Globalization of Higher Education in Vietnam: Developing a Knowledge Base

Dr. Carolyn Bishop

President, Consortium for Global Education

It has been the countries that held the most knowledge who were the most successful. Now significant success comes to entities that excel in research and development and that produce knowledge. (Shenkar, 2005).

In this paper, I will address three areas of developing a knowledge base that may be applied to “The Vietnamese Education in the Globalization Context”: 1) Growing a knowledge base within the university structure both globally and regionally, 2) Applying expert knowledge from faculty and students resources, and 3) Creating university programs that promote your knowledge base to build strengths. 

Growing a Knowledge Base: Globally and Regionally

Three areas are addressed that contribute to developing a knowledge base as applicable  to Higher Education in Vietnam within a Global Context: 1) Growing a knowledge base from the university structure both globally and regionally, 2) Capitalizing in knowledge held by faculty and carried forward by graduates, and  3) Creating university programs that promote your knowledge base to build strengths

Globalization of Higher Education in Vietnam: Developing a Knowledge Base

It has been the countries that held the most knowledge who were the most successful. Now significant success comes to entities that excel in research and development and that produce knowledge. (Shenkar, 2005).

In this paper, I will address three areas of developing a knowledge base that may be applied to “The Vietnamese Education in the Globalization Context”: 1) Growing a knowledge base within the university structure both globally and regionally, 2) Applying expert knowledge from faculty and students resources, and 3) Creating university programs that promote your knowledge base to build strengths. 

Growing a Knowledge Base: Globally and Regionally

As universities worldwide assess their future for enrollment and development of degree programs, their administrators and faculty find themselves, by necessity, becoming more globally focused.  Students are curious, searching, risk takers and have a desire to be more mobile than their parents or grandparents.  Therefore, they are willing to look for the best educational opportunity and may combine study in Vietnam and in other nations. 

To capitalize on the talent of top students in the more than 200 national and approximately 23 private Vietnamese universities, schools of higher education may focus on a step by step program to broaden their strength in a globally minded knowledge base. 

A variety of educational options including diverse degree programs and the growth of the internet make the 1,540,201 Vietnamese university students valuable to universities in their own nation and universities worldwide.   According to a recent survey by the country's Ministry of Education and Training, only half of university and college graduates in Vietnam find jobs right after their graduation.  Vietnam’s educational institutions are challenged to help provide attractive employment potential.

Global Connections

Internationalization, another common educational term for globalization, has created a flattened world as international academic exposure is seen as vital, and the more knowledge gained from academic programs in cooperation other countries is perceived as better (Friedman, 2005).  Globalization could be enhanced by universities assessing their own strengths in producing knowledge in their region and partnering with leading universities in other nations.

In Hanoi’s Vietnam National University Inaugural address, President Mai Trong Nhuan, said that “Globalization is occurring at great speed. Science and technology are developing rapidly. Modernization, industrialization, and international integration are changing the country with every passing day. These challenges create the context for higher education development. They give rise to important opportunities in the face of a

huge market for human resources and high quality scientific products. They also promote both an intensive cooperation and competition among universities.”

Now more than a decade later, Vietnamese universities are benefiting from Vietnam’s shift to focus on strengthening universities within Vietnam as they build healthy competition abroad.  As faculty and students continue to cooperate and compete, international institutions are taking notice of the educational expertise emerging from Vietnam’s university systems.

There are many positive examples of global cooperation in learning within Vietnam’s system of higher education. One was announced in May 2008.  IBM announced that they and Vietnamese government institutions and universities will develop education programs for Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME), an emerging academic discipline and research area that integrates aspects of computer science, engineering, management science, business strategy, and social science. Ho Chi Minh City’s Vietnam National University will be the first in the country to adopt such program jointly created with IBM with additional universities joining in the future.

Additional university to university partnership programs could include joint-degree programs such as a 2 plus 2, 1 plus 2 plus 1, faculty and student exchange programs, and cooperative research to gain credibility in academics and faculty and student opportunities.   Overseas universities, including those in America, are increasingly paying attention to the value of exchange students, and joint degree programs.

Vietnam’s entrance into the WTO in January 2007 has allowed an increase in imports production, technology, and service companies which support increased educational development.  GATS, the General Agreement on Trades and Services, represents multilateral trade agreements among more than 100 countries and now organized under the World Trade Organization (WTO). Education is one of the services whose trade is subject to the GATS’ provisions. Increasingly, global institutions and services will continue to merge within the new programs adopted by Vietnamese universities as global factors increase the value of knowledge.

It is interesting that in that same year, in August of 2007, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) produced data on graduate level, joint and dual degree programs for the first time.  Of the 10 largest graduate schools in the USA, 56 % had established collaborative graduate degree programs with one or more international higher education institution. Also interesting in that report was that 39% of the 50 largest schools surveyed, and 21% of all other institutions surveyed, plan to establish new collaborative graduate degree programs with one or more international higher education institutions in the next two years (Tobenkin, 2008). 

Regional Connections

As a university develops a globally focused program, specializing in the knowledge base within their own region can also develop academic growth for the institution and students. Some institutions in the ASEAN region are:

1.      ASEAN University Network – AUN was established in 1995.  Its members are from 17 leading institutions in the 10 ASEAN member countries and the cooperating partners of Japan, Korea, China, India, and Russia. The central objective of AUN is to promote cooperation and unity among ASEAN’s network of university scholars and academics, develop academic and professional human resources, and promoting knowledge and information dissemination among the ASEAN academic community.

In 2000, AUM members agreed to focus on Quality Assurance systems as knowledge based mechanism for maintaining, improving, and enhancing, teaching, research, and the overall institutional standards of their membership.  The AUM board recognized the differences in member institutions including the cultural aspects as well as basic resources.  Within this spirit of cooperation, the member universities agreed to begin developing standards and practices for Quality Assurance.

2.      University Mobility in Asia and Pacific – since 1995 UMAP has facilitated regional mobility for faculty and students between Higher Education Institutions both public and private.  One of their successful initiatives has been in cooperation with Australian universities, to develop credit transfer schemes (CTS) for translating the value and grade of courses which their students have received when studying as exchange students at foreign universities into the degree programs of their home universities.

3.      SEAMEO or the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization was established in 1965.  Their support comes from public government entities and was organized to promote cooperation in education, science and culture in the region. Ten members from SE Asia include Brunei, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand. Six Associate members include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, and New Zealand.

Applying expert knowledge from faculty and students resources

The second emphasis for “The Vietnamese Education in a Globalized Context” addressed the valuable resource of faculty and students.

Applying knowledge through data analysis or creative development by faculty and carried forward by graduates can increase the potential for universities to develop a stronger globalized context. I conducted a brief survey two years ago on “Leadership” and received responses from Asian university faculty with whom I had worked. Five items seemed to be repeated by the interviewed professors.

·         Life-long learning - study current issues and trends

·         Develop an area of expertise

·         Self-esteem

·         Create network in and outside of the institution

·         Participative leadership – be a risk-taker

They seemed to understand that gaining knowledge is a lifelong pursuit yet their role is to develop academic expertise  during the student’s university experience. As mentioned earlier, students seem more apt to take risks, yet as faculty step out to lead in the development of global programs, they often become valuable risk-takers for university success.

Vietnam is changing.  David Heenan in his 2005 book Flight Capital reports that 300,000 Vietnamese-Americans are flooding back to Vietnam each year to take advantage of the growing employment market. If these students happen to be your graduates, find them and you can have a competitive edge by tapping their experiences.

In an article by Nigel Andrade (2008) and two other authors, called “How Young Consumers Could Shape Vietnam's Banks”, they report that the generation gap in attitudes toward banking is wider in Vietnam than in any other Asian country.  In this McKinsey study 400 of the country’s banking consumers were surveyed as part of their 2007 Asian personal-financial-services study. The study represents urban households with annual incomes of more than 57 million dong, or about $3,500—almost 70 percent of the population of the cities.

Vietnamese banking consumers 21 to 29 years of age hold, on average, more products than their elders do.  Ninety-one percent of the young adults had savings accounts, compared with 55 percent of the respondents 30 years or older. Eighty-nine percent owned debit cards, compared with an average of 40 percent among the rest of our survey pool. In addition, young adults were much more willing than their elders to use remote-banking channels, such as telephones or the Internet.

Vietnamese students are supporting 21^st century technology.  They are eager to apply their internet skills as they seek university study and future employment.  It will be a watchful world that may see industries, like banking and finance, grow in Vietnam, promoted by a critical mass of university age students.

Creating university programs that promote your knowledge base to build strengths 

As Vietnam and any national university looks at their stability and future plans, often administrators and faculties undertake constant review.  It is critical, that you scope out the vast number of global opportunities, and pick those which now will strengthen your own programs and focus on your current goals for developing a global atmosphere for students to gain knowledge.

For example, in nearby Thailand, educators have been studying their pathway toward become more globally competitive while strengthening their own national systems and programs.

In a report given at the 12^th Asia Pacific Professional Leaders in Education Conference at Nanyang Technological University on Singapore, one speaker introduced Six Characteristics of Thailand Higher Education Programs (Chang, 2006)

     Quality and Efficiency of Program’s Administration

     International Standard of Curriculum Structure

Qualifications and diversities of faculty members

International and cultural diversities of student bodies

International academic learning environment

International standard facilities and services

Four of the six related to an International focus defining the character of a university and the other two related to the valuable resources in their administration and faculty.

Other Asian universities and any internationally focused university might look at these characteristics and assess their degree of strength within their programs.  The global dimension for skilled graduates warrants our addressing each issue.

University and college leaders and faculty should press forward now to capitalize on the high regard for developing quality graduates for both national and international work.

Darlene Bremer in the May-June 2006 issue of the International Educator reports that the term Global Work Development or GWD, means that “a global-ready graduate has a grasp of global systems, global issues, the dynamics of how things are interrelated and interconnected in the world, and how society can best address global issues.” 

In closing, educators worldwide are confident that the global role for institutions of higher education is critical for all our futures. In the midst of global conflicts, global crisis, and global concerns, four opportunities emerge for 21^st century Vietnamese institutions:

Opportunities:

1.      To develop your  knowledge base suited to our own institution.

Institutions of higher learning must understand what they do best, and then seek to do it better than anyone else in the world.  Be careful to understand and promote your own strengths as you cooperate and collaborate with others.  In the flat world of global competition, administrators and faculty must become adept at identifying and relying on the strengths of departments and programs, and the individuals within those areas, and then turning those strengths to use for the good of all concerned. 

2.      To engaging in local and global competitive and cooperative degree programs.

Evaluate degree programs that contribute to growing sectors of profession in Vietnam and partner with other universities with that expertise to give your students a competitive edge in their field.  Research inventive graduate joint programs that have worked in Southeast Asia and globally where you can model one to fit your own strengths.

3.      To focus on academic and cultural exchanges for students and faculty.

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Educational leaders and campus presidents could increase the numbers of invited exchange visitors, begin productive and mutually beneficial exchange programs with international partners, create an academic portal for international students to participate in your degrees, and send more faculty and students abroad to be ambassadors for your campus. Faculty and students can gain from these actions and at the same time rebuild confidence in national and global trust.

4.      To collaboration with other institutions and community organizations

“The best companies are the best collaborators,” Friedman writes in the World is Flat.  “The next layers of value creation—whether in technology, marketing, biomedicine, or manufacturing—are becoming so complex that no single firm or department is going to be able to master them alone.” 

Andy Westmoreland, President of Samford University, a Consortium for Global Education member, said in his remarks to the graduates of Jakarta’s Univeristas Pelita Harapan, “To coordinate this increasingly complex web of specialization and cooperation will require extraordinary insights and knowledge on the part of management.  As collaboration becomes one of the hallmarks of the new economy, universities must be the exemplars of the practice.” 

May all universities in Vietnam find success in building a successful knowledge based campus that will compete nationally, regionally, and globally.

REFERENCES

Andrade, Nigel P., Lottner, Jens and Roland, Christian (2008)  “How Young Consumers Could Shape Vietnam’s Banks”,  McKinsey Quarterly, May.

http://e.mckinseyquarterly.com/W0RT01CD1C3A42C523C30357B471E0

Bremer, Darlene  (2006) “Wanted: Global Workers”, International Educator, May-June.

Chang, China Tejavanija, (2006) “Regional Cooperation: Key Strategy for Internationalization Development” 12^th Asia Pacific Professional Leaders in Education Conference at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Friedman, Thomas L. (2005).  The World Is Flat:  A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, New York, NY:  Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

IBM Press (2008, May) “Vietnam National University First to Adopt New Initiative for Service Innovation.” http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/24147.wss

Heenen, David (2005 ). Flight Capital, Davies-Black Publishing.

Nhuan,  Mai Trong, (1993). “Inaugural Address”, Hanoi’s Vietnam National University. www.vnu.edu.vn/en/contents/?ID=859

Shenkar, Oded, (2004) The Chinese Century, Wharton School Publishing.

Tobenkin , David ( 2008) “Degrees of Success”, International Educator, May/June.

Westmoreland, Andy. (2005) “Empowering Universities for Success in an Age of Global Competition” Remarks to the Graduates of the Universitas Pelita Harapan Jakarta, Indonesia,  June 16.