Abstract
Vietnam’s higher education system is expanding rapidly. High rates of economic growth since the start of this decade have provided a strong incentive for growth. They are also enabling it to happen. The economic growth is uneven across regions, however, which is resulting in wide variations in access to the benefits of higher education. Young people from rural areas and from poorer provinces, and, by implication, from poorer family backgrounds and ethnic minority groups have significantly reduced access to higher education. Planning for the future growth of the system has to take account of the needs of these groups. It must also address the specific skill needs of a more regionally balanced economy. This means that the plans for the development of the higher education system must always be assessed in terms of the extent to which they are likely to optimise the impact of higher education on the broader socio-economic development of the nation.
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Notes
- 1.
The 2004 Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS 2004) demonstrated the correlation between poverty and education, with the poverty rate declining as the education level rises.
- 2.
The state, in fact, expects that everybody should contribute to the cost of education (that is, education should not be wholly reliant on tuition fees and other charges). Contributions should be made by the Vietnamese community at large, by Vietnamese overseas and by foreign counterparts.
- 3.
Insufficient public investment in infrastructure is a probable contributing factor.
- 4.
UNDP Human Development Indicators, http://www.undp.org.vn/undp/fact/indicators_OnlinePDF.pdf
- 5.
This commitment is contained in Vietnam’s Millennium Development Goals.
- 6.
MOET Edustats database 2005, http://www.edu.net.vn/Data/ThongKe/dhcd.htm
- 7.
In some areas, such as in the Mekong Delta, for some time after the American War, teachers were placed in schools after only 7 years schooling.
- 8.
Van Arkadie and Mallon (2003) note the balance of political and administrative power in the national–provincial relationship is one manifestation of the foundation of consensus-building on which the economic and political system is based.
- 9.
Funding for higher education institutions may come through MOET, line ministries or provincial government.
- 10.
Decree no. 10/2002/ND-CP regulates financing of revenue generating service delivery agencies. Inter-ministerial Circular no. 21/2003/TTLT-BTC&BGD-BNV provides guidelines for financial management of revenue earning public service delivery units in the public education and training sector.
- 11.
UNDP 2005, p. 30.
- 12.
Resolution no. 14/2005/NQ-CP, dated 2 November 2005.
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Evans, K., Rorris, A. (2010). Optimising the Impact of Vietnam’s Higher Education Sector on Socio-Economic Development. In: Harman, G., Hayden, M., Nghi, P.T. (eds) Reforming Higher Education in Vietnam. Higher Education Dynamics, vol 29. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3694-0_12
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