by socialist countries. Although in
many countries, Teacher’s Day is anchored to a significant event in national
history, Vietnam’s Teacher’s Day is still internationalist (Gezgin, 2009d). So
there is no need to discover America again. The idea of internationalization is
not new to Vietnam. However, joint programmes are more common now than the
past.
In the second
sense, internationalization means donning the curriculum with international
examples. This may be extended to the whole textbooks. Actually,
regionalization seems to be a more feasible strategy for Vietnamese education
compared to internationalization. Vietnam is a member of ASEAN. Following the
lines of the formation of EU, 10 member countries can prepare ASEAN textbooks
to be used in ASEAN countries, though this proposal seems to be utopic for the
time being. The main courses to be regionalized would be; geography, literature
and history. Geography textbooks may have a special ASEAN focus. Literature
textbooks can focus on sample texts from ASEAN literatures. The third is a
gargantuan task to realize: Writing a history textbook that will present the
views of all member countries. This task is gargantuan because it may be
difficult to agree on a historiography that will satisfy all the ASEAN members.
Furthermore, ASEAN languages can be taught in schools in addition to English. A
further realization of this proposal is the opening of common ASEAN university
campuses across the region. This will serve enormous functions. Unfortunately,
this is a pipe-dream for the time being. Alternatively, one university at each
ASEAN country can be selected to experiment on integrated ASEAN programmes in
all the senses of regionalization. ASEAN universities network can be extended
for that purpose.
In the third and
fourth senses, internationalization means having international lecturers and
students. Vietnam is clearly far from this sense of internationalization
(Nguyen, 2009). There are only a few international students in Vietnam and they
are mostly concentrated in Vietnamese language and culture studies.
International lecturers are virtually non-existent. International students in
other fields can be attracted by high quality education; and for high quality,
the knowledge transfer from international lecturers is a must. In the
successful examples of internationalization, international lecturers are paid
at international rates. The question is how these rates will be funded in Vietnam.
If funding would be possible, it will be quite likely to attract international
students to Vietnam. However, drawing lessons from Chinese education system,
measures should be taken against the possibility that MBA and related
programmes would dominate the international education market in Vietnam, and
crowd out the growth of other fields. If recruitment of international scholars
will be successful, Vietnam will be a tough competitor in the regional
education market along with Singapore and Thailand. Though it is unrealistic to
compare Singapore and Vietnam for the time being, Thailand is a good match for
comparison. If Vietnam would attract some of the international scholars
currently working at Thailand, that will make a great difference for internationalization
of education in Vietnam.
If
internationalization means experiencing the same problems in different
countries, then Vietnamese education system is mostly internationalized.
Unequal access to high-quality education, commercialization, vocational training
and guidance, drop-outs, brain drain, incentives for teachers and recession are
all common problems in Asian region and across the globe in the most general
terms. Then there are two possible questions: Is internationalization
inherently good? Secondly, is this what it means to be internationalized?
Within this context, it seems that adaptation studies are quite rare in
Vietnam. The imported models should be tested in pilot studies before they are
implemented across Vietnam. The
comparisons should be vigilant on the differences of the two countries rather
than the expected positive outcome.
Another hot
topic in the near future will be academic autonomy in Vietnam.[7]
In contrast to Yingjie (2001) who is very optimistic about granting autonomy to
Chinese universities, Wanhua (2009) cites corruption cases involving the
embezzlement of university finances by senior academic managers. Granting more
autonomy should be in tandem with regulations that address this issue.
To conclude,
internationalization of education in Vietnam has a long way to go with its own
assets and liabilities. It has to be remembered that internationalization is
not the panacea for Vietnamese education system. The following years will be
the test ground for the ideas and suggestions of this paper. As a final
suggestion, we can add that the number of scientific journals and conferences
in Vietnam should be increased to promote international collaboration. It will
be better if the call for papers will appear on English newspapers of Vietnam
and Southeast Asia.
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[2] This partially explains why some of the cosmonauts and
engineers of USSR became sex workers after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Their specialized degrees did not match the capitalist needs of the new labor
market.
[3] Actually, these programs are not useless as the
majority of the Vietnamese labor force is still agricultural. The problem seems
to be location of the faculties. To serve the society in a better way, they can
be moved to rural areas.
[4] Let us remind that Vietnamese education is criticized
since it is too theoretical and based on memorization (Thanh Nien Daily,
2009a).
[5] This resembles the defunct Village Institutes project
in Turkey which was abolished due to the power politics of the governments.
[7] This has
been the hottest topic in Turkish higher education debates since a council set
by the 1980 military coup curbed the academic freedoms. This issue needs to be
addressed in a separate paper.
Source: Gezgin, U. B. (2017). When the Dragon Reigns the World: On Asian Society, Politics and
Education.
WHEN THE DRAGON REIGNS THE WORLD:
ON ASIAN SOCIETY, POLITICS AND EDUCATION
Prof.Dr. Ulaş Başar Gezgin
ASIAN SOCIETY & POLITICS
1. Strategic Management of ASEAN Economic Community: An Analysis of Strategic Change and Change Strategy
2. The Role Model for the Muslim World: A Shift from Turkey to Indonesia?
3. Trump and Slump: Implications for Chinese Ascendancy.
4. Policy Prescriptions Based on Faulty Premises.
5. Delusions of an 'Asian Century': The Asian Century and the Social Problems of Asia
6. Human Development in Asia-Pacific: Challenges and Opportunities.
7. The Applicability of Sustainable and Green Business Models for Vietnam: The Case of Recycling
8. On the Seas, the Rivers, and the Mountains...
ASIAN EDUCATION
9. Potential Problems of Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) in Off-shore Campuses in Southeast and East Asia and suggestions.
10. Implications of East Asian Perspectives on Critical Education for Turkish Educational Policies: Culturalism Revisited.
11. The Currents and Trends in the Vietnamese Education System within the International(ized) Context: A Comparative Perspective
12. Các Trào Lưu Và Xu Thế Của Hệ Thống Giáo Dục VN Trong Bối Cảnh Quốc Tế: Từ Góc Độ Nghiên Cứu So Sánh
ASIAN HISTORY
13. Agent Orange: A Calamity That Never Ends (with Değirmencioğlu)
14. Khmer Rouge and The Killing Fields: To Whom Can It Be Attributed?
Bio
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