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VietNamNet Bridge – A couple of American professors have minced no words in their analysis of “the crisis” in Vietnam’s higher education system, stirring up debate among the nation’s educators.  Though some believe the criticisms are too heavy and too pointed, most everyone will admit that reforms are needed.

Tuan Vietnam, the weekly magazine of VietNamNet, has summarized the report and some of the reaction to it.

The controversial report

Vietnam’s education is now in crisis. Vietnam’s universities are moribund and the core problem is heavy-handed central control, say HarvardUniversity professors Thomas J. Vallely and Ben Wilkinson in “an admittedly opinionated” report prepared for the American members of the US-Vietnam Higher Education Task Force.  In summary, the report says:

• No Vietnamese university can be found on lists of leading training establishments of the world or even of Asia, though most other South East Asian countries can take pride in at least several well known training establishments. Most of Vietnam’s universities have been isolated from the international knowledge flow. Professors and lecturers at even the best universities in Vietnam publish very few articles and research works in international journals.

• There is a disjoint between Vietnam’s universities and the needs of the economy, hence fifty percent of university graduates cannot find jobs related to their academic specialization.  The multinational IT corporation, Intel, said the skills level of job applicants is the lowest of any country where it has invested.

• The main reason behind the crisis, according to the report, is “governance failure.”  The central government decides the numbers of students that universities enroll, how much lecturers are paid and who may be promoted.  “This system denies universities and institutes the incentive to compete or innovate.”

• Pay to lecturers is based on the length of service and is so low that most have to do extra jobs to earn their living.  Unlike China, Vietnamdoes not offer incentives to foreign-educated teaching staff.

• Corruption and ‘degree purchase’ are rife.  Appointments and promotions are too often based on the factors in no way related to learning, such as seniority, family and political background and personal connections.  The highest positions are dominated by individuals who were trained in the former Soviet Union or Eastern Europe. These persons cannot speak English, and in many cases are hostile to younger colleagues trained in western countries.

• Vietnamese universities and institutes lack meaningful international connections, do not innovate and are intellectually moribund even though the national public discourse has grown vibrant.

• The problem is not primarily a lack of money. As a percentage of GDP, Vietnam spends on education more than most countries in the region.  This still does not include the big sums of money Vietnamese families pay for their children’s education. The problem is how the money is used.

• The foreign investment in new institutions of higher education that the Government seeks won’t make much difference unless the professional environment is overhauled.  A particular impediment is the ‘managed-by-state’ approach to cooperation in which governments and not academic institutions are the main partners.  It is inherently incompatible with the US’ decentralized mechanism, under which individual universities are primary actors while the Government just plays a limited role.

The report’s authors believe that it will take a long time for Vietnam to reform its system of higher education, so the best course now is to build up a completely new university “that from the outset incorporates good governance into its institutional DNA.”  Such an institution, the argue, would provide a “home” for young scholars who otherwise would remain abroad, and would be a model for other universities.

(The full text of the report can be found athttp://ashinstitute.harvard.edu/asia/programs/vietnam/innovation.)

Is the report reliable?

After the Harvard critique appeared in education journals, the Ministry of Education and Training published on its website an article by “a friend ofVietnam,” Professor Neal Koblitz of the University of Washington (Seattle,US), who expressed a completely contradictory viewpoint, calling the Harvard analysis and prescriptions “a kind of neo-colonialism.”

The Harvard conclusions are not convincing, Koblitz wrote.  If  50 percent of university graduates cannot find jobs related to their areas of study, it should not be blamed on bad education, but on the underdeveloped private sector which does not provide enough jobs to university graduates. He compares Vietnam with other countries of the third world, especially Peru, where even taxi drivers are educated. Qualified workers still have to take simple jobs not because of their bad capability, but because the economy has not developed enough to receive them.

Koblitz wrote that he and a colleague had queried Intel and found that the statement quoted by the Harvard writers distorted the truth.  Intel said that it believes that Vietnamese high-tech workers will be globally competitive.

Especially, Professor Koblitz protested the idea of setting up a US-style university in Vietnam, even though the idea has been supported by the well known educator, Professor Hoang Tuy.

Why should a university of US design be a successful model of higher education for Vietnam, Koblitz asked.  Such universities once appeared in the Middle East, but universities have been set up just to train the children of the ‘upper class’ do not have much effect on the education quality in the countries.

Koblitz underlined that the project for a US-style university will not be funded by US money. As such, if the university is established, it will gobble up a big sum of public money in Vietnam.  Every dollar the Government spends on this US-style university, it will not be able to spend to renovate existing universities.

Admitting that it is good to learn from other countries, Koblitz warned against venerating the US or any other country. It should understand that the US education itself also has a lot of problems.

Vietnamese people want reform

Vietnamese educators, university lecturers and students, no less than the Harvard team, well understand the problems of Vietnamese education. They have called on education government agencies to be less conservative and take actions to renovate the system.

“The war ended 40 years ago. But Vietnam remains very poor and the national economy remains underdeveloped. Is it because of our unsuitable education system” asked Le Hong Phong, a VietNamNet reader from Buon Ma Thuot province.

“We think that Vietnamese students are excellent, because they win high prizes at international Olympiads. But why is Vietnam still a poor country? Please, educators, don’t stick to your wrong viewpoint,” wrote Le Thanh Binh, a reader from Hanoi.

Nevertheless, while admitting the problems of Vietnam’s higher education, many Vietnamese people do not think that setting up a US-style university in Vietnam would be the solution.

VietNamNet reader Dang The Truyen wrote from Australia that he fears that the project is not very feasible.  He doubts that Vietnam will have many students good enough for the university, especially ones able to meet the requirement on foreign languages and financial capability.

“How big an impact could such a university have on Vietnam’s education system, which now has 376 universities and junior colleges? I’m afraid it would be insignificant,” he said, adding that it may take decades for a US-type university to show its impacts on the whole higher education system.

The university suggested by Harvard university’s research team could turn out to  be an ‘oasis’ for just a few ‘Vietnamese elites’ who must be both excellent and rich students, Truyen said, while the rest of Vietnam’s students continue going to Vietnamese owned universities.

source: vietnamnet.vn